Shiori Ohba, Assistant Manager of the Mileage Business Department, opened the event with an overview of the service and details of the current campaign. According to Ohba, a total of 780,000 people have used this “Somewhere Miles” service since its launch in 2016, and more than 70% of them are repeat customers.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the “Somewhere Miles” domestic flight award ticket service in December 2025, 55 JMB members who had won the right to participate in this event gathered at the venue. Actress Suzu Hirose took the stage as a special guest and gave a travel-related talk session.
What does “miles somewhere” mean?
JAL offers a unique domestic award ticket service that allows you to enjoy the excitement of not knowing where you will be going. You can travel somewhere in Japan with only 7,000 miles round trip, about half the cost of a regular award ticket.
The destination will be decided within three days of application. The destinations are Tokyo (Haneda), Osaka (Itami/Kansai), Fukuoka, and Sapporo (Shin-Chitose/Okazuma). A maximum of six people can apply at the same time, and the available dates are 10 days or less, including the outbound arrival date.
This “Somewhere Miles” has been running the “Somewhere Miles 10th Anniversary” campaign since December 2025, and is currently running its second campaign, the “#Weekday Somewhere Trip Campaign”. For 18-29 year olds who meet the eligibility requirements, a coupon is being offered to sign up for “Somewhere Miles” for 5,000 miles instead of the usual 7,000 miles (use only on weekdays).
Mr. Ohba said, “This second campaign is not the end of our 10th anniversary campaign. We are currently preparing exciting plans for the third campaign and beyond, and we hope you will look forward to future announcements,” he concluded his remarks.
Next on stage was special guest Suzu Hirose in a transparent, spring-like outfit. Ms. Hirose has been serving as the commercial character for “JAL Mile Life” since March 2024.
When asked by the moderator if his awareness of miles had changed, he replied, “I was aware that miles are earned by flying, but I learned for the first time that they can be earned through everyday life. I used to think that miles were something you could accumulate by flying, but I learned for the first time that you can accumulate miles in your daily life. I started talking about miles with many people, and I realized that everyone is saving miles (laughs). (Laughs) I have never made time for “travel” in my life, but now I feel more positive and active.
Seiya Matsumoto of the Mileage Business Department took the stage here to explain the “Mileage Chance” feature of the JAL Mileage Bank app. He introduced the feature that allows users to challenge a drawing for miles and luxury prizes with stamps collected by completing missions in the app. Incidentally, the first prize of this gacha is a coupon to apply for “Miles to Somewhere” for free.
At the end of the session, a “Travel Roulette” with six destinations (Hokkaido, Yamagata, Fukui, Kochi, Fukuoka, and Okinawa) was prepared on the stage. These were places that Hirose had visited before and places she would like to visit in the future. Ms. Hirose tried the roulette four times. Although there was a mishap in that she guessed Fukuoka three times, the talk corner was a fun opportunity for her to talk about her thoughts and longings for the destinations where the roulette stopped.
After the event, we were able to speak with Shiori Ohba, Assistant Manager of the Mileage Division, who was also a speaker at the event.
The largest number of users of “Somewhere Miles” are single travelers, and the largest age group is in their 40s and 50s. The most common use of the “Somewhere Miles” service is for “seasoned travelers to take a casual one-day or one-night trip to enjoy delicious food and come back home.
In order to encourage younger people to use the service more, we are currently implementing the #Weekday Somewhere Travel Campaign, which is limited to 18-29 year olds.
This is the first time that events and various campaigns like this have been held since the service was launched, and the company plans to change the service content and launch a second and subsequent campaigns in the future to expand the user base.
© Source travel watch