Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[GaryLG]

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.

Agreed.

 

[motef]

You may finish your itinerary in a different city to the one you started from, but the distance between the two cities will be taken into account in the final distance calculation (i.e. as a surface sector) and it must be in the same country

 

[FrankC]

You may finish your itinerary in a different city to the one you started from, but the distance between the two cities will be taken into account in the final distance calculation (i.e. as a surface sector) and it must be in the same country

Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

These Terms and Conditions form the basis of Qantas Frequent Flyer, to protect both Members and the Qantas Group.

www.qantas.com

14.5.3 A one way oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itinerary will be charged as a return Itinerary. oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itineraries finishing in a port other than the port of origin must include the distance to return directly to the port of origin when calculating the number of Qantas Points required to redeem the Flight Reward and the maximum distance for the Itinerary.

The distance back to the origin is definitely included, but can't seem to find this same country rule?

 

[DC3]

Definitely no need for RTW. Just stay within the rules for the 318,000 points J award.

 

[flapper]

Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

These Terms and Conditions form the basis of Qantas Frequent Flyer, to protect both Members and the Qantas Group.

www.qantas.com

14.5.3 A one way oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itinerary will be charged as a return Itinerary. oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itineraries finishing in a port other than the port of origin must include the distance to return directly to the port of origin when calculating the number of Qantas Points required to redeem the Flight Reward and the maximum distance for the Itinerary.

The distance back to the origin is definitely included, but can't seem to find this same country rule?

I couldn't find the rule about returning to the country of origin either. I checked my last two bookings (cancelled) made last year and they maxed out at 318K before the return flight to Oz was added. The dummy booking I tested yesterday did go over the 318K until I added a flight to Oz. So I hope when I add the flights back home the points will reduce to 318K. I believe I have met all the rules.

 

[11sjw]

I couldn't find the rule about returning to the country of origin either. I checked my last two bookings (cancelled) made last year and they maxed out at 318K before the return flight to Oz was added. The dummy booking I tested yesterday did go over the 318K until I added a flight to Oz. So I hope when I add the flights back home the points will reduce to 318K. I believe I have met all the rules.

Yes, that last flight can end up just being for the surcharge $ and not require anymore points. Definitely was the case on my last OWA.

 

[motef]

Remember it doesn’t need to be Aus. You can start and stop in SIN for example.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

I haven't been following this thread for quite some time - a few years actually.
Mrs Danster & myself are looking at a J OWA sometime when the world opens up again. 2023? Who knows.
Anyway question for those more experienced... We are looking for an itinerary which complies with all rules for the 318K points in J.

Depart SYD is about the only fixed thing. Plan on being away for around 8 weeks, maybe 9 or 10.

Desired places to visit somewhat in this order but don't care too much:
TLV (possibly break the flight with a night or two in HKG, safety permitting!)
LHR
DUB
Somewhere else in Europe - would like to check out east coast of Adriatic Sea, only coz we've seen lovely travel shows around Split, Hungary (Budapest etc), Brno, Vienna.
JFK or LGA
maybe somewhere else in USA
HNL
ZQN if possible
SYD

At this stage not looking for anything to fix in stone but just throwing out to the community for ideas at this stage. I've always found it difficult to find flights from mainland USA to HNL via the Qantas site doing the multi-city thingo. Is there some special trick?
Then onwards from HNL back to SYD or possibly via ZQN. If HNL is too hard then might look at AKL or ZQN as mentioned - really the only reason for HNL is it'd be great to have a final few days/1 week just to unwind & chill around a beach and/or pool for a bit.

Is there better software or website I can use other than Qantas multi city booking? I just find it seems to be a bit hit and miss & takes ages to work out an itinerary then at the last stage spits out an error that a leg can't be done (comment above about finding flights to HNL is a case in point). If I can fiddle about on a different website then when we're ready to book sometime in 2022 I can just phone up Q and tell them all the flight codes/times/dates. Ideally I'd want to skip ringing and book it all online but that might not be possible.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

HNL is a hugely popular market for Americans... award seats have always been scare on those routes. I suspect many seats are snapped up by AA's own members quite early, perhaps before they are even released to QFFF.

 

[vetrade]

Danster, I think your question is far too broad and vague to be expecting to get specific itinerary info. You need to do more of your own research and narrow your parameters quite a bit so you can decide more clearly which places you want to visit.

Firstly, if 2023 is your aim, you have plenty of time to read back through the last 2 years (about 100 pages) of this thread to familiarise yourself with what has changed since you last followed it.

Planning and booking 318K awards can be a lot of work, and you can't avoid doing most of that yourself. Ensure you understand the Qantas OWA Ts&Cs, pick cities where you have a good chance of getting award flights, in and out; and perhaps more importantly, work out which places are virtually impossible to get J award seats to so you don’t waste your time hoping for them.

Personally, I wouldn't waste my time trying for even Y awards to TLV, HNL and ZQN simply because they are either non-existent or so rare as to make putting together an itinerary near hopeless. TLV is especially problematic because quite a few Middle Eastern countries don’t permit travel to or from Israel.

Also remember that within Europe you can easily use cheap cash fares as separate bookings to the OWA to get to a lot of cities.

With regard to looking for J awards, joining JAL's FF scheme will get you the best info about their availability.

 

[k_sheep]

Anyone know much about destinations to/from CMN regarding award availability? Crystal ball skills? Didn't get a chance to play much when Royal Air Maroc joined.

I'm thinking I'll book one of these soon with little expectation of it actually going to plan ... but I gotta do something

 

[cambriamarsh]

Danster, I think your question is far too broad and vague to be expecting to get specific itinerary info. You need to do more of your own research and narrow your parameters quite a bit so you can decide more clearly which places you want to visit.

Firstly, if 2023 is your aim, you have plenty of time to read back through the last 2 years (about 100 pages) of this thread to familiarise yourself with what has changed since you last followed it.

Planning and booking 318K awards can be a lot of work, and you can't avoid doing most of that yourself. Ensure you understand the Qantas OWA Ts&Cs, pick cities where you have a good chance of getting award flights, in and out; and perhaps more importantly, work out which places are virtually impossible to get J award seats to so you don’t waste your time hoping for them.

Personally, I wouldn't waste my time trying for even Y awards to TLV, HNL and ZQN simply because they are either non-existent or so rare as to make putting together an itinerary near hopeless. TLV is especially problematic because quite a few Middle Eastern countries don’t permit travel to or from Israel.

Also remember that within Europe you can easily use cheap cash fares as separate bookings to the OWA to get to a lot of cities.

With regard to looking for J awards, joining JAL's FF scheme will get you the best info about their availability.

TLV was ok from SYD via HKG Pre COVID.
Agree HNL is very difficult except maybe from Japan?
Don't think there are any Oneworkd flights to ZQN. JQ flies there but it's not part of 1W.

 

[Daver6]

Danster, I think your question is far too broad and vague to be expecting to get specific itinerary info. You need to do more of your own research and narrow your parameters quite a bit so you can decide more clearly which places you want to visit.

Firstly, if 2023 is your aim, you have plenty of time to read back through the last 2 years (about 100 pages) of this thread to familiarise yourself with what has changed since you last followed it.

Planning and booking 318K awards can be a lot of work, and you can't avoid doing most of that yourself. Ensure you understand the Qantas OWA Ts&Cs, pick cities where you have a good chance of getting award flights, in and out; and perhaps more importantly, work out which places are virtually impossible to get J award seats to so you don’t waste your time hoping for them.

Personally, I wouldn't waste my time trying for even Y awards to TLV, HNL and ZQN simply because they are either non-existent or so rare as to make putting together an itinerary near hopeless. TLV is especially problematic because quite a few Middle Eastern countries don’t permit travel to or from Israel.

Also remember that within Europe you can easily use cheap cash fares as separate bookings to the OWA to get to a lot of cities.

With regard to looking for J awards, joining JAL's FF scheme will get you the best info about their availability.

I'm going to disagree with two points here but the others are valid.

You can actually get help and I've done so myself. Well worth the investment. Use Award Flight Assist - Frequent Flyer Solutions

Secondly, getting to TLV isn't difficult at all. There are many options as BA, IB, RJ and CX all fly there (well did pre-Covid. RJ flies into the far east and you can get to AMM to get RJ from AMM to TLV (although the taxes are extortionate). Getting to AMM is easy on QR. Departing TLV it looks like you want to go to LHR. That's super easy on BA.

 

[Matt_01]

@Danster welcome back to the planning thread there is lots of good advice here. These are just some of my thoughts and how I go about things. When I start planning a trip I use Great Circle Map to check if my overall mileage meets the general rules. I will then start looking for individual sectors (including connections) from point A-B, trying to put an entire 8-10 week flight itinerary will often not work see the article @Mattg put together Qantas Error Codes.

At an initial glance your iterienary may not work, as I read it, my comments are in bold:
Starting from SYD

• TLV (possibly break the flight with a night or two in HKG, safety permitting!) if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• LHR if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• DUB if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• Somewhere else in Europe - would like to check out east coast of Adriatic Sea, only coz we've seen lovely travel shows around Split, Hungary (Budapest etc), Brno, Vienna. if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• JFK or LGA if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• maybe somewhere else in USA if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• HNL if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• ZQN if possible if over 24 hours it is a stopover
• SYD

Unless the rules have changed you can only have 5 stopovers, you seem to be well beyond that. The OW awards bookings are great value but do take bit (normally a lot) planning to extract maximum value. As @Daver6 suggests the award flight assist maybe a good starting point.

My thoughts would be it may not be worth trying to get to many EU sectors included in the main itinerary as EU J is basically Y with the middle seat blocked and US J is relatively cheap. Also look at the current QF classic rewards change rules if you do not read into them too much and as long as you book at least one sector by 28 Feb 22 you can have free changes through to Dec 22 which will enable for travel to around Nov 23. Saying that if you do not have status the call wait times will be long.

Best of luck

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

Wow...thanks peeps. I didn't expect such a big response. All that feedback is very useful. I've spent several hours, maybe a day or so, of dummy booking on QF multi-city booking system and TLV is pretty easy to get but as @MEL_Traveller, @vetrade et al says, HNL is basically impossible. I have seen some AA flights but not via the QF engine, that was going onto the AA site IIRC.

It looks like Mrs Danster may need to rethink the relaxing beach in Hawaii! Any other suggestions from mainland USA before heading home to SYD?

I'll take some time to go back a couple of years of this thread as suggested.

The 5 stopover rule will need some thought and planning. Maybe we'll use LHR or even some EU city as an arrival and/or departure port and use our own steam to get around Europe. I'd still be interested to see what others might suggest. It's a fairly simple itinerary, depart/arrive SYD, some time in Israel, some time in UK, some time in EU, some time in USA, and a brief few days lazing around a beach before back to SYD.

 

[Matt_01]

HNL is basically impossible. I have seen some AA flights but not via the QF engine, that was going onto the AA site IIRC.

It looks like Mrs Danster may need to rethink the relaxing beach in Hawaii! Any other suggestions from mainland USA before heading home to SYD?

Don't limit yourself to AA, some random searching on the QF site returns x2 J availability SEA-HNL with AS.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

Don't limit yourself to AA, some random searching on the QF site returns x2 J availability SEA-HNL with AS.

Great idea. Thx for the tip.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Wow...thanks peeps. I didn't expect such a big response. All that feedback is very useful. I've spent several hours, maybe a day or so, of dummy booking on QF multi-city booking system and TLV is pretty easy to get but as @MEL_Traveller, @vetrade et al says, HNL is basically impossible. I have seen some AA flights but not via the QF engine, that was going onto the AA site IIRC.

It looks like Mrs Danster may need to rethink the relaxing beach in Hawaii! Any other suggestions from mainland USA before heading home to SYD?

I'll take some time to go back a couple of years of this thread as suggested.

The 5 stopover rule will need some thought and planning. Maybe we'll use LHR or even some EU city as an arrival and/or departure port and use our own steam to get around Europe. I'd still be interested to see what others might suggest. It's a fairly simple itinerary, depart/arrive SYD, some time in Israel, some time in UK, some time in EU, some time in USA, and a brief few days lazing around a beach before back to SYD.

My best suggestion is, as always, be flexible with both dates and routing and avoid school holidays times; have your 5 preferred stopover cities but also have at least another 5 alternatives and be prepared to do some land transfers or additonal flights outside of the Oneworld Award to get to any "must-see" destinations.

Some further comments (all based on the situation pre-pandemic):

• depart/arrive SYD: Award seats out of SYD can be difficult; I've had better success departing from other cities so be open to taking a positioning flight to ADL, MEL, BNE, PER, etc.
• some time in Israel: @Daver6 has this covered in post 9593
• some time in UK, some time in EU: @Daver6 has mentioned BA and you may also find IB to MAD or (unlikely) AY to HEL, while a transit through AMM could open up quite a few options
• some time in USA: consider flights between some of the less popular cities (LHR to JFK can, at times, be hard to find especially if you don't book well in advance) and departing from a European city (rather than from the UK) will avoid the expensive UK departure tax
• a brief few days lazing around a beach: check availability of flights to HNL if you wish but remember to be flexible as lots of countries have beaches.

Of course we don't know what routes will be available in 2023; we don't even know which airlines will still be flying and which will be in Oneworld. However, it is good that you are starting your planning well in advance as you have time to learn the rules and consider the possibilities.

Best of luck!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

BA is usually ok for availability transatlantic - but their fuel surcharges are bordering on prohibitive AA has very low surcharges and a solid product seat wise, but finding availability can be hard... pre-pandemic Charlotte and Philadelphia had good availability transatlantic to/from London - but often this was married segments... so CLT/PHL to/from LHR would be unavailable on its own, but showed up if paired with another US city.

 

[11sjw]

Wow...thanks peeps. I didn't expect such a big response. All that feedback is very useful. I've spent several hours, maybe a day or so, of dummy booking on QF multi-city booking system and TLV is pretty easy to get but as @MEL_Traveller, @vetrade et al says, HNL is basically impossible. I have seen some AA flights but not via the QF engine, that was going onto the AA site IIRC.

It looks like Mrs Danster may need to rethink the relaxing beach in Hawaii! Any other suggestions from mainland USA before heading home to SYD?

I'll take some time to go back a couple of years of this thread as suggested.

The 5 stopover rule will need some thought and planning. Maybe we'll use LHR or even some EU city as an arrival and/or departure port and use our own steam to get around Europe. I'd still be interested to see what others might suggest. It's a fairly simple itinerary, depart/arrive SYD, some time in Israel, some time in UK, some time in EU, some time in USA, and a brief few days lazing around a beach before back to SYD.

With regard to HNL you could try getting yourself to a US city and buying (points or $) a return trip from that city to HNL. It doesn't count against your OWA mileage and the aim of some hawaiian sun is achieved. We did similar for a few internal (mainland USA) flights during our last OWA.