Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[SydneySwan]

Glad to hear you're home safe and sorry you had to cut your trip short.


Is it at all possible these days to book an OWA trip *without* having to phone QF?

I managed it in September but you are of course limited by the 6 flight segments of the Multi-city tool.

 

[vetrade]

Interestingly, the other day I got told by 2 operators that I couldn't add a flight to my OWA because it had already been ticketed... Hung up on both of them because the extra flight isn't worth risking the whole ticket to incompetence but a little frustrating. There is also clearly available and bookable tickets online (Sydney to Perth via Brisbane) that I wanted to change my flight to but they "couldn't see them on their system".

The bit about not being able to add a flight because a OWA had already been ticketed is obviously rubbish, but there is some truth about your second comment. For around 9 - 12 months QF has been blocking pax with a OWA from adding or changing reward seats on most domestic flights on QF metal. The reward seats which can be seen online are readily bookable as a standard classic reward redemption, but not as part of a call centre modification of a OWA booking. The exception to this is if you book the domestic QF flights you want online before the system recognises it as a OWA booking.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not just one world awards, it also applies to standard award bookings point-to-point international where you try to add a domestic connecting flight.

 

[SimonR32]

The bit about not being able to add a flight because a OWA had already been ticketed is obviously rubbish, but there is some truth about your second comment. For around 9 - 12 months QF has been blocking pax with a OWA from adding or changing reward seats on most domestic flights on QF metal. The reward seats which can be seen online are readily bookable as a standard classic reward redemption, but not as part of a call centre modification of a OWA booking. The exception to this is if you book the domestic QF flights you want online before the system recognises it as a OWA booking.

Interesting!

To add even more flavour to the mix, I originally had a SYD-PER booked on the Friday, only to need to change it to Thursday, first operator had no idea so hung up and called again. The Second operator couldn't find any flights SYD-PER on the Thursday, although plenty were showing up online (via Brisbane), but then all of a sudden managed to find one (not the one I wanted but will give me some time in Sydney) later in the day. I even at one stage dummy booked the classic reward flights I wanted and gave them the booking number but they couldn't see them on their system. No idea why they could find the flights I wanted that were showing up on the same day in the same system but not the others.

Such a maze of anomalies and misunderstanding by call centre operators, I've given up as it was for a work trip and it's not that important or worth the risk of them stuffing up the rest of the booking. I've got 22 business class flights booked with points in the next 6 months so a few stints in economy won't be the end of the world.

 

[Roundtheworld123]

Hi there. New to the world of booking round the world flights but am trying to see how I got with booking trip next Christmas 23/24. Thinking this route...
PER-HKG-BKK - stay 10 days
BKK-HKG-LHR-MUC - Stay in Europe - 10 days weeks open jaw
LHR-JFK Stay 3 days
JFK-SEA-YYC (New York- Seattle - Calgary) Stop over and drive open jaw - stay 10 days. fly out of Vancouver
YVR-NRT - stay 3-4 days in Tokyo
NRT-HKG-PER (or any path from NRT to PER) - flights not out yet.

Thinking of a 6 week trip with wife and two teens - 4 adults total. Dec 2023 to Jan 2023. Looks like flights are only available currently up until late Dec, so from reading on this website to secure tickets for the earlier flights thinking of booking the PER-BKK...BKK-MUC hols till Chrissi and then come back late mid Feb and book the remaining MUC-JFK-CAL-YVR when they are available. Understand with 4 adults it will cost $5k each = $20k, but sounds like I may have to in order to secure flights?

From PER trying to get out of Australia to PER-HKG-BKK is very limited at the moment. Looks like there are only premium economy at the moment.

Questions
1. Any thoughts/advice on my trip? We mainly want to go to Vancouver and Munich, New York and Tokyo and Bangkok. But no issues with order. Also looked at the other way round as well as doing Thailand last and first each way.

2. Wanted to see if I book any one of the flights at a higher class, do that mean that I would get charged those taxes/fees of premium economy the whole way around even if I book the rest Economy?

3. There are no flights at all in any month from June to Dec 2023 from PER-DOH-LHR-MUC which looks like QATAR do the PER-DOH-LHR but nothing comes up. Is this normal?

4. It does feel like its hard to get out of Australia on QFF points but would it be right to assume its easier and theres more availability once you can get out?

Thanks to all for reading and look forward to any thoughts.
Regards,
RTW123

 

[Mr H]

Hi there. New to the world of booking round the world flights but am trying to see how I got with booking trip next Christmas 23/24. Thinking this route...
PER-HKG-BKK - stay 10 days
BKK-HKG-LHR-MUC - Stay in Europe - 10 days weeks open jaw
LHR-JFK Stay 3 days
JFK-SEA-YYC (New York- Seattle - Calgary) Stop over and drive open jaw - stay 10 days. fly out of Vancouver
YVR-NRT - stay 3-4 days in Tokyo
NRT-HKG-PER (or any path from NRT to PER) - flights not out yet.

Thinking of a 6 week trip with wife and two teens - 4 adults total. Dec 2023 to Jan 2023. Looks like flights are only available currently up until late Dec, so from reading on this website to secure tickets for the earlier flights thinking of booking the PER-BKK...BKK-MUC hols till Chrissi and then come back late mid Feb and book the remaining MUC-JFK-CAL-YVR when they are available. Understand with 4 adults it will cost $5k each = $20k, but sounds like I may have to in order to secure flights?

From PER trying to get out of Australia to PER-HKG-BKK is very limited at the moment. Looks like there are only premium economy at the moment.

Questions
1. Any thoughts/advice on my trip? We mainly want to go to Vancouver and Munich, New York and Tokyo and Bangkok. But no issues with order. Also looked at the other way round as well as doing Thailand last and first each way.

2. Wanted to see if I book any one of the flights at a higher class, do that mean that I would get charged those taxes/fees of premium economy the whole way around even if I book the rest Economy?

3. There are no flights at all in any month from June to Dec 2023 from PER-DOH-LHR-MUC which looks like QATAR do the PER-DOH-LHR but nothing comes up. Is this normal?

4. It does feel like its hard to get out of Australia on QFF points but would it be right to assume its easier and theres more availability once you can get out?

Thanks to all for reading and look forward to any thoughts.
Regards,
RTW123

Just be aware that December and January are going to be cold with short daylight in the northern hemisphere.

 

[Roundtheworld123]

Just be aware that December and January are going to be cold with short daylight in the northern hemisphere.

Hi Mr H. Yes aware of this but thanks for the tip. Going snowboarding, skiing and anything else I can muster up in the snow . Maybe some dog sledding from a friend in Canada who runs some. Might even sleep in an igloo if I’m lucky! Thailand can thaw us out before or after the northern hemisphere.
Any thoughts on the questions ? Any info is much appreciated.

 

[Mr H]

Hi Mr H. Yes aware of this but thanks for the tip. Going snowboarding, skiing and anything else I can muster up in the snow . Maybe some dog sledding from a friend in Canada who runs some. Might even sleep in an igloo if I’m lucky! Thailand can thaw us out before or after the northern hemisphere.
Any thoughts on the questions ? Any info is much appreciated.

1. Your call.
2. I think taxes and fees are usually charged per flight so a single higher class flight would not affect the taxes and fees of other flights - but there may be exceptions for married sectors and routes out of the UK where APD is charged based on class of travel.
3. Qatar flights have become almost unavailable to QF members - currently economy seats are made available at about three and a half months out if other partner airlines have not already snapped them up.
4. Yes, getting in and out of Australia on points is usually the trickiest part of an itinerary but there can be other pinch points too. Do not assume that a flight that is available now will still be there next week.

 

[algae]

My only tip for question 1, do Japan first and Bangkok last (or vice versa) as those flights from Australia are usually much easier to get. Plus connecting flights to Europe and North America will be easier once you're in Asia

 

[Roundtheworld123]

Hi there. I read the "How to fly around the world mega guide" which is a great resource. I see that it says "Your itinerary does not contain more than 2 surface sectors (excluding changing airports in the same city)"
Would this mean that if I fly into New York at LaGuardia (LGA) and then a few days later fly out of JFK in New York, would that count as a surface sector or does it somehow know that the airports are in the same city and so therefore it would see it as one stopover rather than a surface sector? I assume that is what the last bit in brackets (in bold above) in talking about? Just wanted to check.. Thanks

 

[algae]

Hi there. I read the "How to fly around the world mega guide" which is a great resource. I see that it says "Your itinerary does not contain more than 2 surface sectors (excluding changing airports in the same city)"
Would this mean that if I fly into New York at LaGuardia (LGA) and then a few days later fly out of JFK in New York, would that count as a surface sector or does it somehow know that the airports are in the same city and so therefore it would see it as one stopover rather than a surface sector? I assume that is what the last bit in brackets (in bold above) in talking about? Just wanted to check.. Thanks

Yep it'll know they're the same city and it won't count as a surface sector.

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Just managed to score the following in September/October in J (318k points) + only $470k taxes:

SYD-MNL-HND - first leg on QF A330, second leg on JAL B787 (need to look into which J product this will be). Will spend 2 weeks in Japan, stopping in Suzuka for the F1 and ending in Osaka.
KIX-HEL - keen to try what I hope should be the new J seat on the Finnair A350. Couple of nights in Helsinki.
HEL-KEF - Finnair A320. Couple of weeks in Iceland.
HEL-HKG - back on the A350 with Finnair, with a couple of nights in HK.
HKG-SYD - QF A330.

I would have liked to add in an extra segment from KEF-HEL before the flight to HK, but the multi-city tool wouldn't allow me to add a 7th segment. Oh well, happy to just pay for that flight if need be. For all the negativity that Qantas attracts (deservedly), there are decent opportunities to redeem points if you have complete flexibility - I wasn't desperate for a stop in HK, but I guess it's the price you pay (although not an overly high one).

Now to pray the flight tickets correctly and no schedule changes (unlikely).

 

[algae]

KIX-HEL - keen to try what I hope should be the new J seat on the Finnair A350. Couple of nights in Helsinki.

Careful of this flight. I also had 2x J tickets booked on this flight for May 2023.

3 months after booking i got an email informing me the flight has been cancelled and no alternative was offered.

This accompanied the announcement that Finnair wasnt going to be flying the seasonal HEL-KIX route due to the Russian airspace issues.

Fortunately I was somehow able to find JAL tickets on the same day to Tokyo instead which i changed to.

If possible I'd recommend changing to a JL or AY Tokyo to Helsinki flight instead. These aren't seasonal flights and have still been flying even with the Russia situation (with a long detour). If no availability now, keep an eye out as those JL flight i booked certainly weren't there when i made my original booking.

Less chance of Putin ruining your holiday.

 

[vetrade]

Just managed to score the following in September/October in J (318k points) + only $470k taxes:

"Only" $470k taxes????

 

[Mr H]

"Only" $470k taxes????

LOL, clearly a typo. But it does illustrate the difference in fees/taxes for different airlines. AY and JL are at the low end - had this been on BA/QR/QF it could easily have got to $2k or more.

 

[CaptainCurtis]

If possible I'd recommend changing to a JL or AY Tokyo to Helsinki flight instead. These aren't seasonal flights and have still been flying even with the Russia situation (with a long detour). If no availability now, keep an eye out as those JL flight i booked certainly weren't there when i made my original booking.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll have to look into it. Nothing available on JL at the moment, but there are options with AY via Tokyo or CX via HK. I've woken up with a ticket number (hooray), so a little bit scared to even be thinking about making changes at this point.

"Only" $470k taxes????

LOL, clearly a typo. But it does illustrate the difference in fees/taxes for different airlines. AY and JL are at the low end - had this been on BA/QR/QF it could easily have got to $2k or more.

Haha, my mistake! I was expecting them to be at least $1k, but there definitely are benefits avoiding BA/QR and the dreaded LHR departure tax.

 

[Roundtheworld123]

Hi All. Just trying to book my RTW flights. Had two questions.
1. If you book your flights and then need to cancel before you fly, in the terms it says that if you need to cancel you will pay 5000 points per person. I have 4 people so thats 20,000. Thats all good. But I am wondering when I go to reserve the tickets and it looks like I will pay around $3000 in taxes. I couldn't easily see if I were to cancel these flights before I fly, would I get the refund of all fees (air transportation, taxes fees and charges).

2. Secondly, I was trying to book from BKK to MUC via LHR. But I found that in the one way qantas booking section I could see the flights but when I went into the Multi-booking tool it sent me from BKK to Japan to MUC which takes a huge amount of time longer to fly. So I then split the flight up having a BKK to HKG and a HKG to MUC via LHR. It means the flight is a lot shorter duration. But I wanted to know seeing I have broken the flight up in the multi flight selector, Would this mean that I would need to get my baggage at the airport and then check back into the flight, or would all that be covered? I assume the airline would not know they are connected.
As the flights are all there BKK-HKG-LHR-MUC if I rang up would they be able to help with connecting these flights? Wasn't sure. I have made it 3 hours for the stopover between BKK-HKG and then HKG-LHE-MUC so if needed I could get our bags and then do it that way. .
Apologies if these are very newbie questions but am on here to try and seek help as I haven't done this before. Any suggestions or tips welcome!
Thanks, RTW123

 

[Roundtheworld123]

My only tip for question 1, do Japan first and Bangkok last (or vice versa) as those flights from Australia are usually much easier to get. Plus connecting flights to Europe and North America will be easier once you're in Asia

Good advice here! Been looking more and there is definitely more options once you escape the Aussie mainland and go to Asia rather than trying to go to Europe first... Thanks!

 

[BriarFlyer]

@Roundtheworld123

1. If you cancel, yes, all the taxes/surcharges are refunded.

2. Even though you're splitting the flights up in multi-city, they will be booked on the one ticket so there should be no difference with checking luggage through. It's annoying though as this extra "flight" means one line in the multi-city booking tool which only takes 6 "flights".

Good luck with your booking.

 

[Roundtheworld123]

@Roundtheworld123

1. If you cancel, yes, all the taxes/surcharges are refunded.

2. Even though you're splitting the flights up in multi-city, they will be booked on the one ticket so there should be no difference with checking luggage through. It's annoying though as this extra "flight" means one line in the multi-city booking tool which only takes 6 "flights".

Good luck with your booking.

Great. Thanks for the advice! Peace of mind to know costs are refundable with a points hit on cancel.
Booking in two phases to secure early flights so will need to ring anyhow so the extra slot isn’t too much of an issue. Sounds like phoning is Russian roulette but is what it is.
RTW123