Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Danger]

I've been planning on booking a OWA 280K fare in J for some time now... however, reading these posts, it seems like a *lot* of work and has potential to shave years off of ones life to align everything.

I'm wondering - are the OWA 420K F fares easier to book? Is there more availability? Is it worth spending the extra 140k points for the added convenience and *some* legs in F - assuming not all routes would have F carriage available.... and thus would be relegated to J for those anyway?

I think you'll end up with the same loss of years in life, possibly more loss given far fewer rates with F which means, as you noted, you'll end up in J and therefore the problem of finding seats remains the same. If you do for the F option I would be looking to maximise that as much as possible by focusing your cities where F is served. Remember a number of oneworld airlines don't even have F. Even Qatar only offers true F on its A380s and the only upside of F on its short-haul is access to Al Safwa. I'd be aiming to make it a true round the world itinerary (which, just to be clear again, this award does not require) to get the most value.

 

[flychrisfly]

Interesting, maybe it's a dates issue. Thanks for checking. We've canned the idea of doing Greece first up, so our draft itinerary is looking a bit different:

MEL-PER-LHR (QF)
LHR-MAD (Surface sector encompassing UK, Iceland, Scandinavia, Greece, Italy, France and Spain)
MAD-JFK-YYZ (IB, AA) or MAD-LHR-YYZ (BA)
YYZ-YVR (No OW routes as far as I can tell, might have to make it YYZ-ORD-SEA)
YVR-LAX (Surface sector down the US west coast)
LAX-SCL-PUQ (LAN)
PUQ-SCL-MEL (LAN)

To the best of my knowledge that's 4 stopovers and 33,893 statute miles.

This is the dream - it'll be interesting to see how the reality pans out!
I count 4 stops including the last stop at home - that is, 3 stopovers, so you have a couple to play with. Using them to get to/from Iceland might be an option...
Also, years ago I flew YVR-YYZ on points and ended up going via DFW... Like I said - it'll be interesting to see what how the reality turns out.

 

[wentworthmeister]

I count 4 stops including the last stop at home - that is, 3 stopovers, so you have a couple to play with.

I'm pretty sure it's 4 stopovers (5 if the flight home counts as one)?

MEL-PER-LHR (QF) #1 - London, UK & Europe
LHR-MAD (Surface sector encompassing UK, Iceland, Scandinavia, Greece, Italy, France and Spain)
MAD-JFK-YYZ (IB, AA) or MAD-LHR-YYZ (BA) #2 - Toronto & NE USA
YYZ-YVR #3 - Vancouver, BC and PNW USA
YVR-LAX (Surface sector down the US west coast)
LAX-SCL-PUQ (LAN) #4 - Patagonia
PUQ-SCL-MEL (LAN) #5(?) - Home

 

[rock86]

MEL-PER-LHR (QF)

I think you'll be looking for a different way to London, as I didn't think QF was releasing premium award inventory for QF9.

 

[wentworthmeister]

I think you'll be looking for a different way to London, as I didn't think QF was releasing premium award inventory for QF9.

The last time I checked there were plenty of award seats available on QF9 around the dates we were looking. Note that we're only going in Economy, not Business.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

I'm pretty sure it's 4 stopovers (5 if the flight home counts as one)?

You’ll be pleased to know that the landing at “home airport / itinerary commencement point” is NOT counted as a stopover (thankfully ...)

 

[wentworthmeister]

You’ll be pleased to know that the landing at “home airport / itinerary commencement point” is NOT counted as a stopover (thankfully ...)

I was fairly sure that was the case. Our issue is that while I'd like to utilise the remaining stopover, we're already right up against the miles limit (~34,000), and adding any further sectors (e.g. even a short hop like EDI-KEF) takes us over the limit.

 

[rock86]

The last time I checked there were plenty of award seats available on QF9 around the dates we were looking. Note that we're only going in Economy, not Business.

Ah fair enough, I thought you were planning J.

 

[wentworthmeister]

Ah fair enough, I thought you were planning J.

I've just ticked over the required 280k points required to do it in Economy, and seeing as we're planning to start the trip in August I think we'll need to go ahead and lock it in sooner rather than later. By August I'll probably have just enough to do it in J, but by that stage it'll be too late to find award seats.

 

[Tonkatough]

Thought I'd share my positive experience with my latest OWA 280k booking - 16 flights, 34,987 miles. The Qantas call centre staff seem to cop some flak here, but not in my recent experience.

After researching and deciding on my flights, I spent 20 minutes on the phone to a particularly helpful and efficient consultant. The booking actually stumbled on my second last leg, seemingly due to an AY married segment issue. All the other flights were saved into their system while I went away and looked at the alternatives, then I phoned back a few hours later and was finalised in 10 minutes.

Apart form the usual advice of knowing the rules, researching flights, etc, on this occasion it seemed to help in efficiently waiving the phone booking fee (with no questions asked) by reporting the 'error code' that the online booking system seems to often throw up at the last stage.

Thanks to all on this site for the tips.

 

[ellen10]

I'm glad it all worked out for you and a very positive experience for you @Tonkatough. It would be good to see the segments you booked. Was this in business or economy?

 

[soh]

I am part way through my 280k booking and looking at adding an INV-LHR-HEL-NRT. Using my BA account there are 2J and 0Y available on the days/times I need for the INV-LHR sector. When calling/live chat/SMS with QF they have no visibility of J on any day for INV-LHR and this matches the QF website. I really need to depart from INV to avoid the APD and don't really care if in Y or J but with only J available from BA and QF having no visibility it is causing some issues. Has anyone else had a similar experience and a potential fix?

 

[Tonkatough]

I'm glad it all worked out for you and a very positive experience for you @Tonkatough. It would be good to see the segments you booked. Was this in business or economy?

Business for me, included two QR flights so I was mindful of the experiences of others on this site with sudden unexplained losses of QR flights before being ticketed. Fortunately for me, was ticketed within the hour - Hobart call centre I think.

 

[wentworthmeister]

Question: Are the US domestic operators able to be used as part of the OWA? E.g. JFK-YYZ (AA operated by Envoy Air).

It's listed on the OW search engine here: oneworld Online Timetable

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Question: Are the US domestic operators able to be used as part of the OWA? E.g. JFK-YYZ (AA operated by Envoy Air).

It's listed on the OW search engine here: oneworld Online Timetable

According to the book of rules:
14.5.1 A oneworld Classic Flight Reward is a Classic Flight Reward Itinerary that includes travel on at least two oneworld Alliance Airlines other than Qantas and does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline.

My understanding is that the definition includes OneWorld Affiliate Airlines - refer to this link for a list: Giving You Access to More Destinations Around the World

American Eagle is on this list, and is defined (in note 1) as including Envoy Air. So I think that the short answer to your question is ‘yes’.

 

[Aussiejosh]

So due to my last flight getting cancelled on my itinerary due to schedule changes I have managed to push that transit out for another 24 hours therefore giving me a 6th stopover. Took over 2 weeks with multiple phones calls to get it sorted, but it's finally come through! Did try to get QF30 to MEL and then QF9 to Perth but they had to wait to see if Cathay approved the rescheduled flight.

Final itinerary is:
PER-HKG-KIX (CX)
NRT-YVR (JAL)
YVR-JFK (CX)
LGA-MIA-GYE (AA)
GRU-MAD (LATAM)
PSA-LHR-HKG (BA)
HKG-PER (CX)

 

[cjd600]

So due to my last flight getting cancelled on my itinerary due to schedule changes I have managed to push that transit out for another 24 hours therefore giving me a 6th stopover. Took over 2 weeks with multiple phones calls to get it sorted, but it's finally come through! Did try to get QF30 to MEL and then QF9 to Perth but they had to wait to see if Cathay approved the rescheduled flight.

Final itinerary is:
PER-HKG-KIX (CX)
NRT-YVR (JAL)
YVR-JFK (CX)
LGA-MIA-GYE (AA)
GRU-MAD (LATAM)
PSA-LHR-HKG (BA)
HKG-PER (CX)

Nice one!
Do you mind sharing the $++?

 

[Aussiejosh]

Nice one!
Do you mind sharing the $++?

Under $600 Don't ask me how but she double checked it twice.

 

[cjd600]

Under $600 Don't ask me how but she double checked it twice.

Wow.

 

[Danger]

I am part way through my 280k booking and looking at adding an INV-LHR-HEL-NRT. Using my BA account there are 2J and 0Y available on the days/times I need for the INV-LHR sector. When calling/live chat/SMS with QF they have no visibility of J on any day for INV-LHR and this matches the QF website. I really need to depart from INV to avoid the APD and don't really care if in Y or J but with only J available from BA and QF having no visibility it is causing some issues. Has anyone else had a similar experience and a potential fix?

It is likely that BA hasn't released J seats to QF to use, unfortunately.