Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[EestiTiger]

Hi team,


How excited am I…


With the amazing advice from all the contributors to this thread, I have been able to piece together a trip I have thought would never be possible. I particularly want to call out the awesome advice from Nizar, snabbu, Jacques Vert, madrooster, drron, vetrade and others I have learnt from. You guys have the most incredible patience...


My trip is in August - September 2017 for two months.


BNE-SYD J QF
SYD-NRT F JL
NRT-LHR F BA STOP
LHR-HEL J BA STOP
HEL-LHR J AY
LHR-JFK F BA STOP
JFK-LAX F AA STOP
LAX-HKG F CX STOP
HKG-BNE J CX


Ended up costing $1327 and 420,000 points. Yes I could have made it cheaper but that was not my priority.


Thanks again to all the contributors on here. See you in the trip report next year

 

[Kerrodt]

Hi team,


How excited am I…


With the amazing advice from all the contributors to this thread, I have been able to piece together a trip I have thought would never be possible. I particularly want to call out the awesome advice from Nizar, snabbu, Jacques Vert, madrooster, drron, vetrade and others I have learnt from. You guys have the most incredible patience...


My trip is in August - September 2017 for two months.


BNE-SYD J QF
SYD-NRT F JL
NRT-LHR F BA STOP
LHR-HEL J BA STOP
HEL-LHR J AY
LHR-JFK F BA STOP
JFK-LAX F AA STOP
LAX-HKG F CX STOP
HKG-BNE J CX


Ended up costing $1327 and 420,000 points. Yes I could have made it cheaper but that was not my priority.


Thanks again to all the contributors on here. See you in the trip report next year

congratulations Ozmatt. That's a really interesting and exciting itinerary. I might use it as a base for my planning.

 

[Kangol]

Nice. Why BA from TYO-LHR? JL unavailable?

I am yet to see a 420k F award with more than 4 *true* long haul F segments. ie. long enough to appreciate the product (say 9-10+ hours).
You can easily get 4 with one or two medium haul (6-7 hour) segments.
Maybe a circle pacific route with a transpac return, but you'd likely have to start outside Australia and take into account positioning, if you are based in Oz.

 

[EestiTiger]

Nice. Why BA from TYO-LHR? JL unavailable?

To tell you the truth I didn't even look. I haven't been on a 787 yet and thought this would be a good chance to basically tick the box

 

[ozflier]

Looks brilliant and taxes not too bad.
Well done.

 

[coyote25]

Nice. Why BA from TYO-LHR? JL unavailable?

I am yet to see a 420k F award with more than 4 *true* long haul F segments. ie. long enough to appreciate the product (say 9-10+ hours).
You can easily get 4 with one or two medium haul (6-7 hour) segments.
Maybe a circle pacific route with a transpac return, but you'd likely have to start outside Australia and take into account positioning, if you are based in Oz.

I wonder what the best possible 420k F Award can be from Australia maximising long haul flights and not caring as much about the destinations?

 

[Kangol]

I wonder what the best possible 420k F Award can be from Australia maximising long haul flights and not caring as much about the destinations?

Creativity is difficult out of Oz - you only have two Asian ports out of Australia (SYD only) with F service and one of them (SYD-SIN) is ~8 hours, which depending on your definition may not be a *real* LH.

SYD-LAX-HKG-LHR-NRT-SYD gets you well under 32k miles and up to four F products (QF, CX, BA and JL) on five proper F segments. Or forego BA by going LHR-HND for JL. There would be room for side trips from those ports.

Or the last leg go TYO-SIN-SYD for <34k miles and get two ~8 hr flights (one J, one F) with the SIN-SYD on BA F.

SYD-LAX-LHR-DOH return is <33k miles and gives you six proper F products with two ~7 hr QR segments.
DOH-LHR on QR A380 F is notoriously difficult to get award seats, too.

 

[melbkate]

Hi could someone tell me please which airlines do not come up on the Qantas site when searching for oneworld awards? I know I've read it somewhere but can't find it. Thanks KAte

 

[Radio8tiv]

Here you go:

QF 353
CX 360
BA 354
QR 361
AA 330
JL 330
RJ 362
AB 359
AY 361
LA 331
JJ 329
UL 361
IB 361
MH 330

Unsure about S7.

Other useful info:

Carriers visible on QFF: QF, CX, BA, AA, QR, IB, RJ, AB, AY, UL, LA, JJ, EK
Carriers NOT visible on QFF: JL, MH, S7
Carriers visible on BAEC: QF, CX, BA, AA, QR, JL, IB, MH, AB, AY, LA, JJ, UL, S7
Carriers NOT visible on BAEC: RJ

Hi could someone tell me please which airlines do not come up on the Qantas site when searching for oneworld awards? I know I've read it somewhere but can't find it. Thanks KAte

hope this helps, however I have noticed I can't find IB on Qantas either, I have been going to BAEC to find it

 

[melbkate]

Thanks so much Radio8tiv - I've seen IB on Qantas actually. Searching one way MAD LIS and have also seen JL but thinking it is only certain routes will give it as an option with AY

 

[fairbasa]

Anyone know much about how AA manage their inventory? Seems so random...

Trying to get flights to/from the US to the Caribbean in August/Sept next year but the availability is just so sporadic. I'm flexible with destination but currently there's no almost no availability short of flying WAY out of the way. I'm looking mainly at CUN, AUA, STT, SXM.

I setup alerts on Expert Flyer, about 6 of them went off at once 2 days ago indicating availability. Checked on BA, sure enough they were there, but weren't showing on QF or AA sites. Ring QF to book, "Sorry, no availability". Wait a day to try again, they're now gone from the BA site...not just one or two, but all the flights I was looking at as though all the inventory has been pulled again.

 

[ozflier]

The end of my OWA business class trip next year involves getting from Tokyo to Brisbane.

There are currently available:

QF HND-SYD in premium economy then SYD-BNE QF J
or
JAL NRT-SYD in premium economy then SYD-BNE QF J

I've tried looking for QF vs JAL prem econ comparisons online but found little helpful.

Any suggestions from colleagues as to which prem econ seat and service is the best?

Needless to say I would prefer the direct NRT-BNE ( J or premex) flight but not on offer.

 

[Radio8tiv]

The end of my OWA business class trip next year involves getting from Tokyo to Brisbane.

There are currently available:

QF HND-SYD in premium economy then SYD-BNE QF J
or
JAL NRT-SYD in premium economy then SYD-BNE QF J

I've tried looking for QF vs JAL prem econ comparisons online but found little helpful.

Any suggestions from colleagues as to which prem econ seat and service is the best?

Needless to say I would prefer the direct NRT-BNE ( J or premex) flight but not on offer.

I just had a look for you at something different and there is availability on the Qantas site for early November flying CX NRT-HKG-BNE in J
Which airport are you flying in to? I thought I read somewhere that going cross city airports counts as a sector, something to consider if your running low on sectors.

 

[ozflier]

I just had a look for you at something different and there is availability on the Qantas site for early November flying CX NRT-HKG-BNE in J
Which airport are you flying in to? I thought I read somewhere that going cross city airports counts as a sector, something to consider if your running low on sectors.

Thank you for that and your advice re using HND and NRT - will count as 2 segments . I should also have been more specific re dates.

I started late doing this booking because my wife needs to go to a meeting in Poland early July 2017. Initially, I had planned to leisurely book award travel for october / november and pick up award seats reasonably easily for appropriate dates.

But that was not going to be although I cannot complain too loudly -as, despite only booking 9 months ahead , I had a fair selection of availability around which to plan -except for the last leg.

So we depart BNE-SYD-JNB mid June eventually ending up at Moscow early July and then to Warsaw ( no OW decent connections at all for the MOW-WAW sector - will have to buy separately ) and onto Tokyo 1 week later.

I looked at stopping at other Asian destinations just to break the homeward journey ( too much hassle ultra long flights especially with connections) but the problem was QF don't fly out of many destinations direct to BNE.

We use QR flights WAW-DOH-HND arriving evening 09-07-2106.

We would like a couple of days in Tokyo prior to flying home .

Hence, I would prefer to fly out of Japan on the 11th or the latest the 12th of July.

I look forward to any suggestions colleagues may have.

 

[Boca68]

Thank you for that and your advice re using HND and NRT - will count as 2 segments . I should also have been more specific re dates.

I started late doing this booking because my wife needs to go to a meeting in Poland early July 2017. Initially, I had planned to leisurely book award travel for october / november and pick up award seats reasonably easily for appropriate dates.

But that was not going to be although I cannot complain too loudly -as, despite only booking 9 months ahead , I had a fair selection of availability around which to plan -except for the last leg.

So we depart BNE-SYD-JNB mid June eventually ending up at Moscow early July and then to Warsaw ( no OW decent connections at all for the MOW-WAW sector - will have to buy separately ) and onto Tokyo 1 week later.

I looked at stopping at other Asian destinations just to break the homeward journey ( too much hassle ultra long flights especially with connections) but the problem was QF don't fly out of many destinations direct to BNE.

We use QR flights WAW-DOH-HND arriving evening 09-07-2106.

We would like a couple of days in Tokyo prior to flying home .

Hence, I would prefer to fly out of Japan on the 11th or the latest the 12th of July.

I look forward to any suggestions colleagues may have.

Yep, I can see plenty of availability from TYO to SYD/MEL or TYO-HKG-SYD/MEL, but BNE for those dates there is so little on offer.

I'd suggest going HND/NRT-HKG-SYD/MEL, then to BNE via a revenue fare. Lots of good CX J and a little F availability and KA (but can't comment on KA's product)

 

[madrooster]

Yep, I can see plenty of availability from TYO to SYD/MEL or TYO-HKG-SYD/MEL, but BNE for those dates there is so little on offer. I'd suggest going HND/NRT-HKG-SYD/MEL, then to BNE via a revenue fare. Lots of good CX J and a little F availability and KA (but can't comment on KA's product)

Are you searching the correct month? There's nothing on CX for July around those dates.

 

[ozflier]

Tokyo-hkg-BNE would be great but they are not showing up round 12-7-2017.

 

[Radio8tiv]

Tokyo-hkg-BNE would be great but they are not showing up round 12-7-2017.

how quick do you want to come home? how many sectors/miles do you have left?
I found all J HND-SIN on JL then SIN-KUL-PER on MH then PER-BNE but will take a few days to get home

 

[ozflier]

how quick do you want to come home? how many sectors/miles do you have left?
I found all J HND-SIN on JL then SIN-KUL-PER on MH then PER-BNE but will take a few days to get home

I have a personal limit of being away from home no more than 4 weeks plus, for my sins, I am committed to work on the 14th July.

I can't get out of Warsaw prior to 9 July and need to be home by the 12th July .

I looked at a one or 2 stop return home from WAW but none round.

Ta for suggestions so far.

 

[Boca68]

Are you searching the correct month? There's nothing on CX for July around those dates.

My apologies, I realise now that I was searching June, not July.

Oddly, June has much more availabilty than July?