Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[DC3]

.... When you go to book the flight yourself are you paying $ or points for just a single award flight or something? Then you ask the consultant to incorporate into your OWA and they refund how you originally bought it?

To answer part of that, I have not heard of anyone posting that they made an award booking, online, and it was then able to be incorporated into a OWA itinerary by the Call Centre. Hope that I am proven to be wrong with the ability to do this.

Edit: The Call Centre always says that it can’t be done, as I’ve tried that tactic a few times

 

[DC3]

I think you missed the part where I said I booked them. You’ve just got to be forceful and make them triple check. They did indeed exist, but probably not now.

I usually put that experience down to laziness/incompetence at the Call Centre, by not looking at the right flights/routing/dates. Seats are either available, or they are not.

Also, phantom availability does exist ( i.e., there can be phantom availability)

Edit: When I have no luck with the Call Centre, HUACA

 

[stirlo]

How does this work exactly?

I’m not the best person to answer as I have far less experience than most people on here. But my understanding was that you can book individual award flights as they become available while you build your RTW itinerary. Then once you have the final legs you can call up and pay the change fee to change this over to a RTW ticket and pay only the 318k points.

The seats I was trying to book were classic award seats not pay with points or money, if reward seats are not available you are out of luck unfortunately.

In my recent case however all I did was search the flights while on the phone to the consultant, find the 2 business class classic rewards he couldn’t find, start the booking process and once I got to the screen where I could pay the taxes on CC the Qantas consultant was able to retrieve the booking and add the other legs onto it. In my experience when it’s phantom availability you cannot get to the payment screen so I believe it was something else preventing him from seeing it (see my suspicions in previous post).

I was dealing with someone in NZ which is generally considered easier than Philippines or SA. Lots of advice one here to HUACA when you have issues with the consultant.

 

[DC3]

I’m not the best person to answer as I have far less experience than most people on here. But my understanding was that you can book individual award flights as they become available while you build your RTW itinerary. Then once you have the final legs you can call up and pay the change fee to change this over to a RTW ticket and pay only the 318k ...

I was dealing with someone in NZ which is generally considered easier than Philippines or SA. Lots of advice one here to HUACA when you have issues with the consultant.

Yes, the points eventually max out at 318,000 for Business as you build your itinerary.

I have usually only managed the first 3, or so, bookings on the QF Website before it crashes. Some have better luck - trial and error really. Then I book, and have the PNR. As further seats become available, I call to book straight away, otherwise there’s the risk of losing them.

Edit: Best not to refer to this as RTW, because your itinerary does not need to go around the world.

 

[11sjw]

How does this work exactly?

"Normally" the process involves booking the first leg online yourself and ringing to have subsequent legs added (usually after finding them online yourself). Each addition costs you 5k points per person change fee.

Never heard of booking a 2nd leg separately and having them combined. Would be pleasantly surprised to hear if others have managed this.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

It goes something like this:

1. Create an itinerary of 1 or more sectors, either via the website booking engine or by phoning the call centre;
2. If necessary, add more sectors to the same itinerary as they become available, by phoning the call centre.

There‘s no need (nor any ability to) “convert” the itinerary into a OneWorld Classic Award. As soon as the itinerary satisfies all of the rules of an OWCA, it then caps the points at the appropriate level for the highest class booked.

When you phone the call centre, you just need to refer to the existing itinerary and ask to add (and/or subtract) some flights.

As you’re building the itinerary, if it hasn’t yet satisfied the OWCA rules, it might price out at more points than the relevant capped amount. Don’t worry; once you’ve made the changes needed to satisfy the rules, the points will self-correct back to the relevant cap, and the excess will be refunded to your account.

 

[DC3]

By the way, none of this information is new.

There’s plenty of useful information among the 9,000-plus posts, upthread.

 

[stirlo]

I put together a booking on the weekend for June-July 2021 (optimistic I know) that had MAD-HAV-MAD on Iberia in it. Logged in today and can see the Iberia flights have been cancelled however they are still available on their website paying cash. Has anyone else experienced this recently?

It seems my other post got lost in the discussion around how to book OWAs.

Are any experienced members able to shed light on my the Iberia flights in my itinerary would have been cancelled a couple of days after they were confirmed on the initial booking?

 

[11sjw]

It seems my other post got lost in the discussion around how to book OWAs.

Are any experienced members able to shed light on my the Iberia flights in my itinerary would have been cancelled a couple of days after they were confirmed on the initial booking?

Were they ticketed?

 

[stirlo]

Were they ticketed?

Yes, I had a eticket issued with all legs showing "confirmed" Now the Iberia flights are marked "cancelled"

 

[knightfall88]

Has everyone started making bookings for 2021? I know points are refunded should the flights get further rescheduled but is there any indication on how likely airlines will stick to schedule they have available to book atm?

 

[Dr Ralph]

Has everyone started making bookings for 2021? I know points are refunded should the flights get further rescheduled but is there any indication on how likely airlines will stick to schedule they have available to book atm?

Points refunded? I've been waiting 5 months. I expect to eventually get them, but the issue is I can't use them to book something else until they get refunded.

I'm definitely not booking for 2021 (yet).

 

[stirlo]

Points refunded? I've been waiting 5 months

I got my points back in less than a week. Took 3 months for taxes though.

And yes, I’ve booked for June/July 2021. At the end of the day its only going to cost you the potential interest on the taxes that you’ve paid so why not. I‘ll probably do another booking for September/October in case my June/July is too optimistic and cancel the one I don’t use.

I’d also suggest there’s a reasonable chance that Qantas devalues points again before they resume all their flights as its an easy way to reduce their liabilities at a time where they’re going to need every cent of revenue they can get. Why have people redeeming award seats when a small percentage of them might otherwise be full paying customers?

With regards to flight changes I’m more concerned about aircraft changes rather than total cancellations. If the world is still COVID affected that many flights are cancelled it’s unlikely I’d be travelling anyway.

As I noted above however all the Iberia flights I had in my confirmed eticket got cancelled a few days later so I’d suggest that some airlines are still considering serious changes/unwilling to commit to their schedules.

Definitely don’t book anything that’s not fully refundable until much closer to your travel dates.

 

[rock86]

Points refunded? I've been waiting 5 months. I expect to eventually get them, but the issue is I can't use them to book something else until they get refunded.

I'm definitely not booking for 2021 (yet).

This post made me go back and have a look if I had points refunded from a change I made 12 months ago from a OWA, I thought I had but turns out no points refunded (taxes were though).

I will be putting this on the list to now chase up this week!!

 

[ozflier]

Has anyone had the experience of changing a oneworld award booking to a date beyond the expiry of the original 12 months.
I have changed / extended my original booking now to just shy of 12 months from the first date of travel .
This itinerary will not fly as several of the sectors have been cancelled and are not replaceable ( incl several flown by cathay dragon).
I would love to extend the current booking as it was based on 280,000 points whereas if I cancel and restart , i'm up for 318,000!
I have contacted Qantas and cannot get a definitive answer if this can happen or not.
It is not my fault ( and nor is it QFs) that I would be requesting an extension but I am wondering if any other posters have had the award extended beyond the 12 months?

 

[DC3]

Has anyone had the experience of changing a oneworld award booking to a date beyond the expiry of the original 12 months ... I have contacted Qantas and cannot get a definitive answer if this can happen or not ...

It's a newer change maybe 2 months ago. You can extend beyond the 12 month validity now, but you must maintain the same routing and carriers.

There’s always madrooster’s post (above). Not sure about airlines that no longer fly certain routes. See what the computer says when it comes time to rebook. I may be in a similar situation next year, but it’s too early to make the changes at the moment.

 

[madrooster]

Has anyone had the experience of changing a oneworld award booking to a date beyond the expiry of the original 12 months.
I have changed / extended my original booking now to just shy of 12 months from the first date of travel .
This itinerary will not fly as several of the sectors have been cancelled and are not replaceable ( incl several flown by cathay dragon).
I would love to extend the current booking as it was based on 280,000 points whereas if I cancel and restart , i'm up for 318,000!
I have contacted Qantas and cannot get a definitive answer if this can happen or not.
It is not my fault ( and nor is it QFs) that I would be requesting an extension but I am wondering if any other posters have had the award extended beyond the 12 months?

Is yours fully unflown or partially flown? My post is to do with partially flown. Fully unflown has different rules - if it's fully unflown I'd expect you can do a full reroute.

 

[Danger]

Has anyone had the experience of changing a oneworld award booking to a date beyond the expiry of the original 12 months.
I have changed / extended my original booking now to just shy of 12 months from the first date of travel .
This itinerary will not fly as several of the sectors have been cancelled and are not replaceable ( incl several flown by cathay dragon).
I would love to extend the current booking as it was based on 280,000 points whereas if I cancel and restart , i'm up for 318,000!
I have contacted Qantas and cannot get a definitive answer if this can happen or not.
It is not my fault ( and nor is it QFs) that I would be requesting an extension but I am wondering if any other posters have had the award extended beyond the 12 months?

I have been able to change the dates of a oneworld award to beyond the 12-month validity of the ticket.

 

[ozflier]

All my flights are unflown .
I changed dates yesterday and mostly the original itinerary was maintained .
It was not totally possible as some flights were only flown by KA and no longer exist.
For this reason , I have been told that I will be up for an extra 38,000 points ( 318k-280K) as the final altered itinerary was not the same as the original!

 

[DC3]

... I have been told that I will be up for an extra 38,000 points ( 318k-280K) as the final altered itinerary was not the same as the original!

Didn’t try HUACA?

Edit: Which Call Centre, by the way? Manila, Cape Town, NZ or Oz.