Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[PLANT]

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

I don't have 320k in my account but was trying to do research for family.

So I had a go at the Any seat award for 2 people to london from Brisbane Return and it comes out at 320K in points in Economy.
It goes via Hong Kong and uses BA for half the trip.
It stated that I would be informed what the Taxes/fuel/qantas rip off would be on "CHECK" but it does not?
Can someone please let me know the out of pocket $ required?
So if you want a stopover you actually have to have it as destination 1 and have therefore have two separate flights booked on the Any Seat award page?

 

[hossein_au]

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

I don't have 320k in my account but was trying to do research for family.

So I had a go at the Any seat award for 2 people to london from Brisbane Return and it comes out at 320K in points in Economy.
It goes via Hong Kong and uses BA for half the trip.
It stated that I would be informed what the Taxes/fuel/qantas rip off would be on "CHECK" but it does not?
Can someone please let me know the out of pocket $ required?
So if you want a stopover you actually have to have it as destination 1 and have therefore have two separate flights booked on the Any Seat award page?

Sorry, cannot answer your specific question directly, but... Any Seat Awards (ASA) are generally very poor use of frequent flyer points. As a rule of thumb, either use points for Classic Awards or pay for your economy fare. Of course there have been some special cases where ASA were good/excellent, but I use the above rule of thumb as a starting point.

 

[vetrade]

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

I don't have 320k in my account but was trying to do research for family.

So I had a go at the Any seat award for 2 people to london from Brisbane Return and it comes out at 320K in points in Economy.
It goes via Hong Kong and uses BA for half the trip.
It stated that I would be informed what the Taxes/fuel/qantas rip off would be on "CHECK" but it does not?
Can someone please let me know the out of pocket $ required?
So if you want a stopover you actually have to have it as destination 1 and have therefore have two separate flights booked on the Any Seat award page?

Maybe this Q might have been better posted as a separate thread.......but anyway, firstly I think you really meant to say you checked the classic awards which are 320K points for 2 pax return BNE to LHR (not ASA's). The QF system won't price out the taxes for the whole trip unless you have enough points in your account but if you do have 160K you could try searching for 1 pax to get the taxes. Alternately, you could search the individual flights to get the taxes for each leg - then just add them up

e.g. Taking just the BNE-HKG and HKG - BNE legs the taxes are $205 and $167 respectively. Total $372. You can do the same for the BA flights to/from LHR - can use QF or ba.com for this. Just do a dummy booking at ba.com for a paid Y flight HKG - LHR one way (taxes should be the same as an award flight) and the taxes show as $HKD977 i.e. $AUD134

 

[hossein_au]

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

Maybe this Q might have been better posted as a separate thread.......but anyway, firstly I think you really meant to say you checked the classic awards which are 320K points for 2 pax return BNE to LHR (not ASA's). The QF system won't price out the taxes for the whole trip unless you have enough points in your account but if you do have 160K you could try searching for 1 pax to get the taxes. Alternately, you could search the individual flights to get the taxes for each leg - then just add them up

e.g. Taking just the BNE-HKG and HKG - BNE legs the taxes are $205 and $167 respectively. Total $372. You can do the same for the BA flights to/from LHR - can use QF or ba.com for this. Just do a dummy booking at ba.com for a paid Y flight HKG - LHR one way (taxes should be the same as an award flight) and the taxes show as $HKD977 i.e. $AUD134

I could be wrong, but the charges (taxes plus airline fees and charges) for flying out go LHR are VERY different to those flying into LHR. And if you are flying BA, you better sit down when you check those (sur)charges! ;-)

 

[straitman]

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

PLANT,

I know it's OT but do you have any AA miles as their redemptions cost significantly less miles than QF awards?

 

[Danger]

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

My brief research suggests the QF award booking engine does not display any US Airways flights.

Can anyone concur?

 

[vetrade]

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

My brief research suggests the QF award booking engine does not display any US Airways flights.

Can anyone concur?

Yep, that's been my experience too. Whenever I've searched for awards where I know US is the only OW operator with direct flights QF only shows up indirect route options on AA flights. Searching for the same flights on the AA website often shows that awards for US airlines flights are available so it's obviously a shortcoming of the QF engine. I just automatically look for AAdvantage award availability now.

 

[Danger]

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

Yep, that's been my experience too. Whenever I've searched for awards where I know US is the only OW operator with direct flights QF only shows up indirect route options on AA flights. Searching for the same flights on the AA website often shows that awards for US airlines flights are available so it's obviously a shortcoming of the QF engine. I just automatically look for AAdvantage award availability now.

A shortcoming of the QF engine? Say it aint so.

 

[Buzzard]

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

A shortcoming of the QF engine? Say it aint so.

What.....only one shortcoming?

 

[flychrisfly]

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

**HOWEVER** when I called to make two date changes, the operator put me on hold for 5-10 mins to "check if the points &/or taxes $$ would be the same" - by definition if I'm making no change to the routing, then these are all unchanged...

Not necessarily... Taxes change over time (ie. go up!) so the taxes applicable at the date of the original booking may not be the same as those today - and I'm pretty sure they'll use the latest taxes and rates if you change your itinerary even if it's just the dates. Also, if you're dates are changing you could be changing a stop over into a transit (or vv) in which case different taxes may be levied.

Not sure what happens if the rules about points change between the original booking date and the date of the change - suspect the original conditions at the time of booking would apply, so no change there, but happy to be corrected.

 

[ozflier]

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

Thank you for all your wisdom in the previous pages.

I am trying to book a trip to south america for later next year using a business oneworld explorer award .

I am having lots of trouble checking on availability within south america on QFF website.

eg either the city is not served at all ( eg SCL-EZE) or classic award flights not sold on that sector - eg EZE-DFW.

I thought an option might have been to check on the AA site but that site seems restricted to a limited number of airlines.

Can i assume that award availability on AA reflects oneworld or better still QFF classic award availability/

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

Thank you for all your wisdom in the previous pages.

I am trying to book a trip to south america for later next year using a business oneworld explorer award .

I am having lots of trouble checking on availability within south america on QFF website.

eg either the city is not served at all ( eg SCL-EZE) or classic award flights not sold on that sector - eg EZE-DFW.

I thought an option might have been to check on the AA site but that site seems restricted to a limited number of airlines.

Can i assume that award availability on AA reflects oneworld or better still QFF classic award availability/

Use the British Airways site to check availability

 

[ozflier]

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

Thanks for that prompt reply.
Took some time to get a BA Exec Club membership for nationality issues.
Currently the Avios award booking site is down but will try later.
Is it safe to assume that availability on the BA site reflects that available with my QFF points?

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

Thanks for that prompt reply.
Took some time to get a BA Exec Club membership for nationality issues.
Currently the Avios award booking site is down but will try later.
Is it safe to assume that availability on the BA site reflects that available with my QFF points?

Generally yes. Not always though. There are known issues like for example both BA and QF may show some "phantom" availability for CX flights. This will need to be checked on the Japan Airlines Mileage Bank website.
However, BA will show the most OneWorld airlines one can see for free whereas QF won't show JAL or MH.
You need to make sure that you research your itinerary segment by segment as all airline site engines are pretty bad stitching them together

 

[ozflier]

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

Thank you again.
I have spent most of my flying life travelling with United and Star Alliance.
I have just given up on what they called the "New United" and am moving to QF.
Can you tell me about this scenario
When I find the right flights but award Y is only available but want and pay business class award rates , should a seat in J come up ,
do i automatically get moved to the higher class
do i need to request it manually if i happen to see in on the QFF search
or it doesnt happen

I did find the following in the members guide but hoped it would not apply to my situation

14.3.6 Members cannot waitlist when using Classic Award tickets.

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

Thank you again.
I have spent most of my flying life travelling with United and Star Alliance.
I have just given up on what they called the "New United" and am moving to QF.
Can you tell me about this scenario
When I find the right flights but award Y is only available but want and pay business class award rates , should a seat in J come up ,
do i automatically get moved to the higher class
do i need to request it manually if i happen to see in on the QFF search
or it doesnt happen

I did find the following in the members guide but hoped it would not apply to my situation

14.3.6 Members cannot waitlist when using Classic Award tickets.

The short answer is no.
If it's a Y award, you can't upgrade a single sector or the whole trip to J or even PE. If it's an J award, you can't even upgrade a US domestic sector on AA or US to their domestic F. It'll have to be a 3 class intercon AA service on A321 with a 3 class configuration. Otherwise Qantas will book you into Y. I personally think it's a rip-off ...
You can, however, downgrade a sector(s) from J to Y if no J available. Which I also think is a rip-off...but that's what it is

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

I've just re-read your post and I think I misunderstood you...
If your J itinerary at the time of booking had a Y leg booked because there was no J seat you can then book it in Y and wait till a J seat opens. Is it what you were asking?
Qantas will not monitor this for you, you will have to do it yourself and the will also charge you 3.5k points for the change (upgrade)

 

[Grooba]

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

It'll have to be a 3 class intercon AA service on A321 with a 3 class configuration. Otherwise Qantas will book you into Y. I personally think it's a rip-off ...

This is not always the case. At times if a 2 class flight and on a 280k J award you will get seated in the F cabin. Not always but it happens semi regularly.

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

This is not always the case. At times if a 2 class flight and on a 280k J award you will get seated in the F cabin. Not always but it happens semi regularly.

Not sure about semi regularly as it is against the rules. May have been an exception. Certainly did not happen to me - I was only given a Y option by 3 different agents. Luckily, a J seat opened up later and I was able to change my SFO-JFK leg from Y to J

 

[ozflier]

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

I've just re-read your post and I think I misunderstood you...
If your J itinerary at the time of booking had a Y leg booked because there was no J seat you can then book it in Y and wait till a J seat opens. Is it what you were asking?
Qantas will not monitor this for you, you will have to do it yourself and the will also charge you 3.5k points for the change (upgrade)

Yes that is exactly what I was asking.