Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[VPS]

Am I correct that if you can find an itinerary that meets the OW Classic Award criteria and can find availability using the QF multi-city booking tool, then it should automatically price the award as an OW Classic Award (i.e. 280,000 points per person for J) rather than as a series of separate awards? I've found a suitable itinerary for next year, but it's coming up as more than 310,000 points per person. I've never booked a OW Classic Award before, so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or if the correct points requirement just doesn't show up until you book?

The number of points changed last year. See the title of the thread 318k for J

 

[Jack_OC]

The number of points changed last year. See the title of the thread 318k for J

Doh! That explains it, thanks!

 

[ozflier]

Am I correct that if you can find an itinerary that meets the OW Classic Award criteria and can find availability using the QF multi-city booking tool, then it should automatically price the award as an OW Classic Award (i.e. 280,000 points per person for J) rather than as a series of separate awards? I've found a suitable itinerary for next year, but it's coming up as more than 310,000 points per person. I've never booked a OW Classic Award before, so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or if the correct points requirement just doesn't show up until you book?

Currently,a OW Classic Award in J costs round 318,000 points not 280,000 depending on when you did the booking !
Generally , you are correct above but you can get caught out - eg not all airlines that appear as itineraries on the QFF count as part of a OWA - eg China Eastern and Emirates.

 

[GaryLG]

Gary, if you are still following.
There is an excellent summary in the Wiki, see section 14.5 . If you do not breach any of these rules, your award wil lock in as a OWA.

How to Fly Around the World with a Qantas Oneworld Classic Flight Reward [Mega Guide]

Book a Qantas Oneworld Classic Flight Reward to fly around the world with up to 5 stopovers from just 132,400 Qantas Frequent Flyer points!

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Here is an itinerary for 34,984 miles (Qantas figure may differ slightly):
Singapore-London-Brisbane-San Francisco- Brisbane (+ notional/equivalent miles back to Singapore).
You would need to make additional arrangements outside of the OWA itinerary to get to Singapore to start the OWA and to commute between Brisbane and Melbourne.

Thanks for both of these. Very helpful.

 

[Aristotle9]

Does anyone else have a OWA trip booked for the end of this year ? Wondering what the general feel is on how long to wait before cancelling

I'm booked in July n am not going to cancel, instead waiting for flights for next year to be released and will change entire booking. This is 'coz the booking was done before the points increase. I wouldn't bother until closer to..

 

[cjd600]

I'm booked in July n am not going to cancel, instead waiting for flights for next year to be released and will change entire booking. This is 'coz the booking was done before the points increase. I wouldn't bother until closer to..

You need to return within 12 months of your original ticketed departure date to retain the 280k?

I have just commenced changing an AUG2020 OWA for April 2021

 

[Aristotle9]

You need to return within 12 months of your original ticketed departure date to retain the 280k?

Yeah that's what I was told. But note flights are not released 365 days in advance so it's really 350 days from ticketed departure date, although they may waive that in these times..

 

[squid01]

Before I had to cancel this years OWA I was wondering something....let's say I book a OWA in economy. As it gets closer to my first leg (say SYD to LAX), am I able to use more points to upgrade just that first leg to business without it effecting the overall OWA economy booking?

Would they allow the upgrade (subject to availability of course), and would they just charge the necessary upgrade points and would the rest of the OWA in economy remain untouched and still capped at 132.4k points? I ask as I know if you book even one leg in a higher class the whole OWA gets ticketed at the points for the highest class.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Before I had to cancel this years OWA I was wondering something....let's say I book a OWA in economy. As it gets closer to my first leg (say SYD to LAX), am I able to use more points to upgrade just that first leg to business without it effecting the overall OWA economy booking?

Would they allow the upgrade (subject to availability of course), and would they just charge the necessary upgrade points and would the rest of the OWA in economy remain untouched and still capped at 132.4k points? I ask as I know if you book even one leg in a higher class the whole OWA gets ticketed at the points for the highest class.

No, the total ticket is based on the highest fare class. So in your example the points required jumps to 318k.

Plus you’d pay the change fee (5,000 point) and the taxes would be recalculated at the business class rate.

 

[DC3]

Before I had to cancel this years OWA I was wondering something....let's say I book a OWA in economy. As it gets closer to my first leg (say SYD to LAX), am I able to use more points to upgrade just that first leg to business without it effecting the overall OWA economy booking?

Would they allow the upgrade (subject to availability of course), and would they just charge the necessary upgrade points and would the rest of the OWA in economy remain untouched and still capped at 132.4k points? I ask as I know if you book even one leg in a higher class the whole OWA gets ticketed at the points for the highest class.

Individual flights are not upgradeable on a OWA, as such.

Edit: Just saw the above post, which confirms your understanding.

 

[ozflier]

My latest attempt to contact QFF involved a wait time for more than an hour so I gave up.
Maybe you guys can help with my query.
I want to book flights from Lhasa to Chengdu early next year.
It is flown by China Eastern which i know is not part of OW but you can use qantas points to get award seats.
However, this forum is probably the best form of knowledge re booking award seats.
The QFF web based booking engine doesnt recognise the airport name Lhasa / LXA so I can't even try to check for award availability.
Interestingly UA Mileage Plus will allow me to book awards on this route with Air China but none available in the specific days that i want. ( So this may not be a political issue )
Has anyone managed to book award seats into or out of LXA with qantas points on MU?

 

[KVS]

I want to book flights from Lhasa to Chengdu early next year.
It is flown by China Eastern which i know is not part of OW but you can use qantas points to get award seats.
However, this forum is probably the best form of knowledge re booking award seats.
The QFF web based booking engine doesnt recognise the airport name Lhasa / LXA so I can't even try to check for award availability.

It's a limitation of QF.com
You would need to call QF FF to book:

[KVS Tool 9.8.1/Diamond - Awards/QF-OneWorld/Auto-Multi/CN]

LXA  Lhasa CN [ZULS]
CTU  Chengdu CN [ZUUU]
MON  01 Jun 2020 | 1 Seat

Carrier    Flight  From  Depart    To    Arrive         St  Award Availability
---------  ------  ----  --------  ----  --------  ---  --  ------------------
MU         5826    LXA   12:45     CTU   14:55          0   CS+  YS+
MU         2440    LXA   17:30     XNN   19:40          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5654    XNN   20:25     CTU   22:20          0   CS-  YS+
MU         9620    LXA   11:15     XIY   14:15          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     2302    XIY   17:10     INC   18:30          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     2296    INC   23:50     CTU   01:40 +1       0   CS+  YS+
MU         2334    LXA   12:25     XIY   15:20          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     2302    XIY   17:10     INC   18:30          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     2296    INC   23:50     CTU   01:40 +1       0   CS+  YS+
MU         9620    LXA   11:15     XIY   14:15          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     5724    XIY   17:35     KMG   19:55          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5855    KMG   21:15     CTU   22:50          0   CS-  YS+
MU         2334    LXA   12:25     XIY   15:20          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     5724    XIY   17:35     KMG   19:55          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5855    KMG   21:15     CTU   22:50          0   CS-  YS+
MU         9620    LXA   11:15     XIY   14:15          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     2161    XIY   16:00     SHA   18:15          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5415    SHA   19:20     CTU   22:35          0   CS+  YS+
MU         9620    LXA   11:15     XIY   14:15          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     2161    XIY   16:00     SHA   18:15          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5417    SHA   19:30     CTU   23:00          0   CS+  YS+
MU         9620    LXA   11:15     XIY   14:15          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     2161    XIY   16:00     SHA   18:15          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5419    SHA   20:00     CTU   23:30          0   CS-  YS+
MU         9620    LXA   11:15     XIY   14:15          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     2156    XIY   17:35     XNN   19:10          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5654    XNN   20:25     CTU   22:20          0   CS-  YS+
MU         2334    LXA   12:25     XIY   15:20          0   CS-  YS+
 -> MU     2156    XIY   17:35     XNN   19:10          0   CS+  YS+
 -> MU     5654    XNN   20:25     CTU   22:20          0   CS-  YS+

 

[repete]

Does anyone else have a OWA trip booked for the end of this year ?

I'm holding bookings for a family of six (many years of points savings, argh) for Sept/Oct this year (Canada/Germany/Perth). Daily consideration as to what will happen and whether the 6K+ taxes are better off in my offset account!

 

[ozflier]

I'm holding bookings for a family of six (many years of points savings, argh) for Sept/Oct this year (Canada/Germany/Perth). Daily consideration as to what will happen and whether the 6K+ taxes are better off in my offset account!

Difficult question.
It depends on
whether the virus is under control
when you'll be allowed to leave and return to Australia
When the destination countries will do the same
what countries do you need to transit thru - eg USA on the way to Canada

ie there are a lot factors involved!

Overseas travel is looking positive in my estimation for later this year and certainly for 2021
September is looking a bit risky - I had a trip on the railway to Tibet from China mid september this year and have successfully postponed it until mid november and i have my fingers crossed.

 

[pye1201]

I’m posting this for the information of anyone who, like me, made a Qantas Classic oneworld J booking prior to the points increase in September last year. My husband and I were due to leave on June 1 on an extensive itinerary, including a three month stay in Toulouse to spend time with our son, and a daughter’s wedding in Tuscany in October (now postponed). The trip was to have lasted 9 months in total and took more than a year in the planning, including a number of posts on this forum late last year. My concern was that if I cancelled our trip, obviously when it becomes possible to take that trip, we would be up for the hefty increase in points from 280k to 318k each – a total of 76k points. That might not sound like a lot to others on this forum, but it’s quite an amount to us.

I have spoken to Celeste at Qantas’ Hobart office (why does Hobart seem to have the most experienced agents…) who, after consulting with a supervisory colleague, has advised me that my best way forward was to wait until the end of May and ring to rebook what I could of the trip for a date as far out as possible. This would take advantage of the current Qantas hold on charging for changes to award bookings and she advised that in all likelihood Qantas would have to continue to waive change fees for as long as they cannot provide flight coverage. The strategy would be to continue to ring and postpone by rebooking new dates for as long as it takes for flights to return to normal.

I honestly don’t know if this approach will work even with the current extraordinary Covid-19 circumstances. I’m guessing that we will end up having to find the extra miles and totally rebook. However, fortunately, we are retired and totally flexible in our dates (pending a new wedding date for the daughter..) and so we have nothing to lose by trying.

I would be interested if anyone else is in a similar position?

 

[Azusa]

Hi!
So hoping to get some advice here since getting back into the qantas call center and have someone who know OWA is such a rarity these days for some reason (or just my bad luck).
Anyway, last week I received an email from qantas saying out OWA booking in Aug is now cancelled and they will process refund etc within 10 weeks. Now we don’t want cancellation we are happy to have the trip postponed to next year, so I called up and finally got someone who seemed to know OWA arrangement.
There are 2 people on the original booking (husband and I) and the whole way through we confirm that the seats are changed for the two of us. All successful they say, all I need is to pay for the difference in taxes, no problems even though they can’t tell me where the increase came from but anyway.
so I was waiting for the eticket numbers to come through, and while I got an email saying itinerary and eticket on the subject line I couldn’t see any eticket number. Waited for 24 hours and this morning I called back just to confirmed the trip has been ticketed.
after 3 consultants admit they don’t know (and one said haven’t heard of) how to process OWA, I finally got through to a consultant who seems to know. What she however told me appeared to be a stuffed up in the last process.
According to this consultant, the last consultant took my credit note and rebook the flight for my husband, created a new booking ref and that was it. So leaving my husband now have two bookings (one aug and one feb) and I have none. She also said in order for her to fix it, the only way she can do it is cancel my husbands aug flight and rebook it for me (why I don’t know because if the previous consultant used my credit note to book for my husband I can’t see why they can’t use my husbands credit note to book me, but then again she seemed irate so I dare not to challenge her)
She said the original taxes will be refunded (my old credit card is now cancelled and she asked me to deal with visa myself), no extra points but now I have a new booking code. So somehow my husband now gone to the original booking code with his flights updated and I sat on another booking code with the same flights.
I checkes the invoice and eticket came through with my name, on the new booking, with eticket number. All good there.
But my husband now is on the old booking number, with new flights, my qff account said it’s confirmed but I can’t see an eticket number.
do I need to call them again to check that out? I don’t want to jam their phone line but given the messed up I am also worried if the flights are booked correctly.
Thanks!

 

[Azusa]

I’m posting this for the information of anyone who, like me, made a Qantas Classic oneworld J booking prior to the points increase in September last year. My husband and I were due to leave on June 1 on an extensive itinerary, including a three month stay in Toulouse to spend time with our son, and a daughter’s wedding in Tuscany in October (now postponed). The trip was to have lasted 9 months in total and took more than a year in the planning, including a number of posts on this forum late last year. My concern was that if I cancelled our trip, obviously when it becomes possible to take that trip, we would be up for the hefty increase in points from 280k to 318k each – a total of 76k points. That might not sound like a lot to others on this forum, but it’s quite an amount to us.

I have spoken to Celeste at Qantas’ Hobart office (why does Hobart seem to have the most experienced agents…) who, after consulting with a supervisory colleague, has advised me that my best way forward was to wait until the end of May and ring to rebook what I could of the trip for a date as far out as possible. This would take advantage of the current Qantas hold on charging for changes to award bookings and she advised that in all likelihood Qantas would have to continue to waive change fees for as long as they cannot provide flight coverage. The strategy would be to continue to ring and postpone by rebooking new dates for as long as it takes for flights to return to normal.

I honestly don’t know if this approach will work even with the current extraordinary Covid-19 circumstances. I’m guessing that we will end up having to find the extra miles and totally rebook. However, fortunately, we are retired and totally flexible in our dates (pending a new wedding date for the daughter..) and so we have nothing to lose by trying.

I would be interested if anyone else is in a similar position?

I am kinda in the same situation, see my post below. We managed to rebooked (I hope) without incurring extra points. But there’s difference in taxes. If qantas initiated the cancellation they are very lenient at the moment with changes.

 

[bookworm]

We are booked to leave on 20/08 (US National Parks South West; Norway; Qatar and Alaska cruise)and I'm still deciding what to do. I can't see the US opening up soon, given their corona stats.
Princess has cancelled the cruise.
So I will have to make some changes to the itinerary.
I would ideally like to reschedule on the same booking (280,000 points) for May 2021.
Like everyone else, it took ages to plan the trip and too many hours on the phone with Qantas to get tickets issued .
For now I'm just waiting until end of July to decide what to do.

 

[DC3]

.... and have someone who know OWA is such a rarity these days for some reason (or just my bad luck) .... even though they can’t tell me where the increase came from .... Waited for 24 hours and this morning I called back just to confirmed the trip has been ticketed .... But my husband now is on the old booking number, with new flights, my qff account said it’s confirmed but I can’t see an eticket number ....

Hobart and Auckland Call Centres are the best, while Cape Town and Manila are not good in my experience.

Exchange rates will affect your refund.

I never wait for more than 60 minutes for the e-ticket. What do you have without it?

 

[flapper]

I’m posting this for the information of anyone who, like me, made a Qantas Classic oneworld J booking prior to the points increase in September last year. My husband and I were due to leave on June 1 on an extensive itinerary, including a three month stay in Toulouse to spend time with our son, and a daughter’s wedding in Tuscany in October (now postponed). The trip was to have lasted 9 months in total and took more than a year in the planning, including a number of posts on this forum late last year. My concern was that if I cancelled our trip, obviously when it becomes possible to take that trip, we would be up for the hefty increase in points from 280k to 318k each – a total of 76k points. That might not sound like a lot to others on this forum, but it’s quite an amount to us.

I have spoken to Celeste at Qantas’ Hobart office (why does Hobart seem to have the most experienced agents…) who, after consulting with a supervisory colleague, has advised me that my best way forward was to wait until the end of May and ring to rebook what I could of the trip for a date as far out as possible. This would take advantage of the current Qantas hold on charging for changes to award bookings and she advised that in all likelihood Qantas would have to continue to waive change fees for as long as they cannot provide flight coverage. The strategy would be to continue to ring and postpone by rebooking new dates for as long as it takes for flights to return to normal.

I honestly don’t know if this approach will work even with the current extraordinary Covid-19 circumstances. I’m guessing that we will end up having to find the extra miles and totally rebook. However, fortunately, we are retired and totally flexible in our dates (pending a new wedding date for the daughter..) and so we have nothing to lose by trying.

I would be interested if anyone else is in a similar position?

I am in a similar situation as you and your post was informative I have 3 concerns though.
1. Classic Flight Rewards will be valid for one year from the original ticketed departure date. (Is this rule going to be waived?)
2. If your initial flight is cancelled by the airline before the end of May won't the whole OWA be cancelled as others have reported here?
3. When you rebook the 1st flight won't all the other flights "drop off" and then the points for the booking be recalculated down? Will it still max out at 280K when you add flights back?
Cheers