Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[travelislife]

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?

Check out Qatar Airways for your EZE-GRU sector. We are using them in January. I was hoping to add in some intra Brazil flights but that might explain why can't find any business class seats.

 

[kimnkk]

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

Thanks for your help, i've been booking a few segments for my 280k next year.
However, i think i've run into some trouble!!


I am making a surface segment from Rome to London (~3 weeks) - Stopover?
Then departing from London to Santorini (stay for 3 nights) - What is this counted as?
Then return from Santorini back to London (layover, depart next morning for SCL) - Transit?
Is that:
1 Stopover
1 Transit
or
2 Transits?


I want to get from Santiago (SCL) to Seoul (ICN) but there aren't many options.
I can go from SCL to LAX/NYC by LAN but then JAL don't release 2* J very often for those routes to ICN.
First option is to go Qatar from LAX-xDOH-ICN, but the transit is like 8 hours unfortunately.
Last option is to go back through LHR, if i have the transits available!

 

[Kangol]

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

Thanks for your help, i've been booking a few segments for my 280k next year.
However, i think i've run into some trouble!!


I am making a surface segment from Rome to London (~3 weeks) - Stopover?
Then departing from London to Santorini (stay for 3 nights) - What is this counted as?
Then return from Santorini back to London (layover, depart next morning for SCL) - Transit?
Is that:
1 Stopover
1 Transit
or
2 Transits?

I'm pretty sure the city you stop in is the stopover city. Where you depart from, following a surface segment, is not counted as either.
So you have a stop in Santorini and a transfer in London (en route to SCL).

 

[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:

For what it's worth, it took 2 weeks for the eticket to be reissued after the final flights were added. The two QR flights at one point had appeared to have dropped off so I called about that and it was fixed - no lost seats!

YMMV

 

[sanne]

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

This is the first time I have ever thought about planning a RTW J booking 280,000 points.

Please excuse my ignorance, I have read some of the posts and also did a dummy run in One World. I would welcome confirmation that what I wish to book is OK and also the way to book it.

BNE to HKG CX transit
HKG to LHR CX stopover
LHR to BCN BA stop
BCN to Venice surface sector
Venice to LHR BA stop
LHR to LAX BA transit
LAX to BNE QF finish

Am i correct in booking all these sectors separately as they become available, then ring up Qantas to put them all together and refund me excess points and taxes?

Thank you very much for any help with this. It feels a bit daunting at the moment but it will save me a lot of points as I will need 2 J tickets and to do this as a return BNE/LHR with the side trips into Europe it will be 330,000.

 

[Danger]

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

This is the first time I have ever thought about planning a RTW J booking 280,000 points.

Please excuse my ignorance, I have read some of the posts and also did a dummy run in One World. I would welcome confirmation that what I wish to book is OK and also the way to book it.

BNE to HKG CX transit
HKG to LHR CX stopover
LHR to BCN BA stop
BCN to Venice surface sector
Venice to LHR BA stop
LHR to LAX BA transit
LAX to BNE QF finish

Am i correct in booking all these sectors separately as they become available, then ring up Qantas to put them all together and refund me excess points and taxes?

Thank you very much for any help with this. It feels a bit daunting at the moment but it will save me a lot of points as I will need 2 J tickets and to do this as a return BNE/LHR with the side trips into Europe it will be 330,000.

The general consensus is to book each seat whenever it becomes available, rather than waiting for the whole itinerary at once. Note that you will be up for a fair bit more than 280k per person as you'll be slugged 3.5k per person per change, each time you go to add on a flight. Additionally, you until you trigger the minimum requirements for this oneworld five stop award (someone will chime in with the details but, off the top of my head, two carriers other than Qantas is one of them) you'll be paying 'full fare' points. That is, it may well cost you more than 280k per person initially but once you've met the requirement you'll get a 'refund'.

I haven't done the calculation on your mileage (use Great Circle Mapper) but I'm guessing it will be within the 35k limit.

 

[ozflier]

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

Check out Qatar Airways for your EZE-GRU sector. We are using them in January. I was hoping to add in some intra Brazil flights but that might explain why can't find any business class seats.

Thank you for that .
There are still Qatar J award seats available indeed on my date of departure.
The Qatar flight leaves quite late and I have an early departure next am from GRU.
As you say, there are still some business class flights in SA but rapidly converting to PE.
I will be flying Iguasso Falls to AEP in Buenos Aires and then onto Sao Paulo that day but only award seats available out of EZE even though there were excellent connecting flights available direct from AEP. There are plenty of PE seats available on the AEP-GRU flights - at least 9 on all flights
I am hoping, on arrival at AEP, to see if I can convince TAM airport staff to change us to the direct AEP-GRU flight if seats are still available.
Otherwise , its a bus ride across Buenos Aires to EZE and go from there.

 

[vetrade]

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

Am i correct in booking all these sectors separately as they become available, then ring up Qantas to put them all together and refund me excess points and taxes?

Be careful sanne - for a RTW award all your flights need to be on the one booking (i.e. have the same PNR or booking number). That means you can't make several online bookings and then ring and ask for them to be combined into one booking. You can only do the initial booking online (this can be more than one flight). After that you need to make all additions to that booking over the phone (and pay the 3500 ppp fee). Your initial (online) booking will just be a standard classic award and as you add flights and pass the 280k points limit it will automatically convert to a OW RTW award booking

 

[adelee]

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

LHR to LAX BA transit
LAX to BNE QF finish

Is there a particular reason you're flying home from Europe via a transit in LAX? Both BA and QF have significantly high taxes, and suggest you'd need to pounce on any LAX-BNE awards pretty quickly, as they are very popular. Looking at heading home with Air Berlin, CX might save you some $$

 

[Aus ATC]

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

This is the first time I have ever thought about planning a RTW J booking 280,000 points.

Please excuse my ignorance, I have read some of the posts and also did a dummy run in One World. I would welcome confirmation that what I wish to book is OK and also the way to book it.

BNE to HKG CX transit
HKG to LHR CX stopover
LHR to BCN BA stop
BCN to Venice surface sector
Venice to LHR BA stop
LHR to LAX BA transit
LAX to BNE QF finish

Am i correct in booking all these sectors separately as they become available, then ring up Qantas to put them all together and refund me excess points and taxes?

Thank you very much for any help with this. It feels a bit daunting at the moment but it will save me a lot of points as I will need 2 J tickets and to do this as a return BNE/LHR with the side trips into Europe it will be 330,000.

I don't believe you can have 2 stopovers in LHR and remain eligible for the 280k points booking. And I understand you can't fudge that by flying VCE-LGW or LCY as they are all part of the same "city" LON.

From the conditions:
14.5.4 (c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary

Maybe choose a destination in the UK other than London to fly to after VCE, and then get the train!

Good luck!

 

[sanne]

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

Thanks to everyone who answered my questions re proposed RTW booking. Lots to think about. Am I correct in thinking that I have to go round the world only in one direction? Can't go to Europe via HK then come back via a different Asian city? I have no reason to go back via the US, just thought I had to.

 

[Meggsy]

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

Thanks to everyone who answered my questions re proposed RTW booking. Lots to think about. Am I correct in thinking that I have to go round the world only in one direction? Can't go to Europe via HK then come back via a different Asian city? I have no reason to go back via the US, just thought I had to.

There is no requirement for one way travel. Provided you do not exceed the amount of miles, transits and stopovers you are free to return through Asia without going through the USA

 

[Danger]

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

Thanks to everyone who answered my questions re proposed RTW booking. Lots to think about. Am I correct in thinking that I have to go round the world only in one direction? Can't go to Europe via HK then come back via a different Asian city? I have no reason to go back via the US, just thought I had to.

There is no requirement for one way travel. Provided you do not exceed the amount of miles, transits and stopovers you are free to return through Asia without going through the USA

Indeed, there's no requirement to actually go round the world.

 

[jacquij70]

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

I've just booked a classic rewards J class - Sydney-Santiago-Madrid-Milan-Hong Kong-Sydney for June 2016. Great for a trip to Spain, south of France and Italy. I was having trouble getting back to Oz on J any way in the world until I started searching with a stopover in Hong Kong. Bonus shopping and eating stop on the way home. If you can spare the extra time, it helps with availability. I couldn't book online, had to call the centre - the CSR was delightful. Booked and ticketed 280K points per person and taxes <$1000.

 

[Nizar]

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

I've just booked a classic rewards J class - Sydney-Santiago-Madrid-Milan-Hong Kong-Sydney for June 2016. Great for a trip to Spain, south of France and Italy. I was having trouble getting back to Oz on J any way in the world until I started searching with a stopover in Hong Kong. Bonus shopping and eating stop on the way home. If you can spare the extra time, it helps with availability. I couldn't book online, had to call the centre - the CSR was delightful. Booked and ticketed 280K points per person and taxes <$1000.

How hard is it to find availability for two in J on the SYD-SCL leg ?
Is it ala SYD-LAX at 10am 353 days out ?

 

[jacquij70]

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

How hard is it to find availability for two in J on the SYD-SCL leg ?
Is it ala SYD-LAX at 10am 353 days out ?

Certainly much better than SYD-LAX - esp if you take the LAN FLIGHT - QF codeshare.

 

[ozflier]

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

How hard is it to find availability for two in J on the SYD-SCL leg ?
Is it ala SYD-LAX at 10am 353 days out ?

It can be done .
I found J award availability better out of AKL-SCL vs SYD-SCL ( either direct or via AKL) - started checking the Expertflyer site round 330 days ahead.
First seat came thru at round 329 days ahead and the second a few weeks later.
I had a lot more trouble getting seats back so we had to return via LAX.
I would have thought that with the new services starting up, seats may be a bit more plentiful now .

 

[ozflier]

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

Hi,

I have noted that many domestic and intra South American services have changed from a business cabin to a premium economy model.

I have tried to help a colleague book a J class OWA including South America but it seems that bookings, on sectors with Y and PE only, can only be made into Y or J awards with no option for PE seats.

I rang QFF to discuss this am but there is an expected wait time of over 60 minutes so I gave up.( Maybe a consequence of yesterdays login problems?)

Any thoughts how to book PE seats if they are in fact available for award use?

 

[vetrade]

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

I'm pretty sure your friend is out of luck, ozflier. OW awards don't make any provision for booking PE even if you're on J award.

 

[ozflier]

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

I'm pretty sure your friend is out of luck, ozflier. OW awards don't make any provision for booking PE even if you're on J award.

Ta for that .
Pity as PE is an option on non OWA awards.