Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[madrooster]

Thank you. The EZE - ZRH will be my first booking due to IB releasing seats before Qantas( Syd - SCL). How do I make the EZE - ZRH online , with it being the 2nd sector on the Multi-city?

See this post: "oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

In short you'd want to book a dummy flight in front of the EZE-ZRH (it can be AU-anything) so that the ticket currency is AUD otherwise you will encounter issues later. Ideally book an earlier date for the same routing that you are wanting. Eg. if you intend to fly SYD-SCL on QF, then book an earlier SYD-SCL dummy followed by the EZE-ZRH that you actually want.

 

[ozflier]

Now that we may be heading out of Covid and are booking on airlines that are not the usual suspects , I will mention an issue with Iberia. I found real difficulties in requesting seats.
My partner and i are travelling on the same PNR.
Despite having business class reward seats on a OWA booking , seats on Iberian metal were hard to select.( economy seats are not bookable without payment except for a few reasons eg status with Iberia)
Maybe I am cursed but this issue has occurred on 2 separate PNRs for mid 2022 travel.
Basically , I used the Qantas PNR and went to Iberia.com, selected my seat and then all of a sudden , all the remaining seats in the cabin turned into crosses - ie unavailable for selection - I got the seat but not my partner ! Nil helped. (Both my wife and I are same status).
I tried the BA website (after all, they are both in IAG), Royal Air Maroc and Royal Jordanian and the same issue happened.
There is no Iberia number to ring in Australia and initial attempts at international calls to Madrid ended in the line going dead after numerous messages saying that all agents are busy.
I tried the Iberia page on Facebook and one booking was fixed after about a week of messaging to and fro .Note that Iberia have their own unique 5 character Confirmation number - this was the initial problem- the reservation could not be accessed by my 6 bit QF alpha numeric one.
The seating for flight for September could not be fixed .
In the end , I tried the English speaking lines to UK and the USA - wait times ++. Gave up .
The flight with the problem was Madrid to London Heathrow . I had picked in particularly because it was scheduled to be flown by an Airbus 350 -900 ( anything is better than a A 320 with economy class seating with the middle one unoccupied). Of course , it may have reverted to the single aisle a/c by then but who knows .
I did try the USA number ( 00111800-772-4642 from Gold Coast) in the middle of their night and success after 30 minutes.
The excellent agent told me there was a "glitch" associated with bookings by airlines other than Iberia for bookings on Iberian metal where there was more than one person travelling- she said it was very important in that situation , NOT to change the seat request of the first one to be requested otherwise further seat selection will be frozen for additional travellers in that PNR.
What was the next move if the phone call did not work ? - a Twitter call ( max 280 letters and spaces ).
Apologies for the mundane nature of this post but this thread was looking a bit unused.

 

[flapper]

Yesterday I needed to change a flight on my OWA booking for next year. I called at 5:00pm and was on hold until after 10:00pm. This wait time is quite common for NBs like me. I got an agent from CPT CC. The agent was quite knowledgeable (for CPT) and it took about an hour mostly on hold while the taxes were recalculated. The agent said the ticket would be reissued in a few minutes and a max of 1 hour. So I waited up constantly refreshing my email. After 1 hour I called again but wait time was still over 2 hours, so I couldn't wait and had to go to bed.
I got up at 6:00am and called wait time 1-2 hours but offered a call back. Got up again at 6:30 and requested a call back on a different phone. I was awoken from a deep sleep at 7:30, damn it was CPT again. I was still half asleep and accepted it when she said she had put in a request and it would be ticketed within the hour. I called straight back for another call back.
2nd call back around 8:00am. CPT yet again. I requested agent call ticketing while I wait on the phone. He said he can only do that if flight is within 24 hours. I said no, I've done it many times before. I explained how I waited for 5 hours and was promised the reticketing last night and how it it's not reticketed within 24 hours my CX flights will be deleted. He wouldn't budge. I insisited he make a note on the call that I advised him about the CX flights being deleted. So I HUACA requested another call back and a while later a call back on a 3rd phone and then a 4th.
3rd call again CPT, I've never had such a bad run of CPT. I gave my woeful story and asked that she call back if the call dropped out. She agreed to call ticketing while I waited. On hold for 50mins called dropped out - no call back. HUACA request another call back still, 4 call backs on the go.
4th call again CPT repeat story, repeat request to call back if drop out and asked to promise as previous operator didn't. After 30 mins call drop out. HUACA request another call back. Again 4 call backs on the go.
5th call again CPT - I couldn't believe my bad luck. After 30 mins on hold success. She came back and said it had been reticketed. I asked her to wait until I got the email. That took a few mins.
So it only took 5 hours and 5 agents to get a ticket reissued. Outstanding service QF.
Also I've had many call dropouts with CPT CC and they never call back so I don't know why I still bother asking them to.

 

[vetrade]

As the previous 2 posts show, you certainly need lots of both patience and persistence (plus time, of course) to deal with the QF call centre, so much so that it's almost like a game of "Survivor" nowadays.

Our OWA itinerary for next year was finalised and ticketed (with new eTicket numbers) at the start of November. No changes since then but on Dec 6th I received a new eTicket confirmation which had the same itinerary and PNR but different ticket numbers to what we were issued a month ago.

Everybody accepts that getting the eTicket number confirmed is the cornerstone of any award booking, so it diminishes one's confidence in the QF booking system that bit more when the eTicket number can be randomly changed like that.

 

[QF029]

I recently got the Qantas Titanium card and found that if you call the concierge they can put you on to a booking agent. The wait was more like 15-20 mins if anyone has the card.

P.S. I primarily got it for the 150k sign up points to help with the RTW award trip I'm planning.

 

[gfraser]

I need to go from SYD to SCL in November next year beginning a Business OWA but at this stage there are no Award flights at all next year despite there being some available several months ago.
Does anyone have any insight as to what is happening?
ps I am QF Silver

 

[ozflier]

I need to go from SYD to SCL in November next year beginning a Business OWA but at this stage there are no Award flights at all next year despite there being some available several months ago.
Does anyone have any insight as to what is happening?
ps I am QF Silver

I guess one of the problems is that the there are a total of 4 return flights per week so pickings may be slim.
The loss of LATAM out of Oneworld has not been good for this routing.
There is the option of SYD-LAX-SCL which have a greater number of flights or
depending on how flexible your overall routing is , you could fly via Europe . I can see business award availability out of both London and Madrid in october and november 2022.
Remember you do not need to travel round the world.

 

[Mattg]

I guess one of the problems is that the there are a total of 4 return flights per week so pickings may be slim.
The loss of LATAM out of Oneworld has not been good for this routing.
There is the option of SYD-LAX-SCL which have a greater number of flights or
depending on how flexible your overall routing is , you could fly via Europe . I can see business award availability out of both London and Madrid in october and november 2022.
Remember you do not need to travel round the world.

I recently helped a friend to book two of these awards to Argentina. There was no availability at all on direct flights between Australia & South America, so the itineraries used were:

SYD-KUL-LHR (MH)
LHR-EZE (BA)
EZE-DFW (AA)
DFW-SYD (QF)

and for the second trip:

MEL-DRW-LHR (QF9)
LHR-EZE (BA)
EZE-MAD-DOH-MEL (IB/QR)

 

[gfraser]

I’m in a bit of a pickle.
We need to get to Buenos Aires and then back to Europe before coming back to MEL.
As we can’t go SYD- SCL and then to EZE ( paid) , the only option that I could book was MEL-SYD - HND - LHR, and I have booked that but to have this and get to EZE and return to Europe (MAD) and then back to MEL, puts me over the 35,000.
There are so few options at the moment - I can only hope that more options become available as things open up.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I’m in a bit of a pickle.
We need to get to Buenos Aires and then back to Europe before coming back to MEL.
As we can’t go SYD- SCL and then to EZE ( paid) , the only option that I could book was MEL-SYD - HND - LHR, and I have booked that but to have this and get to EZE and return to Europe (MAD) and then back to MEL, puts me over the 35,000.
There are so few options at the moment - I can only hope that more options become available as things open up.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Can you find anything to the USA and then connect using AA via DFW for example?

 

[Mattg]

Can you find anything to the USA and then connect using AA via DFW for example?

If going via North America doesn't work, try something like GRU-DOH-MEL or GRU-DOH-KUL-MEL using QR out of Brazil.

 

[gfraser]

Thank you all for advising me to look outside the square.
I have decided to go to GRU rather than to EZE and pay for GRU-EZE thus bringing me within the 35,000.
Its now a waiting game until the dates in December 2022 become available.
Also am I able to book Reward flights within Europe, not on the OWA PNR, and they won't interfere with the OWA?

 

[k_sheep]

Also am I able to book Reward flights within Europe, not on the OWA PNR, and they won't interfere with the OWA?

Yes that's fine as they will be on their own booking number and PNR

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thank you all for advising me to look outside the square.
I have decided to go to GRU rather than to EZE and pay for GRU-EZE thus bringing me within the 35,000.
Its now a waiting game until the dates in December 2022 become available.
Also am I able to book Reward flights within Europe, not on the OWA PNR, and they won't interfere with the OWA?

Sure. Separate PNRs mean there's no interaction between the bookings.

 

[vetrade]

Flights on separate PNRs are fine but if you recommence your OWA from a different city, the distance between that city and the last city in your OWA itinerary, has to be included as a ground segment in the 35,000 mileage limit. It also counts as one sector within the 16 sector limit.

 

[gfraser]

Understand, thank you

 

[Fyrd]

I recently got the Qantas Titanium card and found that if you call the concierge they can put you on to a booking agent. The wait was more like 15-20 mins if anyone has the card.

P.S. I primarily got it for the 150k sign up points to help with the RTW award trip I'm planning.

$1200 though =_= Otherwise you're happy with the card? I like the fact that the bonus points could really get you over the line but the platinum reward is usually 100k for a fraction of the fee.

 

[QF029]

$1200 though =_= Otherwise you're happy with the card? I like the fact that the bonus points could really get you over the line but the platinum reward is usually 100k for a fraction of the fee.

I'm not familiar with the Platinum Reward. I reviewed which cards have the highest bonus points and I'm not eligble for Westpac, AMEX or ANZ at the moment so figured I'd take Qantas. I definitely won't renew unless they waive the fee but it has 2.25 QF points per dollar (more than double AMEX), 2 first class lounge invitations (I'm NB at the moment) plus bonus SCs etc. In my case I think the 150k points were worth $1200 plus the other benefits.

The most annoying thing is that the card won't work in Google Pay (but does in Apple Pay which I don't use).

 

[ozflier]

Good to see more award J seats becoming available on the BNE-LAX run both ways.
On multiple dates certainly May thru September 2022, there are at least 2 "U" seats available on the newly added departure at 2030 on flight QF 15. Not sure if its related to the opening up of Queensland but its good news.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Good to see more award J seats becoming available on the BNE-LAX run both ways.
On multiple dates certainly May thru September 2022, there are at least 2 "U" seats available on the newly added departure at 2030 on flight QF 15. Not sure if its related to the opening up of Queensland but its good news.

*potentially* good news. QF has a habit of cancelling flights/routes due to 'subdued' demand. While they do protect you on another flight, it's not uncommon for it to mismatch the rest of your itinerary. That leads to hours waiting on the phone