Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[yld200]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

Hi Lynnelanne,

There's a whole thread dedicated to this topic in the QFF sub forum - http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ogram/oneworld-award-140k-280k-420k-8228.html

There's a lot of material in there and the main contributors have a lot of knowledge. The basics are, you need 140K/280K/420K for a Economy/Business/First class RTW trip, but you technically don't actually have to go around the world. You'll need to do a lot of planning and book some popular routes as far as a year in advance to get an award seat. You can have up to 5 stop overs and can book on oneworld partners (QF, Cathay, Japan airlines, AA, Iberia, etc.)

I would recommended reading through at least the last 20 pages or so of the above thread to get an idea of what is possible and what is not possible... good luck

 

[Danger]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

We really, really need to merge this thread.

 

[smckay]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

It's not really RTW; we went SYD-HKG-FRA-AMS-LHR-DXB-SYD (non-abbreviated: Sydney to Frankfurt via Hong Kong, then Amsterdam to London and return to Sydney) which were basically 3 'trips' on CX, BA & QF in order of travel.
Few tips: 140K is only economy and 280K is only Business. If you go through the US and take a First Class flight you break the system and the points change. You can go down in rank however, so your Business trip can have premium/economy no probs.

When you search, check all flight classes as sometimes they don't show all flights if you only check one. And be prepared for a LOT of searching, I generally have had to look for a good few days and lots of different flights. Next years trip we are going New York to Hong Kong to get to Sydney as miserable Qantas don't give up rewards flights easy.

 

[Lynnelanne]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

Oh wow, a treasure trove of information. Sorry I don't know how I missed this thread. I'm about to start reading. Thanks all.

 

[por930]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

I have noticed when you use the One World planer, it forces you to go RTW. Is this just a quirk of the planer and have to book through say the Qantas desk to utilise the 280k point deal. We are going BNE-DXB-ZUR-BRU-DXB-BNE, and did not really want to spend a few days traveling across the states just to return home.

I have noticed I can jump on the QF site and with a bit of date juggling book the flights in J for June next year using award points,($2500 tax etc)but the A380 is not offered, only the 777 and some very early flights and the points are about 320k each.

Ged

 

[madrooster]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

I have noticed when you use the One World planer, it forces you to go RTW. Is this just a quirk of the planer and have to book through say the Qantas desk to utilise the 280k point deal. We are going BNE-DXB-ZUR-BRU-DXB-BNE, and did not really want to spend a few days traveling across the states just to return home.

You can't use EK in a 280k award.

 

[Cynicor]

I have noticed when you use the One World planer, it forces you to go RTW. Is this just a quirk of the planer and have to book through say the Qantas desk to utilise the 280k point deal. We are going BNE-DXB-ZUR-BRU-DXB-BNE, and did not really want to spend a few days traveling across the states just to return home.

I have noticed I can jump on the QF site and with a bit of date juggling book the flights in J for June next year using award points,($2500 tax etc)but the A380 is not offered, only the 777 and some very early flights and the points are about 320k each.

Ged

That's because the planner has nothing to do with this award.

This award is not a RTW, and cannot be found on the OW sites. You cannot plan this award with any online tools except the buggy multi city engine on QF's site. And this doesn't show a good proportion of the partner airlines.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

I have noticed when you use the One World planer, it forces you to go RTW. Is this just a quirk of the planer and have to book through say the Qantas desk to utilise the 280k point deal. We are going BNE-DXB-ZUR-BRU-DXB-BNE, and did not really want to spend a few days traveling across the states just to return home.

I have noticed I can jump on the QF site and with a bit of date juggling book the flights in J for June next year using award points,($2500 tax etc)but the A380 is not offered, only the 777 and some very early flights and the points are about 320k each.

Ged

You can't use EK in a 280k award.

What madrooster says.
Anything with EK flights will not price as a 280K Award.

 

[flapper]

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

GC_Engineer
OOL - xMEL - HBA (Stop 1)
HBA - xMEL - BNE (Stop 2)
BNE - xSYD - xDOH - ATH (Stop 3)
FCO - xHEL - JFK (Stop 4)
YYZ - xJFK - YVR (Stop 5)
YVR - xNRT - xSYD - BNE

Not sure if anyone else has solved this but a land segment is considered a stop.
So FCO is also a stop as you depart from there.
As you now have 6 stops you can't book this fare.
There could also be a problem with the difference between OOL & BNE.

 

[JohnM]

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

OOL - xMEL - HBA (Stop 1)
HBA - xMEL - BNE (Stop 2)
BNE - xSYD - xDOH - ATH (Stop 3)
FCO - xHEL - JFK (Stop 4)
YYZ - xJFK - YVR (Stop 5)
YVR - xNRT - xSYD - BNE

Not sure if anyone else has solved this but a land segment is considered a stop.
So FCO is also a stop as you depart from there.
As you now have 6 stops you can't book this fare.
There could also be a problem with the difference between OOL & BNE.

Even LHR/LGW arrive/depart or vice-versa, and similar multi-airport cities, creates this problem.

It is also a potential problem for building XONEx itineraries fares. There was a time when it did not matter in some places - such as London, but no longer. Can be a PITA.

 

[vetrade]

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

GC_Engineer
OOL - xMEL - HBA (Stop 1)
HBA - xMEL - BNE (Stop 2)
BNE - xSYD - xDOH - ATH (Stop 3)
FCO - xHEL - JFK (Stop 4)
YYZ - xJFK - YVR (Stop 5)
YVR - xNRT - xSYD - BNE

Not sure if anyone else has solved this but a land segment is considered a stop.
So FCO is also a stop as you depart from there.
As you now have 6 stops you can't book this fare.
There could also be a problem with the difference between OOL & BNE.

That's not correct. A land leg is counted as one flight segment and the direct line distance has to be included in the 35,000 mile maximum but it isn't counted as a stopover. In the example ATH is the stopover city and the next stopover is JFK. FCO definitely not a stopover.
In what way could there be a problem with OOL / BNE? They are separate cities.

FWIW this fact can work in our favour. If you have a land leg you effectively have a stopover in both the city of arrival and the city of departure but it counts as only a stopover in the city of arrival. Last April /May we had 8 stopovers on a 280K RTW award by exploiting this fact - we combined stops in JNB & CPT, YVR & YYC and LAS by buying one way tickets between them.

 

[JohnM]

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

Oops, I misread it as being a sector, not a stop.

 

[por930]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

What madrooster says.
Anything with EK flights will not price as a 280K Award.

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I see where I have mixed the systems and carriers. I have wondered about the three award search engines below that were mentioned in the Australian Frequent Flyer Award publication. Have you had any luck using them? or easier to plague the QF people with a set of dates and places?

KVS Availability Tool
Award Nexus
Expert Flyer

 

[creeno]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

I managed to construct my trip using a combination of:

* QF Site
* BA site (signed up with a dummy UK address)
* AA site (already had an account)

And came up with:

SYD-DOH-VCE (QR)
DUS-JFK (AB)
JFK-LAX (QF - but will likely change to an AA flight later on)
LAX-HKG (CX)
HKG-SYD (QF)

2 x J class seats in June/July 2016. Booked 2 weeks ago. Very limited availability but with a lot of juggling and flexibility, have made it work, and am so chuffed. Taxes $720 each. Couldn't have done it without the amazing wealth of information in this thread. Always grateful to the AFF community! Thank you

 

[FrankC]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

I managed to construct my trip using a combination of:

* QF Site
* BA site (signed up with a dummy UK address)
* AA site (already had an account)

And came up with:

SYD-DOH-VCE (QR)
DUS-JFK (AB)
JFK-LAX (QF - but will likely change to an AA flight later on)
LAX-HKG (CX)
HKG-SYD (QF)

2 x J class seats in June/July 2016. Booked 2 weeks ago. Very limited availability but with a lot of juggling and flexibility, have made it work, and am so chuffed. Taxes $720 each. Couldn't have done it without the amazing wealth of information in this thread. Always grateful to the AFF community! Thank you

Didn't realise you can get JFK-LAX on QF without using LAX-Australia on QF

 

[creeno]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

Neither did I! Whilst booking the ticket over the phone, the QF agent dug around and found it....

 

[hutch]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

Neither did I! Whilst booking the ticket over the phone, the QF agent dug around and found it....

It just needs to be part of an international ticket

 

[hutch]

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

That's not correct. A land leg is counted as one flight segment and the direct line distance has to be included in the 35,000 mile maximum but it isn't counted as a stopover. In the example ATH is the stopover city and the next stopover is JFK. FCO definitely not a stopover.
In what way could there be a problem with OOL / BNE? They are separate cities.

FWIW this fact can work in our favour. If you have a land leg you effectively have a stopover in both the city of arrival and the city of departure but it counts as only a stopover in the city of arrival. Last April /May we had 8 stopovers on a 280K RTW award by exploiting this fact - we combined stops in JNB & CPT, YVR & YYC and LAS by buying one way tickets between them.

What vetrade said +1

FWIW, as noted earlier in thread, I've booked:
SYD - HKG (stop 1)
HKG - JFK (stop 2)
JFK - LHR (stop 3)
FRA x DOH -JNB (stop 4)
JNB - DOH (stop 5)
DOH x SIN - SYD

Was booked a month ago and the LHR-FRA surface segment definitely did not count as a 6th stopover.

 

[andye]

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

Just seen on Head for Points that IB are introducing a three times a week MAD-JNB service that will have lower taxes than BA's LHR-JNB

 

[Princess Fiona]

Re: 280K One world around world - please explain

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I see where I have mixed the systems and carriers. I have wondered about the three award search engines below that were mentioned in the Australian Frequent Flyer Award publication. Have you had any luck using them? or easier to plague the QF people with a set of dates and places?

KVS Availability Tool
Award Nexus
Expert Flyer

It's much easier and quicker to search for the awards yourself and feed them to the QF agent.
If you want to pay for those sites then yes they are excellent. Note that KVS isn't Mac friendly at all.
My favourite of the three is Award Nexus and I set up automatic searches on it. I'm time poor and prefer the quick searching and results I get from Award Nexus. I also have the other two but use Expert Flyer mainly for seat alerts, seat maps and upgrade chances and I've never really got to grips with KVS Tool as its way too geeky looking as well as Mac unfriendly.
All of the functionality of these paid sites regarding award searches is available free. All they do is trawl existing award searches on multiple carriers.
Free searches for One World airlines can be done most effectively via BA and Asia Miles IME.