Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[SydneySwan]

If I need to book manual transits instead of proper married flights and the number of flights exceeds 6.

Is the only way to call up the call center?

Unfortunately Yes.

 

[Vrz]

Ive heard some conflicting information online.

Has anyone had experience changing their routes or flight times/dates after their first flight had started?
Or is the hard cut off once the first flight begins?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Ive heard some conflicting information online.

Has anyone had experience changing their routes or flight times/dates after their first flight had started?
Or is the hard cut off once the first flight begins?

Here are the rules:

14.7 Classic Flight Rewards (excluding Classic Flight Rewards forming part of Combined Classic Flight Reward Bookings) - changes to tickets​

14.7.1 Except as otherwise stated in this clause 14.7 and clause 14.8, changes are not permitted to any Classic Flight Reward at any time. Any permitted changes are subject to Classic Flight Reward availability.
14.7.2 If a booking is made that includes non-Classic Flight Reward flight(s) and Classic Flight Reward flight(s), then any changes to any Classic Flight Reward flight Segment or Segments in the combined booking may only be made in accordance with the conditions outlined in clause 14.8, and this clause 14.7 will not apply.
14.7.3 Prior to ticketing, Classic Flight Rewards may be changed without incurring a Change Fee; however, any changes will be subject to this clause 14.7 and to the advance purchase and validity provisions set out in clauses 14.2.2 and 14.6.1.
14.7.4 Subject to this clause 14.7, the following changes are permitted to a Classic Flight Reward after ticketing and prior to commencement of any travel and will incur a Change Fee (see the Fee Schedule) per passenger:
(a) change to flight number;
(b) change to date of travel;
(c) change to class of travel;
(d) change to any Segment routing or airline;
(e) change to name (only for Flights with a Qantas (QF) flight number on the ticket that are operated by Qantas); and
(f) request to cancel ticket and re-credit Qantas Points. Please note that only Qantas Points that would not have expired will be re-credited.
14.7.5 Subject to this clause 14.7, the following changes are permitted to a Classic Flight Reward flight before departure of that flight, provided the entire booking contains only Flight Segments that are within Australia, and will incur a Change Fee (see the Fee Schedule) per passenger:
(a) change to flight number;
(b) change to date of travel;
(c) change to class of travel; and
(d) change to a direct or indirect Segment routing without a Stopover (provided the origin and destination cities remain unchanged) or airline.
14.7.6 Subject to this clause 14.7, the following changes are permitted to a Classic Flight Reward flight before departure of that flight, provided the booking contains one or more Flight Segments that are not within Australia, and the Flight Segment(s) being changed do not include a partner airline that requires a ticket to be reissued for the change. Any such change will incur a Change Fee (see the Fee Schedule) per passenger:
(a) change to flight number; and
(b) change to date of travel.
14.7.7 Any change made to a Classic Flight Reward after ticketing will incur a Change Fee (see the Fee Schedule) per passenger. No changes requiring ticket reissue will be allowed to any Classic Flight Reward within 24 hours before departure from the point of origin of the first Flight Segment on the Itinerary.
14.7.8 The following changes are not permitted to any Classic Flight Reward within 24 hours before departure from the point of origin of the first Flight Segment on the Itinerary:
(a) change to class of travel;
(b) change to any Segment routing or airline; and
(c) change to name (only for Flights with a Qantas (QF) flight number on the ticket that are operated by Qantas).
14.7.9 No changes will be permitted on qantas.com to any Classic Flight Reward within 24 hours before departure of each Flight Segment on the Itinerary.
14.7.10 Changes to Classic Flight Rewards that incur Point fees (see the Fee Schedule) can be made only by the Member who originally redeemed Qantas Points for the Classic Flight Rewards and only if that Member has sufficient Qantas Points to cover the applicable fees.
14.7.11 Any change made by telephone or in person to a Classic Flight Reward booking will incur a Service Fee per passenger occupying a seat (see Fee Schedule) in addition to any applicable Change Fee.

 

[algae]

Hi all,
Currently on my first ever OWA trip with my partner in J. Thanks again for all the help from this thread!

I booked a second J OWA as a backup just in case something went wrong. Fortunately I didn't need it and cancelled it online (through MMB) on the 24th of April.

It's been 2.5 weeks and I haven't received a refund of points or fees. What's the expected time period for a refund?

Haven't even got an email or anything (but it has vanished from MMB).

Thanks!

 

[Captain Halliday]

Hi all,
Currently on my first ever OWA trip with my partner in J. Thanks again for all the help from this thread!

I booked a second J OWA as a backup just in case something went wrong. Fortunately I didn't need it and cancelled it online (through MMB) on the 24th of April.

It's been 2.5 weeks and I haven't received a refund of points or fees. What's the expected time period for a refund?

Haven't even got an email or anything (but it has vanished from MMB).

Thanks!

Points is usually 24-72 hours.

So I’d be calling about that.

The cash component was “up to eight weeks” at the height of covid and they might still give you that line.

But if you’re calling to chase up the points (which you need for another booking right? ).. then it can’t hurt to ask about the cash at the same time.

 

[algae]

Points is usually 24-72 hours.

So I’d be calling about that.

Ah, yes. Definitely worth checking in about my 636,000 points then!

Can't call as I'm overseas at the moment. Do they have an email that is useful at all?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Ah, yes. Definitely worth checking in about my 636,000 points then!

Can't call as I'm overseas at the moment. Do they have an email that is useful at all?

If you don’t actually need the points for another booking… or the cash to pay for your current one… why not just enjoy the trip and deal with it when you get home?

 

[pjm99au]

I called about some missing refunded points the other day and was told it had gone into a manual review process with 1500 requests ahead of it!

 

[algae]

I called about some missing refunded points the other day and was told it had gone into a manual review process with 1500 requests ahead of it!

Ah, no stress then.
Just wanted to make sure it wasn't some classic Qantas kerfuffle that will make my life harder the longer I leave it!

Cheers all!

 

[Kerrodt]

Hi all,
Currently on my first ever OWA trip with my partner in J. Thanks again for all the help from this thread!

I booked a second J OWA as a backup just in case something went wrong. Fortunately I didn't need it and cancelled it online (through MMB) on the 24th of April.

It's been 2.5 weeks and I haven't received a refund of points or fees. What's the expected time period for a refund?

Haven't even got an email or anything (but it has vanished from MMB).

Thanks!

You didn't cancel the backup booking after the first scheduled flight departure date of this backup booking did you?

 

[Daan]

Quick question on some advice but:
Could you skip a leg on a connecting flight?

I currently have
Sydney - HK
(In between I'd have to find my own travel from HK to SIN)
Singapore - HK - Johannesburg

Could I potentially stay in HK if my SIN-JNB was booked with the HK one in transit? What happens if I miss a flight within my itinerary?

 

[motef]

Quick question on some advice but:
Could you skip a leg on a connecting flight?

I currently have
Sydney - HK
(In between I'd have to find my own travel from HK to SIN)
Singapore - HK - Johannesburg

Could I potentially stay in HK if my SIN-JNB was booked with the HK one in transit? What happens if I miss a flight within my itinerary?

If you miss a flight (on purpose or without it not being the airlines fault) then the remainder of your itinerary is cancelled

 

[Daan]

If you miss a flight (on purpose or without it not being the airlines fault) then the remainder of your itinerary is cancelled

Aight thanks!

 

[Mr H]

Quick question on some advice but:
Could you skip a leg on a connecting flight?

I currently have
Sydney - HK
(In between I'd have to find my own travel from HK to SIN)
Singapore - HK - Johannesburg

Could I potentially stay in HK if my SIN-JNB was booked with the HK one in transit? What happens if I miss a flight within my itinerary?

You can have a land sector if that’s what you book. It counts as one of the stopovers. But you can’t miss a booked flight. If it is before travel, you may be able to cancel a booked flight (subject to married sector rules) but you’d then run the gauntlet of re-ticketing.

 

[jdmmps]

Hi AFF Community,

How I wish I found you earlier. I’m in a world of pain with trying to book OWR flight. I was attempting to do business (318k) but not enough reward seat availability so have settled for trying to book it as a economy reward (132.4k). I’ve spent and this no exaggeration, over 30hrs on 100+ phone calls. Happy to share phone logs. I’ve been hang-up on over 70% of those calls as soon as I mention I’m trying to book a OWR.

I was hoping to get some advice from this forum if my planned trip is even possible to be booked as an OWR, as I get a different response from Qantas depending on who I speak to.

I live in Syd, so I’ll be booking a separate positioning flight to get me to Manila. My OWR booking looks like this:

• MNL- HND
• NRT – SFO
• LAX – BNE (Break in oz for 3mths. Then resume travel to Europe from BNE)
• BNE – HKG
• HKG – LHR (stopover in HKG less than 24hrs)
• LHR – SIN (stopover in SIN less than 24hrs)
• SIN – SYD (Final port city)
• SYD – MNL (I have included the mileage between these 2 ports to ensure it falls within the 35k miles)

Total mileage for this booking including ground sectors between (HND -NRT, SFO – LAX, SYD - MNL) is 34,212

The supervisors that have tried to assist are in a world of pain and in the end most of them give up and just don’t bother to call me back. The most recent supervisor trying to assist me (based in Cape Town) said she sought advice from the RTW team today, who confirmed its valid itinerary for OWR, but supervisor is still not able to provide the correct points quote and taxes (in PHP). I have managed to find reward seats for all the sectors. I’m now at the point where I don’t trust anything anyone is telling me and feel like the people in this forum would be more knowledgeable than most working at QANTAS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can anyone see an issue as to why it wouldn’t be quoting as a OWR? Any suggestions as to how I could make it work?

 

[yaksha98]

Hi AFF Community,

How I wish I found you earlier. I’m in a world of pain with trying to book OWR flight. I was attempting to do business (318k) but not enough reward seat availability so have settled for trying to book it as a economy reward (132.4k). I’ve spent and this no exaggeration, over 30hrs on 100+ phone calls. Happy to share phone logs. I’ve been hang-up on over 70% of those calls as soon as I mention I’m trying to book a OWR.

I was hoping to get some advice from this forum if my planned trip is even possible to be booked as an OWR, as I get a different response from Qantas depending on who I speak to.

I live in Syd, so I’ll be booking a separate positioning flight to get me to Manila. My OWR booking looks like this:

• MNL- HND
• NRT – SFO
• LAX – BNE (Break in oz for 3mths. Then resume travel to Europe from BNE)
• BNE – HKG
• HKG – LHR (stopover in HKG less than 24hrs)
• LHR – SIN (stopover in SIN less than 24hrs)
• SIN – SYD (Final port city)
• SYD – MNL (I have included the mileage between these 2 ports to ensure it falls within the 35k miles)

Total mileage for this booking including ground sectors between (HND -NRT, SFO – LAX, SYD - MNL) is 34,212

The supervisors that have tried to assist are in a world of pain and in the end most of them give up and just don’t bother to call me back. The most recent supervisor trying to assist me (based in Cape Town) said she sought advice from the RTW team today, who confirmed its valid itinerary for OWR, but supervisor is still not able to provide the correct points quote and taxes (in PHP). I have managed to find reward seats for all the sectors. I’m now at the point where I don’t trust anything anyone is telling me and feel like the people in this forum would be more knowledgeable than most working at QANTAS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can anyone see an issue as to why it wouldn’t be quoting as a OWR? Any suggestions as to how I could make it work?

Which airlines are you flying?

and any reason why you can’t book this online if you have all the segments planned with availability ?

When calling the contact centre best not to tell them it’s a OWA just say you want to make changes to your booking and add the segment flight by flight with dates and flight numbers. It should price in their system

 

[jdmmps]

Which airlines are you flying?

and any reason why you can’t book this online if you have all the segments planned with availability ?

When calling the contact centre best not to tell them it’s a OWA just say you want to make changes to your booking and add the segment flight by flight with dates and flight numbers. It should price in their system

Its more than 6 sectors. Website crashes.

JL, JL, QA, CP, BA, QA

 

[yaksha98]

Its more than 6 sectors. Website crashes.

JL, JL, QA, CP, BA, QA

Possibly book the sectors you can online and then call to add the remaining ones ?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Possibly book the sectors you can online and then call to add the remaining ones ?

This. Book the first 5 sectors on line if 6 causes it to crash. Call and say you’d like to add flights to an existing booking. Read out the dates and flight numbers.

The itinerary may not price correctly on line, but will price correctly once the OWA conditions are met.

 

[algae]

You didn't cancel the backup booking after the first scheduled flight departure date of this backup booking did you?

It was cancelled a month before the first flight.

I finally got a confirmation email from Qantas that "Your refund has been processed".

Still haven't received the points or $$. But that's some movement at least.