Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[muppet]

As you book each flight, the points will be progressively deducted from your QFF account. Each time, the points deduction may take a day or two to show in your account.

Eventually, as you make more bookings, the points cost will max out at 132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K and further flight bookings will no longer affect the balance. It’s probably never too early to start booking, as you may run the risk of availability disappearing at some point.

I agree with one caveat ... changing too much eats away a lot of points in change fees. And also some carriers have this crazy rule that certain flights can only be booked as “new” bookings.

I have had trouble with CX where i could book a segment for a fresh booking but the QF agent could not add it to my existing half-booked J OWA.

 

[stirlo]

It’s a bit difficult to book things now as QF flights to Europe, USA, Santiago and Johannesburg are unavailable making it difficult to get out of the country unless you plan to go through Asia on both the way in and out. That said it’s always a better idea to book as far in advance as possible and every day there’s less seats available. Seeing as it’s fully refundable if you can make an itinerary work I’d book it.

 

[DC3]

... I have had trouble with CX where i could book a segment for a fresh booking but the QF agent could not add it to my existing half-booked J OWA.

Did you HUACA? Some agents are very good, but others are rather ordinary I have found.

 

[GaryLG]

Thanks all.

I know it is a bit of a gamble at this stage but as you have posted it might be worth it.

I understand about the points maxing out for each class but my question was more for example if I was booking business class and only had 300,000. In that case I guess I could only book up to those point, assuming the dates and flights were there and then book the rest of the flights later?

 

[stirlo]

In that case I guess I could only book up to those point, assuming the dates and flights were there and then book the rest of the flights later?

Yes, however you’ll find the individual legs often cost substantial amounts on their own so you may only be able to book a few before spending 300k. Without 318k available you have no way to take advantage of the cap. Also you‘ll pay a 5k change fee each time which when you are low on points already will make it harder to get to the 318k.
EDIT: I should clarify you make a single booking with whatever flights are available and modify it to add the extra legs when you have more points available. Don’t make multiple bookings and try to combine them. That’s not possible.

 

[DC3]

.... you‘ll pay a 5k change fee each time which when you are low on points already will make it harder to get to the 318k ...

Although, I seem to recall that the change fees are being waived at the moment. At one point, it was for changes made by 31 October, but has since been pushed out to 31 January.

Possibly could be pushed out further, but we just have to wait to see if that happens.

 

[GaryLG]

Yes, however you’ll find the individual legs often cost substantial amounts on their own so you may only be able to book a few before spending 300k. Without 318k available you have no way to take advantage of the cap. Also you‘ll pay a 5k change fee each time which when you are low on points already will make it harder to get to the 318k.

Yes I figured legs could cost more and I would reach a limit, though I thought if I waited to book the last few legs till I had the extra points the limit would then kick in?

EDIT: I should clarify you make a single booking with whatever flights are available and modify it to add the extra legs when you have more points available. Don’t make multiple bookings and try to combine them. That’s not possible.

So to help me understand -

Am I better to book all the legs at the same time even if some will need change of dates later as they become available? (Yes I know this will require all the points at the start)

Or better to book "half" the legs to start and then add the rest as flights become available for the dates I really need?

Thanks

 

[DC3]

.... Am I better to book all the legs at the same time even if some will need change of dates later as they become available? (Yes I know this will require all the points at the start)

Or better to book "half" the legs to start and then add the rest as flights become available for the dates I really need?

This is what I do:

- Book as much as I can on-line. Usually this is only a few flights before the QF system crashes, although some AFFers report doing much better

- With the Booking Reference (from those bookings), phone the Call Centre to add flights. Inform the CSO of the flights to be added

Closely monitor for the re-issue of the e-ticket after each change to the booking.

I do not book flights unless they suit my dates/itinerary, but closely monitor for seats being released.

However, I’m not sure what you mean by “I thought if I waited to book the last few legs till I had the extra points the limit would then kick in?”. QFF points are progressively deducted from your account as each flight is booked. The progressive deduction should not exceed 132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K points. Should it ever exceed that amount, then the booking has not met the rules (e.g., mileage; 2 x oneworld airlines, apart from QF; number of stop-overs/transits/segments; maybe something else?)

The point being made, upthread, about not making multiple bookings would be reminding you that you cannot make additional bookings (with different Booking References) and then try to combine them. If booking on-line, you get one successful shot at it, and using that Booking Reference, all changes are then made through the Call Centre.

Edited

 

[stirlo]

I thought if I waited to book the last few legs till I had the extra points the limit would then kick in?

That is correct. However if you were going to maximise the segments/routing of you OWA ticket (16 segments) you might spend 300k points on just 4 segments or so and have 10+ left to add.

Am I better to book all the legs at the same time even if some will need change of dates later as they become available? (Yes I know this will require all the points at the start)

Or better to book "half" the legs to start and then add the rest as flights become available for the dates I really need?

If you have to change dates there's little point in booking anything, the seats you book are on a particular flight on a particular date only. There's no ability to transfer the seat to a different date. The only way is to cancel the booking for original seat and book the new seat (if it's available).

If you would prefer different dates (but are happy to travel on the dates you initially chose) then you can book something suitable now and hope that options become available on the dates you prefer in the future. This would involve calling up and cancelling the original seat and booking the new seat (and potentially paying the 5k fee).

If you can see seats available on dates that you know you will want there's no harm in booking them. Normally you'd start with something out of and into Australia as these flights seem to see the most demand. With Qantas suspending bookings to Europe and USA there's not many options here currently so it may be best to hold off.
Also be careful as sometimes entire flights/months get booked out so your ideal itinerary may not actually be bookable even in the post-covid future. You indicated theres dates you really need, I probably would only book once I could confirm they were available as otherwise you go to all the effort for nothing.

Good luck, Use the JAL tool to search for flights its 1 million times better than Qantas, and don't get tricked by the Emirates, Air France and KLM flights that show up on Qantas site they're not eligible for the OWA ticket.

 

[GaryLG]

However, I’m not sure what you mean by “I thought if I waited to book the last few legs till I had the extra points the limit would then kick in?”. QFF points are progressively deducted from your account as each flight is booked. The progressive deduction should not exceed 132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K points. Should it ever exceed that amount, then the booking has not met the rules (e.g., mileage; 2 x oneworld airlines, apart from QF; number of stop-overs/transits/segments; maybe something else?)

Thanks for this. (And thanks stirlo)

Let me explain and hopefully make it clearer.

I'm thinking of leaving around September so I know there will only be flights during the first couple of months, if that. So I figured I could book the initial flights but I would need to wait for the later ones including the return flights.

Pre-COVID I had some grand plans including split trips and the US but now I think I might be happy making it something like MEL-AMM-LHR-NRT-MEL.

Something I have to think about again.

 

[motef]

I have a question in relation to the way mileage is calculated. Looking to keep under the 35,000 and it's tight.

If I book HEL-MLE and it goes via DOH does QF calculate the distance as HEL-DOH-MLE or straight HEL-MLE

 

[Kangol]

I have a question in relation to the way mileage is calculated. Looking to keep under the 35,000 and it's tight.

If I book HEL-MLE and it goes via DOH does QF calculate the distance as HEL-DOH-MLE or straight HEL-MLE

It's by flight number. If HEL-DOH-MLE are two flight numbers, then the combined mileage from the two separate segments applies.

 

[adenda]

Been trying to revive my now twice-cancelled OWA for Oct-Nov next year and noticing something strange with availability on Iberia flights from Spain to North/South America. There is reasonable availability in J right up to 30 October 2021 but absolutely nothing beyond then. I've searched for even a single Y seat for several routes to North and South America using QF/BA/JAL/IB sites - all come up completely blank. Been looking for a few weeks now and no change at all so it's not a case of the forward booking window not being open yet.

Anyone have any idea what's going on here?

 

[motef]

Been trying to revive my now twice-cancelled OWA for Oct-Nov next year and noticing something strange with availability on Iberia flights from Spain to North/South America. There is reasonable availability in J right up to 30 October 2021 but absolutely nothing beyond then. I've searched for even a single Y seat for several routes to North and South America using QF/BA/JAL/IB sites - all come up completely blank. Been looking for a few weeks now and no change at all so it's not a case of the forward booking window not being open yet.

Anyone have any idea what's going on here?

Is the end of Oct the end of the IATA summer period? So the airline hasn’t loaded up the next period which is northern winter which I believe goes up to March.

 

[DC3]

Patience Grasshopper.

 

[stirlo]

Been trying to revive my now twice-cancelled OWA for Oct-Nov next year and noticing something strange with availability on Iberia flights from Spain to North/South America. There is reasonable availability in J right up to 30 October 2021 but absolutely nothing beyond then. I've searched for even a single Y seat for several routes to North and South America using QF/BA/JAL/IB sites - all come up completely blank. Been looking for a few weeks now and no change at all so it's not a case of the forward booking window not being open yet.

Anyone have any idea what's going on here?

With LATAM no longer being in Oneworld how are you doing planning to get out of South America? I was looking at a similar itinerary but without LATAM South America seems pretty difficult...

 

[adenda]

With LATAM no longer being in Oneworld how are you doing planning to get out of South America? I was looking at a similar itinerary but without LATAM South America seems pretty difficult...

Original plan for May 2020 included IB from MAD-LIM and LATAM for LIM-MIA.
Current plan is MAD-LIM with IB then LIM-MIA with AA - all currently booked and ticketed for May 2021 but that's not going to happen. Even if the flights happen I don't see us travelling into USA. Hence the desire to move everything to Oct-Nov 2021

 

[adenda]

Patience Grasshopper.

Having spent many a night over the last year waiting for advance booking periods to expire and see inventory slowly appear I've developed a lot of patience. But I'm thrown by this because over at least 4 weeks there has been no change to the latest available date of 30 October.
But I realise there is no other option than to wait

Post automatically merged: Dec 1, 2020

Is the end of Oct the end of the IATA summer period? So the airline hasn’t loaded up the next period which is northern winter which I believe goes up to March.

I'm thinking it might be something like that.

 

[motef]

Has anybody had any luck getting F availability for 2 seats from SIN to either LHR or CDG in the past?

 

[Danger]

Has anybody had any luck getting F availability for 2 seats from SIN to either LHR or CDG in the past?

You obviously won't get anything non-stop to CDG in F and all the options from SIN would require at least one J flight.

I think Qatar is very tight on their F availability DOH-CDG. Maybe try ex-HKG.