Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[MelbFlyer]

I'm not sure if I've just been lucky, or whether there's been a subtle change in the way calls have been prioritised since they introduced the IVR change for you read out your booking number.

I'm lowly bronze and have been slowly building up a OWA in J since Feb. My calls earlier in the year to add additional flights all went to the OS call centres and took numerous HUACA to action correctly.

However, over the past few weeks, I've made 3 calls that I'm pretty sure all went to the local call centre (unfortunately I didn't ask to confirm). The contrast in the level of service and knowledge was evident. One of the calls was able to add a SYD-MEL domestic leg to get me home. All changes have been ticketed successfully, with the email being received within a few hours and the ticket number appearing on RJ. As a data point, I've called 131313 at around 10pm and 7am Melb time.

You're probably very lucky.

I'm also a lowly Bronze and I've just finished a business OWA.

Between Feb and October, I called up well over 100 times to amend my booking to the best possible itinerary I could get.

About 85-90 of those calls were rubbish calls - ie. I search online and clearly see business reward seats on the date / flight / route I want, I then call Qantas in an attempt to change only to be told any of the below BS responses :

- "The flights / seats you see online are only for new bookings and can't be used for existing bookings"
- "There are no reward seats showing for the day you have requested" (even despite me looking at them online in the multi city booking at the time of calling)
- "You are unable to change to this seat"

among others.

I then started calling 13 12 11 (also at times tried 1300 304 318 and / or 1300 659 161), and I got the priority line a couple of times. Not sure if it was luck or because of the fact that I was a repeat caller and therefore possibly triaged to Hobart / Auckland.

They honestly must have a hard drive full of notes on my PNR - I literally called that many times.

It's honestly a waste of both theirs and my time - if a reward seat is showing online, isn't it false advertising that it can't be used towards an existing rewards booking?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to have to call that many times, but I had to in order to get changes that I know can be done. On some days, I called 10+ times only to be told the same thing, I gave up at times.

I've posted about this multiple / countless times, in both this thread and the below (the below specifically talks about this very issue).

QF Mystery: We can see but the agent can't

Having been told countless times by multiple booking agents assisting with OWA booking changes that that flight "isn't available in my class (J)" despite the fact that I can see it, I am looking for the definite reason why this could be. You like me have probably been blankly told that the...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[DC3]

- "The flights / seats you see online are only for new bookings and can't be used for existing bookings"
- "There are no reward seats showing for the day you have requested" (even despite me looking at them online in the multi city booking at the time of calling)
- "You are unable to change to this seat"

Yes, some of the Call Centre staff are just so full of BS aren’t they?

 

[funnybrus]

The agent may not actually know! Adding the BNE will usually result in an error.

The rest looks ok!

Ended up fine after a call back 2H later to take payment (no ticket, but $ taken and every prior change has required escalation to the rewardticketingescalations email address to get ticketed)

Anecdotally and as another member noted, I have had fantastic service since they have introduced the PNR section on the automated menu. I am a SG QFF but the overseas agents I have had have been super knowledgeable and capable, and I went through the OWA fare rules with the agent I spoke to and she knew them, and agreed there shouldn't be a problem. Previously (2 weeks ago) I had nil issues adding a QF sector, with professional service from knowledgeable staff. I have also had to wait for 10+ minutes which I had not had to do on the previous 10+ calls over the past 2 years so I am thinking that there must be a premium agent system in place, outside of HBA/AKL.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well that’s a positive development!

 

[LukeO9]

Can the RtW booking have different start and end Australian airports ?

 

[elanshin]

Can the RtW booking have different start and end Australian airports ?

Yes you can have different start and end points. It will count difference in the distance so keep that in mind.

 

[FlyingFiona]

Could someone please help me by pointing out why this fare isn't qualifying for a OW RTW fare please? There are two airlines besides QF, two transits in HEL and the total miles don't exceed the maximum allowed. What am I missing?

 

[DC3]

Could someone please help me by pointing out why this fare isn't qualifying for a OW RTW fare please?

By ‘isn’t qualifying’ do you have more information to share? For example, are you trying to book online and receive an error message? Does the QF website crash when you are about to pay? Or something else?

 

[FlyingFiona]

By ‘isn’t qualifying’ do you have more information to share? For example, are you trying to book online and receive an error message? Does the QF website crash when you are about to pay? Or something else?

It doesn't cap at 318K points.

 

[DJTravels]

Could someone please help me by pointing out why this fare isn't qualifying for a OW RTW fare please? There are two airlines besides QF, two transits in HEL and the total miles don't exceed the maximum allowed. What am I missing?

View attachment 353240

There is a maximum of 1 stop-over in each city. It seems you've stopped over in Paris CDG twice, so that might be what breaks it.

 

[FlyingFiona]

There is a maximum of 1 stop-over in each city. It seems you've stopped over in Paris CDG twice, so that might be what breaks it.

Ah! You're right! Thanks for picking up on that. I had added in the LHR-CDG at a later point after realising I needed to vary airlines and so I didn't pick up on the double stop over.

 

[FlyingFiona]

I see a lot of mention of people adding on legs to a OWA when they become available to build up their OWA. Couple of questions:
1) Is there a change fee for adding on these legs each time? If so how much is it?
2) Have you already achieved OWA with your initial flight booking and then just add on extra legs, or do you start off with regular award bookings and then once you hit all the necessary requirements does it convert to a OWA booking (ie capped points)?

 

[Lynda2475]

I see a lot of mention of people adding on legs to a OWA when they become available to build up their OWA. Couple of questions:
1) Is there a change fee for adding on these legs each time? If so how much is it?

Yes there is a 5000 point change fee per passenger each time a ticket needs to be re-issued.

You very occasionally get lucky and can make two changes for one fee if there is a delay in re-ticketing i.e. ticket from previous change still not issued when you call for another.

Note: by change I mean a request to modify the PNR, it could be adding or removing 1 or more flights.

There can also be a 7000 point assistance fee for international, but this is waived for J and F bookings.

So if you are unable to get all flights on initial online booking you need to budget for the changes.

2) Have you already achieved OWA with your initial flight booking and then just add on extra legs, or do you start off with regular award bookings and then once you hit all the necessary requirements does it convert to a OWA booking (ie capped points)?

Can be either. If you initially book flights under the cap, the cap will apply when you add the extra flights. If cap already in play, you will only be charged the additional taxes.

 

[DC3]

Is there a change fee for adding on these legs each time? If so how much is it?

Any number of flight changes made during the same phone call will cost 5,000, per passenger. So, if you make multiple flight changes during the same call, it’s 5,000 points in total, per passenger

 

[DC3]

once you hit all the necessary requirements does it convert to a OWA booking (ie capped points)?

Just start with making some bookings. While putting your bookings together, if the total points exceeds the cap, once all of the rules are met, the total will automatically adjust back to the cap

 

[FlyingFiona]

Thanks @Lynda2475 and @DC3, it's been about 10 years since I last booked a OWA ticket and things have changed since then so trying to come up to speed.

I was often able to wait until all tickets were released and book everything in one go. Also there wasn't the "not available to other Q members" by other airlines nonsense.

 

[sap1l]

Hey guys, can I please get a sanity check on this OWA itinerary before I attempt to book it?

KUL-SIN | MH (Transit)
SIN-MEL | QF (Stopover 1)
MEL-SYD (Surface)
SYD-SIN | QF (Stopover 2)
SIN-KUL (Surface)
KUL-HND | JL (Stopover 3)
HND-SYD | QF (Stopover 4)
SYD-HND | QF or JL (Transit)
HND-LHR | JL or BA (Stopover 5)
LHR-HKG | CX or BA (Transit)
HKG-KUL | CX or MH (Final destination)

That exact routing comes to 34,997 miles on GCM. I'm not too fussed about how I get to LHR, but I would prefer either JL or CX (SYD-HKG-LHR also comes in under 35k miles).

To summarise my transits and stopovers:

• SIN: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• MEL: 1 stopover
• SYD: 1 stopover
• HND: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• LHR: 1 stopover
• HKG: 1 transit

As surface sectors count as a stopover in the first city, can I confirm that the SIN-KUL surface sector does not end my OWA?

Thank you!

 

[flapper]

Hey guys, can I please get a sanity check on this OWA itinerary before I attempt to book it?

KUL-SIN | MH (Transit)
SIN-MEL | QF (Stopover 1)
MEL-SYD (Surface)
SYD-SIN | QF (Stopover 2)
SIN-KUL (Surface)
KUL-HND | JL (Stopover 3)
HND-SYD | QF (Stopover 4)
SYD-HND | QF or JL (Transit)
HND-LHR | JL or BA (Stopover 5)
LHR-HKG | CX or BA (Transit)
HKG-KUL | CX or MH (Final destination)

That exact routing comes to 34,997 miles on GCM. I'm not too fussed about how I get to LHR, but I would prefer either JL or CX (SYD-HKG-LHR also comes in under 35k miles).

To summarise my transits and stopovers:

• SIN: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• MEL: 1 stopover
• SYD: 1 stopover
• HND: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• LHR: 1 stopover
• HKG: 1 transit

As surface sectors count as a stopover in the first city, can I confirm that the SIN-KUL surface sector does not end my OWA?

Thank you!

Ignoring the highly ambitious 34,997 miles (QF don't use GCM to calculate miles).
Rule 14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

 

[flapper]

Thanks @Lynda2475 and @DC3, it's been about 10 years since I last booked a OWA ticket and things have changed since then so trying to come up to speed.

I was often able to wait until all tickets were released and book everything in one go. Also there wasn't the "not available to other Q members" by other airlines nonsense.

And they had Australian call centres back then, the overseas ones are terrible when trying to add a flight or get reticketed.

 

[MelbFlyer]

And they had Australian call centres back then, the overseas ones are terrible when trying to add a flight or get reticketed.

+100 to this unfortunately, especially considering my recent experience.

85%+ of my calls made to Qantas were failed attempts to amend my rewards booking with seats that are showing online but agents were either unable to see it (most common response), or they were unable to add for some unknown reason.

It should be consistent across the board - either you can or you can't amend / change - it shouldn't vary because of the agent you get.

If only Qantas implemented a system where you can amend reward bookings online - that would be a godsend.