Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[VPS]

Great to know. Looking forward to the trip even more now .

You do realise that going back to Y is nigh impossible - Enjoy

 

[Warren Mason]

You do realise that going back to Y is nigh impossible - Enjoy

Going Y is better than not going I will have to find more points otherwise. Had about 700K when I started booking so there should be some left when we finish .

 

[cjd600]

Great to know. Looking forward to the trip even more now .

The business traveller's guide to Cathay Pacific's Hong Kong lounges

 

[Mattg]

I just booked another Oneworld Award for travel next year. 280k points for business class and around $1,750 in taxes. I realise that I could have brought the taxes down a little by using "cheaper" airlines and visiting fewer places, but I was happy with the itinerary overall.

This is the full routing:
FRA-MAD-GRU (stop 1 - São Paulo)
GRU-SCL-SYD-CBR (stop 2 - Canberra)
CBR-SYD-JNB (stop 3 - Johannesburg with surface sector to Windhoek)
WDH-DOH-DEL (stop 4 - Delhi)
DEL-HEL (stop 5 - Helsinki)
HEL-VIE

It took 3 phone calls to get this ticketed but we got there in the end. I was a little annoyed at being charged a 1.2% credit card surcharge when no other payment options were offered. I was also charged a 6,000-point reward booking "assistance fee", even though I was never informed about this charge and, if asked, I would have opted to pay the $70 in cash instead. I wasn't able to book online, so I also think that charging this fee is... questionable.

This trip may well be the "last hoorah" for me and QFF. I now have ~80k points left with them, and I have no plans to earn any more. I love flying Qantas, but their frequent flyer program is totally uncompetitive and, honestly, the United MileagePlus program meets my needs much better these days. Next year, for the first time, I will not bother with earning any more Qantas status credits and will focus on Star Alliance instead. I've also been getting great use out of KrisFlyer (in terms of redemptions). If I return to being loyal to Oneworld, I will seriously consider the British Airways Executive Club program over Qantas Frequent Flyer.

 

[cjd600]

I just booked another Oneworld Award for travel next year. 280k points for business class and around $1,750 in taxes. I realise that I could have brought the taxes down a little by using "cheaper" airlines and visiting fewer places, but I was happy with the itinerary overall.

This is the full routing:
FRA-MAD-GRU (stop 1 - São Paulo)
GRU-SCL-SYD-CBR (stop 2 - Canberra)
CBR-SYD-JNB (stop 3 - Johannesburg with surface sector to Windhoek)
WDH-DOH-DEL (stop 4 - Delhi)
DEL-HEL (stop 5 - Helsinki)
HEL-VIE

It took 3 phone calls to get this ticketed but we got there in the end. I was a little annoyed at being charged a 1.2% credit card surcharge when no other payment options were offered. I was also charged a 6,000-point reward booking "assistance fee", even though I was never informed about this charge and, if asked, I would have opted to pay the $70 in cash instead. I wasn't able to book online, so I also think that charging this fee is... questionable.

This trip may well be the "last hoorah" for me and QFF. I now have ~80k points left with them, and I have no plans to earn any more. I love flying Qantas, but their frequent flyer program is totally uncompetitive and, honestly, the United MileagePlus program meets my needs much better these days. Next year, for the first time, I will not bother with earning any more Qantas status credits and will focus on Star Alliance instead. I've also been getting great use out of KrisFlyer (in terms of redemptions). If I return to being loyal to Oneworld, I will seriously consider the British Airways Executive Club program over Qantas Frequent Flyer.

No assistance charge should be applied on a J award booking?
With about 5 or 6 different chat/phone operators compiling my current 280k, adding or changing flights each time, they have ALL initially tried to apply 8k points pp assistance fee, gets exasperating telling them no, and waiting another 15mins going to confirm that J awards do not get charged this fee....(change fee - yes, assistance fee - no)

 

[Mattg]

No assistance charge should be applied on a J award booking?
With about 5 or 6 different chat/phone operators compiling my current 280k, adding or changing flights each time, they have ALL initially tried to apply 8k points pp assistance fee, gets exasperating telling them no, and waiting another 15mins going to confirm that J awards do not get charged this fee....(change fee - yes, assistance fee - no)

Hmm... should I bother trying to get them to remove the fee? Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

 

[p--and--t]

Hmm... should I bother trying to get them to remove the fee? Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Its my experience that no booking fee was charged for me on two counts...

• if can't be booked on line (any glitch that prevents doing it yourself)
• J award booking

I think it depends on the operator, mine didn't even attempt to levy and said outright there will be no booking fee without prompting.

 

[Mattg]

Its my experience that no booking fee was charged for me on two counts...

• if can't be booked on line (any glitch that prevents doing it yourself)
• J award booking

I think it depends on the operator, mine didn't even attempt to levy and said outright there will be no booking fee without prompting.

Both of the above apply.

The thing I find more annoying is that I was not once informed they would charge the fee. The price I was quoted was 280,000 points. And if they had insisted on charging it, I would have asked to pay it in cash.

 

[cjd600]

Hmm... should I bother trying to get them to remove the fee? Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Probably not worth your time....just annoying that most of them seem unaware of it....I almost expect to need to have the discussion, then added wait time while they confirm it. I’d do it out of principle via chat if it popped up, rather than wait on hold for an hour to get through

 

[ellen10]

During my J x 2 booking I had to call 3 times to add and amend. The first time the operator said she would not even charge the 10000 change fee. The other two times they told me of the change fee but never once did anyone mention the assist fee.
I agree its annoying with mixed messages.

 

[Warren Mason]

During my J x 2 booking I had to call 3 times to add and amend. The first time the operator said she would not even charge the 10000 change fee. The other two times they told me of the change fee but never once did anyone mention the assist fee.
I agree its annoying with mixed messages.

I am very new to this and have started booking my first 280K filght and didn't know about the assist fee. I did a web chat with Qantas on the site and I have to say that didn't help me at all. lol He tried to direct me to the One World site and so I corrected him and sent him the URL for the info on the Qantas site. I got the feeling he knew nothing about the whole oneworld filghts.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated. I have so far booked SYD-ADL-FCO and hope to book our return in Feb LHR-LIS-MAD-DOH-ADL-SYD. All in J class. What fees can I expect to have to hand over to Qantas for doing the additions? Is it better to pay in cash or points?

 

[Captain Halliday]

I am very new to this and have started booking my first 280K filght and didn't know about the assist fee. I did a web chat with Qantas on the site and I have to say that didn't help me at all. lol He tried to direct me to the One World site and so I corrected him and sent him the URL for the info on the Qantas site. I got the feeling he knew nothing about the whole oneworld filghts.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated. I have so far booked SYD-ADL-FCO and hope to book our return in Feb LHR-LIS-MAD-DOH-ADL-SYD. All in J class. What fees can I expect to have to hand over to Qantas for doing the additions? Is it better to pay in cash or points?

If you’re booking in J (business) you should only have to pay two things when adding the extra sectors:
1. The change fee. It’s 5,000 points per person. IIRC
2. Any additional taxes that apply for the sectors you add. This is paid in cash.

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

Edited to correct number of points required for change. Thanks @cjd600

 

[cjd600]

If you’re booking in J (business) you should only have to pay two things when adding the extra sectors:
1. The change fee. It’s 6,000 points per person. IIRC
2. Any additional taxes that apply for the sectors you add. This is paid in cash.

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

1.Change fee is 5k points pp (6k is to cancel).

I am very new to this and have started booking my first 280K filght and didn't know about the assist fee. I did a web chat with Qantas on the site and I have to say that didn't help me at all. lol He tried to direct me to the One World site and so I corrected him and sent him the URL for the info on the Qantas site. I got the feeling he knew nothing about the whole oneworld filghts.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated. I have so far booked SYD-ADL-FCO and hope to book our return in Feb LHR-LIS-MAD-DOH-ADL-SYD. All in J class. What fees can I expect to have to hand over to Qantas for doing the additions? Is it better to pay in cash or points?

When calling just say you want to 'make changes to an existing award booking' and reel off your flights you want to add. Don't mention Oneworld Award etc, Round the World (definitely don't), or you'll likely trigger much confusion. They don't need to know what sort of award it is, as long as you keep within the rules it'll max out at 280k

 

[Warren Mason]

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

Do you have a link to the terms? I had a look and can't find them. Would be nice to be able to give tham a URL to save time while they confirm.

 

[p--and--t]

If you’re booking in J (business) you should only have to pay two things when adding the extra sectors:
1. The change fee. It’s 6,000 points per person. IIRC
2. Any additional taxes that apply for the sectors you add. This is paid in cash.

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

I wasn't charged nor asked for a change fee when I made a change that couldn't be achieved online (i.e. the sector/flights didn't appear in the engine).

 

[Warren Mason]

I wasn't charged nor asked for a change fee when I made a change that couldn't be achieved online (i.e. the sector/flights didn't appear in the engine).

All my flights are available just not bookable at present so I guess I have to pay. Not a problem though as I just about earned enough points from Red Energy and Woolworths this week to cover them .

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Do you have a link to the terms? I had a look and can't find them. Would be nice to be able to give tham a URL to save time while they confirm.

Here you go:
Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

Particularly section 14.5

 

[Captain Halliday]

Do you have a link to the terms? I had a look and can't find them. Would be nice to be able to give tham a URL to save time while they confirm.

Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas
It's the fourth sentence under the sub-heading "service fees":
"Service Fees will not be applied when changing Classic Flight Rewards booked for travel in Business or First class."

 

[Familyman1]

Warren, One other trick you should consider. I noticed that your trip is just to Europe. You could consider having 2 holidays in Europe instead of just one. We have done this before and will be doing it next year as well (one trip in summer and one over Christmas). You just need to stop the first trip in Asia and start the second trip from Asia. In our case, Singapore is our "6 month stopover" and we will just pay for the SIN-BNE & BNE-SIN flights (we used Scoot last time for this). Keeping within the 35,000 miles can be a slight problem but it is do-able. Here is the itinerary I am current half way through booking for 2 in J and 1 in Y:
BNE-HKG(S)-LHR(S, surface)-BGO-HEL-SIN(6 month Stop)-HEL(S)-DUS(S, surface)-FRA-HEL-PVG-HKG-BNE (34,849 mi)

So we will have a month in the UK and Norway in Summer and spend Xmas/New Year in Germany and Austria. Hopefully. I've still got to book the flights home from Europe which could be a problem in January.
Including 6 flights on Finnair seems to be another good trick to keep the fees and taxes down. It requires a stopover in Helsinki and 2 transits. I have been booking these Finnair flights exactly 361 days before I want to fly, soon after they appear at 10am Brisbane time.

 

[p--and--t]

Warren, One other trick you should consider. I noticed that your trip is just to Europe. You could consider having 2 holidays in Europe instead of just one. We have done this before and will be doing it next year as well (one trip in summer and one over Christmas). You just need to stop the first trip in Asia and start the second trip from Asia. In our case, Singapore is our "6 month stopover" and we will just pay for the SIN-BNE & BNE-SIN flights (we used Scoot last time for this). Keeping within the 35,000 miles can be a slight problem but it is do-able. Here is the itinerary I am current half way through booking for 2 in J and 1 in Y:
BNE-HKG(S)-LHR(S, surface)-BGO-HEL-SIN(6 month Stop)-HEL(S)-DUS(S, surface)-FRA-HEL-PVG-HKG-BNE (34,849 mi)

So we will have a month in the UK and Norway in Summer and spend Xmas/New Year in Germany and Austria. Hopefully. I've still got to book the flights home from Europe which could be a problem in January.
Including 6 flights on Finnair seems to be another good trick to keep the fees and taxes down. It requires a stopover in Helsinki and 2 transits. I have been booking these Finnair flights exactly 361 days before I want to fly, soon after they appear at 10am Brisbane time.

Familyman1

Just wondering if there is any reason why you chose the "stopover" as Asia. Why not somewhere in Australia & just pay return fares say Syd-Mel or Bne-Syd in your case.