Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[CaptJCool]

Saw this press release from OW a little earlier - hopefully will make OW RTW planning easier for all, regardless of how and where they complete the booking:

oneworld partners with Elemental Cognition on Travel Agent

oneworld Alliance and AI company Elemental Cognition have completed initial trials of their state-of-the-art booking tool for “Round the World” tickets.

www.oneworld.com

Unfortunately, no sampling to be had, just yet.

Cheers,
Matt.

looks interesting

theres a 4 minute demo video here Travel Planning — Elemental Cognition

 

[dairyfloss]

looks interesting

theres a 4 minute demo video here Travel Planning — Elemental Cognition

Just came back here to paste that in

 

[sqrt()]

Saw this press release from OW a little earlier - hopefully will make OW RTW planning easier for all, regardless of how and where they complete the booking:

oneworld partners with Elemental Cognition on Travel Agent

oneworld Alliance and AI company Elemental Cognition have completed initial trials of their state-of-the-art booking tool for “Round the World” tickets.

www.oneworld.com

Unfortunately, no sampling to be had, just yet.

Cheers,
Matt.

You can use the tool here: rtw-site

Now add award inventory! Might make it a bit too easy.

 

[dairyfloss]

You can use the tool here: rtw-site

Now add award inventory! Might make it a bit too easy.

Very good! Odd that they did the press release and didn't indicate it was ready to roll; just that they had completed "initial trials". Will have a play around with it this week

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[borad]

It’s NOT OneWorld Award?

Just a RTW trip planner?

 

[CaptJCool]

i had a play with it earlier today.

iterative
Mind you, it took my proposed 15 city jaunt, and pushed me down to 6 given connecting city flying segment issues.

but it did it systematically

Also, this suggested theres not a whole lot of First Class seats in out of the way places

so having chopped and changed it turned up an itinerary that was like J class not F for $19k plus taxes for only one segment F

when i changed it to J dropping out the one F segment, dropped the fare to $13k

 

[dairyfloss]

It’s NOT OneWorld Award?

Just a RTW trip planner?

It’s the oneworld RTW trip planner. The same rules apply, whether you pay in cash or points. Use it to see what’s possible, just as you would have done using the legacy tool. You still need to use other resources to validate award fare availability. Hopefully that will be added at some point, but likely wishful thinking.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[saddy]

Hello, first time caller here. I've read through the post-covid posts on this thread and am looking to book economy flights for two adults and two children from Perth to the USA in March/April next year.

The itinerary I planned includes a total of 8 flights. The Qantas multi-city tool gives me the #7130 code when I attempt to book all 8 flights. I can successfully search the first 6 flights or the last 6 flights through the multi-city tool, so I know they're available for 4 passengers. The successful searches capped out at 134K points, so I'm happy they fit the OW parameters.

I did try combining one leg which worked but I would prefer to break it up and not be flying for two days straight.

I don't know if I should book what I can online, then do the rest via telephone or book the whole itinerary via phone. Booking for 4 passengers is going to basically wipe out my points so I won't have the 5K points x 4 to add a flight. I don't want to risk holding off for a few months and rewards seats not being available. Thanks!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hello, first time caller here. I've read through the post-covid posts on this thread and am looking to book economy flights for two adults and two children from Perth to the USA in March/April next year.

The itinerary I planned includes a total of 8 flights. The Qantas multi-city tool gives me the #7130 code when I attempt to book all 8 flights. I can successfully search the first 6 flights or the last 6 flights through the multi-city tool, so I know they're available for 4 passengers. The successful searches capped out at 134K points, so I'm happy they fit the OW parameters.

I did try combining one leg which worked but I would prefer to break it up and not be flying for two days straight.

I don't know if I should book what I can online, then do the rest via telephone or book the whole itinerary via phone. Booking for 4 passengers is going to basically wipe out my points so I won't have the 5K points x 4 to add a flight. I don't want to risk holding off for a few months and rewards seats not being available. Thanks!

Yes. The online tool will only do 6 flights… I thought it was actually 5 before it errored out, but if you can do 6, lock em in!

It will be subject to the change fee, but you shouldn’t have an assistance fee as the changes can’t be made on line.

 

[Steph123]

Hello, first time caller here. I've read through the post-covid posts on this thread and am looking to book economy flights for two adults and two children from Perth to the USA in March/April next year.

The itinerary I planned includes a total of 8 flights. The Qantas multi-city tool gives me the #7130 code when I attempt to book all 8 flights. I can successfully search the first 6 flights or the last 6 flights through the multi-city tool, so I know they're available for 4 passengers. The successful searches capped out at 134K points, so I'm happy they fit the OW parameters.

I did try combining one leg which worked but I would prefer to break it up and not be flying for two days straight.

I don't know if I should book what I can online, then do the rest via telephone or book the whole itinerary via phone. Booking for 4 passengers is going to basically wipe out my points so I won't have the 5K points x 4 to add a flight. I don't want to risk holding off for a few months and rewards seats not being available. Thanks!

If all the flights you want are available then I'd just call to book. Saves any of the drama of CS agents not wanting to add to an existing booking or mucking up what you've already booked. And you'll save the change fees

 

[saddy]

If all the flights you want are available then I'd just call to book. Saves any of the drama of CS agents not wanting to add to an existing booking or mucking up what you've already booked. And you'll save the change fees

Was what I thought might be the best option too. I imagine providing fight numbers and times to them should make it fairly straightforward.

 

[djkelly69]

I've also called up 100+ times and get the same or similar response each time

I still think you should post your full OWA itinerary so the brains trust can run an eye over it for other issues.

Generally the 'can't see that flight' issue is actually caused by another issue such as married/divorced flights, the QF domestic leg after international arrival issue, etc. The call centres don't usually understand why it doesn't work, so just trot out one of their standard excuses.

 

[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?

As an update to this, i just got back from my first OWA in J with my partner. What an experience.

Regarding cancelling my backup OWA, i cancelled on the 24th of april. Money was back in my account on the 12/5, and the 600k points was back in my account on the 25/5. Odd that the money was back 2 weeks quicker than the points.

As for the trip we did the following all in business (all in 4 weeks too):

• PER > HKG > Toronto - Cathay (Outstanding first experience with Cathay, no complaints at all. Made the ~27h fly by)
• Montreal > LHR > Madrid > Marrakech - British/Iberia/Iberia (Better routings did appear after i booked this, but i didn't trust Qantas to not stuff up the change, so i stuck with the somewhat inconvenient 3 flight bouncing. That being said, the old Club World British cabin was narrow, but honestly not bad at all. Iberia cabin crew were probably the nicest of the whole trip. Qantas business lounge was outstanding in LHR, they have an à la carte restaurant area for business which i thought was a first-only luxury)
• Marrakech > LHR - British (a 3.5h flight in 'euro business' wasn't ideal. But so be it.)
• LHR > Stockholm - British (eh, short flight, again 'euro business'. London BA lounge was quite nice).
• Stockholm > Helsinki - Finnair (eh, 40min 'euro business'. Perfectly fine. My departing terminal changed on the morning of the flight. Good thing I checked CMT, yes i still kept the app even after they massacred it. Still found it very useful)
• Helsinki > Tokyo - JAL (14h of fun on this flight. I'm pretty tall and their sky suite 1 for some reason i just didn't find very comfortable. Food was also just 'fine'. On my 15h Cathay flight hey had 2 fixed meal services and then a large 'dine anytime' menu as well. JAL only had 1 fixed meal and then a large 'dine anytime' menu. The majority of the dine anytime menu I tried was particularly average to be honest.
• Osaka > Tokyo > HKG > PER - JAL/JAL/Cathay (Domestic 40min flight was nice, similar seats to Qantas business 737 which was nice to have after all the 'euro business' flights. Got the sky suite 3 on the flight to HKG which i thought was much more comfortable than the Sky Suite 1. And then Cathay again to end the trip. Cathay was the highlight again, and overall on the trip.

Overall, first time using points, and boy was it a pain getting here. I had some cancellations thanks to Putin over the past 12 months, but fortunately was able to resolve everything. Changes were a pain when i needed to, and getting things reticketed and taxes calculated, also a huge pain. Many many MANY hours spent on hold.

Still, 10/10 would do it again.

Previously I'd only flown SQ business (on the A380, 787 and A340) which was always an excellent experience (except the A380 which has an uncomfortably short length seat). Nice to add a couple more airlines to the list.

Couldn't have done it without the help from AFF, so thanks again!

 

[Lewdannie]

As for the trip we did the following all in business (all in 4 weeks too

Do you mind me asking what your 5 stopovers were?

 

[algae]

Do you mind me asking what your 5 stopovers were?

Ah ha, good pickup.

Stopovers greater than 24h:
1. Toronto (then land transport to Montreal)
2. Marrakech
3. London
4. Stockholm
5. Helsinki
6. Tokyo (then land transport to Osaka)

Helsinki only happened because finnair cancelled their Helsinki to Osaka flight. I asked to be moved to a JL Helsinki to Tokyo flight on a different day (due to availability) and they didn't object.

 

[jjslow]

Hi all,

Quick question regarding making changes to a commenced OWA itinerary. A couple months ago, I made a change to future flight legs on my itinerary with a Qantas call centre agent. This was after I had started the trip and was at my second stop. Unfortunately, I just checked recently to see that they refunded 132,400 points to my account and then deducted 200,000 points for a reissue, likely because the changes don't fulfil the OWA requirements.

I need to make yet another change, and I'm wondering in the event that I'm able to rejig the remainder of the itinerary so that it fulfils the OWA requirements again, would the points be added back? Has anyone had to do something similar?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi all,

Quick question regarding making changes to a commenced OWA itinerary. A couple months ago, I made a change to future flight legs on my itinerary with a Qantas call centre agent. This was after I had started the trip and was at my second stop. Unfortunately, I just checked recently to see that they refunded 132,400 points to my account and then deducted 200,000 points for a reissue, likely because the changes don't fulfil the OWA requirements.

I need to make yet another change, and I'm wondering in the event that I'm able to rejig the remainder of the itinerary so that it fulfils the OWA requirements again, would the points be added back? Has anyone had to do something similar?

I suspect ‘no’. When you made the first change the original booking was likely extinguished and replaced with your new itinerary. It’s the new itinerary that will be the basis for your ‘fare’ going forward, not the old one.

If your new booking constitutes a new OWA in its entirety, it would be capped at 318,000, but the old booking likely doesn’t exist for all intents and purposes.

 

[jaseb]

Quick question that doesn't warrant it's own thread - is there a means to add a stopover in Vietnam to a OWA - aside from going overland? From memory there are no Classic Reward Flights available into or out of Vietnam (from anywhere) - is this still the case?

 

[funnybrus]

Quick question that doesn't warrant it's own thread - is there a means to add a stopover in Vietnam to a OWA - aside from going overland? From memory there are no Classic Reward Flights available into or out of Vietnam (from anywhere) - is this still the case?

Unsure about availability, but JL, CX and MH all fly in to both Hanoi and HCMC

 

[CaptJCool]

Quick question that doesn't warrant it's own thread - is there a means to add a stopover in Vietnam to a OWA - aside from going overland? From memory there are no Classic Reward Flights available into or out of Vietnam (from anywhere) - is this still the case?

well there are into / out of Hanoi

via MH or CX or China Airlines

as i just took a spin on the website

i do like this message that comes up

Important Information​

Your booking will be subject to Vietnam terms and conditions and will be charged in US Dollars (USD) equivalent to Vietnamese dong (VND)

After you have completed your booking, you need to visit our office below within two working days for a credit card and signature verification in person. Your ticket will be issued once your credit card has been sighted.

Ho Chi Minh City Office

Level 1, Resco Tower, 94-96 Nguyen Du, District 1