Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[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.

 

[pyramidforce]

I'm willing to bet my unrefunded taxes that you might never get those taxes back.

 

[PaulyB]

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

Rule of thumb. NEVER wait....

 

[kctt]

It has been 5 days since all this happened @cjd600. Still no new e ticket number from Qantas but all flights listed in CMT with correct timings and old e ticket number. Flights are all still listed in CMT including MH flights so if they haven't dropped off after 5 days I'm hoping this means I'm ticketed and all is okay (but still checking all flights are still there each day). Thanks for your response.

Same thing happened to me 10 days ago. Accepted change but no new ticket email. CMT shows old ticket number and new flight time (20 minutes change)
Previously similar flight time change with Finnair triggered new ticket email and new ticket number