Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[NM]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

There was no availability on any flight on 21, 22 and 23 May but there was availability on 20 May.

I do note that some airlines state "up to xx_ days" for availability, and the actual release is not always consistent. I have been watching AA release of awards at the extremity of 330 days and they seem to get the US Air flights consistently then, but the AA flights seem to pop up in batches up to a week later (maybe 2 or 3 times a week). These things may not always be as automated as we would expect.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Has anyone reported any further problems adding new flights to turn what are currently QFF Awards to OneWorld awards. I have booked the first three legs of my 280K award flight which came to 228K of points and looking to book my next few flights in a few days which will then get me to the 280K point mark.

A few pages ago, it was mentioned that some help desk staff weren't allowing this to be done and just wondering if anyone since then has either had problems or managed to complete their bookings

 

[serfty]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I do note that some airlines state "up to xx_ days" for availability, and the actual release is not always consistent. I have been watching AA release of awards at the extremity of 330 days and they seem to get the US Air flights consistently then, but the AA flights seem to pop up in batches up to a week later (maybe 2 or 3 times a week). These things may not always be as automated as we would expect.

flights are bookable at 331 days - awards may or may not be available on those flights at that time.

Often award availability can appear two weeks or so later.

I'm sure there is less automatically allocated availability these days with much more manual intervention.

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Has anyone reported any further problems adding new flights to turn what are currently QFF Awards to OneWorld awards. I have booked the first three legs of my 280K award flight which came to 228K of points and looking to book my next few flights in a few days which will then get me to the 280K point mark.

A few pages ago, it was mentioned that some help desk staff weren't allowing this to be done and just wondering if anyone since then has either had problems or managed to complete their bookings

Nick, I was the person who had problems but I found that Clause 14.7.4 of QF's T&Cs does allow flights to be added to a classic award itinerary to convert it to a OW award fare. I have since added about 6 flights without problem. Suggest you just quote this Clause number if you are queried.

 

[hossein_au]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

And you are booked into U class? Ugggh!

Yep, in "U"

 

[serfty]

Yep, in "U"

How many points? 256k?

(Of course APD adds £184 which puts it in the ball park)

You may like to post some detail here:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/showthread.php?t=53677
Sucessful ASA Bookings booked at classic rates Reference Guide

 

[travelislife]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

You can use BA's search engine to look for QR flights.

 

[hossein_au]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

How many points? 256k?

(Of course APD adds £184 which puts it in the ball park)

You may like to post some detail here:

Sucessful ASA Bookings booked at classic rates Reference Guide
Sucessful ASA Bookings booked at classic rates Reference Guide

Yep, 256k. I'll post the details to the other thread.

 

[MrHanky]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hey all,

Does anyone have a reference to the maximum stay on a OW award? I've looked through the T&Cs @ qantas.com and even the fare conditions that appear when you generate an itinerary using the search engine, but can't find any reference to it?

Qantas phone staff told me 12 months, but I cannot find anything to back that up.

Cheers!

 

[nickfromeastryde]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Nick, I was the person who had problems but I found that Clause 14.7.4 of QF's T&Cs does allow flights to be added to a classic award itinerary to convert it to a OW award fare. I have since added about 6 flights without problem. Suggest you just quote this Clause number if you are queried.

Much appreciated Vetrade, am looking to finalise my remaining flights very soon so it's great to have this information if needed

Regards,

Nick

 

[serfty]

Hey all,

Does anyone have a reference to the maximum stay on a OW award? I've looked through the T&Cs @ qantas.com and even the fare conditions that appear when you generate an itinerary using the search engine, but can't find any reference to it?

Qantas phone staff told me 12 months, but I cannot find anything to back that up.

Cheers!

It's generally 12 months from ticketing, although with international itineraries, these can sometimes be varied for the last segment to be flown up to a year from the date of the original outbound flight.

More here: https://agent.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7515

Maximum Stay

The ticket is valid for 12 months from the date of the first outbound flight. All travel must be completed by this date (unless otherwise specified in the fare rule).

IATA Maximum stay definition is:

The number of days (counting from the day after departure), or the number of months counting from the day of departure to the last day return travel may commence from the last stopover point including for this purpose the point of turnaround.

For example, original date of departure 10JUN11 - Not Valid After 10JUN12.

On a ticket with a maximum stay of 12 months, the customer must depart from the last stopover point before midnight of 10JUN12.

When a ticket has been reissued ... the maximum stay is calculated from the date of the original outbound flight.

Important: An upgrade to a new fare type of higher value after departure will NOT extend the maximum stay beyond 1 year from date of the original outbound flight at any time.

 

[MrHanky]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thanks for your help as usual Serfty...

Scenario is I leave MEL on 30/6/14, and have a wedding to attend in the vicinity of Toronto 27/6/15 - I would like to tack on a return leg to MEL on 29/6/15 or 30/6/15, however, as awards aren't available that far in advance and you can't change routing on a OW award, I need to pick a route now and pray for availability to come up!

A quick scan of furthest out availability now tells me that JFK-HKG-MEL with CX has generally good availability +360 days out, and not as good availability from YYZ-HKG-MEL.

I think I'll book JFK-HKG-MEL and cross my fingers and toes hoping for availability on these dates.

 

[Kangol]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

awards aren't available that far in advance and you can't change routing on a OW award, I need to pick a route now and pray for availability to come up!

What do you mean "can't change routing"?

 

[serfty]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thanks for your help as usual Serfty...

Scenario is I leave MEL on 30/6/14, and have a wedding to attend in the vicinity of Toronto 27/6/15 - I would like to tack on a return leg to MEL on 29/6/15 or 30/6/15, however, as awards aren't available that far in advance and you can't change routing on a OW award, I need to pick a route now and pray for availability to come up!

A quick scan of furthest out availability now tells me that JFK-HKG-MEL with CX has generally good availability +360 days out, and not as good availability from YYZ-HKG-MEL.

I think I'll book JFK-HKG-MEL and cross my fingers and toes hoping for availability on these dates.

What do you mean "can't change routing"?

Of course you can - it's a change fee each time as you add more segments.

 

[MrHanky]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Of course you can - it's a change fee each time as you add more segments.

Sorry, perhaps my original post wasn't clear; I can't change routing on the OW award after travel has commenced, so if I want to try and include this flight into my OW award, I have to gamble on a selected route from somewhere in the vicinity of YYZ to MEL - because once I've departed MEL on 30/6/14, no changes to routing are allowed.

14.7.6 Subject to this clause 14.7, the following changes are permitted to a Classic Award 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.

 

[serfty]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

OK, since you are looking to depart that soon, maybe you are better off looking at more than one award.

 

[MrHanky]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

OK, since you are looking to depart that soon, maybe you are better off looking at more than one award.

Trick is I will have already flown enough miles to 'tick over' my booking into the 280k OW award; MEL-KUL(stop)-HKG-ICN-LHR-(JFK/YYZ/BOS), adding the sector from JFK-MEL (for example) doesn't cost me any more points; just the taxes $... If I booked it separately, I'd only be booking in Y whereas under my 280k OW award I can tack-on this flight in J (costing me 0 points + taxes).

I spoke with QF phone service about this, and they agreed it would be a 'gamble', but then they offered me a comforting piece of advice, I wrote the exact wording of this down (not with me now) but it was words to the effect of:

"Passengers who have commenced travel on a classic award booking, can apply for a refund of unused taxes/fees/carrier charges for unused coupons on the e-ticket, provided that these are the only coupons remaining on the e-ticket" (or something like that) - essentially he said that if I could ask for a refund of the taxes on the JFK-HKG-MEL flights if I gambled, and then found I couldn't change the date to something useful, although I would have to wait until I'd used up the other 4 journeys on the itinerary before I ask for the refund. Frankly that's a gamble I think I'm prepared to take!

EDIT: Wanted to add, for anyone playing at home, a few pages back I was asking about how to build my itinerary so I could have the US DOT rules apply to the entire journey (and get the "piece" baggage system rather than weight).

After some of the helpful posts on here, I managed to establish that if I fly MEL-KUL-HKG-ICN-LHR-BOS-HKG-MEL, then "MEL-BOS" distance is the furthest point on the itinerary, and therefore the US DOT baggage rules apply. Substituting BOS for JFK, ORD etc. gives me the journey-by-journey calculations (so I end up with different allowances for each 'journey'). IMO for the travel I'm planning on doing, having the piece based system is very important (as I'm relocating for the medium-long term to UK) and this is a worthwhile exercise.

 

[madrooster]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

After some of the helpful posts on here, I managed to establish that if I fly MEL-KUL-HKG-ICN-LHR-BOS-HKG-MEL, then "MEL-BOS" distance is the furthest point on the itinerary, and therefore the US DOT baggage rules apply. Substituting BOS for JFK, ORD etc. gives me the journey-by-journey calculations (so I end up with different allowances for each 'journey'). IMO for the travel I'm planning on doing, having the piece based system is very important (as I'm relocating for the medium-long term to UK) and this is a worthwhile exercise.

The distances are:

MEL-LHR 10503 miles
MEL-BOS 10527 miles
MEL-JFK 10374 miles

BOS JUST pips LHR on distance!

 

[MrHanky]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

The distances are:

MEL-LHR 10503 miles
MEL-BOS 10527 miles
MEL-JFK 10374 miles

BOS JUST pips LHR on distance!

Yep I was sitting down with a map of one-world cities open in one window, and great circle mapper in the other... Found (MEL-BOS) > (MEL-LHR) and had an "aha" moment - mock bookings in the QF online engine show that I'm correct.. so I'm pretty happy with this discovery

 

[Isochronous]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I've booked the first three flights of what will end up being about 10 or 12 (flights) for my parents as a 280k award. I seriously don't know your average Mum and Dad traveller and their two kids handle booking one of these. From There are multiple cities that aren't listed in the QF booking engine meaning you have to phone up to ask availability. Some cities can be used as destinations but not origins meaning you have to search for a return booking just to see what the availability is one the second leg. The airlines releasing seats at varying stages. The extorionate 3.5k change fee per passenger every time a new seat is released. The $80 change fee (that's not supposed to be charged for Business and First redemptions but, in my case, was prompting me to make another call and speak to two operators to have it credited several days later. The agents that don't understand the rules and routing options of their oneworld partners. It's mind-boggling.

Your average family of four needs to save up far, far more than 4 x 140 or 4 x 280, once you throw in the change fees and the fact you have to satisfy several criteria before it triggers the 140/280k. I honestly have no idea how these people do it. The process is astoundingly convoluted.

Wait, so 280k and 420k J/F awards do not attract a change fee? What's the source for that proposition?

BTW, I've started the JessicaTam style Google doc. Feel free to comment on the draft format and to post your data for input:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ar2XsLsn7XNEdFo3OWk0QVNubG9XV1dKX3RBbzJuTEE&output=html