Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[flychrisfly]

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

WOW - what an awesome thread, have just spent the past few weeks reading it over and over so I make sure I understand. I'm so excited as I have saved (and begged and borrowed) enough points for 2xJ awards. I have long service leave coming up in January next year and am planning on taking 10 weeks off to go and travel.

I'd love to hear any advice anyone has on itineraries. SWMBO has listed an extensive list of countries and I know I wont get to all of them on the one ticket. I noticed this particularly good routing in a previous post SYD-SCL-MEX-ORD-xJFK-BCN-xHEL-BKK-SYD, i.e. get to see South America, North America, Europe & Asia. I guess my question is - how could we optimise this under the rules?

SWMBO is keen to see:
- Machu Pichu
- Ski somewhere in Canada
- Go sailing in Croatia
- Historical "stuff" in Europe
- A bit of a beach holiday in Asia

Thanks for any assistance!

Well, you've got 5 stops of over 24 hours to use. So I'd say Machu Picchu, Canada, land in Europe then train around or use budget airlines - you can leave from a different city, then stop at your Asian beach destination, then home. That still leaves one stop if you wanted to use it to cross Europe or stop off in another destination.

Good luck!

 

[dalereardon]

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

Hi,

I plan to book one of these 280K awards as well and while searching after reading this forum I came across:

InsideFlyer.com: Award Search Strategies

It has some great advice on searching and finding the award flights. Also if you want a complex itinerary then it also recommends some services who will find the award flights for you which sounds a great idea for us beginners with the tools.

Hope it helps,

Dale.

 

[BigDerek]

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

Hi.

We (family of 3) are planning a 4-week driving tour of Europe (France, Spain, Italy, England), a week in Uganda and a few days in Thailand (to get over jetlag) before returning to Melbourne, later this year. We have plenty of flexibility in where we pick up and return the car in Europe. So what I'm trying to do now is minimise the taxes and surcharges. The best I've done so far is just under $1600 each.

"Somewhere" I've seen some guidelines on minimising fees but I can't find anything now. Can anyone point me in the right direction? eg. I believe that fees are huge for London stopovers but less for transfers through London (and same for Paris, Rome, etc), so the savings for 3 might justify the short extra flights.

Our complication is that Uganda requires us to fly to & from London on BA. If we convert those flights to go from somewhere else in Europe then London becomes a transit, so hopefully lower fees. BUt you can only transit a city twice (and stopover in a city twice) on the 140K. So we would still have to get in & out of Europe without using London (to avoid stopovers) and I'm not sure how many options we have there, apart from Paris via Asia.

So does anyone have suggestions for best ways to get in & out of Europe, and to get to & from Uganda?

Very keen to get our bookings ASAP.

Thanks!!!

 

[aikman]

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

There are plenty of options to get to Europe without going to London. Take Malaysian, Qantas or Cathay to SIN/KUL/BKK/HKG. Then connect to Malaysian, Cathay, Finnair or Royal Jordanian to various cities in Europe. On your way home you can even take Air Berlin from Germany to coughet.

The fuel surcharge alone on LHR-EBB is $160 pp. A paid one way ticket from DXB-EBB is around $310. You could stopover in Dubai on your oneworld award, fly on a separate paid ticket to Uganda, and continue on your oneworld award by flying BA to London. It won’t save you money overall but for just an extra $150, it will shorten your overall flying time and free up some miles on your oneworld award to redirect to another destination.

 

[BigDerek]

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

Thanks aikman. Our budget has taken a hit lately and we're not looking for extra destinations as they'd eat into our time elsewhere, but thanks nonetheless. I hadn't really thought of breaking the trip to Europe into two parts, which was why it seemed allflights went through London, but your suggestion makes obvious sense. If we stopover in Asia, then direct flights into other countries open up all over the place. Thank-you.

Now does anyone know a good link/site which gives tips or examples on juggling flights to reduce taxes and surcharges?

 

[travelislife]

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

BigDerek, aikman isn't suggesting any more stops or destinations just providing an efficient way to go where you want to go. You could potentially go SYD-DXB buy separate one way DXB-EBB then have your one week in Uganda, then fly EBB-LHR on your Oneworld award, can add a few flights in Europe if you like and then you could fly something like CX through HKG to BKK or finair HEL-BKK or the air Berlin direct to HKT. Then you fly on to Australia, the idea behind this is you don't have to fly out of LHR at all if you don't wang to.

 

[moa999]

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

Any thoughts on how Emirates will play once the ACCC approves the deal and Classic Emirates awards are added to the mix??

 

[bismarck]

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

Thanks to all the advice here, SWMBO and I have booked two whY seats SYD-JFK-GRU-BCN-LHR-MEL-SYD for the bargain price of 280,000 points around Christmas this year.

Very grateful to all here for the advice. Probably should have gotten onto this earlier as regrettably (or maybe not) our initial 3.5 week trip to Brazil and back has now blown out to a 5.5 week trip to New York, Brazil and Spain!

 

[FrankC]

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

Thanks to all the advice here, SWMBO and I have booked two whY seats SYD-JFK-GRU-BCN-LHR-MEL-SYD for the bargain price of 280,000 points around Christmas this year.

Very grateful to all here for the advice. Probably should have gotten onto this earlier as regrettably (or maybe not) our initial 3.5 week trip to Brazil and back has now blown out to a 5.5 week trip to New York, Brazil and Spain!

Do you mind sharing details on tax/ surcharges?

Cheers

 

[bismarck]

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

Got hit with taxes....$1048 per person (but frankly, better than $3200 which was the cheapest direct flight we could find from Sydney to Brazil) and we get to go spend time in New York and Barcelona (which SWMBO has been asking for for years)

 

[BillW]

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

On the topic of taxes, I have some queries about LHR. I believe I know most of the answers but just confirming.
- Taxes apply to departures and not arrivals?
- Transitting LHR does not count as an arrival or departure?
- What counts as transitting? Can you catch the tube into London, for example, between flights if there is time?
- Can you freshen up while transitting at any LHR terminals? Shower, for example?
- Are other British departure points, such as LGW or MAN still more costly than, say, Paris?
- I have had good experiences at CDG. I know others have not. I found them very low key compared to the UK's officiousness. What are other people's recommendations of efficient but lower cost departure points within western Europe?
Bill

 

[simongr]

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

My best answers below

- Taxes apply to departures and not arrivals? - Yes
- Transitting LHR does not count as an arrival or departure? Yes
- What counts as transitting? Can you catch the tube into London, for example, between flights if there is time? Less than 24 hours I think
- Can you freshen up while transitting at any LHR terminals? Shower, for example? If you have access to a lounge with a shower then yes.
- Are other British departure points, such as LGW or MAN still more costly than, say, Paris? APD is payable ex-any UK airport

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

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

My best answers below

- Taxes apply to departures and not arrivals? - Yes
- Transitting LHR does not count as an arrival or departure? Yes
- What counts as transitting? Can you catch the tube into London, for example, between flights if there is time? Less than 24 hours I think
- Can you freshen up while transitting at any LHR terminals? Shower, for example? If you have access to a lounge with a shower then yes.
- Are other British departure points, such as LGW or MAN still more costly than, say, Paris? APD is payable ex-any UK airport

I was under the impression LHR had a passenger movement charge (or similar) that applies to arrivals also, but am I wrong on that one?

 

[DC3]

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

I was under the impression LHR had a passenger movement charge (or similar) that applies to arrivals also, but am I wrong on that one?

I hope that you're wrong. It would be a bit rich to hit transiting passengers (< 24 hours between flights) with that fee.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

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

I hope that you're wrong. It would be a bit rich to hit transiting passengers (< 24 hours between flights) with that fee.

Not for transit passengers, only arrivals to the UK. But as I said, I may be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time

 

[Flashback]

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

Not for transit passengers, only arrivals to the UK. But as I said, I may be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time

No, I'm sure you're right. That's my understanding of it also.

 

[serfty]

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

There is a "United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge" of €29.95 from continental Europe for International transfers (e.g. AMS-xLHR-SIN), but it's not as a significant factor as the APD at up to £184.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

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

There is a "United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge" of €29.95 from continental Europe for International transfers (e.g. AMS-xLHR-SIN), but it's not as a significant factor as the APD at up to £184.

Thanks serfty, what about inbound from AU/SIN/HKG/DXB?

 

[serfty]

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

Thanks serfty, what about inbound from AU/SIN/HKG/DXB?

SIN-xLHR-AMS:

United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge (UB)   AUD17.40/SGD21.50/HKD2/AUD70

All booked on BA, using Matrix/ITA to evaulate.

 

[Formal Hall]

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

My best answers below

- Are other British departure points, such as LGW or MAN still more costly than, say, Paris? APD is payable ex-any UK airport

This is very much a minor detail, but APD is not payable on long-haul departures from Northern Ireland (alas there are no oneworld flights that fit this criteria).

More usefully, Dublin may prove cheaper as a departure point.