Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[pye1201]

I'm not seeing those CX flights on the BA website so its possible that Qantas may not see either. All you can do is try.

Thanks Aikman - appreciate your looking at it. I will try but I suspect you're right - Qantas probably won't put it through... I will have to try and brainstorm a backup plan - I was going to try to cut out the BKK segment by coming back from CUN via HKG and adding the BKK leg later but that would have us going through HKG 3 times so not possible.

 

[flapper]

I'm starting to plan a J award which will incorporate FNC (Maderia), RAK (Marrakeck) and LIS (Lisborn), MAD (Madrid). I haven't been able to find the rules that apply to:
a) if a city has >1 airport (eg London, Paris, Tokyo, New York) and you transit that city (<24 hrs) by arriving at 1 airport (eg LHR) and depart at a 2nd airport (eg LGW), is that counted as a transit, or is it counted as a stop in LHR and also an additional (surface) sector LHR-LGW with 26 miles applied for the (surface) sector?
b) if you transit eg LHR at one time, and later on transit eg LGW, is that counted as 1 transit at each airport, or is it counted as 2 transits in that city, which maximises the number of transits in that city?
Can anyone enlighten me on the rules? Thank you.

The rules say only 2 transfers may be taken at any one city. It doesn’t say airport. I take that to mean transfers at LHR, LGW or LCY all count as one city.

 

[LA10]

SIN-DOH-HEL-HKG-SYD-LAX-SYD-SIN 34912 according to GCmap. End itinerary in SYD rather than adding a return to SIN

Thanks for this suggestion, a really great starting point for me. I'm going to try and amend it slightly to incorporate a JAL flight. Also, can you please clarify what you mean by end it in SYD, as the suggestion above finishes in SIN?

Thanks

 

[LA10]

Also, do surface sectors count in the mileage calculation?
I've calculated the below:
SIN - DOH - LHR = 7117

FRA - TYO - MEL = 10880

MEL - LAX - MEL = 15842

 

[cjd600]

Also, do surface sectors count in the mileage calculation?
I've calculated the below:
SIN - DOH - LHR = 7117

FRA - TYO - MEL = 10880

MEL - LAX - MEL = 15842

Yes, surface sectors count to mileage

 

[LA10]

Yes, surface sectors count to mileage

Thank you for the quick reply.

 

[LA10]

SIN-DOH-HEL-HKG-SYD-LAX-SYD-SIN 34912 according to GCmap. End itinerary in SYD rather than adding a return to SIN

SIN - DOH - HEL- TYO - MEL - TYO - LAX - TYO - HKG = 34,342miles. There's another option for me.

 

[cjd600]

SIN - DOH - HEL- TYO - MEL - TYO - LAX - TYO - HKG = 34,342miles. There's another option for me.

That includes miles HKG-SIN at the end?

 

[LA10]

That includes miles HKG-SIN at the end?

No, I was thinking of just stopping at HK and then making my own way back home to MEL.

 

[Captain Halliday]

No, I was thinking of just stopping at HK and then making my own way back home to MEL.

Making your own way home is fine, but you need to include the miles back to SIN and still be under 35,000 for the routing to be valid.

 

[LA10]

Making your own way home is fine, but you need to include the miles back to SIN and still be under 35,000 for the routing to be valid.

Thanks Captain Halliday. So effectively, the route is valid is I count the mileage as starting and ending at the same place (regardless of whether I actually start/end there).

Such great help. Thank you!

Edit: So MEL - SIN (transit) - DOH (transit) - HEL (stop) - FRA - TYO - HKG - (long stop) - lax- mel = 34,101 could work then, with me making my own way from HKG-MEL return.

 

[adenda]

The last ADL-MEL is neither of those. I'd try and escalate it if I were you. Without status, you might not be able to do it so easily.

Thinking about it a bit more I suspect the previous poster is right about rule 14.3.15. I'm guessing the rationale behind that rule is that assuming you have some miles and sectors left from your international travel those spare miles aren't used for a few domestic sectors just to use up the miles. Who knows?
Whatever - I'm wondering if I tried changing our KUL-ADL sector to a KUL-MEL sector (which ironically is likely to to involve a transit in either ADL, BNE or SYD as there aren't even Y seats available on direct flights) that that would be acceptable under the rules?
Otherwise it could be pretty hard to get back to your home city in Australia (under the award) if you couldn't find a direct flight.

 

[serfty]

Thinking about it a bit more I suspect the previous poster is right about rule 14.3.15. I'm guessing the rationale behind that rule is that assuming you have some miles and sectors left from your international travel those spare miles aren't used for a few domestic sectors just to use up the miles. Who knows?
Whatever - I'm wondering if I tried changing our KUL-ADL sector to a KUL-MEL sector (which ironically is likely to to involve a transit in either ADL, BNE or SYD as there aren't even Y seats available on direct flights) that that would be acceptable under the rules?
Otherwise it could be pretty hard to get back to your home city in Australia (under the award) if you couldn't find a direct flight.

The rule you are quoting is "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. "

What that means, is that you cannot transit the city of first departure and once the routing returns to the country of origin, you cannot depart again.

There should be nothing wrong with flying MEL-ADL-DOH...KUL-ADL-MEL on a Qantas Classic oneworld award.

 

[Danger]

Thinking about it a bit more I suspect the previous poster is right about rule 14.3.15. I'm guessing the rationale behind that rule is that assuming you have some miles and sectors left from your international travel those spare miles aren't used for a few domestic sectors just to use up the miles. Who knows?
Whatever - I'm wondering if I tried changing our KUL-ADL sector to a KUL-MEL sector (which ironically is likely to to involve a transit in either ADL, BNE or SYD as there aren't even Y seats available on direct flights) that that would be acceptable under the rules?
Otherwise it could be pretty hard to get back to your home city in Australia (under the award) if you couldn't find a direct flight.

I'd keep pushing back on this. Ask the agents who deny you what the rule is you're supposedly violating. Another suggesting might be to jump on the phone and plan the exact same itinerary you've already got, but on different dates, in the hope that you'll get an agent telling you what you've planned is valid. Then ask them to look at your existing itinerary and do what you want.

At the end of the day, though, I wouldn't be losing your entire trip over a short hop between MEL and ADL.

 

[lukelegend]

With the upcoming points changes in booking a oneworld RTW ticket from 280k to 318k in J class, will the taxes/fees be cheaper to offset the extra points?

 

[Maki]

Good Evening,

I'm feeling a bit out of place, last time I booked an award ticket was more than 3 years ago, this time around QG engine is driving me crazy.
I am looking at booking 2xreturn tickets SYD-JFK in early March next year. My first option was to go via HKG but with all the unrest in the are am looking at routing via Tokyo.
I have 500k points and another 100k should come in a month or so.
I wanted to book SYD-HND-JFK-HND (SYD-HND in Y, the rest in J) but impossible to find the combination. If I split the search and look just at the HND-JFK leg it gets easier to find availability. There is even F but keeps changing daily.
Can I book HND-JFK leg first and then latercall QF to add the SYD flights later on when they become available? I don't want to lose flights while they ares still available.
I'm open to any other routing suggestion? Any advice helps.

Thank you alot!

Cheers
Maki

 

[Rtw]

Hey guys, looking for some advice on a Y Class OWA trip next year from mid Aug-mid Nov (12 weeks).
This is the trip planned so far

PER-FCO
*Surface to GLA*
GLA-YVR
*Surface to LAS*
LAS-HNL
HNL-NRT
NRT-PER

I have confirmed on multi trip search that this route fits the criteria for OWA after many attempts using random dates next year.

1. Do I wait until my last flight is available and then book the full trip?
2. Does booking Y Class OWA trips mean you have a lot more availability?
3. Will I get better options booking over the phone than using the multi city booking ?

 

[adenda]

I'd keep pushing back on this. Ask the agents who deny you what the rule is you're supposedly violating. Another suggesting might be to jump on the phone and plan the exact same itinerary you've already got, but on different dates, in the hope that you'll get an agent telling you what you've planned is valid. Then ask them to look at your existing itinerary and do what you want.

At the end of the day, though, I wouldn't be losing your entire trip over a short hop between MEL and ADL.

The consistent response I'm getting - again tonight - is that the computer says no. Don't know what I can do to escalate from there. I might give up.

 

[Kangol]

Has anyone noticed that Cathay award space for the most part has suddenly disappeared?
I've tried searching in a few places. No go.
Not sure if it has anything to do with what's going on in HKG...

 

[Ktan89]

Has anyone noticed that Cathay award space for the most part has suddenly disappeared?
I've tried searching in a few places. No go.
Not sure if it has anything to do with what's going on in HKG...

Not sure if it was sudden but when I had a look for some flights last night, there was no consistency and had huge blocks of dates not being available. There would be 1-2 days with awards at roughly 350 days away and then a few more dates at 280-290 days out.
This also seems to be the case with Qatar.. Is it going to be harder to get award seats now + point increase coming up.