Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Mr H]

Hi All. Just realised from advice I got today that this response a couple of weeks ago from @Mr H wasn’t 100% correct advice for my question no 2:

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

Answer was - 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

Bummer as based on this advice I have now booked half my flight and will now have to go back and try and find another flight. But likely not much left in December out of Perth now.

Your question was about taxes and fees, not points. I am happy to be shown that I was incorrect, but I suspect my answer was correct. As Jimmy pointed out to you, the published rules are unambiguous on the points required for a booking and I assumed you would have read the published rules which was why you were not asking about them. I would also point out, respectfully, that you insisted I answer all your points when you were not satisfied with a previous reply I had given.

I am sorry if you feel misled and have suffered as a consequence. But the learning point, surely, is to be clear about what question you are asking.

 

[Mr H]

All care, no responsibility.
I am new to this which I stated and you could see it was my second post. So yeah maybe I didn’t have any idea about the specific right question I was supposed to ask. Reading between the lines though I was asking if there were any impacts to booking different classes.
There clearly are and it’s truly stuffed my holiday now.
Just be careful when you are coming across as an expert when you may not be. If you are going to state something then see the No of posts the user has done, think of the context, quote the terms like @There'sOnlyOneJimmy rightly did as there are consequences.
Your response stating that you were correct shows your perspective but people don’t come here to get a computer yes/no response. They come here to get a human’s perspective with context of flying a lot to help others through the pitfalls.

And you were wrong to make a pretty major assumption - “ I assumed you would have read the published rules which was why you were not asking about them.” There’s lots of rules. I was looking for seasoned experts that guide you through this journey. And for the most part I have received this and am thankful to this community.

A point to note is that this info is not in the mega guide this site provides anywhere. I read it enough times. I had to go to the other website I linked in this thread to find it.

I am not trying to have a go here. Just a little bit of acknowledgment and humility wouldn’t hurt after my many years dreaming of going on this trip seems to now be dashed as I won’t have enough points to do the trip on premium economy for me and my family, I only had enough for economy.
Just had another search… The only option now may be to ring the dreaded helpline, change all my flights and try and find something that goes from Perth to Melbourne to BKK, but all that’s left is via Tokyo which is a 30+ hours.

Admittedly this post of yours was the next day, but you do say yourself that you had read the Mega Guide.

Hi there. I read the "How to fly around the world mega guide" which is a great resource.

You say that the information about the points is not in the Mega Guide. It is:


I would suggest that if one of us needs to take responsibility and show humility, it is not me.

 

[Kangol]

Hi All. Just realised from advice I got today that this response a couple of weeks ago from @Mr H wasn’t 100% correct advice for my question no 2:

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

Answer was - 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

*** Please note***
If you book a higher class like premium economy rather than all economy it charges the whole flight segments at the higher class which will stuff the total amt for economy being charged at Premium Economy. Meaning instead of a 132,000 trip it will cost at least 249,000 which is premium economy.

Bummer as based on this advice I have now booked half my flight and will now have to go back and try and find another flight. But likely not much left in December out of Perth now.

For newbies like me do your research and don’t rely on one persons advice on this chat.
. @Mr H this isn’t intended to shame you at all as I am sure you were trying to give the best advice you knew at the time as a volunteer poster. It’s more so for newbies reading this to be aware and read up and make your own call.

@There'sOnlyOneJimmy thanks for the advice above. Not the news I wanted but sounds correct as you have quoted the terms.

Here’s the rule that applies to your situation…

14.5.6 Where mixed-class travel is booked in a oneworld Classic Flight Reward, the whole Itinerary will be calculated using the Qantas Points level for the highest class booked.

Here’s a link to the whole book of rules:

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

The rules governing award flights begin at clause 13.

Taxes and fees are paid in cash. They relate to charges for things like passenger movement through airports and airline surcharges (eg fuel).
For example, in many (if not all) cases, the fee that a passenger pays for entering an airport and going through customs/security is fixed for that airport and is the same regardless of your cabin class.
This is a good website if you want to see the breakdown (revenue fares, but you get a good idea).

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search

Points are for a completely different part of the ticket and are paid in points. They relate to the "base fare" component of the ticket and the title of this thread correctly states how many points are required for the respective classes.

This is for any new posters who may not be aware of the language and meaning of these terms (underlined).

FWIW the answer provided for the question as asked, was 100% correct advice.

 

[djkelly69]

Not wanting to pile on a newbie, but to be fair to Mr H, when you asked about taxes and fees I also thought that is exactly what you meant.

Unfortunately it is pretty well known here that any flight in a higher class will result in the amount for that class of OWA being charged, so I can't see anyone really thinking you were actually asking about the point impact of that change.

 

[Roundtheworld123]

Not wanting to pile on a newbie, but to be fair to Mr H, when you asked about taxes and fees I also thought that is exactly what you meant.

Unfortunately it is pretty well known here that any flight in a higher class will result in the amount for that class of OWA being charged, so I can't see anyone really thinking you were actually asking about the point impact of that change.

Yep my bad all. I got a word wrong on my second post. I should have said points or taxes. Instead is just said taxes.

Good lesson. Massive impact.

 

[algae]

Good lesson. Massive impact.

I'm confused, if you booked online it would have shown you the total point and fee cost.
If you made a change on the phone the operator would have told you the new point and fee cost prior to payment.

Were you not made aware of the change in cost for the PE flight?

 

[PointsTraveller!]

Have just booked another leg of my trip from LAX - KIX with JL.

It hasn't been ticketed yet and I'm thinking the reason is that she hasn't charged enough taxes. I was charged $44 aud each whereas online it shows it should be around $520 aud per person.

Thoughts on whether this is correct and if should I call now or wait 24 hours?

After 5 calls they surprisingly they all told a similar story, the ticket was in a queue with ticketing and would be issued shortly and there is nothing they could do yet and it would be issued shortly.

eTicket received overnight and all correct, checked with CMT.

Surprisingly the taxes of $44 AUD per pax was correct, it seems I didn't need to pay $337.60 USD per pax "carrier charges" which was a massive win.

 

[cjd600]

After 5 calls they surprisingly they all told a similar story, the ticket was in a queue with ticketing and would be issued shortly and there is nothing they could do yet and it would be issued shortly.

eTicket received overnight and all correct, checked with CMT.

Surprisingly the taxes of $44 AUD per pax was correct, it seems I didn't need to pay $337.60 USD per pax "carrier charges" which was a massive win.

I've found USA to JAP JL $++ vary greatly for adding that leg on to an existing ticket as opposed to booking that leg as a single ticket (assuming you got the $520 just doing a single leg search).

 

[Phoenix-1]

Surprisingly the taxes of $44 AUD per pax was correct, it seems I didn't need to pay $337.60 USD per pax "carrier charges" which was a massive win.

That's great. Surprised it's so much cheaper. Could you share the rest of your booking so far?

 

[Mr H]

... and my two Cathay flights have autocancelled again because QF will not ticket my booking until they have resolved the reinstatement request for the autocancelled Sri Lankan flight. The pending Sri Lankan flight (which had been the subject of the reinstatement request) has also just disappeared from my booking. This has now been several days of repeated autocancelling and calls back to QF - all because they did not issue a re-ticket in time.

 

[PointsTraveller!]

That's great. Surprised it's so much cheaper. Could you share the rest of your booking so far?

So far MEL-NRT-FRA on JL around $140 taxes pp
MAD-JFK on IB $220 taxes pp
LAX-KIX on JL $44 taxes pp
About to book NRT-MEL next week hopefully.

 

[Ktan89]

... and my two Cathay flights have autocancelled again because QF will not ticket my booking until they have resolved the reinstatement request for the autocancelled Sri Lankan flight. The pending Sri Lankan flight (which had been the subject of the reinstatement request) has also just disappeared from my booking. This has now been several days of repeated autocancelling and calls back to QF - all because they did not issue a re-ticket in time.

When will they take their finger out of their butt and fix this.
I will be on the same boat in a few months when i have to change/add flights to a booking already ticketed with 1 MH flight and 4 UL flights..
Even getting the original ticket issue was trouble with MH dropping off twice within less than 12hours. Lucky the seat went back into the inventory.
This is not fun because ill be booking my accommodation (including maldives) + other internal flights -__-

 

[Mr H]

When will they take their finger out of their butt and fix this.
I will be on the same boat in a few months when i have to change/add flights to a booking already ticketed with 1 MH flight and 4 UL flights..
Even getting the original ticket issue was trouble with MH dropping off twice within less than 12hours. Lucky the seat went back into the inventory.
This is not fun because ill be booking my accommodation (including maldives) + other internal flights -__-

I suspect I should be very concerned.

The flight that I am trying to have reinstated is LHE-CMB in J with UL. The missing flight did not go back into award inventory and there is no award availability for J.

When I spoke to the agent today to get my missing CX flights put back, he also tried to put back the LHE-CMB - the one that was deleted showed as pending. But he made a mistake in the process, and it showed on CMT as LHE-CBM (Columbus, not Colombo). The flight number was correct, the times were correct and it showed as confirmed. I pointed out the error to him and he laughed and said it was a good job it was not a real flight. He changed it and it now shows as LHE-CMB confirmed. Yet there was no flight available. Does this mean QF staff can get any garbage to show on Amadeus?

 

[Danger]

As an example of taxes, I originally had KUL-xDEL-xLHR-ZRH, MH-BA-BA. I changed that to MEL-xKUL-HKG-ZRH, MH-CX-CX and got a refund (still pending, of course) of almost $2250 total for two passengers.

 

[pyramidforce]

As an example of taxes, I originally had KUL-xDEL-xLHR-ZRH, MH-BA-BA. I changed that to MEL-xKUL-HKG-ZRH, MH-CX-CX and got a refund (still pending, of course) of almost $2250 total for two passengers.

Do you know how long it takes for the tax refund to show up? I received two emails from qantas one day apart for my refund, first said 8 weeks, second used past tense and said money has already been returned, of course it hasnt.

 

[ozflier]

Do you know how long it takes for the tax refund to show up? I received two emails from qantas one day apart for my refund, first said 8 weeks, second used past tense and said money has already been returned, of course it hasnt.

3 weeks in my case.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Would appreciate some input on my OW award. Maybe you can think of an option I haven’t.

We’re aiming to get two trips by positioning to MNL as starting port. The ultimate destination is Ireland for a wedding in July. Negotiable on everything else, but we’re trying to add Japan in Dec/ Jan.

Booked and ticketed is plan A:
Own arrangement to MNL as starting port
MNLxHNDxHEL-AMS (JL, AY, AY | stop 1 | 7,680mi)
Own arrangements to Switzerland (surface 375mi)
ZRHxLHR-DUB (BA, BA | stop 2 | 771mi) *not many miles and easy to replace with a revenue option
DUBxLHRxSINxSYD-BNE (BA, BA, BA, QF | Stop 3 | 11,799mi)
BNExMEL-HND (QF, QF | Stop 4 | 5,905mi)
No return option from Japan as yet
Miles back to origin (1,859mi)
Total: 28,008mi (13 segments inc. surface and return to origin)

We have enough miles to get home from Japan. But as expected, no award seats were released as the relevant dates passed. I’ll keep monitoring and make changes last if an option comes up.

Shortening BNExMEL-HND to a direct flight would save plenty of miles and allow a less direct option from Japan to BNE, so I’m monitoring that too.

Also monitoring via HKG. All other ports will push the miles over 35k.

Plan B is to remove the DUB stopover by adding a revenue fare. This would allow us to add another Asian destination in the second part of the trip. Ideally a beach/resort location.

If required I would add an SQ redemption back to BNE.

There’s no awards into HKT after 13DEC but there are limited dates into DPS.

So, we’re thinking of adding a few days in KUL (never been) then DPS. This will leave a whole lot of miles on the table, but max out the five stopovers and looks like this:

MNLxHNDxHEL-AMS (JL, AY, AY | stop 1 | 7,680mi)
Own arrangements around Europe (Surface: 468mi)
DUBxLHRxSINxSYD-BNE (BA, BA, BA, QF | Stop 2 | 11,799mi)
BNExMEL-HND (QF, QF | Stop 3 | 5,905mi)
HND-CTS (JL | Stop 4 | 509mi
CTSxHNDxNRT-KUL (JL, surface, MH | Stop 5 | 3,903mi)
KUL-DPS (MH | end, 1,219mi)
Miles back to origin 1,648mi
Total: 31,260mi (15 segments including surface, HND-NRT transfer and return to origin)

Can anyone offer suggestion to improve on this? What haven’t I thought of?

 

[Mr H]

Would appreciate some input on my OW award. Maybe you can think of an option I haven’t.

We’re aiming to get two trips by positioning to MNL as starting port. The ultimate destination is Ireland for a wedding in July. Negotiable on everything else, but we’re trying to add Japan in Dec/ Jan.

Booked and ticketed is plan A:
Own arrangement to MNL as starting port
MNLxHNDxHEL-AMS (JL, AY, AY | stop 1 | 7,680mi)
Own arrangements to Switzerland (surface 375mi)
ZRHxLHR-DUB (BA, BA | stop 2 | 771mi) *not many miles and easy to replace with a revenue option
DUBxLHRxSINxSYD-BNE (BA, BA, BA, QF | Stop 3 | 11,799mi)
BNExMEL-HND (QF, QF | Stop 4 | 5,905mi)
No return option from Japan as yet
Miles back to origin (1,859mi)
Total: 28,008mi (13 segments inc. surface and return to origin)

We have enough miles to get home from Japan. But as expected, no award seats were released as the relevant dates passed. I’ll keep monitoring and make changes last if an option comes up.

Shortening BNExMEL-HND to a direct flight would save plenty of miles and allow a less direct option from Japan to BNE, so I’m monitoring that too.

Also monitoring via HKG. All other ports will push the miles over 35k.

Plan B is to remove the DUB stopover by adding a revenue fare. This would allow us to add another Asian destination in the second part of the trip. Ideally a beach/resort location.

If required I would add an SQ redemption back to BNE.

There’s no awards into HKT after 13DEC but there are limited dates into DPS.

So, we’re thinking of adding a few days in KUL (never been) then DPS. This will leave a whole lot of miles on the table, but max out the five stopovers and looks like this:

MNLxHNDxHEL-AMS (JL, AY, AY | stop 1 | 7,680mi)
Own arrangements around Europe (Surface: 468mi)
DUBxLHRxSINxSYD-BNE (BA, BA, BA, QF | Stop 2 | 11,799mi)
BNExMEL-HND (QF, QF | Stop 3 | 5,905mi)
HND-CTS (JL | Stop 4 | 509mi
CTSxHNDxNRT-KUL (JL, surface, MH | Stop 5 | 3,903mi)
KUL-DPS (MH | end, 1,219mi)
Miles back to origin 1,648mi
Total: 31,260mi (15 segments including surface, HND-NRT transfer and return to origin)

Can anyone offer suggestion to improve on this? What haven’t I thought of?

Just thinking aloud - if you are getting a revenue ticket to MNL, is it actually much more expensive to get a revenue return ticket - then you're just looking at getting HND-MNL as a last flight?

You could have enough miles to return via SYD if you we re willing to do AMS-ZRH-AMS as revenue.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Just thinking aloud - if you are getting a revenue ticket to MNL, is it actually much more expensive to get a revenue return ticket - then you're just looking at getting HND-MNL as a last flight?

The positioning flight BNExSYD-MNL is actually part of another award. I didn't mention this so as not to make my question more complex than it already is.

You could have enough miles to return via SYD if you were willing to do AMS-ZRH-AMS as revenue.

Very happy to do those short Euro sectors as revenue, but at this stage all of HND-BNE, HNDxSYD, HNDxMEL and HNDxHKG don't have award availability (at least, not for 3pax)

 

[EestiTiger]

Do you know how long it takes for the tax refund to show up? I received two emails from qantas one day apart for my refund, first said 8 weeks, second used past tense and said money has already been returned, of course it hasnt.

It also depends on the currency you book in I am up to 10 weeks as I stupidly booked in Yen before I changed things around. I poked them via messenger at 8 weeks but still waiting and the non-AUD currency was the reason they gave me.