Hi all, thanks for the great resources and advice upstream in this and other threads
I have a question about the intricacies of OneWorld Reward redemptions that I haven't specifically seen addressed before (please link me if the solution has been posted elsewhere!).
I have already started an 11-month trip with SYD-BNE-NRT-KIX, with a follow-on leg of KIX-HEL-GVA in a few months, both in economy. Cost for these together was about 76k pts and a few hundred in taxes/levies.
When initially planning the trip, all I could find for my next desired leg (BRU-BOG) was a business class classic reward redemption for BRU-MAD-BOG for 90k pts and a few hundred in taxes, as there were no options in economy in my desired time period (late Jul/early Aug). This puts it at 166k pts plus taxes/levies, with a final flight from South America to Aus still outstanding.
There are now economy classic reward journeys available on this leg for 104k pts and similar taxes/levies, so my question is: can I cancel the business class classic reward leg for the 6k pts fee, replace it with the 104k pts economy leg, and have the overall points cost (barring the cancellation fee) cap at the 132,400pts economy OneWorld Award redemption limit?
The advantage to this is that if/when SCL-SYD classic rewards (hopefully) become available for early Jan 25, this will also sit under the cap, whereas with the current single business leg I would keep paying until 318,000. If this falls through I would still be 26k pts better off changing to economy and applying the lower cap (but I'd definitely pay that premium to retain the J flight if I can't find a reward flight home from South America down the track..) Any other suggestions or advice?
I am within the stopover limit and will only have two open ground sectors (GVA to BRU and BOG to SCL), and already have 3 OW airlines on my routes, so afaik I should be in keeping with the redemption requirements.
This was my first attempt at a OneWorld Award redemption so I probably should have set it up better to be more flexible with dates rather than class. I do not desire to upgrade remaining legs to business just to better use the cap, at this time, as I only have around 220k pts remaining and won't be churning this year.
Finally, as alluded to above, I am really struggling to find availability post-November for SCL-SYD Classic Reward flights, any tips or info? I don't expect any availability right around christmas/NY, but until a month ago the CR options were showing up at around the 355 day horizon like clockwork. The Qantas Chile website seems to be very poor at accurately displaying reward flights all of a sudden.
Many thanks in advance!