Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[p--and--t]

Does anyone have any hints on the best way to get lounge access at LAX without status? We have two stopovers (4hrs45 and 3hrs15) and despite flying on AA first we don't seem to get lounge access as they are domestic flights.

If you hold a Diners Club card, depending on time of day, you can use the KAL or VA lounge in TB-Int regardless of carrier or class.

 

[kylebb]

Looking back into MEL-SCL to start my RTW booking for July next year and it seems i have two options

MEL-AKL-SCL with the AKL-SCL leg in LATAM economy
MEL-SYD-SCL with the SYD-SCL leg in Qantas premium economy

The latter would probably be preferable but for some reason Qantas is giving me weird routes for this leg (MEL-ADL-SYD-SCL) with the MEL-ADL leg the night before, despite plenty of availability on the MEL-SYD flights that morning. This seems really strange (married segment issue?) and the qantas rep I talked to on chat wasn't entirely helpful

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Looking back into MEL-SCL to start my RTW booking for July next year and it seems i have two options

MEL-AKL-SCL with the AKL-SCL leg in LATAM economy
MEL-SYD-SCL with the SYD-SCL leg in Qantas premium economy

The latter would probably be preferable but for some reason Qantas is giving me weird routes for this leg (MEL-ADL-SYD-SCL) with the MEL-ADL leg the night before, despite plenty of availability on the MEL-SYD flights that morning. This seems really strange (married segment issue?) and the qantas rep I talked to on chat wasn't entirely helpful

Won't help if you want to maximise your flights either as would mean 4 already used. I would try calling again and hopefully getting someone more knowledgeable and helpful

 

[Aussiejosh]

Looking back into MEL-SCL to start my RTW booking for July next year and it seems i have two options

MEL-AKL-SCL with the AKL-SCL leg in LATAM economy
MEL-SYD-SCL with the SYD-SCL leg in Qantas premium economy

The latter would probably be preferable but for some reason Qantas is giving me weird routes for this leg (MEL-ADL-SYD-SCL) with the MEL-ADL leg the night before, despite plenty of availability on the MEL-SYD flights that morning. This seems really strange (married segment issue?) and the qantas rep I talked to on chat wasn't entirely helpful

Have you tried a multi city search and doing legs individually?

 

[exceladdict]

Does anyone have experience with fuel charges if POS (and original departure) is from Singapore? Trying to work out an itinerary with a couple of breaks back home in Perth.

 

[OzziTravellers]

Hi everyone - have done a couple of Economy class versions of this over the years, but looking to do a Business one in the next 18-24 months. Itineraries in the past have not been overly complex, but I just tried to put one through the oneworld engine to check validity of flights for itinerary planning purposes and I'm getting a message "235: You have too many sectors within Europe Middle East region. Check the flight allowances and adjust your itinerary".

My attempted Itinerary was (dates don't matter at this point as it's not a real booking):
MEL - SFO (stopover #1 - 1 sector with direct QF flight)
SFO - MIA - surface sector
MIA - IVL (stopover #2 - 2 sectors AA/AY)
IVL - FCO (stopover #3 - 2 sectors AY)
FCO - AMM (stopover #4 - 1 sector RJ)
AMM - NBO (stopover #5 - 2 sectors RJ/QTR)
NBO - DAR - surface sector
DAR - MEL - 3 sectors QTR as likely via Perth

So by my count this should be 13 sectors (within the 16), 5 stopovers as allowed, transit through Helsinki and Doha twice and the miles are 33020 so I think this itinerary is feasible from the perspective of the primary rules.

So a couple of questions (as a few years since I've done this):

• Is this too many Europe/ME rule applicable to the OneWorld Classic Award?
• Are changes to a business booking now charged points - as I thought previously you could book the first online and add the others via the contact centre and not be charged change fees being a J class fare?
• I saw another post suggesting a Zanzibar departure - this airport is on the Oneworld Interactive Network Map, but isn't on the OneWorld itinerary tool - is this a possible departure point instead of Dar Es Salaam?

Thanks all in advance.

 

[cjd600]

Re points to change a J ticket, you are charged 5k points per person per call - you can make multiple changes on the same call for the one charge. The telephone assistance points fee is waived for J tickets......the actual change fee still applies

 

[Captain Halliday]

Does anyone have experience with fuel charges if POS (and original departure) is from Singapore? Trying to work out an itinerary with a couple of breaks back home in Perth.

Significantly cheaper than ex.AU.

There’s some detail in the wiki, but as a rough guide my first OWA which was 33,996 miles was broken down by a TA who estimated the fuel fines to be several hundred dollars cheaper ex. SIN.

 

[Jacques Vert]

235: You have too many sectors within Europe Middle East region. Check the flight allowances and adjust your itinerary".

Have you tried putting it into the QF multi-city tool using dummy dates?

 

[geoffshaw]

If you use the oneworld page it uses the rules for the paid RTW ticket. The award rules are different.

 

[exceladdict]

Significantly cheaper than ex.AU.

There’s some detail in the wiki, but as a rough guide my first OWA which was 33,996 miles was broken down by a TA who estimated the fuel fines to be several hundred dollars cheaper ex. SIN.

Thanks, that's good news. I'm currently finding it easier to get flights back to AUS via SIN than DPS or HKG at the moment. Seems to be significantly less direct to HKG unless in a married segment. Will post what I end up finding.

 

[OzziTravellers]

235: You have too many sectors within Europe Middle East region. Check the flight allowances and adjust your itinerary".

Have you tried putting it into the QF multi-city tool using dummy dates?

I did but IVL wasn’t available in the QF tool so tried HEL instead and couldn’t get it to click over to the 280k at any point just kept adding points up to 492k.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

I did but IVL wasn’t available in the QF tool so tried HEL instead and couldn’t get it to click over to the 280k at any point just kept adding points up to 492k.

How about posting exactly what you tried using the QF Multi City Tool

 

[Jacques Vert]

I did but IVL wasn’t available in the QF tool so tried HEL instead and couldn’t get it to click over to the 280k at any point just kept adding points up to 492k.

Works for me when I put it into the Multi-city tool using HEL instead of IVL and last segment DAR-DOH-KUL-MEL.

Were any of your transits more than 24 hours?

GCMap calculates 32,948 miles on my itinerary; did you check whether the connections in the itinerary you searched stayed under 35,000 miles?

 

[p--and--t]

Re points to change a J ticket, you are charged 5k points per person per call - you can make multiple changes on the same call for the one charge. The telephone assistance points fee is waived for J tickets......the actual change fee still applies

Well yes and no. Depends on the operator and also depends on whether the change is bookable on the website engine.

I booked my initial itinerary through the operator and pointed out the JL seat I wanted appeared on JL and BA but not on QF. No fee

I changed my itinerary later adding 2 more sectors in the middle and pointed out the airport I wanted to fly into comes up as no such destination on the QF site but I could see it on AA and BA. No fee.

If you attempt online a legitimate itinerary and the QF site errors on you, then you are within your rights to request no assistance fee.

 

[cjd600]

Well yes and no. Depends on the operator and also depends on whether the change is bookable on the website engine.

I booked my initial itinerary through the operator and pointed out the JL seat I wanted appeared on JL and BA but not on QF. No fee

I changed my itinerary later adding 2 more sectors in the middle and pointed out the airport I wanted to fly into comes up as no such destination on the QF site but I could see it on AA and BA. No fee.

If you attempt online a legitimate itinerary and the QF site errors on you, then you are within your rights to request no assistance fee.

The point, in response to a specific question was that a J award fare is not automatically exempt from the change fee, but it is for the assistance fee.
Its quite well known that the assistance fee can be waived for any travel class if the change cannot be made online due to error. Additions to existing oneworld award fares can't be actioned online regardless, and I'd be surprised if you avoided a change fee in this instance.. You don't mention which class of travel your example refers,at any rate

 

[OzziTravellers]

Works for me when I put it into the Multi-city tool using HEL instead of IVL and last segment DAR-DOH-KUL-MEL.

Were any of your transits more than 24 hours?

GCMap calculates 32,948 miles on my itinerary; did you check whether the connections in the itinerary you searched stayed under 35,000 miles?

Thanks Jacques - I did it again a couple of times and got it to show the 280k - I must have either inadvertently selected a non-partner (Emirates) or gone over the 35k miles, or actually now I think about it I wonder if there was a 3rd transit spot through London. Thanks for the tips.

 

[jboy90]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to do my first around the world trip in J and wanted to confirm my thoughts. I'm looking at something simple like:
>AUS to LHR on CX
>LHR to somewhere in Europe on BA or Finnair
>Potentially an internal flight or two within Europe
>Europe to AUS on CX (or Japan Airlines)

I was hoping to book the first set of flights, and then call Qantas when seats are available for the return Europe to AUS route. Questions:
>One of my aims for this strategy is so I can get my LHR to Europe flight on BA in J, but have it linked to my AUS to LHR flights so I get through checkin (even though this is possible with the CX oneworld interline rules). Will my strategy work in this regard?
>What are the costs of me calling Qantas and having the additional flights added to my existing AUS to LHR booking? I understand there are no fees for J reward changes made by phone? Obviously there will be the additional points to get me to the 280,000 total, plus the additional taxes.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to do my first around the world trip in J and wanted to confirm my thoughts. I'm looking at something simple like:
>AUS to LHR on CX
>LHR to somewhere in Europe on BA or Finnair
>Potentially an internal flight or two within Europe
>Europe to AUS on CX (or Japan Airlines)

I was hoping to book the first set of flights, and then call Qantas when seats are available for the return Europe to AUS route. Questions:
>One of my aims for this strategy is so I can get my LHR to Europe flight on BA in J, but have it linked to my AUS to LHR flights so I get through checkin (even though this is possible with the CX oneworld interline rules). Will my strategy work in this regard?
>What are the costs of me calling Qantas and having the additional flights added to my existing AUS to LHR booking? I understand there are no fees for J reward changes made by phone? Obviously there will be the additional points to get me to the 280,000 total, plus the additional taxes.

Thanks in advance!

There is a change fee of 5,000 points per person.

 

[Danger]

I'm aware that you can't make routing changes after the first flight but is it possible to make date, time, carrier and class (e.g. J becomes available when all you could get at booking is Y) possible after first departure?