Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Kangol]

Thanks kangol. Do you know or anyone know, if there is any benefit in having your long 'stopover' ie the 10 months or whatever, in your home city (like you suggested) or in an Asian hub like appaz's booking above in KUL

Besides the surcharge regulations in certain ports, the benefit would be related to the logistics in how you plan your trip, which would be dependent on your individual circumstances.
eg. if you wanted to go to Europe on trip 1 followed by USA on trip 2, starting it in an Asian port means you have to finish there. So if you wanted to come home nonstop LAX-SYD (for whatever reason), you wouldn't be able to do that - you would have to go LAX-Asian port-SYD.
In the same example, if you start in Australia, have the 10 month stopover in Asia, you would be able to do the nonstop LAX-SYD on the way home.
Your positioning flights Australia-Asia could either be right before the OWA and right after - meaning you have to keep the 12 month rule in mind if buying a cheap(er) revenue ticket, or, have the positioning flights in the middle of the award, which would not be subject to the 12 month rule.

There is some discussion on surcharges here:

High Fuel Surcharges Returning to Hong Kong?

26 May, 2018

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[melbkate]

Could someone answer one more question re the 2 trips in one scenario please?

Are you able to transit through your departure city?

Ie. sin-bkk-hel-fco-doh-mel-sin-cdg-hel-sin or would you have to do it like this for example

sin-bkk-hel-fco-doh-mel-hkg-cdg-hel-sin

 

[jeza]

Could someone answer one more question re the 2 trips in one scenario please?

Are you able to transit through your departure city?

Ie. sin-bkk-hel-fco-doh-mel-sin-cdg-hel-sin or would you have to do it like this for example

sin-bkk-hel-fco-doh-mel-hkg-cdg-hel-sin

I'm pretty sure even a transit through the origin city is not permitted under the OWA rules.

 

[Kangol]

Could someone answer one more question re the 2 trips in one scenario please?

Are you able to transit through your departure city?

Ie. sin-bkk-hel-fco-doh-mel-sin-cdg-hel-sin or would you have to do it like this for example

sin-bkk-hel-fco-doh-mel-hkg-cdg-hel-sin

Unfortunately no.

14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

These Terms and Conditions form the basis of Qantas Frequent Flyer, to protect both Members and the Qantas Group.

www.qantas.com

 

[hanrahs]

Only a couple days until we leave on our trip, there is so much great information in this thread that has helped us get what we wanted... so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for contributing.

This is what we have ended up with, all in J.

PER - HKG - NRT - VVO with 24 hours in Tokyo (CX, CX, S7)

about a month traveling across Russia overland

HEL - DBV (AY)

a couple months in the Balkans, make our own way to Ireland for a wedding and then to London

LHR - PSA (BA)

spend few weeks in Tuscany, Sicily and Paris then make our way to Munich

MUC - DOH - AMM - BEY with 24 hours in Amman (QR, RJ, RJ)

couple weeks in Lebanon

BEY - LHR - PRG (BA)

about 6 weeks around Eastern Europe and make our way to Paris

CDG - DOH - PER (QR)


wanted to make the most of lounges and airlines so:
all flights through LHR are via terminal 3 so we can use the lounges there
flying RJ out of Qatar to Lebanon so we get business class - and lounge access
have Q suites on some of our flights
decent amount of time in layovers to experience the lounges and the 2 long 24 hr stop overs that we wanted


Overall we are really happy with our flights, a couple things we would have like to do slightly differently, but we mostly found what we wanted on the dates we wanted. It kinda looks like we are all over the place a bit, but we had to fit around a few things (Ireland Wedding, mine and my wife's parent joining us in Italy and Paris, and my wifes 40th birthday)

Once again thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread.

 

[ellen10]

@hanrahs looks like a great trip! Making the most of your options.
Hopefully a trip report to follow along.

 

[JohnM]

about a month traveling across Russia overland

Could you elaborate on this, please?

 

[hanrahs]

Could you elaborate on this, please?

Sure, we will spend a few days in Vladivostok, then taking the train across to Moscow, a couple stops along the way in Ulan Ude, Irkutsk and Kazan. We will spend about 5-6 days in both Moscow and St Petersburg, catch a train to Tallinn for a couple days and then catch the ferry to Helsinki before we fly down to Dubrovnik.

Have always wanted to do the Trans-Siberian railway one day, also we drove from Astana to Moscow (part of a much larger road trip through the Caucasus and the 'stans) about 3 years ago and enjoyed it, this is a chance to see more of Eastern Russia

 

[exceladdict]

Trying to decide whether to book my ticket before Thursday's announcement. Eep

 

[Jacques Vert]

You and many others?

 

[exceladdict]

You and many others?

Trying to figure out if that's a question whether I'm booking for 2+pax, or empathy towards the potential change

In my case, looking at both.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Trying to figure out if that's a question whether I'm booking for 2+pax, or empathy towards the potential change

In my case, looking at both.

Not a question; more a comment that there will be lots of nervous QFF members wondering whether to book or wait.

If I knew when I wanted to travel next year, I would book now. Unfortunately, my plans are still up in the air (pardon the pun).

 

[Aus ATC]

Wouldn't we expect any deterioration of FFP conditions to have a 3 month lead in?

 

[Jacques Vert]

Wouldn't we expect any deterioration of FFP conditions to have a 3 month lead in?

Hopefully; but QF wouldn't be the first to try it on without notice. Remember CitiBank? And while Citi did back peddle after being reminded of their own terms and conditions, who wants to get into an argument about what is a deterioration, an enhancement, or an improvement?

Where does more availability for more points fit in?

 

[Aus ATC]

Where does more availability for more points fit in?

How can a FFP member assess "more availability" with any certainty? More than the crumbs QF deigns to make available on some routes - and more than none on others? But who is to know what the true baseline is other than the yield managers - and they are not about to admit anything. "More points" - that is easy to quantify.

 

[exceladdict]

Tried to add some extra flights to a QF MNL-SYD-PER booking via SMS and getting pushback that I can't add extra flights to convert it into a OWA. This sounds wrong, can anyone back me up?

 

[Aus ATC]

Tried to add some extra flights to a QF MNL-SYD-PER booking via SMS and getting pushback that I can't add extra flights to convert it into a OWA. This sounds wrong, can anyone back me up?

It should "convert" automatically once you meet the OWA criteria (2 x non-QF carriers being the significant one). I believe there may be challenges though if you are looking to commence the itinerary from a new departure point though - perhaps this is not an issue here.

 

[RogueFlyer]

There are some changes to the points required for redemption.

Y has dropped from 140K to 132.4K, effective immediately.

However, all other classes will increase from Sep 18:

Premium Economy increases from 210K to 249.6K
Business increases from 280K to 318K
First Class increases from 420K to 455K

Classic Flight Reward Tables | Qantas Frequent Flyer

Find out how many Qantas Points you need for Classic Flight Rewards.

www.qantas.com

 

[Kangol]

However, all other classes will increase from Sep 18:

Premium Economy increases from 210K to 249.6K
Business increases from 280K to 318K
First Class increases from 420K to 455K

Classic Flight Reward Tables | Qantas Frequent Flyer

Find out how many Qantas Points you need for Classic Flight Rewards.

www.qantas.com

All bad news.
The only saving grace is F has a 35k increase whereas J has a 38k and PE a 39.6k increase

Time to make a booking with the exact flights wanted, then change dates only to revalidate and not trigger a re-issue/re-price!

 

[Captain Halliday]

Re-posting the table from the other thread for easy reference of points requirements: