Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[bookworm]

Well I've finally booked my OWA for this Aug-Dec after nearly 8 months of research and planning. Wifey and I are doing the following in Y:

MEL-SYD-xSIN-LHR (QF)
LHR-BCN (surface sector around Europe)
BCN-MAD-JFK (IB)
JFK-YYZ (AA)
YYZ-YYC, YYC-YVR (WS - not on OWA)
YVR-SFO (surface sector down the US west coast)
SFO-DFW-SCL (AA)
SCL-PNT, PNT-SCL (LA - not on OWA)
SCL-SYD-MEL (QF)

Ended up only costing $1500 total in taxes and surcharges which I think was a good outcome. We avoided BA for the Europe-USA leg which would have added a couple of hundred $. We tried to get the Patagonia leg on the OWA with LATAM but A) PNT doesn't exist in the QF booking system and B) when I called the QF service centre they couldn't see any award availability on those flights. Also wanted the SCL-MEL direct flight with LATAM but they're not releasing award seats during Dec-Jan, so we're stuck with QF home via SYD. At least we can use the lounges as I'm Gold FF.

Wow, this is so awesome.
I’d love to read your entire itinerary.

 

[Lomandriel]

Correct. Hence why we are not returning to HKG until the very end of our award.

One potential two-trip itinerary would be:

MEL-KIX
KIX-HEL
HEL-ZRH (ground segment)
ZRH-HKG-PER
PER-AKL
AKL-PER
PER-MEL (ground segment)

By starting from Melbourne and splitting in two, you would get a bonus NZ trip as the total mineage is 29,000 (less than 35,000).

Public transport in Iceland is basically just a few bus routes. The easiest way around is by car, or by tour group. If you are uncomfortable driving in the snow or ice, I would recommend you do a tour instead.

At this stage upon discussions rather than 'maximising't he value of the points the mrs has decided we'll just book our flights on the basis of not having to pay for business to/from scandinavia, even though we aren't 'maximising' per se our flights by going through longer haul routes like say via canada, america etc?

We did manage to find a Zurich - Doha - Perth flight back earlier this week but it has since disappeared! What a pain! We searched up Qatar's website and there are clearly business class flights left still for those flights? Is there only availability specifically for classic reward flights that is not correlated to whether business class seats are even available on the carrier's direct website?

The other option is our Zurich - Doha flight if we take the 8am /early morning one we get to Doha before dinner, and we leave Doha to Perth on the same flight at 2am the next morning. So it would be the same flight except catching an earlier one into Doha. Results in leaving Zurich in the AM rather than after lunch, and so you're in Doha for transit from 4-5pm until the 2am Flight.

Any other suggestions? Or is it easy to tour Doha for the 4 or so hours transit inbetween?

Thanks for all the other suggestions and as John mentioned perhaps will take this outside so at to not go off topic regarding the oneworld award.

If anyone has any other suggestions on getting back to Perth, happy to take it. One alternative route was getting to Prague, or even going to Spain. This all means we would miss out on ending the trip at Switzerland (and getting my snowboarding fix) before flying home though Although arguably some have mentioned Spain are much more affordable, particularly for snowboarding. With Switzerland and being there 7 or 8 days, even if 3 nights are at a snow resort I presume this would add up to hundreds per person easily...

 

[ozflier]

I am having a senior moment here.
I am planning a OWA trip
Currently , I’ve booked
BNE-HKG-TLV
5 days TLV stopover
Surface segment TLV-AMM
4 days AMM
Amm- cai flight
CAI stopover 6 days
I recognise that the distance TLV-AMM counts towards maximum mileage
Am I looking at a total of 2 stopovers so far?

 

[jfl]

At this stage upon discussions rather than 'maximising't he value of the points the mrs has decided we'll just book our flights on the basis of not having to pay for business to/from scandinavia, even though we aren't 'maximising' per se our flights by going through longer haul routes like say via canada, america etc?

There is no right answer to this, you can fly as much or as little as you like

We did manage to find a Zurich - Doha - Perth flight back earlier this week but it has since disappeared! What a pain! We searched up Qatar's website and there are clearly business class flights left still for those flights? Is there only availability specifically for classic reward flights that is not correlated to whether business class seats are even available on the carrier's direct website?

Correct, award availability does not correlate with standard business fare availability.

 

[Kangol]

I am having a senior moment here.
I am planning a OWA trip
Currently , I’ve booked
BNE-HKG-TLV
5 days TLV stopover
Surface segment TLV-AMM
4 days AMM
Amm- cai flight
CAI stopover 6 days
I recognise that the distance TLV-AMM counts towards maximum mileage
Am I looking at a total of 2 stopovers so far?

Yes, two stops in TLV and CAI.
Although I recall some reports that some agents believe a surface segment also counts as a stop - easily resolved by HUACA apparently.

 

[JohnM]

At this stage upon discussions rather than 'maximising't he value of the points the mrs has decided we'll just book our flights on the basis of not having to pay for business to/from scandinavia, even though we aren't 'maximising' per se our flights by going through longer haul routes like say via canada, america etc?

We did manage to find a Zurich - Doha - Perth flight back earlier this week but it has since disappeared! What a pain! We searched up Qatar's website and there are clearly business class flights left still for those flights? Is there only availability specifically for classic reward flights that is not correlated to whether business class seats are even available on the carrier's direct website?

The other option is our Zurich - Doha flight if we take the 8am /early morning one we get to Doha before dinner, and we leave Doha to Perth on the same flight at 2am the next morning. So it would be the same flight except catching an earlier one into Doha. Results in leaving Zurich in the AM rather than after lunch, and so you're in Doha for transit from 4-5pm until the 2am Flight.

Any other suggestions? Or is it easy to tour Doha for the 4 or so hours transit inbetween?

Thanks for all the other suggestions and as John mentioned perhaps will take this outside so at to not go off topic regarding the oneworld award.

If anyone has any other suggestions on getting back to Perth, happy to take it. One alternative route was getting to Prague, or even going to Spain. This all means we would miss out on ending the trip at Switzerland (and getting my snowboarding fix) before flying home though Although arguably some have mentioned Spain are much more affordable, particularly for snowboarding. With Switzerland and being there 7 or 8 days, even if 3 nights are at a snow resort I presume this would add up to hundreds per person easily...

You learnt the hard way about seeing suitable flights and hoping they'd still be there when you look again! Searching well ahead, flexibility and decisiveness are key!

Best start a new thread if asking for detailed advice on what other things to do, but if you haven't been to Doha before and want a quick look, a couple of hours in a cab and a quick stop at the souk would be enough. It's far from the most enthralling place on earth IMO.

 

[flychrisfly]

If anyone has any other suggestions on getting back to Perth, happy to take it.

Yes, if you see a flight that works, take it. Don't jump on this (or any) forum and ask questions, etc just book it.

 

[weststigers]

Sorry for the big write up but I’m very frustrated and would very much appreciate some help:

I’ve spent the past few weekends putting together a RTW itinerary from my honeymoon, which we’ve been credit card churning for, for the past few years. I booked the first half 2 weeks ago and have spent 6 hours + on the phone to Qantas this weekend trying to book the second half. However, they kept getting errors and couldn’t tell me why. Finally they were able to tell me that I had too many stopovers. They are counting, what the my research seems to suggest is a layover, as a stopover.

I land at HKG at 20:25 and leave the next day at 17:50 (both flights with Cathay). They said this counts as a stopover and not a transfer. I was under the impression that under 24 hours was a transfer. The Qantas staffer clearly wasn’t sure why it wasn’t, but he was mentioning that only under 12 hours is a transfer and also mentioned something about if you have to pick up your bags, then it counts as a stopover.

As I mentioned I fly from HKG with Cahtay, arriving in Washington DC (Dulles Int.) at 21:45. I then leave a the next day at 18:34 from Washington DC (Regan) on an AA flight, arriving at JFK at 20:03. Again they count this as a stopover.

But I’m doing BA2 from JFK, landing in London (City) at 6:50 and leave later that day at 20:35 from London (Heathrow) on a BA flight. This apparently is just a transfer. Despite the fact that it is over 12 hours and I would have to collect my bags to change airports, which goes against the what the Qantas staffer said.

The only thing I can thing of is the first two are over night stops in their respective cities (albeit less than 24 hours) but the last one is a only over the same day. Any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[Lomandriel]

All - good news, we put in our booking tonight! We stumbled upon an issue whereby once we proceed past to the traveller info page with our itinerary my name prefills my first and last name as per my QFF. It says to match your passport and being somewhat nervous my Given name has both first and middle name as one line. Very annoying - legacy of my parents/upbringing unfortunately!

By changing the name it prompts an error about losing baggage entitlements and what not? Has anyone got any idea what this is? I'm abit freaked out, we ended up confirming the forfeiture of these entitlements and proceeded to input my full given name (including the middle name). So far the actual flights baggages show up on the booked itinerary on the oneworld award.... but it seems the "booking" the wife has her QFF showing and mine fails to update or link. No doubt due to my middle name not matching?

I can't see any easy way to update the QFF online, all FAQs are more for those who married and need to submit need marriage deeds for proof, as opposed to my initial registration/QFF setup not having my full given name.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, and is there anything to worry about by modifying my name and prompting the "loss of baggage entitlements" warning message?

Total taxes were $3,071.84 between both of us. Flight 1: Per-Tokyo (via HK) on Cathay.
Flight 2: Tokyo (narita) to Helsinki direct on finnair
Flight 3: Reykjavik (Iceland) to Oslo one way on BA (via london I believe).
Flight 4: We booked Oslo to Copenhagen. This is one area of issue. We couldn't proceed to the booking (error message) when inputting Bergen to Copenhagen. Mrs reckons the train ride from Oslo to Bergen will be worth departing from Bergen instead rather than originally Oslo onto CPH. Not sure how much of a good idea this is in winter as not much to see i presume? Summer/spring must be magnificent otherwise?

Anyhow we booked Oslo - Copenhagen in order to get the booking to not "error out". Qantas fb messenger chat appear to be ok with amending the Bergen-Copenhagen in with a waived fee. Although every new message you get is frustratingly a new assistant - so very hard to get consistent responses.

Either flight via Finnair. The Bergen uses some widerhole by finnair???

Flight 5: Copenhagen - Zurich (via london heathrow British airways)
Flight 6: Zurich to Perth via Doha on Qatar.

That's it! How did we do? $3k in taxes seems a fair bit so not sure we 'maximised' the most. But frankly it's a huge weight seemingly off the shoulder without worrying about months and months of planning like others. Luxury in that sense?

My only worry is what have i done by changing my traveller name to add more detail... and ensuring Bergen to CPH is substituted in for Flight 4. We will need to book internal flights between our Helsinki arrival and Iceland departure (we will cover Lapland, Talinn/estonia, and Sweden, before flying to Iceland). So the issue will be not having business class baggage to match our arrival and departure flights... Hopefully flights out of our own pocket won't cost too much!

Thanks for all the advice. Any other tips now that we've booked? Presumably get a good travel insurance sorted straight away incase of flight changes/cancellations early on? No need for more than a one liner, otherwise I'll take it outside given Off topic. Thanks again for all the help and patience with suggestions and tips.

 

[Kiwifruit]

Do a search for "Norway in a Nutshell" as it's a great way of getting from Bergen to Oslo (or vice versa). I did it in winter and it was still spectacular.

 

[JohnM]

Travel insurance is, of course, essential. However, award bookings are refundable, less a moderate points penalty, should you cancel.

 

[flychrisfly]

Sorry for the big write up but I’m very frustrated and would very much appreciate some help:

I’ve spent the past few weekends putting together a RTW itinerary from my honeymoon, which we’ve been credit card churning for, for the past few years. I booked the first half 2 weeks ago and have spent 6 hours + on the phone to Qantas this weekend trying to book the second half. However, they kept getting errors and couldn’t tell me why. Finally they were able to tell me that I had too many stopovers. They are counting, what the my research seems to suggest is a layover, as a stopover.

I land at HKG at 20:25 and leave the next day at 17:50 (both flights with Cathay). They said this counts as a stopover and not a transfer. I was under the impression that under 24 hours was a transfer. The Qantas staffer clearly wasn’t sure why it wasn’t, but he was mentioning that only under 12 hours is a transfer and also mentioned something about if you have to pick up your bags, then it counts as a stopover.

As I mentioned I fly from HKG with Cahtay, arriving in Washington DC (Dulles Int.) at 21:45. I then leave a the next day at 18:34 from Washington DC (Regan) on an AA flight, arriving at JFK at 20:03. Again they count this as a stopover.

But I’m doing BA2 from JFK, landing in London (City) at 6:50 and leave later that day at 20:35 from London (Heathrow) on a BA flight. This apparently is just a transfer. Despite the fact that it is over 12 hours and I would have to collect my bags to change airports, which goes against the what the Qantas staffer said.

The only thing I can thing of is the first two are over night stops in their respective cities (albeit less than 24 hours) but the last one is a only over the same day. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Very hard to comment on a problem with your whole trip when you've only described bits and pieces. Having said that, < 24 hours is a transit regardless of a change of date (spanning midnight) or picking up bags or not - the stops you've described are the method people use add a destination to their Oneworld Awards without using a stopover.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Sorry for the big write up but I’m very frustrated and would very much appreciate some help:

I’ve spent the past few weekends putting together a RTW itinerary from my honeymoon, which we’ve been credit card churning for, for the past few years. I booked the first half 2 weeks ago and have spent 6 hours + on the phone to Qantas this weekend trying to book the second half. However, they kept getting errors and couldn’t tell me why. Finally they were able to tell me that I had too many stopovers. They are counting, what the my research seems to suggest is a layover, as a stopover.

I land at HKG at 20:25 and leave the next day at 17:50 (both flights with Cathay). They said this counts as a stopover and not a transfer. I was under the impression that under 24 hours was a transfer. The Qantas staffer clearly wasn’t sure why it wasn’t, but he was mentioning that only under 12 hours is a transfer and also mentioned something about if you have to pick up your bags, then it counts as a stopover.

As I mentioned I fly from HKG with Cahtay, arriving in Washington DC (Dulles Int.) at 21:45. I then leave a the next day at 18:34 from Washington DC (Regan) on an AA flight, arriving at JFK at 20:03. Again they count this as a stopover.

But I’m doing BA2 from JFK, landing in London (City) at 6:50 and leave later that day at 20:35 from London (Heathrow) on a BA flight. This apparently is just a transfer. Despite the fact that it is over 12 hours and I would have to collect my bags to change airports, which goes against the what the Qantas staffer said.

The only thing I can thing of is the first two are over night stops in their respective cities (albeit less than 24 hours) but the last one is a only over the same day. Any ideas?
Thanks!

This is an issue that comes up from time to time when booking (or changing a booking) over the phone. The Qantas agent is wrong, wrong, wrong; but there is no point arguing with them, just HUACA. It seems to me that some (many) agents confuse the booking rules for a paid RTW and an Award booking; poorly trained and don't know their stuff.

Unfortunately, it is possible that the agent you spoke to has made notes on your "file" and you will get a similar response when you call back. I've had this happen to me. In fact, in my case, the agent referred it to a supervisor who put a note to say that my itinerary was not valid and that no agent was to allow it! In the end, I cancelled the itinerary and booked a different trip.

This is one of the reasons I am now saving KF miles instead.

 

[weststigers]

Very hard to comment on a problem with your whole trip when you've only described bits and pieces. Having said that, < 24 hours is a transit regardless of a change of date (spanning midnight) or picking up bags or not - the stops you've described are the method people use add a destination to their Oneworld Awards without using a stopover.

This is an issue that comes up from time to time when booking (or changing a booking) over the phone. The Qantas agent is wrong, wrong, wrong; but there is no point arguing with them, just HUACA. It seems to me that some (many) agents confuse the booking rules for a paid RTW and an Award booking; poorly trained and don't know their stuff.

Unfortunately, it is possible that the agent you spoke to has made notes on your "file" and you will get a similar response when you call back. I've had this happen to me. In fact, in my case, the agent referred it to a supervisor who put a note to say that my itinerary was not valid and that no agent was to allow it! In the end, I cancelled the itinerary and booked a different trip.

This is one of the reasons I am now saving KF miles instead.

It seems you're both correct. There was nothing wrong with the amount of stopovers. I ended up booking through the SMS service. It was much easier. The person I was talking to actually knew what he was talking about. He informed me the reason it wasn't working was it was just over 35000 miles total. Luckly no notes had been made on my file about this like Jacques suggested might be the case.

 

[weststigers]

To prove it really does matter who you get on the phone:

I tried to call Qantas but there was huge wait times. I requested a call back. Meanwhile I tried the SMS serivce. The SMS customer service rep was able to find the flights I wanted to add to my itinerary very quickly. As they were doing that I got the call back and the person on the phone couldn't find the exact same flights. I even looked them up whilst she was on the phone and could see them myself (which I let her know). I also asked her to simply read back to me the flights that I already had on my booking and she kept missing flights.

Hang up and call back is a hard pill to swallow when you've been on hold for over and hour or waiting for a call back for over 3 hours but it's worth it in the long run.

 

[MartyMan]

Just wondering, when adding extra sectors to an existing award booking, do you always keep the same original PNR number?

 

[Warren Mason]

We are booked on a Oneworld Reward flight where we are flying from Sydney to Adelaide and then have a 20 hour transit and then pickup a CX flight to Hong Kong and on to Rome. Does anyone know if Qantas will check the bags through to Rome or will we need to pick them up in Adelaide and then check them in again the next day with CX?

 

[jfl]

Just wondering, when adding extra sectors to an existing award booking, do you always keep the same original PNR number?

Correct, stays the same.

 

[jfl]

Well we've just booked the last business leg of our OW Classic Award. Thanks a lot to everyone here for the helpful tips and pointers, especially @JohnM .

HKG-NRT CX J
HND-SYD QF J

SYD-JNB QF Y (Not booked - hopefully there will be availability in Y otherwise we will book with cash)
JNB-LHR BA J
MXP-DOH-SIN QR J
SIN-SYD BA J

Total cost was 21,582 HKD (~AU$4000), and total miles came in at 34,878. Truly maximizing the award!

 

[madrooster]

We are booked on a Oneworld Reward flight where we are flying from Sydney to Adelaide and then have a 20 hour transit and then pickup a CX flight to Hong Kong and on to Rome. Does anyone know if Qantas will check the bags through to Rome or will we need to pick them up in Adelaide and then check them in again the next day with CX?

You will need to collect and recheck. ADL is not a 24 hour airport.