Is it possible to convert a OW Classic Award?

[Egg]

Hi people,

I think this is an easy question and I suspect I know the answer but...

I am looking to plan a holiday to Japan and US in April 2011 and I would like to grab the seats as soon as they become available. Obviously though, when the seats ex Australia become available, the return seats will not have been released.

So my question is: if I book each leg as the seats become available and put together my itinerary this way, can I later convert the whole booking to a OW Classic Award as the itinerary will involve flying Qantas, JAL and AA?

Thanks in anticipation...

 

[albatross710]

Hi people,

I think this is an easy question and I suspect I know the answer but...

I am looking to plan a holiday to Japan and US in April 2011 and I would like to grab the seats as soon as they become available. Obviously though, when the seats ex Australia become available, the return seats will not have been released.

So my question is: if I book each leg as the seats become available and put together my itinerary this way, can I later convert the whole booking to a OW Classic Award as the itinerary will involve flying Qantas, JAL and AA?

Thanks in anticipation...

My experience has been that I end up travelling on a collection of PRNs. Our recent family trip to SIN was for 4 people on 3 different bookings which I had secured at different times when the various seats were available and I had the points to cover them.

To 'convert' a redemption booking would mean cancelling the existing booking, paying the points penalty and then rebooking the seats as a OW classic. Would probably need QF telephone assistance to secure the released seats so as not to be allocated to another party.

 

[Egg]

Yeah I think you're right. I have enough points so I will do what you did... and pay the cancellation fee(s) to change to a OW award if that turns out to be more economical.

The only thing that worries me about that is that I remember I once tried to cancel a flight and immediately rebook it (can't remember why) and the call centre operator told me that she couldn't guarantee that once she cancelled it, the seat would be available for me to rebook it. I guess it's technically possible that if someone is looking for a seat on the same flight at the same time I cancel my original booking, then I might lose it - although that seems pretty unlikely. What I'm not sure about is whether the seat will be lost forever if I cancel it and someone else is waitlisted for it...

Knowing how hard is to secure a QF award seat, I'm reluctant to let them go... even for 30 seconds!

Thanks for your advice.

 

[dajop]

The only thing that worries me about that is that I remember I once tried to cancel a flight and immediately rebook it (can't remember why) and the call centre operator told me that she couldn't guarantee that once she cancelled it, the seat would be available for me to rebook it.

May depend on the airline which are booked on. Sometimes it takes some time to return to inventory. This week was trying to book some seats on CX & KA. The CX seats were there, they lost the KA one but let me hold the booking. When the KA one came available they actually grabbed them when I asked about availability, but couldn't get them into the held CX booking as they didn't go back into inventory when released. Then the original booking (on CX) expired, and of course the KA ones were available, but the CX ones had disappeared (didn't go back into inventory).

Patience required ... I waited 24 hours and everything was there and booking all confirmed and ticketed.