re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread
Update and information on my attempted OneWorld Award Itinerary to South America.
I apologise in advance if I am giving already well known information but it may help some other novices .I am grateful for all the excellent info in this discussion. It has helped me a lot.
So far, I have managed to find 2 premium seats Auckland to Santiago (SCL). Our original plans have been changed by some months but I am still trying.( late august to september now to october 2015 )
What have I learnt?
International flights in the QFF program to from South America are by Qantas and LAN.
The main South American carriers are LAN and TAM. The individual airlines in LAN ( eg LAN Chile , LAN Peru ) all are regarded as the one entity - LAN. You cannot count LAN Chile and Peru flights as the 2 airlines you need to qualify for a OW Award.
Previous posters are correct about restricted access to award seats in South America - for example, with regards to LAN (and all its sub airlines) seats on popular routes appear for 24 hours only. eg Santiago to Easter Island award seats appear for one calendar date only at a time, at round 328 days -usually 7 J and 7 Y , then after 24 hours or so , disappear ( maybe been taken) and then another lot of 14 award seats are on offer on the next calendar day and so on. For example, on the website today, there are award seats for the 23 September 2015 but not for the 22nd or the 24th- so you get them ASAP if you want them. SCL to Buenos Aires is the same arrangement.
Less popular LAN services have seat availability for 2 or 3 days - eg AEP to Iguassu Falls. These are often one class flights.
Some TAM award seats are released similarly eg for AEP-GRU - ie one day only though for the non major sectors. The remainder, if they are to become available, seem to appear round 2-3 months ahead of your hoped for flight vs 11 months for the others.
Some sectors rarely have award seats at all - good example is SCL- Montevideo.
Some sectors eg Ushuaia (USH) to anywhere, are not recognised as award destinations in BA and AA sites. But weirdly, Punta Arenas (PUQ), on similar latitude to USH, has award seats to from SCL. I rang QFF and all the agent could tell me that there were no award seats available to from USH on the days she checked - she could not tell if they were not on offer, had been taken or are not "approved" destinations.
I do feel sympathetic with the QFF agents - the whole system is so confusing.
I complained earlier about the dearth of award J seats to Santiago from Australia. One of the posters noted that September was school holidays and I was being hopeful - well, the situation hasn't changed in relation to 2 seats being available on one flight - maybe Chilean school holidays last 2 months at this time of year?
You cannot book any intra South American flight on the QFF award website - need to ring and pay the change fee per person each time you add or change.
I would love to know the relationship between the QFF award availability and that on the excellent BA site. I understand there is related to an exchange arrangement between carriers. I thought initially that it was the tight and mean nature of LAN in particular but when you look at the legendary restrictions to Aussies accessing J award seats to the USA for example, maybe the South Americans are just paying Qantas back.
It is irritating that, on the one hand, QFF says you can't rely on the QFF award search when it comes to QFF awards being available on some LAN flights (eg SCL-AKL) and yet that is the only way to see if there are seats available internally.
I have 2 separate bookings for myself and my wife. QFF have been able to link them in some way that lets other airlines know we are travelling together.
You certainly can book a J award seat for one pax in my situation and get a premium economy seat for the other on the same flight - of course - the usual booking fees.
One thing I can’t blame Qantas for is the number of overnight flights scheduled particularly in the north south and vv direction – sometimes the only best option is a “redeye”.
Many of the TAM flights are going the way of the European carriers with their business class being just an economy row with the middle seat covered with a table. Expertflyer lists the business class in them as having a “w” fare basis.
Re transpacific flights to from Australia to Santiago either direct or via the USA, you have to be very lucky to snag one, let alone two, business class seats. Often, the QFF search looks promising but when you click on it, the flight is via Hong Kong to LAX to Miami etc etc. Occasionally, you can get one seat via Tahiti out of LAX.
Even if you can get a flight out of LAX or DFW home, you still need to get to the US form Lima or EZE -usually American is the best carrier – and rarely do you see more than one business award seat.
So, I’ll just keep plugging along and hope for answers to some of my questions above and seats to magically appear. I’m not going to let Qantas restrict my ability to use my points to take my wife on a once in a lifetime holiday to South America. Happy to book early and be flexible but .....
Pleased to help out with more advice if I can.
