Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[sarvowinner]

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

Was the aim of avoiding LHR to miss the Air Passenger Duty? If so note you don't pay it on transfers so routing via LHR or other UK airports as transit points shouldn't affect the taxes in a meaningful way.

Thanks Knasty, I had seen lots of posts that advise avoiding LHR due to cost, I didn't realise the taxes didn't apply to transfers.

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

does anyone know if American Airlines ever makes their business class reward seats available to Qantas for the oneworld 280K J-class reward? I'm talking about their JFK-SFO transcon services on 3 class aircraft (currently 767, soon replaced by A321).
I've been trying to look these seats up using Qantas booking engine but all I can see is combinations via DFW, ORD, LAX etc, no direct flights at all and all the combinations only show F and Y availbility (they are mostly on AA's old MD80 metal)

any comment/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[Princess Fiona]

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

does anyone know if American Airlines ever makes their business class reward seats available to Qantas for the oneworld 280K J-class reward? I'm talking about their JFK-SFO transcon services on 3 class aircraft (currently 767, soon replaced by A321).
I've been trying to look these seats up using Qantas booking engine but all I can see is combinations via DFW, ORD, LAX etc, no direct flights at all and all the combinations only show F and Y availbility (they are mostly on AA's old MD80 metal)

any comment/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Yes they most certainly do
I recently changed a booking from LAX-JFK to LAX-MIA, 2 x J seats. I identified the J seat award availability on AA.com and in fact the QF booking engine could also see the same seats, so it's definitely possible
Good luck !

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

Yes they most certainly do
I recently changed a booking from LAX-JFK to LAX-MIA, 2 x J seats. I identified the J seat award availability on AA.com and in fact the QF booking engine could also see the same seats, so it's definitely possible
Good luck !

Thanks a lot! I will keep trying

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

after a couple of days research and spending about an hour on the phone with Qantas, got the following booking for 2 pax in J (mostly, still could not get AA business class seats on direct transcon flights from SFO to JFK, they cannot be seen anywhere apart from the AA booking engine, Qantas could not see them either and their advice was to wait a couple of month and they may be released then and if we're lucky, we'll then upgrade our current flights from Y to J at 3.5K points each)

SYD-BNE (overnight stop for 12 hours as I simply can't get up at 4 am to catch a 6.30 am flight from SYD to BNE to connect with the next flight to HKG)-HKG (stop) - SFO (stop) - ORD-LGA (stop) - MAD-LHR (Stop) - own way to - ARN - LCY - (transfer, a bit of pain in the a$$ but could not get anything in J from ARN to LHR)- LHR-JNB (stop) - SYD

all in J apart from the two silly AA flights which I'm still hoping to be able to upgrade to J in a couple of months

taxes/surcharges $1350 pp

all ticketed, now fighting with the Iberia website to select seat, can do it online FOC but after pressing "Accept" nothing happens, the seat selection is on the screen but the new info does not feed into Amadeus so I'm kinda stuck with it, might have to call Iberia

also appalled by BA's suggestion we pay something like $350 for our advance seat selection, I think it's a bit much

Also, had to book the whole thing on the phone paying $60 pp as the wonderful QF online booking engine kept giving me an error, the QF agent very cheerfully acknowledged that that was the known 'phantom availability' problem with CX seats but refused to waive the charge saying it was not the airline (QF i.e.) problem, rather Cathay's so had to cop this on the chin:shock:

 

[N860CR]

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

It's very odd. Up until 31 Dec there was availability almost everyday between JFK and LAX/SFO in J on the direct AA services.

From 1st Jan onwards, all I was able to find was the same as you. Out of LGA and via ORD in Y or F only.

Not sure what happened. Seems to be an issue at QFs end though as AA shows awards as available.

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

It's very odd. Up until 31 Dec there was availability almost everyday between JFK and LAX/SFO in J on the direct AA services.

From 1st Jan onwards, all I was able to find was the same as you. Out of LGA and via ORD in Y or F only.

Not sure what happened. Seems to be an issue at QFs end though as AA shows awards as available.

You're telling me...QF agents (spoken to 3 different ones) couldn't see anything other than the ORD/LGA combinations
one said they they now become available 2-3 months later after the normal 11 month release date
I'm also thinking maybe AA anticipate problems with their new A321 metal and hold these seats? Take a wild guess

 

[N860CR]

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

Who knows... It's very frustrating though. I ended up ditching the West Coast on my next one world award and just head straight from JFK to HKG. Couldn't bring myself to the horror of AA Y

 

[MrHanky]

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

Hey all,

I'm fairly new at this so please be nice

Trying to book a Oneworld award as follows:

MEL-SYD-BKK (QF, stop) - BKK-HKG (CX,stop) - HKG-LHR (CX/BA, stop) - LHR-YYZ (BA, stop) - YYZ-LHR

It lets me get all the way through to the final flight selection and then says "ERROR : please check those fields Invalid travel class for redemption."

Any ideas what's wrong with that itinerary?

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

2 stops in the same city. LHR at the end of your journey becomes the second stop. You can only have 1 stop in the same city but can transit more than once

 

[tallboy]

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

Was the aim of avoiding LHR to miss the Air Passenger Duty? If so note you don't pay it on transfers so routing via LHR or other UK airports as transit points shouldn't affect the taxes in a meaningful way.

Are you sure about that? A couple of times in recent years I priced up itineraries using LHR as a transfer point only (no stopover) compared with other European ports (MAD, CDG), and each time LHR featured in the itinerary the taxes increased significantly.

 

[knasty]

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

No APD for arrivals or transits of <24 hours. That's not to say that non-APD LHR taxes aren't higher than the competition.

 

[dot]

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

Hey all,

I'm fairly new at this so please be nice

Trying to book a Oneworld award as follows:

MEL-SYD-BKK (QF, stop) - BKK-HKG (CX,stop) - HKG-LHR (CX/BA, stop) - LHR-YYZ (BA, stop) - YYZ-LHR

It lets me get all the way through to the final flight selection and then says "ERROR : please check those fields Invalid travel class for redemption."

Any ideas what's wrong with that itinerary?

Well, if you're booking a RTW award, the first problem is that you need to go around the world... plus backtracking (YYZ-LHR trans Atlantic for the second time) is not allowed. If you changed it to YYZ-LAX-MEL, then it would be a valid itinerary.

 

[deejo77]

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

the one world award does not require you to go around the world.

 

[burnt]

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

You should be able to double back to the UK if you did the following, MEL - SYD(T1)-BKK(S.O.1)-HKG(S.O.2)- LHR(T1)-BHX(S.O.3)-LHR(T2)-YYZ(S.O.4)-LHR(S.O.5)-DXB(T1)-MEL(HOME)
This just means that Birmingham becomes your first stopover in the UK and you have to have another stopover in LHR on the way back as you would otherwise have exceeded the two transits for LHR that you are limited to by the "rules", but two transits and a stopover is OK.
Try this if you want to get back to the UK or otherwise do as dot suggests and cross the pacific.

 

[Kangol]

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

the one world award does not require you to go around the world.

One way of thinking about it is calling it a "oneworld distance based award". I've heard it being called that by bloggers and others in the FF world; AA have a similar option with more flexibility.

Maybe the mods can change the title...?

 

[Nizar]

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

the one world award does not require you to go around the world.

But start and end cities must still be within the same country ?

 

[Princess Fiona]

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

But start and end cities must still be within the same country ?

No but the distance between the end point and the origin must be calculated as part of the award:

14.5 Classic Awards - oneworld Award booking conditions
14.5.1 A oneworld Award is a Classic Award Itinerary that includes travel on at least two oneworld Alliance Airlines other than Qantas and does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline.
14.5.2 Classic Awards using the oneworld Classic Award table must be no more than a distance of 56,315 kilometres (35,000 miles). Longer journeys must be broken into separate Itineraries.
14.5.3 A one way oneworld Award Itinerary will be charged as a return Itinerary. oneworld Award 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 Points required to redeem the Flight Award and the maximum distance for the Itinerary.
14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply:
(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.
14.5.5 Surface Segments are permitted as part of oneworld Award Itineraries, but the distance between the disembarkation point and the next embarkation point will be included in the Award Point zone calculation for that Itinerary.
14.5.6 Where mixed-class travel is booked, the whole Itinerary will be calculated using the Points level for the highest class booked.

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

Well, if you're booking a RTW award, the first problem is that you need to go around the world... plus backtracking (YYZ-LHR trans Atlantic for the second time) is not allowed. If you changed it to YYZ-LAX-MEL, then it would be a valid itinerary.

Incorrect. The Oneworld award is different from a RTW type fare (eg DONE5 and the like) which is a revenue fare, not a points award. There's no requirement to go around the world, no there's a restriction on backtracking

 

[Nizar]

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

Guys does anyone know what happens if you book a OW 280k award but then on a shorter journey the airline you are flying has only a two-class Y and F configuration, which class does the fare allow you to book into ?
I'm booking a 280k OW award for my parents and one of the legs is DOH-MED which is on the A320 domestic regional configuration of only Y and F. They arrive into DOH some 7 hours prior on a flight from PER so lounge access would indeed be handy.

Thoughts ?
Cheers