re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread
Hi all, just signed up here after lurking for a little while
I was hoping for some advice or a sanity check on our plans using the Oneworld Award.
We're either 12 or 18 months out from embarking on a trip, depending on finances. The plan is actually to travel slowly, long term, but seeing we have some QFF points sitting around I began investigating the best use for them and we're now looking at doing a year long RTW trip, then spending a few months in Aus before starting again with a one way fare to SE Asia.
There are four of us, looking at economy, so 560k points (plus possibly some for over the phone bookings/changes). We reckon we'll be able to get enough points by that time, if we take advantage of a few more credit card sign up bonuses.
At this stage, our plan is, very roughly, to fly to Europe, spend around 4 months there, then to Africa for a couple of months, then East Coast USA for a few months and road trip down to the South (Texas?), then South America for a few months. We would be pushing it to keep under 35k miles but I think it should be doable with some jiggling around - we are entirely flexible really, our main criteria is simply to spend two or three months on each continent over that year.
How hard is it likely to be to secure four reward seats for each flight? Bearing in mind that we wouldn't actually have enough points until fairly close to departure date, so couldn't book far ahead. Also, I gather seeing we're looking at doing this over a year, we would have to book the flights and then change some of the dates down the track. Would each change incur another 10k point fee? (4 x 2.5k points). If so, that would add up quite quickly.
Finally - and this might be more a matter of opinion - do you think it makes sense to try and use the points in this way, or is it likely to be too hard / inflexible and might we be better served to use those points down the road as we travel, and stick to our original plans to slow travel starting in SE Asia?
Thanks in advance for any advice. I realise our plans are a fair way down the track, but there's a lot to plan for so working out if we're going to try to start with a RTW trip or not is fairly important in our planning process!