Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[jaseb]

Thanks all. I refreshed for another hour or so in Finnair's MMB portal and the e-ticket showed up.

 

[PaulyB]

I have a slightly left-field question. I have an OWA in J, traveling to LHR from Syd. QF67 from Sydney with a 14 hour layover in Bengaluru. Onward journey is BA118.

In this thread a poster says his family had to collect their luggage at Bangalore and re-check in prior to the BA flight. Checking with Qantas I am told it is 'because it is a different airline'. I find this incredibly weird as it is a One World booking and the same PNR. Is that the general experience even for OWA?

 

[Mr H]

I have a slightly left-field question. I have an OWA in J, traveling to LHR from Syd. QF67 from Sydney with a 14 hour layover in Bengaluru. Onward journey is BA118.

In this thread a poster says his family had to collect their luggage at Bangalore and re-check in prior to the BA flight. I find this incredibly weird as it is a One World booking and the same PNR. Is that the general experience even for OWA?

India is weird. I have had mixed results in through checking bags. Either way, you are going to want to get a visa for India and leave the airport - check into a hotel or do sightseeing. The transfer facility is likely to be a bench you have to sit on until an agent from BA shows up a couple of hours before your onward flight. You cannot just stay airside to access the lounges, and if you leave the airport you will not be let back in until 4 hours before the onward flight.

 

[PaulyB]

Thanks Mr H. I have an airside hotel 080 so that part of it is OK although I will get a Visa so we can at least walk outside if we choose once the bags are in the room. Beginning to regret booking Bangalore.

 

[Lynda2475]

@BazzaCoffs you can just reply here

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have a slightly left-field question. I have an OWA in J, traveling to LHR from Syd. QF67 from Sydney with a 14 hour layover in Bengaluru. Onward journey is BA118.

In this thread a poster says his family had to collect their luggage at Bangalore and re-check in prior to the BA flight. Checking with Qantas I am told it is 'because it is a different airline'. I find this incredibly weird as it is a One World booking and the same PNR. Is that the general experience even for OWA?

It’s because of the overnight stopover. As mentioned in the other thread where you have posted, assume will will have to enter to pick up the bags, so have a visa. The only time you’ll get the definitive answer is when you see your bag tags issued at checkin. But it looks like overnight can’t be accommodated. This is an airport thing, not airline.

 

[BazzaCoffs]

@BazzaCoffs you can just reply here

Thank you Lynda2475,

I have searched this section of the forum and cannot find an answer to my question.
I want to make a OneWorld Award Booking that spans flights over a 2 month period.
Typically, CFS-SIN-LHR-YUL-surface-YVR-NAN-CFS

Assuming I can find such award flights can I book this as flights are released, a few secors at a time, without penalty.

 

[Mr H]

Thank you Lynda2475,

I have searched this section of the forum and cannot find an answer to my question.
I want to make a OneWorld Award Booking that spans flights over a 2 month period.
Typically, CFS-SIN-LHR-YUL-surface-YVR-NAN-CFS

Assuming I can find such award flights can I book this as flights are released, a few secors at a time, without penalty.

Yes you can. The answer is in the article linked in the very first post in this thread.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Assuming I can find such award flights can I book this as flights are released, a few secors at a time, without penalty.

Not exactly without penalty. You will pay a 5,000 ppp change fee each time you call to add a sector(s).

 

[Lynda2475]

Not exactly without penalty. You will pay a 5,000 ppp change fee each time you call to add a sector(s).

Plus telephone assistance fee unless they are business or first

 

[PaulyB]

It’s because of the overnight stopover. As mentioned in the other thread where you have posted, assume will will have to enter to pick up the bags, so have a visa. The only time you’ll get the definitive answer is when you see your bag tags issued at checkin. But it looks like overnight can’t be accommodated. This is an airport thing, not airline.

Thank you. This is exactly what I have been attempting to understand. I apologise for the cross-post.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

I hope you’re sitting down…
I have an existing OWCA, which includes CX flights (which are known to be vulnerable to cancellation during itinerary changes).
Yesterday (Sunday afternoon), I found 2 J reward seats on RJ, on 2 flights I wanted, on the dates I wanted.
As a NB, I rang the regular 131313 number.
The call was answered within about 5 minutes.
The csa sounded like it was an offshore call centre, but I didn’t ask.
The csa was able to see the seats on both flights.
The csa booked the flights, calculated the taxes (which seemed appropriate), and charged the credit card.
The charge went through.
The csa listened to my plea to push for prompt reticketing, but they did explain that because the FF office is closed over the weekend, they couldn’t escalate with them until today (Monday morning); which they promised to do.
The csa gave the standard “check your inbox for new itinerary in 24 hours or so” line.
I nervously checked the itinerary every hour until bedtime, and then every hour on waking.
Then… the new itinerary with new ticket numbers just appeared in my inbox, about 18 hours after the call. All flights still intact.
Even though this is exactly what ‘normal service’ should be, this feels like the QFF equivalent of seeing a Leprechaun riding a Unicorn…

 

[saddy]

In that case you should have gone to their special help desk which has been set up exactly for this scenario… tickets that have been cancelled because not ticketed in time.

They would have recreated your original itinerary.

Unfortunately I doubt you’ll be able to get the domestic flight added… even if you argue your original booking was cancelled though no fault of your own. You’d need to get to the right person… and that’s almost impossible.

You could try the special desk… you’d need your old booking details and proof of departure city etc. They might add on the domestic for you.

I took a chance and emailed the help desk as you suggested. Heard nothing back. A few days later the flight I couldn’t book was added to my booking reference!

I don’t know if I need to call them to organise payment of taxes etc or just leave it. Thanks for the suggestion, would never had thought of it otherwise

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I took a chance and emailed the help desk as you suggested. Heard nothing back. A few days later the flight I couldn’t book was added to my booking reference!

I don’t know if I need to call them to organise payment of taxes etc or just leave it. Thanks for the suggestion, would never had thought of it otherwise

Good news! I’m hoping for something similar following schedule changes and muck up of changes by the regular call centre! That gives me a tiny bit of hope!

 

[PointsTraveller!]

A little worried about my upcoming OWA first leg from MEL>NRT>FRA with JL on Nov 8 in J.

The reason is I've seen the timetable adjustments made on Jan 31 for bookings up until October 28th.

Now I know the changes up until the 28th of October are to accommodate flying via Alaska to avoid Russian airspace and take longer, my worry is I will get a late change of timetable which will make my layover at Narita not work and possibly have a departure time to FRA prior to me landing in NRT.

Is this JL or Qantas' responsibility to accommodate me onto a new connection that works?
If I was to change NRT>FRA to NRT>HEL would this be allowed or is my MEL>NRT>FRA flights married?
Should I just wait and see what happens?
Advice is appreciated.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

A little worried about my upcoming OWA first leg from MEL>NRT>FRA with JL on Nov 8 in J.

The reason is I've seen the timetable adjustments made on Jan 31 for bookings up until October 28th.

Now I know the changes up until the 28th of October are to accommodate flying via Alaska to avoid Russian airspace and take longer, my worry is I will get a late change of timetable which will make my layover at Narita not work and possibly have a departure time to FRA prior to me landing in NRT.

Is this JL or Qantas' responsibility to accommodate me onto a new connection that works?
If I was to change NRT>FRA to NRT>HEL would this be allowed or is my MEL>NRT>FRA flights married?
Should I just wait and see what happens?
Advice is appreciated.

Wait and see what happens.

The current flight schedule is likely to stay the same… ie avoiding Russian airspace.

JL and QF will need to work together to get you to your destination.Good luck with the QF call centre. Calling JL will likely have them refer you back to QF.

No reason to suspect your current flights will be married sectors.

 

[ozflier]

I agree .
Past experiences with a OWA has always been that the change will be noted alternatives scheduled-you do not usually need to contact them to push them on this -
my first port of call in that unlikely event though would be to ring Qantas as the ticket was issued by them.

 

[Phoenix-1]

I recently (and successfully) flew a OWCA booking.

SIN-MEL QF
MEL-LAX QF
SJC-PHX-EWR AA
JFK-HEL-MAN AY
AMS-HEL-HND AY/JAL
HND-MEL QF

Overall it was really good. Finnair had excellent service but I struggled to sleep for whatever reason, despite the spacious seat. Didn't have any hiccups at all with the ticketing which I was greatful for and I kept my 8K window seat on JALs 787, which I had read can apparently be clawed back?

 

[QF029]

I recently snaffled MEL-DOH-NBO in Qatar J with AA miles in late May next year. I was able to get LHR-PER-MEL QF J released for a couple of weeks later and there is plenty of J availablility on BA NBO-LHR. I'm thinking of expanding my QF flights into a OWE (and leaving enough room for the distance to get back to NBO. It would be a sensible use of an extra 100k QF points.

Is it a problem if I build out this itinerary as I can and changing the destination country in the PNR?

 

[Mr H]

Is it a problem if I build out this itinerary as I can and changing the destination country in the PNR?

Yes, this is permissible and probably almost always the way these OWAs are done - it would be rare to find every flight available at the same time. You can change the destination, but I think (although not 100% sure) that the port of origin has to stay the same. You will pay a change fee of 5,000 points per passenger every time you change the itinerary. Changes can only be made by calling the QF call centre.