Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Jacques Vert]

Oh I feel so dumb

Thanks Jacques Vert!

We were all dumb once. You ask questions, you learn, you help others!

 

[zoom&boom]

Wow. What an amazing forum. What fantastic people. Thank you all for your responses.

I'll tweak the trip to only have two transits in DOH. Just wanted to enjoy QR "J" as much as I could. All my other airlines are definitely OW with even Finnair a possibility from SIN-HEL-LHR. I also tried a couple of simpler itineraries and they worked so DOH with the stopover and two transits is the problem.

This has been a very steep learning curve to book this first one but the smile on my face and that first glass of champagne on the first sector will say it all.

Thanks everyone for understanding, knowledge and suggestions.

Regards
Zoom

 

[Danger]

Wow. What an amazing forum. What fantastic people. Thank you all for your responses.

I'll tweak the trip to only have two transits in DOH. Just wanted to enjoy QR "J" as much as I could. All my other airlines are definitely OW with even Finnair a possibility from SIN-HEL-LHR. I also tried a couple of simpler itineraries and they worked so DOH with the stopover and two transits is the problem.

This has been a very steep learning curve to book this first one but the smile on my face and that first glass of champagne on the first sector will say it all.

Thanks everyone for understanding, knowledge and suggestions.

Regards
Zoom

To get to LHR, I think CX may have a daily SIN-BKK that could be an option, onwards with AY via HEL. And there's also MH via KUL.

 

[tandlj]

I am unsure when the Sep 18 changes actually kick in, or rather, will the old 280,000 points fare apply to flight booked before that date or to flights commenced before that day?

 

[DC3]

I am unsure when the Sep 18 changes actually kick in, or rather, will the old 280,000 points fare apply to flight booked before that date or to flights commenced before that day?

My understanding is that from 18th Sep, the 280,000 points goes to 318,000 for new ticketing, including changes/additions to existing ticketing.

So, if possible get all ticketing finalised before 18th Sep for 280,000 points.

Edit: Four weeks left to do this, or else an extra 38,000 points

 

[flychrisfly]

Can someone please confirm booking days for QF Bronze?

Does the info below apply for Bronze?

Award Seats – Number of Days Ahead
QF – 353 days
CX – 360 days
BA – 354 days
AA – 330 days
QR – 361 days
JL – 330 days *360 days from 1 April 2019*
IB – 361 days
MH – 354 days
RJ – 362 days
AY – 361 days
LA – 330 days
JJ – 331 days
UL – 361 days
S7 – 330 days

You can work this out yourself by being bronze and seeing what's available and how far out it is. Feel free to update the wiki with what you find.

 

[tandlj]

My understanding is that from 18th Sep, the 280,000 points goes to 318,000 for new ticketing, including changes/additions to existing ticketing.

Thank you very much DC3 (I loved that plane; Austrian Airlines had one doing the cargo run from Vienna to London and I often hitched a ride while working at Heathrow for the AUA),

I have some more 'silly' questions which I can't find answers for:

1) if a J class OneWorld award is for two persons, does the itinerary have to be the exactly the same (or can, for example, one start and end in Sydney, the other in Canberra, or the same leg at a different day)?

2) Is it only J class tickets that qualify for this award? (I have noticed D class, for example, listed with MA.)

 

[DC3]

… 1) if a J class OneWorld award is for two persons, does the itinerary have to be the exactly the same (or can, for example, one start and end in Sydney, the other in Canberra, or the same leg at a different day)?

2) Is it only J class tickets that qualify for this award? (I have noticed D class, for example, listed with MA.)

1. I'm no expert and others may be more helpful regarding the rules.

However, what you are suggesting seems to amount to two separate itineraries (i.e., one for each passenger). Maybe you could book the common sectors for both pax on the one PRN (this will be for the same routing on the same dates), separate them once all completed, and subsequently add the CBR-SYD segment and then amend them as you need (based on availability, and accepting the change fee of 5,000 points/passenger each time). This may become somewhat complicated, if even doable.

2. I wouldn't get too concerned about the booking class (e.g., U, D, I, etc). The same code may have different meanings for tickets issued by different airlines. You are booking into Business award availability. In any case, technically, J is revenue Business class.

 

[11sjw]

1) if a J class OneWorld award is for two persons, does the itinerary have to be the exactly the same (or can, for example, one start and end in Sydney, the other in Canberra, or the same leg at a different day)?

We had this issue (except for 3 people). The only difference was the departure from Perth (24 hours apart as we could get no more than 2 J seats) and they had to all be done as separate bookings.

 

[Gonetroppo]

A little stupid question... This appears to be sticking in our OW award booking, but I thought it wasn't allowed. We have the trip kicking off SYD-PEK (as they couldn't see any award availability for BNE-SYD - there was plenty but that's another story), and then returning at the end SCL-SYD-BNE (just transit in SYD). I know you can 'undershoot' at the end and the miles just get added in anyway for the 35,000 limit. However, I thought you couldn't 'overshoot' your departure point at the end.

 

[serfty]

This appears to be sticking in our OW award booking

Is it ticketed?

 

[Kangol]

Is it ticketed?

This is what I'd also be interested in.
Did you think of OOL-SYD at the start?

 

[zoom&boom]

Wow. What an amazing forum. What fantastic people. Thank you all for your responses.

I'll tweak the trip to only have two transits in DOH. Just wanted to enjoy QR "J" as much as I could. All my other airlines are definitely OW with even Finnair a possibility from SIN-HEL-LHR. I also tried a couple of simpler itineraries and they worked so DOH with the stopover and two transits is the problem.

This has been a very steep learning curve to book this first one but the smile on my face and that first glass of champagne on the first sector will say it all.

Thanks everyone for understanding, knowledge and suggestions.

Regards
Zoom

I’ll be booking the first couple of sectors this week at around-361/-360. Looking at SIN/HKG/LHR. Individual sectors are not available but a married SIN/HKG/LHR is available. To book this do I use the “multi city” option and just input SIN-LHR which will give me the two sectors? I’ll start adding further married sectors at later dates.

FYI stuff I have found which everyone probably knew all ready...
1. 2 x married sectors through DOH worked but I could not get a DOH stopover to work even with one married sector.
2. Availability through and beyond HKG was pretty good for where I wanted to fly.
3. Availability using AY from Asia to Europe was a bit patchy. Maybe due to needing two seats. Having said that AY always seemed available from PVG using a MU connection. NB can’t be used for a One World award.

Zoom

 

[leer30]

June to August 2019

PER xHKG YVR (stop) CX (both A350)
YVR - JFK (stop) CX (777)
**ground segment to Chicago**
ORD xLHR BRU (stop) BA (A380 + A320)
**ground segment to Rome**
FCO xLHR BER (stop) BA (A320)
**ground segment to Frankfurt**
FRA - NRT (stop) JL (787)
NRT xHKG PER CX (A330 + A350)

As a bit of an AVgeek, I'm looking forward to trying our the CX A350, BA A380 and JL 787

Was going to go FCO to HKG (stop) then to NRT - but just couldn't get Qatar or Cathay on the days required, so adjusted trip to make Berlin a stopover and fly out JL from Frankfurt to NRT direct on a Dreamliner (seemed to have a fair bit of availability)

Bit of a conclusion to this - enjoyed a nice 9 week trip away. Busy, but worth it!

The CX A350's were fairly bumpy through a fair bit of turbulence (I was surprised how bumpy they were). The BA A380 was a surprise, the service was good, the seat pretty good and the service excellent.

The BA A320 'Club Europe' weren't as bad as I feared, yes it was an economy seat, but the middle spare seat, gave you ample elbow room and for a 1-2 hour flight was fine, again the service was very good. They did delay our bags getting to Brussels though (came on the following flight)

The JL 787-9 was incredible - probably the best service and comfort of all the planes (including the only plane to supply a mattress topper). And the smoothness of the ride (on the 787) was much better than the A350 (which is sad, because I am a big fan of the A350, but the actual flying on them, was very rough and bumpy - maybe just bad luck with weather in and out of HKG)

Got stuck on a 777-300 out of Narita (last minute change, prob due to the cancellations of the past week or two), so didn't get the reverse herringbone seats, only a recliner style seat. Again both CX flights were very bumpy (in some places). The 777-300 was the bumpiest.

Airports:
PER - has really lifted its game in recent years - qantas lounge is small, but pretty good
HKG - amazing as usual, The Pier is a very good business class lounge. Heaps of showers.
YVR - only landed and departed, a plain airport, nothing to get too excited about - the Cathay lounge on departure was good - the train to Vancouver city is right outside the doors.
JFK - as always, old and s*#t, but got through it easy enough, early morning landing.
ORD - never again - BA lounge was small, took 50 mins from leaving the aerobridge to taking off - airport is just too big!
LHR - whoa, got lost the first time through here, ended up outside immigration, the connections was hard to work out. Second pass was better landed and departed from 5A, the lounge was good, without being great.
BRU - OK airport, small, but got the job done.
FCO - Good airport - BA lounge was quite good.
FRA - Not too bad an airport, quite large and spread out - the JL lounge was good, even had 2 x showers.
NRT - Huge reno work ongoing atm, flew in, everything was quick, no delays. Flying out, nothing opened until 7.30am, really thought it was a 24hr airport, it is not, security didn't open until 7.15am, lounge didn't open til 7.30am, felt like it was just opening for our flight at 9am. Cathay lounge at NRT was good.

Overall great way to use 280,000 qantas points - however, made me realise that as good as business class is, I would only pay up to 2x the economy cash price for it - it simply isn't worth 3-4x an economy ticket. Points are the only way I would fly business class! Unless it was a cash special.

 

[tandlj]

Just now, when attempting a One-World Award booking, after selecting all the flights and confirming my details and the flights, including agreeing to the conditions, on the next screen after the red text "Managing you Booking" page, this error message was displayed: "An error occurred in our central database. Please contact us for further information (4002 [7597])"

Is this a known issue? Is there anything to do other than wait 2.5 hours on the phone or for call-back (and SMS, which "is taking longer")

 

[qiaqia]

Just now, when attempting a One-World Award booking, after selecting all the flights and confirming my details and the flights, including agreeing to the conditions, on the next screen after the red text "Managing you Booking" page, this error message was displayed: "An error occurred in our central database. Please contact us for further information (4002 [7597])"

Is this a known issue? Is there anything to do other than wait 2.5 hours on the phone or for call-back (and SMS, which "is taking longer")

I had the same 4002 issue, a couple of days ago.
tried multiple times, on different browsers, no luck.

ended up calling them, booked all flights without any issue. asked the customer service what caused the 4002 error, he has no idea.
I guess the only option is to call them.

 

[DC3]

... Is this a known issue? Is there anything to do other than wait 2.5 hours on the phone or for call-back (and SMS, which "is taking longer")

There’s numerous posts about issues with booking on-line. Call Centre to book, unfortunately, in many cases.

You may have some success in doing part of it on-line, getting the PRN, and then doing the rest by phone.

 

[flapper]

I am wondering if there are some J seats that QF never releases to NB members. I've noticed that when using my partner's PS login I see seats available on QF60 SFO-BNE on 26May, 2 Jun and 4 Jun. They don't show on my NB login but QF50 SFO-MEL seats show for 3 Jun, 8 Jun, 10 Jun.
Has anyone noticed this on other routes or is this just because QF60 is a new route?

 

[zoom&boom]

I’ll be booking the first couple of sectors this week at around-361/-360. Looking at SIN/HKG/LHR. Individual sectors are not available but a married SIN/HKG/LHR is available. To book this do I use the “multi city” option and just input SIN-LHR which will give me the two sectors? I’ll start adding further married sectors at later dates.

FYI stuff I have found which everyone probably knew all ready...
1. 2 x married sectors through DOH worked but I could not get a DOH stopover to work even with one married sector.
2. Availability through and beyond HKG was pretty good for where I wanted to fly.
3. Availability using AY from Asia to Europe was a bit patchy. Maybe due to needing two seats. Having said that AY always seemed available from PVG using a MU connection. NB can’t be used for a One World award.

Zoom

Would anyone like to comment on my above question please. Individual sectors are not showing up but married ones are. I know that I can probably call to book this initial part of my trip but want to avoid this if possible. I know I will have to call when I want to add further sections.

Thanks in advance
Zoom

 

[Kangol]

I am wondering if there are some J seats that QF never releases to NB members. I've noticed that when using my partner's PS login I see seats available on QF60 SFO-BNE on 26May, 2 Jun and 4 Jun. They don't show on my NB login but QF50 SFO-MEL seats show for 3 Jun, 8 Jun, 10 Jun.
Has anyone noticed this on other routes or is this just because QF60 is a new route?

A general rule that is mentioned on the website is that higher tiers may get access to seats that lower tiers otherwise would not see.
Are the NB seats not available as a PS? That would be odd.