Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[vetrade]

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

Been doing a bunch of research and thank to you guys, i have an itinerary in mind. Just not 100% sure if it works.

If i make a surface sector to LHR to fly out of there (LHR-JTR), does that count LHR towards my 2 Layover limit?
So for example, if I land in FCO and make a surface segment to LHR, can i do LHR-JTR, JTR-LHR-MIA and then MIA-LHR-HKG?

Or is that 1 too many in LHR?

You're allowed 2 transits plus one stopover in any individual city. If you do a land sector e.g. FCO - LHR, FCO is your designated stopover city, not LHR. So your proposal would be counted as 3 transits in LHR and therefore not allowed.

 

[Jordan613]

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

Hey Vetrade, is it correct that it's best to avoid LHR is possible due to additional taxes/fees? Still on the learning curve

 

[vetrade]

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

Hey Vetrade, is it correct that it's best to avoid LHR is possible due to additional taxes/fees? Still on the learning curve

Yes, definitely. LHR has an Airport Departure Tax which is way higher than anywhere else and well worth avoiding. I'm a bit rusty on the exact figure but from memory it's several hundred dollars. It is a departure tax only so it doesn't apply if you land in LHR.

You only have to pay this tax if your flight originates at LHR i.e. if you are transiting through LHR you don't get charged the tax e.g. if you were flying back to Australia and departed from LHR you would pay the tax but if you, say, flew CDG - LHR - OZ you don't pay the tax.

 

[Jordan613]

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

Yes, definitely. LHR has an Airport Departure Tax which is way higher than anywhere else and well worth avoiding. I'm a bit rusty on the exact figure but from memory it's several hundred dollars. It is a departure tax only so it doesn't apply if you land in LHR.

You only have to pay this tax if your flight originates at LHR i.e. if you are transiting through LHR you don't get charged the tax e.g. if you were flying back to Australia and departed from LHR you would pay the tax but if you, say, flew CDG - LHR - OZ you don't pay the tax.

Thank you as always, a wealth of knowledge!

 

[knasty]

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

Just to avoid any confusion APD is a UK tax, not LHR specifically. So it applies equally from MAN, LGW etc.

 

[madrooster]

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

I'm a bit rusty on the exact figure but from memory it's several hundred dollars. It is a departure tax only so it doesn't apply if you land in LHR.

Currently $100 AUD passenger service charge (includes transiting) and $305 in APD.

 

[flychrisfly]

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

Currently $100 AUD passenger service charge (includes transiting) and $305 in APD.

I thought it varied by class of travel and distance traveled...

 

[madrooster]

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

I thought it varied by class of travel and distance traveled...

The passenger service charge is charged both for transiting and originating in London. The PSC is a little lower when only transiting. The APD varies based on CoS and distance (though it's been reduced to two bands as per below). APD is charged only when originating in the UK (not necessarily London).

The APD has 4 rates:

Band A (short haul) W/J/F
Band B (long haul) W/J/F

Band A (short haul) Y
Band B (long haul) Y

The W/J/F rates are double the Y rates.

 

[flychrisfly]

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

Phew! I've finally booked the final leg of my OWA for next year:

SYD-DXB QF F Stop 1
DXB-DOH QR F
DOH-BCN QR J Stop 2
MAD-LHR BA J
LHR-HAM BA J Stop 3
CPH-LHR BA J Stop 4
(LHR-DUB BA Y separate $ ticket Stop)
DUB-LHR BA J
LHR-BOS BA F Stop 5
BOS-JFK AA F Stop < 24 hours
JFK-LAX AA F (on their A321 TransCon service) Stop < 24 hours
LAX-SYD QF F

Total taxes were about $950, despite having all those London stops. Weirdly, after booking the first ~8 sectors QF rang me and said I would be getting $786 back as the taxes had changed

I had to chase Qantas almost every time I added a flight to get the new eticket issued after each change. It kept getting stuck in their system and, as far as I could tell, I would not have been able to make future changes without the updated and issued eticket. A bit frustrating - some of the customer service peeps would push it through and apologise for the delay and others would say that the etickets are processed in chronological order by departure date and that because my date was so far in the future that I'd just have to wait and that it would be issued within x days. Invariably on those occasions I'd have to call back after x days had passed and try again. But we got there in the end!

To book the the last two sectors (BOS-JFK-LAX) I called yesterday morning and both the customer service agent, Nicole, and myself were confused as the system (hers and the internet) was showing availability for the flights but they couldn't be ticketed for some reason. Nicole checked with the 'fares department' and apparently the system was showing false availability! She was great though, she said that she would be working today from 7am and that she could have a look then and call me this morning, and she did! Pretty good customer service in that regard.

Now all I have to do is wait for the date!

 

[Kangol]

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

Thanks, but there are a few issues:
- I don't want to pay for an F award to have any of the long haul legs in J
- Going to BNE is out of the question and not needed (Oz base is in SYD)
- I already have DEN-xLAX-SYD all in F booked and need those dates (especially to start in DEN) and am planning on adding segments after those two.

I started another thread and it looks like the best option is to book it before the US->AA change and then revalidate/change dates where possible. This is a gamble though.

The SYD-AKL-SYD is a killer at 1343 miles each way.
SYD-LAX is 7502 miles and SYD-DFW is 8589 according to MM.
Even if I took out the LAX-SAN legs at 109 miles and put in the SYD-AKL-SYD, I am still >200 miles over.

The planned routing is 34,967 according to MM and 34,918 according to GCM.

Looks like I'm out of luck with this one.. I went away and also didn't have the points to make up the 420k - Westpac are a month late for my 60k bonus despite me fulfilling the requirements ages ago!
Checked the flights I wanted and they are all AA flight numbers, not US.
Any other suggestions?
I did put this up in this thread here:
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....lidating-award-ticket-different-aa-69295.html

I also have another LAX-SYD in F on QF12 that could be changed to be SFO-LAX-SYD in order to avoid the "itinerary will be complete when you return to your port of origin" rule.. could possibly put in the SYD-AKL leg on LAN..

 

[mlk]

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

Hi everyone

I am quite new to this and hoping someone could provide some guidance. We are based in Perth and have around QAN 614K+ points and a bronze membership.

We would like to book 2 x 280k trip anytime between January – March 2016 period for the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] part of our trip and then continue on around June to August for the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] part. We would go away for 3 to 4 weeks for each part of the trip. We are quite flexible with the dates.

The general idea is to explore a bit of Los Angeles and mainly Mexico around January to March and then Europe around June to August. The warm weather in each region was the main decision for picking these months.
I have spent most of last weekend reading the forums and playing around with the 4 main airline searches (QAN, BA, JAL & AA) but keep getting stuck. I know I am a bit late as it’s best to book these tickets once the flights are released (10 months in advance?).

It seems like the best way to get to North America or that region would be to get to LAX via the east coast. I tried looking at flights via Qantas search and it seems like there’s no business class seats from Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane (Do they normally release more seats later or should I try calling QF for assistance?) and there are a few seats available if we depart via Perth through HKG but this causes an issue later on since HKG is a stopover for most flights.

So far we have a rough idea of what our itinerary looks like.
1. AUS (We are not fussed where we depart from) – LAX (PER or unless there’s a better way to get to LAX. We can depart from anywhere in Australia or SIN/HKG if it makes it easier.)

2. If possible, we would like to go to Japan as well either before LAX or after. Not fussed if we can’t but would be nice to join a few friends there. (I can’t seem to find any flights from NRT or LAX with QAN. BA shows a few flights but none in business. JAL shows a lot of business seats available but are these actually bookable flights?).

3. After NRT or LAX, the idea is to spend few days in either HKG or SIN and use take a separate flight back to Perth.

4. June to August – Separate flight back to SIN or HKG and on to Europe (direct or a stop over in Dubai if possible). We will then take separate flights around Europe. I have read so far that LHR has one of the highest airport taxes. What would be a better stop for Europe?

5. As mentioned above, it would be nice to have a stopover for a few days in Dubai either before or after Europe.

6. Europe back to AUS.

These are the issues I have been getting booking this online via QAN
1. Finding Business class seats leaving AUS to either LAX or NRT first

2. Finding Business class seats or any flights from LAX/NRT to NRT/LAX

3. Then getting to either HKG or SIN as an extended stop since almost all flights go through HKG

4. Going from HKG or SIN to Europe or Dubai first

5. Lastly, to keep everything under 35,000 miles. I have used gcmap to plot numerous routes. Are the total miles counted as a direct line or do I have to include stop overs as well?

My apologies for writing an essay. I hope someone would be able to provide a few pointers. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jacques Vert]

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

It seems like the best way to get to North America or that region would be to get to LAX via the east coast. there are a few seats available if we depart via Perth through HKG but this causes an issue later on since HKG is a stopover for most flights.

So far we have a rough idea of what our itinerary looks like.
1. AUS (We are not fussed where we depart from) – LAX (PER or unless there’s a better way to get to LAX. We can depart from anywhere in Australia or SIN/HKG if it makes it easier.)

2. If possible, we would like to go to Japan as well either before LAX or after. Not fussed if we can’t but would be nice to join a few friends there. (I can’t seem to find any flights from NRT or LAX with QAN. BA shows a few flights but none in business. JAL shows a lot of business seats available but are these actually bookable flights?).

3. After NRT or LAX, the idea is to spend few days in either HKG or SIN and use take a separate flight back to Perth.

4. June to August – Separate flight back to SIN or HKG and on to Europe (direct or a stop over in Dubai if possible). We will then take separate flights around Europe. I have read so far that LHR has one of the highest airport taxes. What would be a better stop for Europe?

5. As mentioned above, it would be nice to have a stopover for a few days in Dubai either before or after Europe.

6. Europe back to AUS.

These are the issues I have been getting booking this online via QAN
1. Finding Business class seats leaving AUS to either LAX or NRT first

2. Finding Business class seats or any flights from LAX/NRT to NRT/LAX

3. Then getting to either HKG or SIN as an extended stop since almost all flights go through HKG

4. Going from HKG or SIN to Europe or Dubai first

5. Lastly, to keep everything under 35,000 miles. I have used gcmap to plot numerous routes. Are the total miles counted as a direct line or do I have to include stop overs as well?

My apologies for writing an essay. I hope someone would be able to provide a few pointers. Thanks in advance.

A couple of quick comments:

You are allowed two transits (<24hr) and one stopover (>24hr) in each city so unless you wish to go through HKG more than three times you should be fine. I would think that you would have much better chance of getting to the US via HKG than east coast Aus. You may already realise that you have a max of 5 stopovers but basically no limit on transits.

Q3: No problem taking a separate flight back to Perth; we did a similar diversion from SIN to CFS in the middle of an RTW last year.

Q4: Emirates is not part of One World so a stopover in Dubai may require a detour to get to Europe (like via Doha, for example). Look at arriving in Europe in VIE, MXP, HEL or MAD as these (and some others) may be easier to get flights and are also good options.

On Great Circle Mapper, include all flights in the mileage calculation: that is, assuming your itinerary goes via HKG, count PER-HKG-LAX rather than PER-HKG no matter whether you stopover in HKG or not.

Enjoy,

JV

 

[travelislife]

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

Hi everyone

I am quite new to this and hoping someone could provide some guidance. We are based in Perth and have around QAN 614K+ points and a bronze membership.

We would like to book 2 x 280k trip anytime between January – March 2016 period for the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] part of our trip and then continue on around June to August for the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] part. We would go away for 3 to 4 weeks for each part of the trip. We are quite flexible with the dates.

The general idea is to explore a bit of Los Angeles and mainly Mexico around January to March and then Europe around June to August. The warm weather in each region was the main decision for picking these months.
I have spent most of last weekend reading the forums and playing around with the 4 main airline searches (QAN, BA, JAL & AA) but keep getting stuck. I know I am a bit late as it’s best to book these tickets once the flights are released (10 months in advance?).

It seems like the best way to get to North America or that region would be to get to LAX via the east coast. I tried looking at flights via Qantas search and it seems like there’s no business class seats from Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane (Do they normally release more seats later or should I try calling QF for assistance?) and there are a few seats available if we depart via Perth through HKG but this causes an issue later on since HKG is a stopover for most flights.

So far we have a rough idea of what our itinerary looks like.
1. AUS (We are not fussed where we depart from) – LAX (PER or unless there’s a better way to get to LAX. We can depart from anywhere in Australia or SIN/HKG if it makes it easier.)

2. If possible, we would like to go to Japan as well either before LAX or after. Not fussed if we can’t but would be nice to join a few friends there. (I can’t seem to find any flights from NRT or LAX with QAN. BA shows a few flights but none in business. JAL shows a lot of business seats available but are these actually bookable flights?).

3. After NRT or LAX, the idea is to spend few days in either HKG or SIN and use take a separate flight back to Perth.

4. June to August – Separate flight back to SIN or HKG and on to Europe (direct or a stop over in Dubai if possible). We will then take separate flights around Europe. I have read so far that LHR has one of the highest airport taxes. What would be a better stop for Europe?

5. As mentioned above, it would be nice to have a stopover for a few days in Dubai either before or after Europe.

6. Europe back to AUS.

These are the issues I have been getting booking this online via QAN
1. Finding Business class seats leaving AUS to either LAX or NRT first

2. Finding Business class seats or any flights from LAX/NRT to NRT/LAX

3. Then getting to either HKG or SIN as an extended stop since almost all flights go through HKG

4. Going from HKG or SIN to Europe or Dubai first

5. Lastly, to keep everything under 35,000 miles. I have used gcmap to plot numerous routes. Are the total miles counted as a direct line or do I have to include stop overs as well?

My apologies for writing an essay. I hope someone would be able to provide a few pointers. Thanks in advance.

I will reply more later, but I will say unfortunately you are very late in the game for look to get Business Class seats in January 2016, you generally have to be looking to book these 353 days before travel. Though in saying that there might be some other options that pop up, especially out of Perth such as through Hong Kong to the US.

 

[Aus ATC]

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

Thanks for all the great information here. I just booked a "simple" 280k award flight for myself and Mrs Aus ATC. Herself is not too adventurous as regards flights or convoluted itineraries, and we needed to keep our time away to about 6 weeks, but we got flights that fitted us almost perfectly - with no economy class segments.

May 2016: BNE-xHKG-JFK on Cathay. 5 nights in New York (great use of IHG points there!)

May 2016: JFK-xMAD-MXP on Iberia.

Surface from MXP-CDG (and a few places in between)

Late June: CDG-HKG on Cathay. 1 night stop over in HKG as the booking engine would not allow the through booking.
HKG-BNE on Cathay.

All booked on-line. QANTAS J availability was non-existent (as expected!), while CX, BA and IB was good.

Total taxes $590 each .

Really looking forward to the Cathay J experience - hope that lives up to expectations.

 

[Sale]

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

Thank you from us to all the wise AFFers who have been so generous with their knowledge of the 280K minefield. For me this was a work in progress for a couple of months with some hiccups along the way. I used the QF site generally and the BA website for European flights and to look for any J flights on Qatar (which didn't eventuate).

Jun 2016
HBA-MEL (QF) then
MEL-HKG on CX, connecting with 2 hours layover to
HKG - LHR (BA) connecting with
LHR - IST (BA)

Cruising IST - LIS

Returning July 2016 again with great connections all the way
LIS - LHR (BA)
LHR - HKG (CX)
HKG - SYD (CX)
SYD -MEL -HBA (QF)


The hiccups that we encountered:

1. We initially booked HKG-DOH on Qatar - I didn't realise that I hadn't received the ticket, and when I rang to book the next leg these flights had dropped off the booking and weren't available again. Reason being there was some problem with the credit card number and apparently Qatar threw the booking out. We then ended up booking HKG - IST via the long way round through LHR as we could at least get the seats. (I threw a bit of a tanty and managed to get the change fees that I had been charged refunded)
2. Several times the CSAs have told me that the CX flights that I could see on the QF site were not available - but they managed to find them when they looked on the CX site.
3. At some stage along the way the LHR -IST leg dropped off without notice - at least that was relatively easy to correct with just one phone call and no-one even tried to add another change fee.
4. Since the Qatar episode there have been problems with each leg booked and the ticketing - I have had to ring at least once each time to chase the tickets as there was some issue each time. And I have been terrified that the flights would drop off again.
5. The most recent and final legs booked (IST-LHR & SYD-HBA) took three phone calls to chase the ticketing (Thank you Clare for going to your senior to arrange instant ticketing - it worked)
6. The trouble with some of these ticketing issues was that I didn't know whether to hang up and call again as the CSAs would say that the fix in in the process and I'd receive tickets within 24-48 hours
7. Moral of the story - get it in writing!

The final cost was 280,000 plus 14,000 change fees pp, and $726 taxes each.

And we are very happy - all the work chasing points has given us J return tickets to Europe (& also lots of lovely wine)

 

[mlk]

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

Hi everyone

Thank you for the replies and to all the pros who have shared their knowledge and experience. I spent a few more hours going through parts of this thread again and reading a few more websites.

I managed to find these flights available for 2 J trips. I think the following 280 itinerary meets the rules, but would appreciate confirmation or some feedback.

PER-HKG CX J
HKG-LAX CX J

Stop 1

LAX-KIX JL J

Stop 2

KIX-HKG CX J

Stop 3 (Separate flight back to Perth for a few months & back to HKG)

HKG-LHR CX/BA J

Stop 4 (Plenty of flights available around this time and we will make our own way from LHR to MAD)

MAD-DOH QR J

Stop 5?

DOH-PER QR J

7 segments, 34147 miles

I have read about the CX phantom flights so I have used JL website to verify them.

Ideally, we would have like to go to NRT but I found it quite hard to get tickets from LAX and KIX had more availability since that part of the trip is in only a few months.

Or the other idea was to use SIN (my preference since I have business there) as our stop but we found that there was too many wasted miles (most flights transit via HKG) as it was hard to find a direct flight to Europe from SIN.

Is LHR to MAD considered an open jaw? And would this be considered the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] stop? Or is DOH the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] stop? If there is too many stops, we can always just transit through DOH.

We are not too fussed about DOH and rather explore more of Europe. We were also thinking of going from LHR to another European city and just use DOH as a transit if there are too many stops.

CX or BA J Class? Which one would be a better flight?

How does it all look so far? Are there any recommendations for a better route? I hope it’s all good to go as I will need to book the PER-HKG-LAX flights as it’s quite soon and there’s only a few left.

And finally, how much time do I have to allocate to call Qantas to book the tickets and my understanding is that with our Europe flights (June to August Period), I can just book these first and call and change them again later at 3,500 points per person if something else suited us better. Are there any other tips for when I make this call?

Thanks so much for the help in advance. I can’t wait to book these and it will make the missus very happy.

 

[vetrade]

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

...............Is LHR to MAD considered an open jaw? And would this be considered the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] stop? Or is DOH the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] stop? If there is too many stops, we can always just transit through DOH.

We are not too fussed about DOH and rather explore more of Europe. We were also thinking of going from LHR to another European city and just use DOH as a transit if there are too many stops.

CX or BA J Class? Which one would be a better flight?

How does it all look so far? Are there any recommendations for a better route? I hope it’s all good to go as I will need to book the PER-HKG-LAX flights as it’s quite soon and there’s only a few left.

And finally, how much time do I have to allocate to call Qantas to book the tickets and my understanding is that with our Europe flights (June to August Period), I can just book these first and call and change them again later at 3,500 points per person if something else suited us better. Are there any other tips for when I make this call?

Thanks so much for the help in advance. I can’t wait to book these and it will make the missus very happy.

Any segment not included in your OW ticketing is called an “open jaw” – doesn’t matter what means of transport you use – car, boat or separate flight, so yes LHR – MAD is an open jaw; the distance between them counts towards your mileage total.

The stopover city is the one where you land so in your case London would be your stopover city, not MAD. DOH is your 5[SUP]th[/SUP] stop.

CX or BA J class? That’s easy - CX by a long way.

Your itinerary looks fine to me. Usually people book the first flights online to avoid any fee and then subsequent changes are charged for on the phone. Book the PER – LAX legs ASAP. The time the booking takes on the phone should not be too long if you already know the availability of award seats on your selected flights (having this info at hand when you call is the key to a quick process), but it can vary a bit and if the operator has to search for availability the time can drag out.

 

[Jacques Vert]

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

You could try to include MAD-FCO-DOH-PER so that stop 5 is in Rome rather than Doha but of course that is up to your personal preference and whether the flights are available on the days that suit.

JV

 

[mlk]

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

You could try to include MAD-FCO-DOH-PER so that stop 5 is in Rome rather than Doha but or course that is up to your personal preference and whether the flights are available on the days that suit.

JV

That's a great idea. Thank you so much. It works out better for us too. Question about booking the flights. So I just have to book the 1st leg online (PER to LAX) and call them to book the rest? And they will cap the points off on the rest of the flights as long as it meets all the requirements?

Or can I book all the flights (except KIX-HKG since it's JL) online and call in to book that one flight? Will they allow that? It seems like a good way to save some points.

And it seems like the last leg which is FCO-DOH-PER has no J Class seats yet (If I was allowed to book all the flights online except for KIX-HKG). Should I just book it under economy first and upgrade when it's released?

 

[madrooster]

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

And it seems like the last leg which is FCO-DOH-PER has no J Class seats yet (If I was allowed to book all the flights online except for KIX-HKG). Should I just book it under economy first and upgrade when it's released?

There is an issue with QR J seats showing online. You'll need to call up to get those.