I think I need some remedial help on the QFF site

[Lawlass]

Hi all you very helpful people.

I've started to plan a trip from Melbourne to Mexico. On the QFF site, the first place I went to was "How many points do I need" and input Melbourne-Mexico City return. It returned me 140,000 points, well within my means so I clicked on "Book".

On the booking page, Mexico City is no longer shown as a possibility ("There are no cities matching your request..."). Anybody know how I go about booking the flight?

Thanks in advance.

 

[markis10]

You may need to ring QFF, the Mexicana demise has caused some issues and I would not be surprised if the ghosts are still around in terms of booking issues.

 

[Meggsy]

Hi Lawlass

I had the same issue earlier this year when trying to book some flights in the States. It appears that there are fewer destination options in the bookings page available to you than what is in the original enquiries page. I rang Qantas and was informed that it could only be done by telephone assistance if the city did not show on the booking page as it was a code share issue and obviously not all code share destinations appear on the QF web site when you try to make a booking. This still did not prevent them charging me a 2,500 point fee per pax for the help but they did so with a smile:shock:

 

[samh004]

I think it’s worth pointing out that you could also book a RTW for 140,000 (142,500 in actuality) points, which could give you better value.

I wondered the other day what was happening to Mexicana. Seems they wont be coming back

 

[Lawlass]

Thank you very much all. I suspected I may need to do the phone thing and take the 2500 point hit.

I hadn't even considered the RTW option. I am extremely confused as to how RTW trips actually work. Are they sort of like hop-on-hop-off bus tours only with big planes?

I have a Qantas travel agent down the road. Does anyone know if it is just the same 2500 point loss if you go sit down with a human being as opposed to dealing with someone over the phone?

Thanks again for the very helpful advice above.

 

[notzac]

Odd that Mexico City has been removed from the award search options ... unfortunately this means you'll need to call and wear the 2500 point fee for a phone booking.

If you want to do more than just there and back -- considering you're already looking at spending 140k points either way -- definitely consider doing a "Oneworld award". Something like the following:

MEL-LAX-DFW-MEX-LHR-FRA-HKG-MEL
 (QF)(AA)(AA)(BA)(BA)(CX)(CX)

..or if you want to avoid London:

MEL-LAX-DFW-MEX-MAD-FRA-HKG-MEL
 (QF)(AA)(AA)(IB)(IB)(CX)(CX)

 

[Lawlass]

Odd that Mexico City has been removed from the award search options ... unfortunately this means you'll need to call and wear the 2500 point fee for a phone booking.

If you want to do more than just there and back -- considering you're already looking at spending 140k points either way -- definitely consider doing a "Oneworld award". Something like the following:


MEL-LAX-DFW-MEX-LHR-FRA-HKG-MEL
(QF)(AA)(AA)(BA)(BA)(CX)(CX)

So do you have to set your dates in stone when doing a RTW trip or can you ring and change them on a whim? How many stops can you actually put in there? Do you have to finish the trip in a certain amount of time? I understand that you can only go one way around the world (no backtracking) but that's about all I know.

I couldn't really figure it out by doing the interactive planning thing on the QFF site.

 

[DC3]

So do you have to set your dates in stone when doing a RTW trip or can you ring and change them on a whim? How many stops can you actually put in there? Do you have to finish the trip in a certain amount of time? I understand that you can only go one way around the world (no backtracking) but that's about all I know.

There's some useful information here: Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Terms & Conditions

including:

14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply:

(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

A maximum of 16 segments, but only 5 stopovers (i.e., longer that 24 hours each) and limited to 35,000 miles.

The award fare is not specifically a RTW fare, like commercial fares, so doesn't have zonal or directional restrictions (i.e., you don't need to actually fly around the world).

Valid for one year from the original ticketed departure date.

 

[Lawlass]

There's some useful information here: Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Terms & Conditions

including:

14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply:

(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

A maximum of 16 segments, but only 5 stopovers (i.e., longer that 24 hours each) and limited to 35,000 miles.

The award fare is not specifically a RTW fare, like commercial fares, so doesn't have zonal or directional restrictions (i.e., you don't need to actually fly around the world).

Valid for one year from the original ticketed departure date.

Thanks. Once again most helpful.

So from what I gather, I can take a trip over a period of a year with up to 5 stopovers and don't have to necessarily fly out of the city that I disembark from but

[B]14.5.5[/B] Surface Segments are permitted as part of [B]one[/B]world Award Itineraries, but the distance between the disembarkation point and the next embarkation point will be included in the Award Point zone calculation for that Itinerary.

Looks like it would need some planning to maximise, but definitely food for thought. And I can do it in Business Class for 282,500 points. Sounds like a bargain.

From what I can gather I can change dates along the way for 3500 points at a time. Does there have to be a classic award seat available in the same class on the date I want to change to to do this? Sorry to be asking all these questions, but its not made all that accessible or clear. Or I'm just not that bright. Or something.

 

[DC3]

Also, putting aside Mexicana, there are daily direct AA flight to MEX from DFW and MIA.

 

[DC3]

Does there have to be a classic award seat available in the same class on the date I want to change to to do this?

Yes, there needs to be award seat avalability.

When you are at the stage of putting together the routing, put it through Mileage Monkey:

MileageMonkey 0.95022

Also, play around with the OneWorld Planner in order to plan possible itineraries and to validate routes:

oneworld - Plan and Book your Itinerary

And, when you have an itinerary, and if you wish to post it, then I'm sure that you will receive some good feedback from members.

 

[Lawlass]

Thanks a bundle.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I'm putting one together at the moment and have come up with these routings (in the attachments below). So far, l have found that if you stay to flying with in the big cities, you won't have a problem finding seats (ie; LAX, JFK, LHR, FRA, BKK, HKG ). Once you start to go off the beaten track, it starts to get hard to find seats, ie, JFK, MIA, even SFO and South America, it was starting to get dicey. Mind you, l was looking for Feb/March 2011. I don't know about the taxes on this trip, but it'll probably be around $700-$1000 ????

View attachment 1335View attachment 1334View attachment 1333

So far l have had assistance from - Serfty, JohnK, and Markis10. Thanks for your help so far.

 

[mikew]

From what I can gather I can change dates along the way for 3500 points at a time. Does there have to be a classic award seat available in the same class on the date I want to change to to do this? Sorry to be asking all these questions, but its not made all that accessible or clear. Or I'm just not that bright. Or something.

You can change for this fee at any time however routing and airlines must remained the same. This also needs to be done over the phone so I am not sure if a phone booking fee also applies then