Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Jacques Vert]

Just trying to clarify again, is it possible to book a combination of premium economy and economy tickets together? I was told that all the tickets had to be all premium economy or all economy, you couldn't mix them together even if you were willing to pay the higher points.

As Flapper said, this should not be an issue. What you were told is absolute rubbish.

Can you not do it online?

 

[soarer]

I believe it is not counted as a stop (nrt-hnd), only because if it is, my current itinerary would not meet the rules. Booked by searching one leg from kul to kix and ended up kul-nrt-hnd-kix (if i recall correctly).

However this could be completely wrong and I would suggest it is completely up to the phone agent you get.

Try booking it online and see if it lets you.

Thanks. Unfortunately, that option no longer exists for me but good to know for future planning.

 

[pottsy]

Yeah managed all except QR - the error is to do with my partner's FF number in QR got populated with mine (correct in all other airlines so a bug in QR) and so it won't let me finish selection but it errors when I update with another update. Will have to call them.

Is this for a OWA booking? Just asking as I thought it had to be booked on the Qantas website? ( Sorry if dumb question).

 

[cjd600]

Yeah managed all except QR - the error is to do with my partner's FF number in QR got populated with mine (correct in all other airlines so a bug in QR) and so it won't let me finish selection but it errors when I update with another update. Will have to call them.

Had the same ff number issue with QR for my family, on the QR site.
Selected the QR suites seats on royal jordanian website no probs.

 

[cjd600]

Is this for a OWA booking? Just asking as I thought it had to be booked on the Qantas website? ( Sorry if dumb question).

All booking is via Qantas (website, chat, sms etc).
But you cant select your seats for other carriers on the booking on the QF site.

 

[jasyoung]

As Flapper said, this should not be an issue. What you were told is absolute rubbish.

Can you not do it online?

Cannot do it online as flights leaving from MVD do not appear in the search engine. Five years ago the telephone consultant was great and it was booked and paid for inside 20 mins. Two years it took nearly 2 hours as the consultant was unable to find lots of flights despite them being on the qantas website!. This year I think they put me in the too hard basket as they did not know enough about the award.

 

[adenda]

Had the same ff number issue with QR for my family, on the QR site.
Selected the QR suites seats on royal jordanian website no probs.

I also found Manage your Booking on the Royal Jordanian site was the most reliable for seat selection. We have 2 Iberia flights in our itinerary that we had randomly assigned seats for - my wife and I at opposite ends of the cabin! Tried using Iberia website to fix to no avail - the seats reverted to original random locations - but selecting on RJ seems to have worked. Similarly on a Latam flight I couldn't do seat selection at all on the Latam website but RJ worked.

 

[fresherbill]

SUCCESS! - got my last flight added.
I decided to try one more time and after again being told the the flight couldn't be added I pressed on what rule was not being complied with and initially got the response:

"It's because there are different airlines and processing change or adding another leg may cause discrepancies with the booking. "

I basically ignored this and continued to ask if tech support could advise what was the issue and all of a sudden I was chatting to a new agent who said they were working on adding the flight and shortly after advised it was done! Their explanation was:

"The error is with re-issuing a points booking with Iberian Airlines. It wont allow a tax quote. Each tax for all the airlines have to be calculated separately which isn't the normal procedure. "

So thanks to a couple of very helpful QF agents (Melody and Kaz) who persisted with a system that didn't want to cooperate I got there.

Also the itinerary was re-ticketed within about 2 hours so didn't have any nightmares with lost bookings that others have experienced.

So if your itinerary complies with the rules be persistent - especially, it seems, if you have Iberia flights in your itinerary

Thanks Danger and others for suggesting pushing back - I was ready to admit defeat.

Having this battle right now (over SMS). Trying to change:

bne-syd-hkg-amm-ams [stop] mad-ord-dca [stop] lga-phl-sea [stop] sea-hkg [stop] hkg-bne

to:

bne-syd-hkg-amm-ams [stop] mad-ord-dca [stop] ewr-clt-sea [stop] sea-hkg-kul [stop] sin-mel-bne

At 2AM I had a marvellous agent called Salina who did it all up, quoted the new taxes and added the new sectors to my booking, but then I realised I needed to check a date with my travelling companion so deferred final confirmation. Mistake!! In trying to finalise the changes now, I've been given the following reasons why this new itinerary won't work:

"We tried to booked the flight for you but the system did not allow us. They've provided that will reinstate your flight and if you wish to proceed with the booking you wanted. You have to booked it separately as the system detects that took many segment on your trip booking."

"Yes, the segment on your flight was too many that is why the system we're not able to price this for you. I apologise, as the previous agent a quoted for you use the manual quoting which is unable to do it when you made changes online. It should be exchange in the system to provide you the right points and tax quotes. I already raised this so that the agent will be getting coached by the supervisor."

"We are unable to add another flights to on your existing booking as the system will not allow as to process it due to having too many flights on it. If you wish, you can book these flights on a separate booking"

"We are unable to add this flights and I highly suggest to book it in a separate booking"

So four times denied. A am exhausted, close to tears and about to give up, especially now that some of the newly added flights are no longer showing up on the QF website. Is there a legitimate issue with my itinerary, or is it IB (MAD-ORD) that's buggering everything up?

 

[motef]

There has been some discussion and confusion about whether the current Oneworld Award pricing will still apply if you have an existing booking and make a change after the 18 September price increase. I.e. if you pay 280,000 points for a J Oneworld Award now, will you be charged an extra 38,000 points (bringing the total amount paid to the new rate of 318,000 points) if you make a change after 18 September?

An AFF member seems to have got an answer from Qantas about this and has forwarded me the email. Here's what it says:



So, it seems that the current pricing will still be honoured if you make a date change (and possibly other types of changes) after 18 September. That said, as always, YMMV!

So my OWA is not going to commence until late Oct 2020.

Should i just book one segment befroe Sept 18th 2019, ie BNE - SIN and then phone up and add to it later once the correct dates become available?

Or should i book as many of the legs as possible prior to Sept 18 2019 and then ring up and change multiple legs?

 

[fresherbill]

I count 17 segments. You can only have 16 segments.

1. bne-syd
2. syd-hkg
3. hkg-amm
4. amm-ams
5. [surface: ams-mad]
6. mad-ord
7. ord-dca
8. [surface: dca-ewr]
9. ewr-clt
10. clt-sea
[stop]
11. sea-hkg
12. hkg-kul
13. [surface: kul-sin]
14. sin-mel
15. mel-bne

Even if I count the bkk stopover between hkg and amm, I still get 16. If not counted, as most people on here seem to suggest, it should only be 15. No?

 

[DC3]

… At 2AM I had a marvellous agent called Salina who did it all up, quoted the new taxes and added the new sectors to my booking, but then I realised I needed to check a date with my travelling companion so deferred final confirmation. Mistake!! In trying to finalise the changes now, I've been given the following reasons why this new itinerary won't work ...

Yes, huge mistake after finally getting an agent who knew what to do ….

You probably realise by now that it's better to book under those circumstances and then make a change or two after the event rather than go through all this again.

Edit: Just keep phoning, and good luck.

 

[fresherbill]

Yes, huge mistake after finally getting an agent who knew what to do ….

You probably realise by now that it's better to book under those circumstances and then make a change or two after the event rather than go through all this again.

EXACTLY. I should have just said, "yup, book it, book it NOW" and if it's not right, it's less of a drama than the place I'm in now. A lesson to all!

 

[adenda]

1. bne-syd
2. syd-hkg
3. hkg-amm
4. amm-ams
5. [surface: ams-mad]
6. mad-ord
7. ord-dca
8. [surface: dca-ewr]
9. ewr-clt
10. clt-sea
[stop]
11. sea-hkg
12. hkg-kul
13. [surface: kul-sin]
14. sin-mel
15. mel-bne

Even if I count the bkk stopover between hkg and amm, I still get 16. If not counted, as most people on here seem to suggest, it should only be 15. No?

Looks like15 sectors to me and I don't see any other rules being broken.

If you're prepared to try again, see if dropping sectors 1 and 15 helps (you can easily buy tickets for those sectors). If it works then it's the number of sectors causing the issue.

Given my experience if there is still a problem with those sectors dropped it may well be the Iberia sector that's the issue. Can only suggest advising the agent of the advice I was given and hope they've got the initiative to do it for you manually.

I haven't checked for alternatives but you could possibly reduce sectors from BNE to AMS by flying into an alternative European capital (eg. Paris, Frankfurt, Helsinki) and buy tickets to/from AMS.

Otherwise if you've still got your original itinerary secured, I think you've done pretty well.

 

[Mattg]

So my OWA is not going to commence until late Oct 2020.

Should i just book one segment befroe Sept 18th 2019, ie BNE - SIN and then phone up and add to it later once the correct dates become available?

Or should i book as many of the legs as possible prior to Sept 18 2019 and then ring up and change multiple legs?

As you're not even commencing your trip for more than a year, I don't think this would work.

 

[cjd600]

So my OWA is not going to commence until late Oct 2020.

Should i just book one segment befroe Sept 18th 2019, ie BNE - SIN and then phone up and add to it later once the correct dates become available?

Or should i book as many of the legs as possible prior to Sept 18 2019 and then ring up and change multiple legs?

As@Mattg said....

14. 6 Classic Flight Rewards - ticketing

14.6.1 Classic Flight Rewards will be valid for one year from the original ticketed departure date

 

[Jacques Vert]

I apologise, as the previous agent a quoted for you use the manual quoting which is unable to do it when you made changes online. It should be exchange in the system to provide you the right points and tax quotes. I already raised this so that the agent will be getting coached by the supervisor."

The reason the other agent quoted it manually is because (IME) the majority of itineraries that include IB flights have to have the taxes manually quoted.

 

[fresherbill]

Given my experience if there is still a problem with those sectors dropped it may well be the Iberia sector that's the issue. Can only suggest advising the agent of the advice I was given and hope they've got the initiative to do it for you manually.

The reason the other agent quoted it manually is because (IME) the majority of itineraries that include IB flights have to have the taxes manually quoted.

Thank you adenda and Jacques Vert. So grateful for your input - hopefully this is the problem. I'm waiting for a call back now and will raise this with whomever I get... hopefully they'll be more proactive about this than the computer-says-no folks I've had so far today.

 

[appaz]

Having some issues with MH J awards, the PER-KUL J flight shows if I search for PER-SIN (shows as PER-KUL-SIN) but I can't get it to show if I put in HKT as the destination, or just searching PER-KUL and trying to build a multi city award.

Married segment issue? What are the chances the call centre could manually book be PER-KUL-HKT -I have the flight numbers and know seats are available, just can't get the website to play the game!

 

[appaz]

Having some issues with MH J awards, the PER-KUL J flight shows if I search for PER-SIN (shows as PER-KUL-SIN) but I can't get it to show if I put in HKT as the destination, or just searching PER-KUL and trying to build a multi city award.

Married segment issue? What are the chances the call centre could manually book be PER-KUL-HKT -I have the flight numbers and know seats are available, just can't get the website to play the game!

Idea, book PER-KUL-SIN call back and ask to remove the KUL-SIN flight and add KUL-HKT? Or will they have to rebook the entire trip starting from PER?

 

[Danger]

Looking for some early advice, 2 pax traveling in early 2021. Trying to decide if I should try and get this as a (now) 318k ticket, or if it's likely to be all too hard and go for a DONE4/5 or point-to-point tickets. Basic required stops are South America (going to Antarctica), across to Africa (will probably do some Intrepid tour), up to Europe (skiing), across to Canada (visiting friends in Toronto) and back.

syd-scl-gru-jnb-lhr-yyz-lax-syd is a basic trip that appears to work, with plenty of miles up my sleeve (32,157). BUT the SYD-SCL and GRU-JNB might be hard to find availability for 2, since they are relative monopolies. Taxes will probably be scary too given JNB-LHR is BA (though I can do via DOH on QR and still easily come under miles). I'll do short hops on LCCs or similar (not wasting valuable stops on intra-Europe horrid seats!).

Appreciate any advice; I'm QFF gold for what it's worth regarding availability. Dates will be pretty flexible (am planning on taking close to 4 months).

The days of cheap xONEx fares seem gone. However, if you're prepared for outlay, they can reap a good number of points, although probably not in QF. I would start by planning your itinerary as DONE4/5 and see if you're happy with the cost. Unless k_sheep is a pseudonym for James Packer, I'd suggest starting outside Australia. I think Japan is the cheapest, closest departure country.