Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Mr H]

It's rather difficult to accept that I will need to rely on good will when both the delay in ticketing and the cancellation of flight are not caused by me.

If you read this thread, you'll find that the people who work with agents to find solutions end up doing better than the people who get legalistic and demand their rights.

 

[firede]

If you read this thread, you'll find that the people who work with agents to find solutions end up doing better than the people who get legalistic and demand their rights.

Not sure where you got the impression that I am being legalistic and demanding my rights. So far I have only asked to change my flight to British Airways Business. I have received four responses so far:

Agent 1: Sorry, we can only rebook you on Finnair Business (or other airlines Economy).

Agent 2: Confirmed BA availability, could not add flight manually, promised call back after clarification with team internally - never called back.

Agent 3: Confirmed he can change my flight to BA business class and it will be ticketed. I asked to confirm exact flight numbers. He could not tell me the flight numbers and then said that I need to contact American Airlines as they cancelled the flight (Note: It was a finnair cancelled flight).

Agent 4: Confirmed BA availability, confirmed new flight numbers, confirmed there are no new taxes/fees, and I can see new flights in my booking... she said ticketing will take 24 to 48 hours.

I guess I will see what happens.

 

[RichardMEL]

Agent 4: Confirmed BA availability, confirmed new flight numbers, confirmed there are no new taxes/fees, and I can see new flights in my booking... she said ticketing will take 24 to 48 hours.

I guess I will see what happens.

Concerned about no new taxes line. While no APD out of LHR on a connection, surely the mix will be different.

 

[firede]

Concerned about no new taxes line. While no APD out of LHR on a connection, surely the mix will be different.

Same, she said that there would be no additional taxes/fees as the change is due to flight disruptions. I don't know how I could have clarified that any further though on the call.

 

[djkelly69]

I think it is correct that they don't pass on tax changes when it is an involuntary change, however it seems unclear whether the previous change was accepted or not - if yes, this is a 'voluntary' change, so would assume taxes payable.

 

[jamo96]

I'm currently on my one world journey and I have a business class flight from Honolulu to LA with Alaska Airlines in a few days. Alaskan don't seem to have a lounge at Honolulu. Just wondering if I will get access to Qantas or another one world partner lounge? It appears to be a codeshare flight with Qantas.

 

[RichardMEL]

I'm currently on my one world journey and I have a business class flight from Honolulu to LA with Alaska Airlines in a few days. Alaskan don't seem to have a lounge at Honolulu. Just wondering if I will get access to Qantas or another one world partner lounge? It appears to be a codeshare flight with Qantas.

If you have QF Gold+ status, use the AA/JL combo lounge. it's pretty good actually because it serves JL also. Upstairs in the main terminal area.

QF is only open in the morning for the QF departure (which may or may not suit your AS flight)

If you don't have QF status, you could be out of luck as domestic AS flights in "First" won't get you onto the lounge based on CoS.

 

[elanshin]

If you have Gold+ status, use the AA/JL combo lounge. it's pretty good actually because it serves JL also. Upstairs in the main terminal area.

QF is only open in the morning for the QF departure (which may or may not suit your AS flight)

If you don't have QF status, you could be out of luck.

I'm currently on my one world journey and I have a business class flight from Honolulu to LA with Alaska Airlines in a few days. Alaskan don't seem to have a lounge at Honolulu. Just wondering if I will get access to Qantas or another one world partner lounge? It appears to be a codeshare flight with Qantas.

Doesn't J class on OW open up almost every OW J lounge regardless of status? I thought that was a common consistent across OW. Outside of a couple of very specific J discount tickets.

 

[elanshin]

If you have Gold+ status, use the AA/JL combo lounge. it's pretty good actually because it serves JL also. Upstairs in the main terminal area.

QF is only open in the morning for the QF departure (which may or may not suit your AS flight)

If you don't have QF status, you could be out of luck as domestic AS flights in "First" won't get you onto the lounge based on CoS.

I would've taken this to mean any OW J class.

 

[RichardMEL]

Doesn't J class on OW open up almost every OW J lounge regardless of status? I thought that was a common consistent across OW. Outside of a couple of very specific J discount tickets.

Not for domestic US flights on AA and AS. Used to be AS allowed their F pax into their lounge, but this changed iirc.

If connecting to an onward international flight then yes, but pure domestic one needs non AA or AS OW status to use the lpunge.

(Would not apply to accessing the QF lounge @ HNL, but that has very limited hours)

 

[elanshin]

Not for domestic US flights on AA and AS. Used to be AS allowed their F pax into their lounge, but this changed iirc.

If connecting to an onward international flight then yes, but pure domestic one needs non AA or AS OW status to use the lpunge.

(Would not apply to accessing the QF lounge @ HNL, but that has very limited hours)

Ah right completely forgot HNL is US domestic.

 

[RichardMEL]

View attachment 370929
I would've taken this to mean any OW J class.

To QF yes, but not to the AA/JL lounge

 

[jamo96]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm a lowly bronze QF status. I also always forget Hawaii is in the US... until they add tax and tip to everything.

 

[RichardMEL]

Just to put a full stop on the lounge question, the AS policy (per their website) allows paid and award First Class (ie Business) pax on flights over 2100mi (inc Hawaii) lounge access - but ONLY to AS run lounges. Not partner lounges. So, AA is out at HNL without appropriate status unfortunately.

 

[DC3]

… I also always forget Hawaii is in the US...

A bit OT, but would you care to share what country you usually consider the state of HI is part of?

 

[elanshin]

A bit OT, but would you care to share what country you usually consider the state of HI is part of?

Pacific island not part of US. Then esta, US security checks etc hit and you're reminded it is US.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Not sure where you got the impression that I am being legalistic and demanding my rights. So far I have only asked to change my flight to British Airways Business. I have received four responses so far:

Agent 1: Sorry, we can only rebook you on Finnair Business (or other airlines Economy).

Agent 2: Confirmed BA availability, could not add flight manually, promised call back after clarification with team internally - never called back.

Agent 3: Confirmed he can change my flight to BA business class and it will be ticketed. I asked to confirm exact flight numbers. He could not tell me the flight numbers and then said that I need to contact American Airlines as they cancelled the flight (Note: It was a finnair cancelled flight).

Agent 4: Confirmed BA availability, confirmed new flight numbers, confirmed there are no new taxes/fees, and I can see new flights in my booking... she said ticketing will take 24 to 48 hours.

I guess I will see what happens.

Welcome to the unfortunate world of not being able to (most of the time) get consultants who really should know and be able to help with this stuff.

One shouldn't need to have status to be able to get a consultant who can :
#1 - See the reward seats you can see online (and then depending on this),
#2 - Change seats / flights for reward bookings, irrespective of whether it is part of a OWA or not.

It's ridiculous that only Hobart and Auckland "co-incidentally" have full awards visibility and availability including what's shown online. I had a well documented business OWA experience last year in which I called Qantas well over one hundred (yes, 100+) times to get some simple changes done.

ie. Initial booking - only JQ economy was available so I booked it to ensure I had a flight home. Then kept checking the Qantas website almost daily to see if there were any newly released award seats. Found a QF business one - great! So I call up and attempt to change it, only to be told any of the below BS responses:

- The award seats showing online are for new bookings only and can't be added to your existing booking (The most common response)
- There are no award seats available on the day you're requesting for (even despite me looking at the very award seat I want on my computer / phone during the call!)
- We only have revenue / commercial fares available for the flight number you're looking at
- You are not allowed to change, only cancel altogether for a refund minus a cancellation fee

Sometimes it took 15+ calls just to get a change done, and sometimes I had no luck at all so I gave up for that day.

Then a few days / weeks / months later when new seats show up, I try again and again most of the time without much luck. Incredibly frustrating.

I know it's hard to get a OWA itinerary (even a 132.4k economy one) at the best of times, but you just have to try to do what you can online yourself, without having to call up to get changes done.

 

[Mr H]

Welcome to the unfortunate world of not being able to (most of the time) get consultants who really should know and be able to help with this stuff.

One shouldn't need to have status to be able to get a consultant who can :
#1 - See the reward seats you can see online (and then depending on this),
#2 - Change seats / flights for reward bookings, irrespective of whether it is part of a OWA or not.

It's ridiculous that only Hobart and Auckland "co-incidentally" have full awards visibility and availability including what's shown online. I had a well documented business OWA experience last year in which I called Qantas well over one hundred (yes, 100+) times to get some simple changes done.

ie. Initial booking - only JQ economy was available so I booked it to ensure I had a flight home. Then kept checking the Qantas website almost daily to see if there were any newly released award seats. Found a QF business one - great! So I call up and attempt to change it, only to be told any of the below BS responses:

- The award seats showing online are for new bookings only and can't be added to your existing booking (The most common response)
- There are no award seats available on the day you're requesting for (even despite me looking at the very award seat I want on my computer / phone during the call!)
- We only have revenue / commercial fares available for the flight number you're looking at
- You are not allowed to change, only cancel altogether for a refund minus a cancellation fee

Sometimes it took 15+ calls just to get a change done, and sometimes I had no luck at all so I gave up for that day.

Then a few days / weeks / months later when new seats show up, I try again and again most of the time without much luck. Incredibly frustrating.

I know it's hard to get a OWA itinerary (even a 132.4k economy one) at the best of times, but you just have to try to do what you can online yourself, without having to call up to get changes done.

My experience a couple of weeks ago was agents (in CPT and Fiji) not being able to see some JL seats that showed on the QF website. They told me they had checked multiple ways and it was phantom availability - which I am prepared to believe as there were many desirable JL seats available across multiple routes when all other airliners were not available. I did identify a plan B and the first agent I asked (based in Fiji) managed to get new sectors added with no fuss, paid straight away and ticketed in just over 24 hours (after a follow up phone call). My CX and MH sectors survived the experience.

While I believe @MelbFlyer has had some bad experiences, they are not representative of my own experiences.

 

[Hamole]

My experience a couple of weeks ago was agents (in CPT and Fiji) not being able to see some JL seats that showed on the QF website. They told me they had checked multiple ways and it was phantom availability - which I am prepared to believe as there were many desirable JL seats available across multiple routes when all other airliners were not available. I did identify a plan B and the first agent I asked (based in Fiji) managed to get new sectors added with no fuss, paid straight away and ticketed in just over 24 hours (after a follow up phone call). My CX and MH sectors survived the experience.

While I believe @MelbFlyer has had some bad experiences, they are not representative of my own experiences.

Might highlight the difference between call centres, I got a notification from seats.aero that there was JL business class availability on a flight I already had a premium economy ticket on. I called and asked if I could be upgraded, they could seemingly see the seat okay but couldn't do the upgrade due to a segment issue (the whole flight is Singapore->Narita->San Francisco). Told me they would email JL and hope for the best but not guarantees.

Did have high hopes because didn't hear back for about 2 weeks but then a new ticket with the upgrade showed up in my email.

Have to say my experience with the call centres has been really very good since booking x2 OWA in business. Most of the time get Hobart but if not they always pick up in < 5 min. I am only bronze FF but I guess the tickets mean we get placed in a priority queue? Is this other people's experience?

 

[MelbFlyer]

Did have high hopes because didn't hear back for about 2 weeks but then a new ticket with the upgrade showed up in my email.

Have to say my experience with the call centres has been really very good since booking x2 OWA in business. Most of the time get Hobart but if not they always pick up in < 5 min. I am only bronze FF but I guess the tickets mean we get placed in a priority queue? Is this other people's experience?

I think you've been extremely lucky just to be able to get through to Hobart as a non Platinum member.

I also had 2 x business OWAs but most of the time was only able to get through to regular / non-premium consultants.

I got through to Hobart precisely 3 times out of the 100+ phone calls - coincidentally on each of those 3 occasions, the exact change (change of date, change of travel class and change of JQ economy to QF business) that I was looking for was able to be done (but not for the offshore calls).

Don't get me wrong - I don't try to point out the fact that they're not in Australia as I don't care where they're located - just merely the fact that they really should have the same tools (and therefore visibility) to do the job.

Sure, I'm not a frequent flyer (only a Bronze as well, and don't even fly frequently enough to get to Silver!) but at the end of the day I'm still a paying customer and really shouldn't have to call up that many times to just get simple changes done.

The frustration stems from being told different answers / the inconsistency, moreso than the time it took contacting Qantas.

Overall looking back I'm glad I was able to enjoy the business OWA but it took a lot of hard yards just to redeem it.