Hello fellow travellers

[fully6mps]

Hi everyone,

Have been a medium-term lurker and now first time poster on the forum, have been enjoying myself trying to catch up on the overwhelming amount of information this forum provides! I am struggling to work out what I have been browsing the forum for so was hoping more experienced people may be able to assist.

Basically my wife and I are planning on a RTW trip next year in Business and are looking at getting one ticket using QFF points and the other through a paid ticket. The rough itinerary we have come up with is this: Adelaide-LA-Vegas-Chicago-Ohio-NY-France-Germany-Switzerland-Italy-England-Hong Kong-Adelaide.

I have used the oneworld explorer planner to work out some flights I could take which is no issue but the ticket using points is causing some problems with planning. My understanding is you can have 5 stopovers and must use at least 2 oneworld airlines other than Qantas (which shouldn't be an issue based on where we are travelling).
Can anyone tell me if there would be a problem trying to book the following using points: Ade-LA, Vegas-Chicago, NY-Paris, (Zurich or Rome)-London, London-HK, HK-Ade. I believe this covers the 5 stopovers but not sure if we will hit any other obstacles (outside seat availability of course).

Any help (or alternative suggestions) is much appreciated!

Cheers

 

[casanovawa]

And mustn't go over 35,000 miles (including open jaw land legs), but that is about it combined with the 5 stops, 16 total legs (i think that's including open jaw land legs) and the 3 OW airlines... You can work out the mileage using Great Circle Mapper...

 

[Mwenenzi]

You can work out the mileage using Great Circle Mapper...

GSM here Great Circle Mapper
MM also may assist MileageMonkey

 

[serfty]

GSM here Great Circle Mapper
MM also may assist MileageMonkey

Also, see this thread:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ogram/oneworld-award-140k-280k-420k-8228.html

(Welcome to AFF )

 

[fully6mps]

Hi all,

Thank you for the responses. Pleased to say I did a fair bit more reading and finally rang to book the award flight which has now been done. End result is this: ADE-LA (via Bris), LA-NY, NY-PARIS (via LON), PARIS-LON, LON-HK (via Beijing I think), HK-ADE (via MEL). 280,000 points, taxes were up around $1.6K which is a bit steep but cheaper than a full paying business class. Only negative was couldn't do Rome/Zurich to London because they count your own travel as a stop apparently, so would have used up 2 of my 5 stops on the one leg.

Got one more question though, on the emailed e-ticket it says confirmed business for the ADE-LA and HK-ADE legs but only confirmed for the rest - is this because all other flights are with non-Qantas airlines? Or does it mean the other flights might not be in business class? I thought I read on the forum somewhere something about booking as business class but being downgraded to economy on domestic US flights? I can't find this to save my life however. I did tell the guy on the phone I wanted everything in business so assumed they all were.

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF fully6mps!

Have you checked the itinerary on the QF website? The class of travel should be mentioned there.

 

[fully6mps]

Welcome to AFF fully6mps!

Have you checked the itinerary on the QF website? The class of travel should be mentioned there.

Hi JohnK, thank you for the welcome and reply!

I have just checked the QF website and it appears all flights are now showing as confirmed-business (U) (previously it was only the Qantas flights that showed this). Needless to say, I have one very excited wife looking forward to the trip next year .

Now all I need to do is purchase a oneworld explorer ticket to match her flights, I imagine getting seats for a paid ticket won't be as hard as it was using points? I noticed some flights I would have a choice between booking as an AA flight, or a BA flight operated by AA - does it matter which one I choose?

 

[casanovawa]

Because your stopping in Heathrow and flying Business class that probably bumped the taxes up quite a bit where if you had chosen to leave from the continent and just transit through the UK you probably could have knocked off a few hundred dollars??? But i would like to do a 280k redemption sometime in the future and would hope to be paying more like $800-1,000 in taxes and surcharges (not likely fuel is going to get much cheaper in the future)...

 

[Dr0pB3ar]

fully6mps,

Welcome to AFF! hope you learn heaps of great tips here. I bet you and your wife are excited about the upcoming trip.

I have a question though. Are there sorts of OW RTW tickets like a classic or and any seat award in that do you receive QFF and SC?

Cheers,

 

[JohnK]

I have a question though. Are there sorts of OW RTW tickets like a classic or and any seat award in that do you receive QFF and SC?

Oneworld awards are only classic not any seat awards.

FWIW I have been able to construct a round the world with part classic awards and part Any Seat awards and factoring the QFF points earned is not too far from the QFF point cost of a Oneworld award.