Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Sojourner]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thanks. I'm almost at the point of having enough points for both my partner and I. Just trying to get an idea of how much I'll need to pay in taxes on top of the points. "I gave her about 90k points so now she is paying for my new Amex Platinum which includes 80k points." -That's an interesting deal, particularly given the recent "enhancements" to the platinum card.

 

[fersea]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

"I gave her about 90k points so now she is paying for my new Amex Platinum which includes 80k points." -That's an interesting deal, particularly given the recent "enhancements" to the platinum card.

We felt it was cheaper to do the taxes + $1200 to "purchase 80k points" through Amex platinum plus her points than to purchase flights. Obviously she won't get status and FF points doing it this way.

I think we should benefit from some of the other benefits of Amex - she is silver and I am only bronze so provided I can get the Marco Polo gold that is a nice advantage plus priority pass. Plus we will probably use the free flight and hotel room after we come back.

I only expect to have the Amex card for one year.

 

[jasyoung]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Re: Booking flights

I have enough points for 5 RTW bookings however all the points are in my name. My in-laws who are travelling with us now want to leave before us on the initial leg (same destination just a week earlier as they have more time on their hands) and then do all the remaining legs with us.

My understanding of the rules is this is not possible but it is also impossible to transfer 280,000 points to them and still have time to book flights. Can anyone confirm this is the case or if they know of a way this can done.

 

[Princess Fiona]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Re: Booking flights

I have enough points for 5 RTW bookings however all the points are in my name. My in-laws who are travelling with us now want to leave before us on the initial leg (same destination just a week earlier as they have more time on their hands) and then do all the remaining legs with us.

My understanding of the rules is this is not possible but it is also impossible to transfer 280,000 points to them and still have time to book flights. Can anyone confirm this is the case or if they know of a way this can done.

Shouldn't be any issue booking flights for them as they are "eligible family members". No need to transfer points. Your biggest issue will be trying to get 5 seats on the same flights and I suspect that you will need to split up your family anyway.
Good Luck

 

[Grooba]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Had some success this afternoon after playing with the engine for a few days. Amazing how many award seats dry up so fast when you are watching them.

SYD-MEL-HKG-MXP-LHR-LAS/JFK-YVR-HKG-ADL-PER-SYD all in J.

Best use of points IMHO.

 

[Princess Fiona]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Had some success this afternoon after playing with the engine for a few days. Amazing how many award seats dry up so fast when you are watching them.

SYD-MEL-HKG-MXP-LHR-LAS/JFK-YVR-HKG-ADL-PER-SYD all in J.

Best use of points IMHO.

Are the CX segments in JFK-YVR-HKG now appearing on the QF booking engine?
If so that's great news as they were previously only really bookable on the telephone.

 

[Grooba]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

In fact they are not AFAIK.
The booking engine had been playing up for the last few days so I had to ring QF. I explained that the errors I'd been receiving over the last few days had prevented me from booking online, so they conceded the booking fee would be waived. Based on this I managed to ask about (and subsequently score) JFK-YVR-HKG instead of the direct JFK-HKG service. I'd never seen the stop in YVR online so was quite happy with the outcome.

 

[burnt]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

An interesting "aside" would be to add up the total "flight time" that a 140K or 280K One World booking is able to achieve, I have seen 69.5 hours with a mix of A380, 747-400, CRJ and 737 plus DH8, (which was EXTREEMLY CLOSE) to 35,000 miles, and the taxes AVERAGED $16.50 per hour.

 

[fersea]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

An interesting "aside" would be to add up the total "flight time" that a 140K or 280K One World booking is able to achieve, I have seen 69.5 hours with a mix of A380, 747-400, CRJ and 737 plus DH8, (which was EXTREEMLY CLOSE) to 35,000 miles, and the taxes AVERAGED $16.50 per hour.

Mine is 62 hours. Reduced slightly because I have land segments from Santiago to Lima and Miami to Toronto which are included in the 35000 miles. With other flight I am sure I will break 80 hours in the air.

According to my booking my planes are

Boeing 737-800 (CBR - SYD) (SYD -AKL)
Airbus industrie A340-300 (AKL - SCL)
Boeing 757 (lim - Mia)
Boeing 747-400 (YYZ - LHR) (LHR - JNB) (JNB - HKG)
Airbus a330-300 (HKG - MEL)
Boeing 717 (Mel - CBR)

 

[pyffii]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

We have a DONE4 JNB-lhr-vce-lhr-yvr-DFW-LIR-DFW-JFK -lax-Mel-bne-Mel-syd-JNB for about 82 hours in the air

 

[dajop]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

We have a DONE4 JNB-lhr-vce-lhr-yvr-DFW-LIR-DFW-JFK -lax-Mel-bne-Mel-syd-JNB for about 82 hours in the air

82 is a lot. The two I've done have come in at ~74-75 hours.

 

[dajop]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

So what is the general value people place on these awards? The plethora of airlines selling award points (many who do not have fuel fines) has led me to one conclusion that values a J award (280K) at about 1.5c per point. Previously I thought they were worth more than that

 

[nat000]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

can anyone help with the likely availability of two J award seats from santiago to sydney on QF28 on a saturday. We aren't going for over twelve months yet, just planning ahead and seeing if seats are available everyday of the week. do J seats go quickly on this route ? I plan to book them as soon as they become available.

 

[knasty]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

If you also want to consider the LAN option You can sign up to LAN's program for free and search online. I believe there are two redemption classes and you'd need to look at the cheaper ie more restricted option to see the fare class that oneworld awards book into.

 

[Nizar]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

So what is the general value people place on these awards? The plethora of airlines selling award points (many who do not have fuel fines) has led me to one conclusion that values a J award (280K) at about 1.5c per point. Previously I thought they were worth more than that

Agree. You know what I reckon is great value, one of the RTW type awards booked through AA.
If you buy miles on promos over say 2 years + some SPG top ups you can fly around the world in F sampling the best of QF, CX and BA, something like mel-syd-hkg-lhr-jfk-lax-mel, all for around US$5k + taxes/fees.
oneworld Airlines Award Chart

 

[Flying Sailor]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Is a 280k RTW split trip possible? Thanks to the USA government shutdown our long planned and booked itinerary, that included rafting the Grand Canyon, has been very disrupted. We are looking to return next October to do the rafting. The upside is we are now only 25k points away from RTW Business for both of us. However we would like to include Paris and from what I understand Sept/Oct is less than an ideal time to visit. Is it possible for us to split the RTW in some way? Fly Perth to US in Oct 2014 then Europe in 2015. I appreciate that this would involve us paying for a couple of one way flights to hop back to Australia and then return to pick up the RTW. We may be able to select a location to split the trip that is a reasonable fare from Perth. Flying economy for the self funded legs would be ok.

Thanks Jason

 

[fersea]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Jason, the way I understand it is the whole trip must be completed with 12 months and surface miles count in the 35000 miles. So therefore you would be able to Fly Perth to US in Oct 2014, then go back to the US in 2015 and fly back to the US and on to Europe for the European summer of 2015 then back to Perth. In fact if it fits in the 35k miles you may even be able to fly back to Hawaii as part of the reward and then get a cheap Jetstar flight home. The award booking neither knows or cares if you have separate flights in between.

The only thing I would be thinking you have to be careful about is you may get asked questions about your booking in that on the award booking you appear to be staying in the US much longer than your award booking allows but provided you have another booking showing you leaving the US I can't see how it would be a problem.

 

[fersea]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Agree. You know what I reckon is great value, one of the RTW type awards booked through AA.
If you buy miles on promos over say 2 years + some SPG top ups you can fly around the world in F sampling the best of QF, CX and BA, something like mel-syd-hkg-lhr-jfk-lax-mel, all for around US$5k + taxes/fees.
oneworld Airlines Award Chart

The way I read that, it is only 280k for a first class around the world through AA redemptions as opposed to 280k for business with Qantas. (140k for economy with either).

 

[Nizar]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

The way I read that, it is only 280k for a first class around the world through AA redemptions as opposed to 280k for business with Qantas. (140k for economy with either).

That is correct, but not only that, also through AA there are several types of RTW trips available at different distances.
Say for example 35000 miles is too much, and all you need is 25000 (the itinerary i posted is <25000 miles), there are options available to cater to that need.
230k would get you RTW in F for a distance of 20001-25000 miles.
Similarly, 330k would get you RTW in F for a distance of 35001-50000 miles.

I don't think with QF there are options apart from <=35000 miles at 140/280/420k.

 

[aikman]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

That is correct, but not only that, also through AA there are several types of RTW trips available at different distances.
Say for example 35000 miles is too much, and all you need is 25000 (the itinerary i posted is <25000 miles), there are options available to cater to that need.
230k would get you RTW in F for a distance of 20001-25000 miles.
Similarly, 330k would get you RTW in F for a distance of 35001-50000 miles.

I don't think with QF there are options apart from <=35000 miles at 140/280/420k.

AA also does not include surface sectors in the mileage calculation so you can get very creative with your routing.