Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Daver6]

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

I am putting together my J bookings for next year and I cannot see any availability for TLV-LHR around 18/4/17 when we wanted to travel. I looked at BA's website which keeps saying sorry our systems are down but even when it is working there is nothing. Qantas is showing flights via Helsinki which we will do as a last resort.

Here are our flights:

MEL-DOH-BCN Qatar
GRX-MAD-TLV Iberia
TLV-LHR BA or Finnair
TXL-JFK AirBerlin
JFK-YVR Cathay
YVR-HKG-MEL Cathay

It should still work if we have to add Helsinki

Passover finishes on 18th April 2017. Suspect that might be why you can't find seats. You don't say how many J seats you need. Earliest I see is 27th April for two J pax.

Another options is RJ via Amman (be prepared to be raped on taxes) or IB via Madrid. Or perhaps from AMM to DOH or another mid-east port and then LHR?

 

[vetrade]

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

I did a search for YVR-MEL and they showed up. The problem is that it is too early for me to book that part, only the JFK-YVR part. Do you think that if I manage to get to YVR, I will find my way home somehow in J? I don't want to book a segment now only to find out that I did something wrong and the final segment is not viable.

Yoyo, if you book the JFK - YVR segment now, you aren't locked into it - you can still change it later if you need to. When I booked that flight there was plenty of 2 x J availability for about 6 weeks after they were released but I'd still recommend you lock it in just in case availability for your dates dries up.

As travelislife said, if you can see awards when searching for YVR - MEL you will almost certainly be able to book them. There's also the possibility of getting home via NRT on JL/AA. When we couldn't wrangle seats home via NRT or HKG we paid for a flight to LAS then got J back from LAX so there are several options. It's the nature of 280K awards that it's a mix of planning and good luck though.

 

[aussiel]

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

Is anyone able to comment on whether seat selections remain valid after re-ticketing? Have a change to my itinerary that I'd like to make, but my platinum status expires shortly, and would still want to keep the seats I've chosen (especially with BA).

 

[vetrade]

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

Is anyone able to comment on whether seat selections remain valid after re-ticketing? Have a change to my itinerary that I'd like to make, but my platinum status expires shortly, and would still want to keep the seats I've chosen (especially with BA).

IME if there are any changes to your itinerary your seat selections go out the door with them. Even a change to departure time is enough to lose your selections - can be quite annoying when prized selections are lost.
For some reason IB seems to be worst - we've had IB bookings on 2 separate 280K RTW rewards mysteriously get cancelled by IB and even though QF reinstated them OK the seat selections were still lost. Same thing happens when IB changes aircraft or departure times too. So I think you had better change your BA flight soon if you want to be able to take advantage of your WP status. Otherwise you'll be like everyone else and have to pay for the privilege of seat selection before T-24.

 

[yoyo]

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

How do I book the seats on the partner airlines? Should I call Qantas and ask them to do it? I thought if we are flying in J, we can get assigned seats in advance.

 

[hutch]

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

How do I book the seats on the partner airlines? Should I call Qantas and ask them to do it? I thought if we are flying in J, we can get assigned seats in advance.

Generally you should be able to manage seat selection on the partner airlines website using your booking reference. If partner uses different booking system, you may need to ring qf to obtain the reference for partner airline. I think I had to do this for American.

I understand that BA still charges for seat selection for business.

 

[Pablo]

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

I haven't been able to to seat selection on IB (have tried QF & IB website and QF call centre). The IB booking number QF has for IB is only 5 letters which then doesn't work. All other carriers (QR, BA, AA, JJ) have worked but not IB

 

[SNW1406]

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

Thanks for that
Also I will be trying to book for 2 of us. Do I just try to book the 2 x J flights SYD - SCL or do I transfer all the points to my account and book together
thanks again
this is a reply to an earlier question just didn't get it in the right place!!!!!!!

 

[vetrade]

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

I haven't been able to to seat selection on IB (have tried QF & IB website and QF call centre). The IB booking number QF has for IB is only 5 letters which then doesn't work. All other carriers (QR, BA, AA, JJ) have worked but not IB

Try logging in to the QR website using your QF booking number. Then go to Manage Booking -> seat selection. Should be able to select your seats on IB there. When you try to save your selections you may get a message along the lines of "seat selection not available" but don't worry about that. Leave it 10 minutes or so and then log into your booking on the QF website - your IB seat selections will probably be there. Ye ha!

Seems crazy that you can select IB seats at QR when you can't on their own web site but I've used that trick several times and it's always worked.

 

[Pablo]

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

Try logging in to the QR website using your QF booking number. Then go to Manage Booking -> seat selection. Should be able to select your seats on IB there. When you try to save your selections you may get a message along the lines of "seat selection not available" but don't worry about that. Leave it 10 minutes or so and then log into your booking on the QF website - your IB seat selections will probably be there. Ye ha!

Seems crazy that you can select IB seats at QR when you can't on their own web site but I've used that trick several times and it's always worked.

thanks vetrade- the other challenge I'm having with seat selection is its saying (esp on QR website) that my QF# is in there twice - once for me and once for my wife. The message is "the same frequent flier number has been entered more than once. Please validate your entries and try again". I think because I've used my points to pay for her flights, my number is coming up in her booking, as well as mine.

Has as anyone else experienced this and found a way to overcome it?

 

[vetrade]

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

thanks vetrade- the other challenge I'm having with seat selection is its saying (esp on QR website) that my QF# is in there twice - once for me and once for my wife. The message is "the same frequent flier number has been entered more than once. Please validate your entries and try again". I think because I've used my points to pay for her flights, my number is coming up in her booking, as well as mine.

Has as anyone else experienced this and found a way to overcome it?

The booking number (PNR) and your QFF number are separate and distinct. Since you are both on the same booking number (as is preferable) you have to differentiate between passengers with your FF numbers. Which account the points came out of shouldn't make any difference. I think your problem is that you have put your own FF number against your wife's name as well as your own when you booked your flights but should have put hers in. That has confused the system because it might think you are trying to sit in 2 seats at the same time.

You won't be able to change that yourself online so you probably need to ring QF and get them to change it for you.

 

[aussiel]

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

IME if there are any changes to your itinerary your seat selections go out the door with them. Even a change to departure time is enough to lose your selections - can be quite annoying when prized selections are lost.
For some reason IB seems to be worst - we've had IB bookings on 2 separate 280K RTW rewards mysteriously get cancelled by IB and even though QF reinstated them OK the seat selections were still lost. Same thing happens when IB changes aircraft or departure times too. So I think you had better change your BA flight soon if you want to be able to take advantage of your WP status. Otherwise you'll be like everyone else and have to pay for the privilege of seat selection before T-24.

Thanks. Just made the change and prior to reticketing the seats have held. Hopefully it gets ticketed today and I can get it all sorted.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

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

As Agent 86 would say: "Missed it by that much...."

I have been putting together a 280K J Itinerary over about 6 months, using the "start & finish in Asia" technique to squeeze in 2 return trips to Europe on the one itinerary.
I was feeling pretty proud with myself that the itinerary calculated out to 34,984 miles in Great Circle Mapper (including the 1 surface sector).
But then the tears...
While I was getting my last 2 sectors booked through QFF, it turned out that the mile calculation method that they use measured the distance as 35,080 miles. A difference of 96 miles, or less than 0.3%. No amount of begging, pleading, whimpering, sobbing would make any difference. Computer said No!
So, as a result of the breach of the distance rule, the itinerary priced out a points difference of about an extra 500,000 points :shock:.
Fortunately I was able to salvage the situation by omitting one short domestic sector (and it's associated surface sector), which brought the miles total down by about 400. So then the itinerary was legal again, and my pulse rate & blood pressure were able to slowly return to normal after a little time and a lot of scotch.

So...Does anyone know of a better tool to use than GCM? i.e. one that exactly matches the Qantas/OneWorld tool?

 

[appaz]

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

using the "start & finish in Asia" technique to squeeze in 2 return trips to Europe on the one itinerary.

Can you please elaborate on this? I'm going to be planning a 280k award shortly and this sounds interesting!

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

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

Buy an unrelated return ticket to/from a suitable SEAsia port - say KUL, SIN, etc.. Then start & end your OWCA itinerary there.
It can be tight for miles... But this allows an Asia-Europe, Europe-MEL, MEL-Europe, Europe-Asia OWCA itinerary.
In my recent case:
External MEL-KUL

Then OWCA:
KUL-DOH-MAD
MAD-DOH-DXB-MEL (no direct DOH-MEL flights available at time of booking...)
MEL-HKG-MXP
MXP-DOH (Stop)
DOH-KUL

External KUL-MEL

Happy flying

 

[appaz]

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

Buy an unrelated return ticket to/from a suitable SEAsia port - say KUL, SIN, etc.. Then start & end your OWCA itinerary there.
It can be tight for miles... But this allows an Asia-Europe, Europe-MEL, MEL-Europe, Europe-Asia OWCA itinerary.
In my recent case:
External MEL-KUL

Then OWCA:
KUL-DOH-MAD
MAD-DOH-DXB-MEL (no direct DOH-MEL flights available at time of booking...)
MEL-HKG-MXP
MXP-DOH (Stop)
DOH-KUL

External KUL-MEL

Happy flying

great idea to turn the ticket into 2 holidays, I thought you had to move around the globe in the same direction?

 

[vetrade]

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

TOOJ, you could try travelmath.com
You'd probably need to put in your itinerary to try it and compare the numbers it spits out to what QF came up with because I don't know if it's more accurate than GCM or not.

 

[travelislife]

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

great idea to turn the ticket into 2 holidays, I thought you had to move around the globe in the same direction?

No it's a common misconception. The rule is a maximum of 35,000 miles, 16 segments, 5 stops. Wherever you want to go.

 

[ejd711]

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

No it's a common misconception. The rule is a maximum of 35,000 miles, 16 segments, 5 stops. Wherever you want to go.

Whilst the most common way to use this is as a RTW, in fact it's just a One World Award rather than a round the world ticket.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

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

TOOJ, you could try travelmath.com
You'd probably need to put in your itinerary to try it and compare the numbers it spits out to what QF came up with because I don't know if it's more accurate than GCM or not.

Thanks for the suggestion vetrade, but TravelMath gives an almost identical answer on my itinerary as GCM. Most legs were the same, a couple of legs were +/- 1 mile, and the biggest difference was 3 miles. All up, over my whole itinerary TravelMath gave an answer 2 miles more than GCM.