Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Quick "3 airline" question. If I book a leg (Budapest to Toronto) that goes BA, BA, AA does that count as two airlines used or does a whole leg need to be on a separate carrier?

I’m assuming that your Budapest - Toronto “Leg” is actually 3 separate Sectors with 2 transits.
If so, then yes, that satisfies the ‘2 OW carrier other than QF’ rule (Rule 14.5.1).
You do not need any QF Sectors, so it’s really a 2 airline question...

 

[DC3]

Does anyone know if the area that issues the tickets is open 24/7 or closes. A CSO told me it was only open 7:00am to 7:00pm. I don't know if that's true or they told me that to shut me up.

Is this a new itinerary (via the Call Centre) that is particularly complicated, in order for it to be sent to manual ticketing, or were you making changes to an already ticked itinerary? I assume that you are making changes.

Late last night (Saturday) I booked the first three flights, on-line, of a new award itinerary (1x domestic, and 2 x international) for mid-2022 and the eticket was automatically issued in under 10 minutes.

 

[nightelves]

So if I wanted to add flight to my itinerary how would I go about doing it?

 

[Jacques Vert]

You have to call Qantas.

Best to find the flight(s) you want before you ring so you can quote date, time, flight number, departure and arrival airports, etc. This will make it a lot easier for both you and the agent.

 

[nightelves]

When questions like that crop up, its suggests that the person asking is almost certainly a novice when it comes to the 318k award.
So, nightelves, it might be stating something obvious to you, but just in case I'll add a cautionary note that all flights have to be on the one booking - you can't make several separate bookings online and then merge them i.e. when you add segments you have to do it through the call centre and make sure the operator adds each one to the same booking number.

Yes thanks for the advice. I did test out my segment which caps out at 318k and within all the rules. However some of these segments have not been available and therefore I have to wait. Also I wanted to at least book the first segment to allow unlimited changes upto Feb 2022 if booked before 31st July.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes thanks for the advice. I did test out my segment which caps out at 318k and within all the rules. However some of these segments have not been available and therefore I have to wait. Also I wanted to at least book the first segment to allow unlimited changes upto Feb 2022 if booked before 31st July.

Note that while folk have - so far - been successful in adding sectors for free, the the actual terminology of the offer is that date changes and cancellations are free of charge. Adding sectors to a booking is not a date change and should QF choose to enforce the rules as written, you'd be up for the change fee each time.

 

[Matt_01]

Note that while folk have - so far - been successful in adding sectors for free, the the actual terminology of the offer is that date changes and cancellations are free of charge. Adding sectors to a booking is not a date change and should QF choose to enforce the rules as written, you'd be up for the change fee each time.

I would suggest that while things are ticking along and there are no issues with making changes there is no need to keep on bringing up technicalities until it happens. If it does I am sure someone will report it, why try and fix something that is not broken.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I would suggest that while things are ticking along and there are no issues with making changes there is no need to keep on bringing up technicalities until it happens. If it does I am sure someone will report it.

I's not sure it's a mere technicality. QF might not be enforcing it but it could be an expensive exercise down the track if they decide to start following their rules next week. An alternative would be to book all the sectors now, any dates within the booking window will do. The dates can be changed on those sectors later for free, guaranteed.

 

[DC3]

I would suggest that while things are ticking along and there are no issues with making changes there is no need to keep on bringing up technicalities until it happens. If it does I am sure someone will report it, why try and fix something that is not broken.

Yes, Agree. Some things are best left alone. QF doesn’t need any help with this.

 

[Matt_01]

@MEL_Traveller I understand where you're coming from in your third sentence however this may be confusing for some. Given you can only book around 6-7 segments on QF (from memory) this may not be enough so you will still be calling to add segments. Also across the OW carriers there is about a 30 day spread between the release dates from the like of JL/QR to AA. Waiting for the AA release dates could result in missed availability from other carriers. QF T&C's are normally poorly worded and at times it is better to leave sleeping dogs alone.

 

[DC3]

@MEL_Traveller I understand where you're coming from in your third sentence however this may be confusing for some. Given you can only book around 6-7 segments on QF (from memory) this may not be enough so you will still be calling to add segments. Also across the OW carriers there is about a spread of 30 days between the release date from the like of JL/QR to AA. Waiting for the AA release dates could result in missed availability from other carriers. QF T&C's are normally poorly and at times it is better to leave sleeping dogs alone.

Exactly that. In my case, for a planned US trip in mid-2022, if I wait until AA releases the flight schedules (330 days out, at best) then the QF and JL award availability to get me into the US will have been long gone.

 

[Matt_01]

@DC3 in Apr this year I started bookings OW awards for an Apr 22 trip, I was hedging my bets on what countries I would be aloud transit through to get to JP, UK and the US and had about 5-6 separate itineraries on the trot at the same time. I was able to lock in the main long haul sectors but forgot to lock in the AU-XX (any one of HND, HKG, DOH) sectors. As I was a bit slow to lock in xAU within within 2-3 days of the release dates there was limited or no seating available. In the end I came to the realisation that leaving AU in Apr 22 was not going to be easy and cancelled all the itineraries. The points and taxes have been returned and I will have another crack for the Sep 22 school holidays.

When it comes to OW awards I suspect there are many on this site that focus to heavily on QF and forget that our hermit country has no clear plan to opening the borders and all the other OW carrier elites are starting to redeem what rewards seats are available. Come Sep I will start booking whatever I can get my hands on and worry about changing flight or substitution of itineraries through to Feb 22 and for the record I think this date will also push out. Playing the game is half the fun.

 

[kingzac]

Finally bit the bullet and moved my booking from Feb to later in 2022. Took three agents, first in the Philippines who ran in to a problem he couldn't answer and pulled the I can't hear you card and hung up. The second was a nice South African lady who ran in to the same issue and accidentally transferred me instead of putting me on hold (she left a long apology to be read to me in my itin), and finally another lovely South African lady who was a great laugh and highly skilled, she had it all fixed up very quickly.

Which leads me to my next question with my new flights. Has anyone got a way to select seats on Finnair and JAL with a reward seat?
Both have the seat select link missing when I go in to the booking on their site, and the Qantas site only lets me select BA and QF.

 

[Ktan89]

You should be able to go on www.finnair.com/au-en to select their seats but they will charge you.
You can also head over to JAL to select seats for the JAL sector.

Question: What date are you flying on Finnair? I thought Finnair doesn't release reward seats that far out anymore (late 2022)

 

[Captain Halliday]

Question: What date are you flying on Finnair? I thought Finnair doesn't release reward seats that far out anymore (late 2022)

Correct for J cabin.

Y cabin seat release was not enhanced and remains the same across OW partners as it is to AY members.

 

[kingzac]

You should be able to go on www.finnair.com/au-en to select their seats but they will charge you.
You can also head over to JAL to select seats for the JAL sector.

Question: What date are you flying on Finnair? I thought Finnair doesn't release reward seats that far out anymore (late 2022)

Finnair I'll just leave then, but JAL isn't showing up.
I've only moved it back to June for that leg. But my previous booking I had Finnair around 11 months in the future.

Post automatically merged: Jul 20, 2021

Correct for J cabin.

Y cabin seat release was not enhanced and remains the same across OW partners as it is to AY members.

You're right actually, I had y and changed it to j later

 

[DC3]

Has anyone got a way to select seats on Finnair and JAL with a reward seat?
Both have the seat select link missing when I go in to the booking on their site, and the Qantas site only lets me select BA and QF.

I selected seats on JL a few days ago (Edit: for early July 2022). The site is not really that intuitive.

So, on the JL site, when you ‘Search by reservation number’, the box for First Name needs first name and middle name, with no spaces in between. And, clicking ‘Booking details’ brings up the booking?

Then, after Flight information>Services (seats, in-flight meals, optional extras)>Select seat, you do not see an aircraft seating plan showing the available seats?

Edited

 

[Danger]

You should be able to go on www.finnair.com/au-en to select their seats but they will charge you.
You can also head over to JAL to select seats for the JAL sector.

Question: What date are you flying on Finnair? I thought Finnair doesn't release reward seats that far out anymore (late 2022)

Correct for J cabin.

Y cabin seat release was not enhanced and remains the same across OW partners as it is to AY members.

I've been able to grab J award seats on AY for 10 or so months from now, albeit intra-European.

 

[flapper]

Can anyone confirm has the OWA become a RTW? When I added a flight today the points went over 400K. I asked why (SA CC) and was told it will only go back to 318K when I book a flight back to my point of departure. I asked where it said that in the rules but he just kept repeating the same thing. So I tried a dummy booking and sure enough they only go back to 318K when I add a flight back to my departure point. Is this a change in the rules?

 

[ozflier]

Can anyone confirm has the OWA become a RTW? When I added a flight today the points went over 400K. I asked why (SA CC) and was told it will only go back to 318K when I book a flight back to my point of departure. I asked where it said that in the rules but he just kept repeating the same thing. So I tried a dummy booking and sure enough they only go back to 318K when I add a flight back to my departure point. Is this a change in the rules?

Hi. I'm pretty sure that one of the OWA rules is that you need to fly back to the country of departure . It does not need to be a RTW though.