Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Ah, so because the QF website won't allow changes to the tickets, there's no way of avoiding calling up each time and paying the fees and FF points (the last agent I spoke to said 3,500 points per person, plus $80 per person). Seems excessive! But if that's what it is...

Yes, all changes can only be done over the phone. With a J award it only costs you the 3500 points pp to make changes - the additional $80 only applies to Y tickets. Sometimes the operator might waive the 3500 pt fee if there's been a change to flight times etc that is obviously beyond your control. The fee is not charged per individual change so if you make one phone call and make, say, 3 or 4 additions/changes to your itinerary during that call you only pay the one 3500 pt fee.

 

[Jordan613]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi All,

First post although I’ve tried to read through as much of the relevant information as possible (given we’re now over 200 pages I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface!)

I’d be grateful for any assistance as everyone seems to be so helpful which is awesome. Are these assumptions correct?

1. Once the initial flight is flown, the final flight must be completed within 12 months
2. Every change of dates you make (due to the restriction of 330-353 day issue) will incur a 3,500 point fee and $80 for Y (and there’s no avoiding this?)
3. Are there additional charges payable for changing flights if an award is available on the new date?

A couple more questions with an idea of a potential itinerary. I’d look at more than 12 months if I could, otherwise pushing it to 364 days…

Flight - Melbourne - Santiago, Chile
Land Travel - Chile - NYC
Flight – NYC – Europe (e.g. London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam)
Land Travel – Western Europe - Turkey
Flight - Istanbul - Amman
Flight - Amman - Delhi
Land Travel – Delhi - SE Asia (KUL, SIN)
Flight - SE Asia - Melbourne

a) Does land travel count as a ‘stopover’? So is this actually 7 stopovers or 5?
b) Does this breach any other rules for the 140k rules?

I’m still in the early planning phase so everything is up in the air (excuse the pun) and I’m happy to change around most things if they don’t make sense.

If I could get more points, would it make more sense to break it into two trips and not worry about the 12 month issue? E.g. South America, North America, Western Europe, Australia then Australia, SE Asia, India, Middle East, Eastern Europe Australia.

Any feedback, clarification, ANYTHING would be greatly appreciated. Just recently dove into this world and understand how people get overwhelmed although resources like this help so much.

Cheers,
Jordan

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Welcome Jordan,
1. From QF T&Cs: 14.6.1 Classic Awards will be valid for one year from the original ticketed departure date, unless otherwise specified. Some promotional Classic Awards (such as Classic Awards offered for a reduced number of Points) may be valid for a lesser period. Classic Award tickets on a JAL domestic Itinerary will be valid for three months from the date of issue.
2 Nearly every change results in a change fee – there are rare exceptions made where an airline changes flight times etc.
3. There are no extra charges specific to the change but some changes might result in a re-calculation of taxes & surcharges.
4 (a) Stopovers are counted only as cities you land in and don’t depart within 24 hrs (<24hrs is termed a transit). Land legs do not add to the number of stopovers. In your example the stopovers would be Santiago, Europe (London, Paris etc), Amman, Delhi & SE Asia.
(b) You’d just need to check the total distance which can’t exceed 35,000 miles (need to include the straight line distance between cities of arrival and departure flights for land legs)
You can break it into 2 trips but this is likely to be an inefficient use of points. To compare properly you’d need to have details of specific different itineraries.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

1. Once the initial flight is flown, the final flight must be completed within 12 months
2. Every change of dates you make (due to the restriction of 330-353 day issue) will incur a 3,500 point fee and $80 for Y (and there’s no avoiding this?)


A couple more questions with an idea of a potential itinerary. I’d look at more than 12 months if I could, otherwise pushing it to 364 days…

The problem of trying to cut it so fine with stretching the year out to the maximum is actually getting availability on that exact flight, on the exact day. So if you try and attempt this make sure that the leg involved is not a popular one. Best to allow some time margin though.

If I could get more points, would it make more sense to break it into two trips and not worry about the 12 month issue? E.g. South America, North America, Western Europe, Australia then Australia, SE Asia, India, Middle East, Eastern Europe Australia.

If you want more than 12 months of travel, then will need to make two trips.

Note though that this could actually still be the one trip by overlapping the two redemptions. You just either coincide a city on the two bookings, or use another redemption or paid ticket (or train, car-hire etc) to connect.

Note too that you can make combination trips by combining awards from different Alliances (and not just QFF/OW), and using each to visit different cities. This is obviously useful to those who can earn points in different programs. I have read about some amazing routings on Flyertalk. One connected two redemptions by use of an open-jaw on each redemption and so no extra travel was required. I have often mixed and matched redemptions, though not RTW ones due to availability of flights etc.

 

[ejd711]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Having booked 2 of these 140k trips in the past, I'm pretty sure the answer to a) is that once you've stopped at a city for >24 hours (regardless of if you leave by plane or overland) it counts as a stop (but where you next fly out of doesn't).

However, I also believe you are only allowed 2 land sectors - so you have one too many land segments in the above itinerary. This could be solved by flying in and out of the same European city and buy a cheap budget airline flight to get you back to the city you landed in Europe. If you changed that you'd be at 5 stops, 2 land segments.

Some flexibility in dates may be required to get to MEL-SCL flight. In my experience the flights in and out of Australia are the hardest, particularly for South Africa and South America.

Good luck with the planning - it sounds great!

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

.......However, I also believe you are only allowed 2 land sectors.........

Never heard of that. Have you got a reference?

 

[Jordan613]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thanks guys, greatly appreciated. Would be good to know about the limit on land sectors.

Another question, if I had a flight back to Aust that I just so happened to miss (whoops!) would this negate the 140k cap and revert back to costing the relevant points for each individual flight? As if I land in Delhi on, let's say day 360 and have a scheduled flight out of KUL on, let's say day 364 that I unfortunately miss I imagine I could always arrange to get a cheap JetStar flight from Bangkok or Singapore some months down the track...

 

[ejd711]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Never heard of that. Have you got a reference?

Hi vetrade,

I had a look and I can't find one. It may be that this was historically the case (my first OWA was 2003). But I also know I tried to do 3 land segments on my last trip in 2013 and it wouldn't let me, but it may be that I was breaking some other rule.

Just a thought also in regards to Jordan163's trip, would this go over the maximum of 35,000 miles (~56,000km) as per rule 14.5.2 given that the km in surface sectors count from rule 14.5.5?

14.5 Classic Awards - oneworld Award booking conditions
14.5.1 A oneworld Award is a Classic Award Itinerary that includes travel on at least two oneworld Alliance Airlines other than Qantas and does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline.
14.5.2 Classic Awards using the oneworld Classic Award table must be no more than a distance of 56,315 kilometres (35,000 miles). Longer journeys must be broken into separate Itineraries.
14.5.3 A one way oneworld Award Itinerary will be charged as a return Itinerary. oneworld Award Itineraries finishing in a port other than the port of origin must include the distance to return directly to the port of origin when calculating the number of Points required to redeem the Flight Award and the maximum distance for the Itinerary.
14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Awards:
(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.

14.5.5 Surface Segments are permitted as part of oneworld 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.

https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/program/terms#jump13

 

[ejd711]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thanks guys, greatly appreciated. Would be good to know about the limit on land sectors.

Another question, if I had a flight back to Aust that I just so happened to miss (whoops!) would this negate the 140k cap and revert back to costing the relevant points for each individual flight? As if I land in Delhi on, let's say day 360 and have a scheduled flight out of KUL on, let's say day 364 that I unfortunately miss I imagine I could always arrange to get a cheap JetStar flight from Bangkok or Singapore some months down the track...

As for this, if you just chose not to get on a leg, then all subsequent legs are cancelled, which given what you've said this would be the last leg as you were out of time so it shouldn't be a problem. That's somewhere in the terms and conditions and mentioned earlier in this thread but don't have time to find the exact link now. Sorry.

 

[Jordan613]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thanks ejd

I was able to find the following:

13.2.4 An Award Flight Itinerary must contain no more than 16 Segments (including any Surface Segments).
14.5.5 Surface Segments are permitted as part of oneworld 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.

So it seems that you can extend out the Surface Segments as long as the total is <16 (which would be the case considering you can only have 5 stopovers)

Thanks again.

 

[ejd711]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Jordan613 that certainly seems the way. Maybe it was only doing it online that it errored too?

Very good use of points though, I'm thinking my next one will be a $280K one!

 

[OzziTravellers]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all, can you fly US Airways on the Oneworld Award as an affiliate airline of AA? I'm checking availability for flights on the AA website and it shows a stack of options on there for the route I want, but they are predominantly on US Airways, however if I check the same dates nothing shows on the QANTAS award search engine (only the specific AA flights do).

 

[sergeyvzn]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all, can you fly US Airways on the Oneworld Award as an affiliate airline of AA? I'm checking availability for flights on the AA website and it shows a stack of options on there for the route I want, but they are predominantly on US Airways, however if I check the same dates nothing shows on the QANTAS award search engine (only the specific AA flights do).

Yes of course you can

 

[Canada]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

edited: oh, i have 279000 qantas ff points at the moment

I was referred here by mooing chicken (thank you!) in my 1st ever post in "Questions" re trying to get to Toronto and home to coordinate with others.

Can anyone please tell me if I could do the following with the 140,000 or whether it's better value to do some kind of points _ pay deal (forward journey not negotiable but everything else is):

Saturday 8 August, perth to toronto with 3 hour stopover in hong kong cathay pacific , economy class. My daughter will be a paid flight. Could I start an around the world with this, then......

Sunday 24th I will be staying about 20 kilometres from Niagra Falls and I'd like to take my daughter to one destination if I could possibly afford it on the way home to Perth.

So could an around the world get me to the nearest Disneyland for a week, then home to Perth?
Or, to New York (although I don't think I can afford accommodation in either of these) then home to Perth?
Or somewhere else you could suggest that would fit the around the world criteria?

So, she will start her around the world from the first flight on 24th August and I would be continuing mine.

Or would we be best to do a tour of Niagra and then back to Toronto for a couple of days then home using a return flight for her and return awards flight for me.

Hope that makes sense.

So many helpful people on this site.

Cheers.

 

[Sumnerned]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi Canada
One possibility that comes to mind is Disneyworld in Orlando. You could get a hotel there for around A$150 per night, such as the Hilton Bonnet Creek (see booking.com) with free shuttles, pool etc. You should be able to get to Orlando on AA and/or USAir, either via DFW or MIA.
Home would be something like MIA-MAD-JNB-PER, probably using some combination of AA, IB, QR, QF. You may want to call Qantas to check if all award seats (esp on Qatar) are shown on the website. Or there are other possible routes from Qatar to PER.
Good hunting.
Ned

 

[hossein_au]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

edited: oh, i have 279000 qantas ff points at the moment

I was referred here by mooing chicken (thank you!) in my 1st ever post in "Questions" re trying to get to Toronto and home to coordinate with others.

Can anyone please tell me if I could do the following with the 140,000 or whether it's better value to do some kind of points _ pay deal (forward journey not negotiable but everything else is):

Saturday 8 August, perth to toronto with 3 hour stopover in hong kong cathay pacific , economy class. My daughter will be a paid flight. Could I start an around the world with this, then......

Sunday 24th I will be staying about 20 kilometres from Niagra Falls and I'd like to take my daughter to one destination if I could possibly afford it on the way home to Perth.

So could an around the world get me to the nearest Disneyland for a week, then home to Perth?
Or, to New York (although I don't think I can afford accommodation in either of these) then home to Perth?
Or somewhere else you could suggest that would fit the around the world criteria?

So, she will start her around the world from the first flight on 24th August and I would be continuing mine.

Or would we be best to do a tour of Niagra and then back to Toronto for a couple of days then home using a return flight for her and return awards flight for me.

Hope that makes sense.

So many helpful people on this site.

Cheers.

For accommodation in the US, you may want to look into AirBnB.com and priceline.com (also look into the "bid" feature of the latter).

 

[venno]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi All

Is it still possible to book a RTW fare on One World with 140k Qantas points for the following journey:

PER to Paris
Open jaw to LHR
LHR to JFK
JFK to LAX
LAX to BNE

If so, roughly what could I expect for the fees/charges for fare?

cheers

 

[casanovawa]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

If it fits under the miles that itin looks ok, use gcmap.com and put in each of the flights you're thinking of...

As to the taxes and surcharges, don't know that one sorry, might be $1000-1500, you could probably work it out from QF's website but probably just easier to call them and ask...

 

[serfty]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

You would save a substantial amount on UK APD by not departing the journey to the USA from LHR ... (£134 if in Business).

 

[casanovawa]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Yes, better to fly into LHR and out of Paris if you can switch it around...