Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[mlk]

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

Thank you for that. Am I able to book all the flights online (last leg economy with FCO-QR-PER at the wrong date) first to save some points? And call up immediately to fill in the KIX to LAX flight with JL and change the QR economy flight to the correct date J class?

 

[Jacques Vert]

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

Thank you for that. Am I able to book all the flights online (last leg economy with FCO-QR-PER at the wrong date) first to save some points? And call up immediately to fill in the KIX to LAX flight with JL and change the QR economy flight to the correct date J class?

If you find that you cannot book it all on-line, try making a list of all the flight numbers, airport codes, dates, times, etc. and then ring up. Explain that you have just tried to book it all on-line but that the system can't handle it (or can't price the taxes): you may find that they will waive the fee for you, especially if they can book it quickly (hence having all the information at hand).

This has worked for me in the past but, of course, no guarantees.

 

[mlk]

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

Hi all

After spending almost 4 hours on the phone last night. I finally booked our trip. I think I got quite lucky to get all the flights we needed since the first leg is mid February.

Feb/Mar 2016
PER-HKG-LAX CX STOP 1
LAX-KIX JL STOP 2
KIX-HKG CX STOP 3

Separate flight back to Perth

Jul/Aug 2016
HKG-LHR CX STOP 4 Open jaw
MAD-FCO IB STOP 5
FCO-DOH-PER

Issues that I had last night.
1. 2 hours on hold before speaking to someone. (Not sure if it was because I called around 10pm).

2. While on hold, I couldn't find the PER-HKG-LAX flight that I wanted on the JL website anymore but it was showing on the qantas website. I was afraid this was a phantom flight. I am not sure why this was happening.

3. Finally got through to someone. CSA was quite rude and seemed like he didn't want to help. He could get me all my flights (even the PER-HKG-LAX) except LAX-KIX even though I explained to him I could see it on the BA website. He said that it doesn't matter because he couldn't see it on his. I kept asking him to check again but he was insistent he was right. After spending 30 minutes more on the phone with him, I gave up and hanged up.

4. I was going to try again in this morning but I decided to keep going. This was around 2am. I was on hold for another 30 minutes.

5. The nicest CSA answered. It made such a difference. She found every flight I wanted. She did make a comment about having too many stops because LHR-MAD open jaw was considered stop 5 but I told her to double check this. She checked the rules again and said it was ok and waived all the additional fees.

6. She sent out the itinerary via email with a booking confirmation over the phone. I can see all the flights on my qantas account (even though it says booking is processing). Does this mean it's all been approved? There shouldn't be any issues going forward since I have a booking confirmation code (I have an email of the itinerary but I don't think it's the actual e-ticket) and it's showing up on my qantas account right?

The final cost was 280k points plus 1050 taxes each. We got J seats for the all flights.

Thanks to everyone again that shared their experiences. Missus is very happy.

Sidenote: Has anyone had any luck booking asia miles one world award? It seems to be better value and I can't find much information about it online. I do have a quite a few points there too.

 

[flychrisfly]

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

6. She sent out the itinerary via email with a booking confirmation over the phone. I can see all the flights on my qantas account (even though it says booking is processing). Does this mean it's all been approved? There shouldn't be any issues going forward since I have a booking confirmation code (I have an email of the itinerary but I don't think it's the actual e-ticket) and it's showing up on my qantas account right?

Nope, it says the booking is processing while it's queued to be ticketed - where an eticket is created for you with an eticket number. And I'm guessing that one or both of the points or the taxes have not yet hit the relevant account. Qantas process these in chronological order by departure date so it might be a little while yet. Also, in my experience, some flights can drop off during this time (my QR ones recently did) so keep an eye on things!

 

[mlk]

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

Nope, it says the booking is processing while it's queued to be ticketed - where an eticket is created for you with an eticket number. And I'm guessing that one or both of the points or the taxes have not yet hit the relevant account. Qantas process these in chronological order by departure date so it might be a little while yet. Also, in my experience, some flights can drop off during this time (my QR ones recently did) so keep an eye on things!

Cheers. Thanks for the heads up. I managed to email myself an itinerary receipt from the website and on the pdf file, it says all the status of the flights as confirmed. It's a pdf file about 6 pages long. I can't see any eticket number though. Is this sufficient or should I call again to follow it up?

 

[flychrisfly]

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

Cheers. Thanks for the heads up. I managed to email myself an itinerary receipt from the website and on the pdf file, it says all the status of the flights as confirmed. It's a pdf file about 6 pages long. I can't see any eticket number though. Is this sufficient or should I call again to follow it up?

Qantas will email you an eticket when it's available - the email subject will be "E-Ticket...". Not sure when you should follow up, maybe a week after booking? That's what I'm doing on Monday

 

[Jacques Vert]

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

3. After spending 30 minutes more on the phone with him, I gave up and hanged up.

5. The nicest CSA answered. It made such a difference. She found every flight I wanted. She did make a comment about having too many stops because LHR-MAD open jaw was considered stop 5 but I told her to double check this. She checked the rules again and said it was ok and waived all the additional fees.

The final cost was 280k points plus 1050 taxes each. We got J seats for the all flights.

Missus is very happy.

Well done. Happy wife, happy life!

Your point 3: I admit I have hung up on occasions when I have reached an unhelpful agent: "Got cut off!"

Point 5: Good to see she waived the fees; was this all booking fees?

Taxes look about what I would expect given the itinerary is close to the maximum miles and you have included QR and CX which one agent told me have higher taxes than some others (but not as high as QF).

Not sure how much time you have allowed in Rome but if you have time there are good train connections to many nice places such as Florence, Milan, even Venice is doable; and prices start from Eur9. If you haven't come across The Man in Seat 61 then check this website: Trains from Rome | Train times, fares, online tickets

JV

 

[Ken1]

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

We've booked our flights for SYD-HKG with CX connecting to BA32 HKG-LHR in early July to start off our 280K J OWA for next year. I had booked the CX flight online and then phoned to add the BA flight six days later, on the day they were released. The ticket has not been re-issued yet so I've just called QF so I can get it sorted before we have to book our next segment in another week.

The next flight we need is from LCY-ZRH. Up until recently these flights were showing up with availability every day when logged in to QFF. They still show LHR-ZRH released each day but nothing from LCY, whatever dates I select. I get the following error message:

Flight Search error:

• Qantas.com flight search error:
  We are unable to find the requested outbound on any departing flights of the airlines that we search. (# 9200)

While on the phone to QF this morning I asked if she could see availability for 3 August 2016, the latest date available on the BA website, which shows availability for booking with Avios for the four LCY-ZRH flights each day. She said she could see availability but only as code share which show up as City Flyer and I can't book them. When I look at the BA website the flights have BA flight numbers (eg BA8765, BA8767) and are listed as BA CityFlyer.

Has anyone had any issues booking BA CityFlyer flights with QFF points? Maybe there's been a change that these flights are no longer available through QFF, even though they are available through BA with Avios. I've just also logged into CX Marco Polo and they also don't show availability for LCY-ZRH, only LHR-ZRH.

We'll be arriving in Tilbury after a cruise and LCY is a lot closer than LHR, but we may have no choice than to fly from LHR if LCY is no longer available for QFF redemption bookings.

 

[Nizar]

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!

Good work. I don't see many mentions here of 420k awards so great to see you are doing one.
I am contemplating one myself as I am very close to having the required points but for me I'd like to maximise F sectors so I am thinking of something like this.

MEL-SYD QF J
SYD-NRT JL F stop
HND-HKG CX F
HKG-LAX CX F stop
LAX-LHR BA F
LHR-CDG BA J stop
CDG-DOH QR F stop
DOH-DXB QR F stop
DXB-MEL QF F

This way I am maximising F sectors and also giving myself access to all the best lounges on the network such as QF SYD, QF LAX, The Pier, Al-Safwa (should it be open by then) and EK DXB. My only regret is that it only comes to just over 30k miles so I am "wasting" 5k.

Are there are issues with any of these sectors ?
I know with HKG-LAX this is the toughest of the USA routes to find availability on so will have to get onto this early.
DOH-DXB I also realise that this is not a super easy route to get availability on.
What about LAX-LHR ? A bit of a glamour route I suppose so does this make it hard to find availability ?

Cheers

 

[madrooster]

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

DOH-DXB I also realise that this is not a super easy route to get availability on.

DOH-DXB isn't hard to get availability on at all.

 

[Kangol]

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

Good work. I don't see many mentions here of 420k awards so great to see you are doing one.
I am contemplating one myself as I am very close to having the required points but for me I'd like to maximise F sectors so I am thinking of something like this.

MEL-SYD QF J
SYD-NRT JL F stop
HND-HKG CX F
HKG-LAX CX F stop
LAX-LHR BA F
LHR-CDG BA J stop
CDG-DOH QR F stop
DOH-DXB QR F stop
DXB-MEL QF F

This way I am maximising F sectors and also giving myself access to all the best lounges on the network such as QF SYD, QF LAX, The Pier, Al-Safwa (should it be open by then) and EK DXB. My only regret is that it only comes to just over 30k miles so I am "wasting" 5k.

Are there are issues with any of these sectors ?
I know with HKG-LAX this is the toughest of the USA routes to find availability on so will have to get onto this early.
DOH-DXB I also realise that this is not a super easy route to get availability on.
What about LAX-LHR ? A bit of a glamour route I suppose so does this make it hard to find availability ?

Cheers

Did JL announce the upgraded SYD-NRT route to a 77W for the 15/16 Japanese winter?
It's on the schedule but apparently no formal announcement has been made yet:
Japan Airlines upgrading Sydney - Narita service with First Class award space wide open - Point Hacks
Japan Airlines mulls Sky Suites, first class on Sydney-Tokyo flights - Australian Business Traveller

HKG-LAX on CX F and LAX-LHR on BA F are both routes with very limited availability, but sometimes they do come up.
From my limited searching, even BA F availability to SFO can be hard to get. If you look at less popular routes like PHX you are more likely to find space.

 

[mlk]

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

Well done. Happy wife, happy life!

Your point 3: I admit I have hung up on occasions when I have reached an unhelpful agent: "Got cut off!"

Point 5: Good to see she waived the fees; was this all booking fees?

Taxes look about what I would expect given the itinerary is close to the maximum miles and you have included QR and CX which one agent told me have higher taxes than some others (but not as high as QF).

Not sure how much time you have allowed in Rome but if you have time there are good train connections to many nice places such as Florence, Milan, even Venice is doable; and prices start from Eur9. If you haven't come across The Man in Seat 61 then check this website: Trains from Rome | Train times, fares, online tickets

JV

Yes, it was all the booking fees so ended up being 280k points + taxes each. Thanks for the train tip. Looks like good place to start.

I called Qantas back yesterday to ask for the eticket. They said it has to wait till Monday/Tuesday as the FF centre opens tomorrow. Let's hope it all goes through.

 

[Jacques Vert]

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

Yes, it was all the booking fees so ended up being 280k points + taxes each. Thanks for the train tip. Looks like good place to start.

I called Qantas back yesterday to ask for the eticket. They said it has to wait till Monday/Tuesday as the FF centre opens tomorrow. Let's hope it all goes through.

I'm sure it will; having booked 3 of these I've found a good result is the norm, but make sure you check all the details on the e-ticket just to be sure.

I'm looking forward to the trip report

 

[Jordan613]

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

Hi All,

Do people have a particular resource they use to calculate the direct distance between cities for open jaw segments? I'm pushing the boundaries for <35,000 miles, y'know, just stretching the value out of the points

 

[Ken1]

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

Hi All,

Do people have a particular resource they use to calculate the direct distance between cities for open jaw segments? I'm pushing the boundaries for <35,000 miles, y'know, just stretching the value out of the points

Try Great Circle Mapper, which I've found very useful
Great Circle Mapper

 

[penegal]

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

I have an existing QF Classic Award (on QF metal) which is currently a Single Open Jaw ticketed in Uniform (U) Class. Cost is 228K pts and ~$800 AUD.

I have recently realised that I should be able to turn this into a point to point return (SYD - SYD) being 34811 miles (including surface segments). I suspect the cost of this should be 280K points and ~$1300 AUD. NB - This revised itinerary includes 2 OneWorld airlines other than QANTAS, and the necessary surface segments to remove the open jaw. It starts and ends in Sydney, and doesn't transit through the same point at all, so it should be valid.

Therefore the marginal cost to me should be is 52K points and ~$500 AUD (plus maybe a change fee) for which I get 3 more segments, and an extra "mini trip".


Questions:

1. Has anyone ever done this?
2. Will it "work"?
3. Finally, when this becomes a OneWorld Award, do I keep my chauffeur drive on QF segments where eligible?

 

[travelislife]

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

I have an existing QF Classic Award (on QF metal) which is currently a Single Open Jaw ticketed in Uniform (U) Class. Cost is 228K pts and ~$800 AUD.

I have recently realised that I should be able to turn this into a point to point return (SYD - SYD) being 34811 miles (including surface segments). I suspect the cost of this should be 280K points and ~$1300 AUD. NB - This revised itinerary includes 2 OneWorld airlines other than QANTAS, and the necessary surface segments to remove the open jaw. It starts and ends in Sydney, and doesn't transit through the same point at all, so it should be valid.

Therefore the marginal cost to me should be is 52K points and ~$500 AUD (plus maybe a change fee) for which I get 3 more segments, and an extra "mini trip".


Questions:

1. Has anyone ever done this?
2. Will it "work"?
3. Finally, when this becomes a OneWorld Award, do I keep my chauffeur drive on QF segments where eligible?

Yep should work fine. They essentially just reprice the ticket from scratch after adding the segments you want and charge the 3500 point change fee.

 

[Jordan613]

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

Try Great Circle Mapper, which I've found very useful
Great Circle Mapper

Thank you Ken, I've been using Flight Distance and Duration Calculator - Airport and Aviation Database - Great Circle Mapper but didn't realise Great Circle Mapper had statue miles option.

 

[ozflier]

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

Our South American trip on a business OWA is getting close.
FYI, a lot of the internal and intra South American flights on LAN and TAM have removed Business Class and replaced it with the equivalent of Premium Economy.
I had 2 flights affected this way GRU-LIM where I had to ring TAM and ask them to seat us in what was the equivalent of business class seating.
The flight on the sector EZE-GRU has now ceased to have a J class section and we are now in economy.
One question
Talking to QFF, you can only book Y ,J and F - there is no option for PE intra South American flights.
If you have a business class OW award and can see only economy is available and you book that (and premium economy seats are in that aircraft) , is it possible that the booking class would allow transfer to PE if award seating becomes available in PE class?

 

[fastferret]

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

Hi experts!

I think the following 280k itinerary meets the rules, but would appreciate confirmation or otherwise.
SYD-HKG (CX)
HKG-DOH (CX)
DOH-ATH (QR)
Stop
ATH-MAD (IB)
Stop
TXL-LHR (BA)
LHR-KEF (BA)
Stop
KEF-LHR (BA)
LHR-ABN (BA)
Stop
EDI-MAD (IB)
MAD-BOS (IB)
Stop
BOS-HKG (CX)
HKG-SYD (CX)

Hi all,
Got this booked now with a few tweaks. TXL-LHR replaced by BUD-LHR. LHR-ABN replaced by LCY-EDI.

For some reason their was no inventory of flights LHR-Scotland, so I'm having to fly from LCY with a <24hr overnight in London. This seems strange with BA having so many flights available with Avios each day from LHR-Scotland.

I came unstuck with the CX pairing flights problem and my HKG-SYD is booked X, not J. Qantas suggested that with WP status I might be able to get HKG-SYD in J on QF127 when the flights release next week. I understand QF127 is an old 747, so perhaps not as good a flight as J with CX?

An alternative would be to wait until JL flights are released and try for J with them BOS-NRT & NRT-SYD. Any comments on how easy it would be to get these JL flights and the quality of JL's J experience?