Oneworld Award to Greece, Spain and Dubai/Abu Dhabi from MEL

[vetrade]

Looking for advice regarding a oneworld award for 2 pax in J to Spain (Barcelona/ Madrid) and Greece (Athens and islands) with a stopover in Dubai or Abu Dhabi for about 5 weeks sometime between late August and end of October, 2013, using QAN FF points.

It is infuriating that the QAN multicity search tool keeps rejecting various flight combinations but won't tell you which segments you need to change. As others have pointed out previously, the result is much time wasted re-entering all the desired flight info and taking pot luck as to what needs to be changed. Equally annoying is the fact that some options are ridiculous eg. you can get a flight in J to SIN but the next option suggested to get from SIN - DXB (I was hoping to get an EK flight because direct award flights in J are virtually non existant) involves flying back to MEL then to SYD, then SYD to Dubai - and then you get the dredded (!) that tells you your flight from SYD to DXB will be in economy anyway!

So, can anyone suggest how the system can be outsmarted i.e. what routes and/or airlines they have used for these destinations that have proved successful in getting J seats without abhorent transit times ? I intend to pay the points to book by phone but would like to know what routes etc I can request to at least try and streamline that process somewhat.

 

[The Rok]

You wont get a OneWorld Award fare on an EK flight though, not sure how you would get from DBX to Spain or Athens on a OW Carrier?

 

[casanovawa]

What sort of award are you thinking of? Is this the 280,000 point/35,000 mile award??

Others will know better than me about J availability, but the options would seem to be:
* Via CX to any number of European ports and then get Iberia down to Madrid and then you can fly to ATH on Iberia.
* Perhaps Malaysian will be bookable by then so again using their network to multiple European cities and then Iberia to MAD.
* BA through a couple of different ports then down from LHR to MAD.
* AY through a couple of ports and then do they fly down to MAD or use IB...
* If availability in J is a bit hard direct with with some of those routes, you could go via SYD-JNB-LHR then down to MAD on BA...

When i did a Y RTW award a couple of years ago i flew from MAD down to JNB then to SYD, but looks like Iberia has cut the route to JNB so would have to use BA i think up from Africa...

Then to get to DXB from ATH you could either go via LHR with BA, or via HEL with AY or go via AMM with Royal Jordanian which seems the most direct.

Then from DXB i guess its QF direct or CX to HKG or does Malaysian fly there as well?? Or there is Japan Airlines or back tracking with BA or AY...

A few options anyway, but its all about the availability i suppose...

 

[aikman]

As far as routing goes, the most direct options from MEL to DXB are on CX or QF. EK is not a oneworld airline. You can also pick up Royal Jordanian from BKK to Amman and then to Dubai. If you don’t mind the extra hours and paying extra fuel surcharges you can always go to London and backtrack to Dubai.


It should be easy enough to get to Athens or Madrid from Dubai via Amman.


Open a British Airways Avios account if you can. I’ve found their booking engine to be the most accurate so far in checking oneworld award space. Unlike QF, it shows availability for all oneworld carriers.

 

[vetrade]

Thanks for your replies The Rok, Casanovawa and Aikman. I was basing my approach on using EK for part of the trip. My misguided presumption was that after March the QAN/EK alliance would translate into EK flights becoming available for oneworld bookings. The error of that presumption is so obvious to me now that I can't even understand why I made it. Will take on board your advice and start again..........

 

[MrJetset]

I do the AONEx award each year. In the past I have flown SYD-LHR (QF) LHR-BCN (BA) BCN-MAD (IB) MAD - ATH (IB). For flights around Greece just book Aegean or whichever airline meets your preferred schedule. Last time I skipped a segment and flew Vueling from BCN- JMK (Mykonos) because it was a direct 3 hour flight. Vueling is IB's LCC, however book it via IB's website to get baggage included and lounge access.

I completed the rest of the trip EX ATH which generally meant flying BA back to LHR and then onto the states.

The best way to plan this is to use the OneWorld planner booking tool at oneworld.com to check airlines and routes. Then search for award availability on QF's website.

 

[simongr]

As far as routing goes, the most direct options from MEL to DXB are on CX or QF. EK is not a oneworld airline. You can also pick up Royal Jordanian from BKK to Amman and then to Dubai. If you don’t mind the extra hours and paying extra fuel surcharges you can always go to London and backtrack to Dubai.

I would avoid RJ at all costs personally. Having the crew taking photos of the pax with the pax's iPhones and telling me when I questioned it "it just needs to be in flight mode" made me question their commitment to safety...

 

[MrJetset]

I would avoid RJ at all costs personally. Having the crew taking photos of the pax with the pax's iPhones and telling me when I questioned it "it just needs to be in flight mode" made me question their commitment to safety...

I disagree. I have only had good experiences on RJ. In J the seats are fully flat and they have Bulgari amenity kits. The only issue is that they charge for showers at AMM in the Crown Lounge.

It certainly beats IB who don't check boarding passed upon boarding, which to me is a more significant security risk.

 

[vetrade]

Hoping for some more advice................
I've been using the oneworld planning tool to plan the route only to be "red flagged" right at the last segment. Since the planning tool is primarily meant for planning oneworld explorer trips can someone clarify whether the red flags would apply equally to oneworld J award flights regarding crossing the Pacific only once etc? The T&Cs for the oneworld award flights don't specifically address this. My specific dilemma is that I was looking to go via NRT to the US (LAX-CUN-MIA), and then on to Europe, to have a better chance of getting J seats since they are scarce on the SYD-LAX flights. The intended return trip was to be from LHR to MEL via HKG, SIN or BKK etc but the planner says all of these options for the final leg are "rule prohibited" but I'm not sure exactly why so I'm not sure what to change to overcome the problem.

The planner is OK with me re-routing the return leg from LHR to MEL to go via JNB but, like the SYD-LAX route, I know it will be impossible to get J award seats through JNB. Likewise Dubai doesn't hold out much promise for J seats and I don't want to default to Y segments at this stage if there's a chance an AFF member can advise an alternative.