Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[hutch]

It's well known that CX frequently imposes a block on married segments transiting HKG, so your CX flights CTS-HKG-MEL could well be the problem. You can get around it by having a stopover in HKG rather than a transit. The theory is that they want to force you to spend some time in HKG so that you spend some money there.

More than happy to spend time in HKG. Though, think I'm out of stopovers. I'll see if I can find some ORD - HKG availability

 

[djkelly69]

Award isn't pricing as a OW award and that is the only thing that I think could be causing that...

Assuming you are trying to book online, the system has been known to have issues with visiting an airport more than once (despite the fact it is allowed in some circumstances).

 

[Danger]

Do you know if the agent could see the individual sectors if searched by themselves? It sounds like it might be a throughfare issue.

I'm afraid I didn't ask but given CX's love of married segments, I can't imagine it would have been possible.

 

[tooten69]

Hi all, quick question.

How likely is it for yourself and your bags to make this suggested connection? I feel that a 25/30min transit time is crazy... Has anyone had experience with something this tight?
(it seems like AA bookings have this tight turn around time on many suggested bookings!)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi all, quick question.

How likely is it for yourself and your bags to make this suggested connection? I feel that a 25/30min transit time is crazy... Has anyone had experience with something this tight?
(it seems like AA bookings have this tight turn around time on many suggested bookings!)View attachment 302641View attachment 302640

They are doable. I had a similar connection a few months ago in CLT. We were ultimately late arriving due to a storm and I had just ten minutes to get from gate to gate. I made it but unfortunately the bags just missed out. They were forwarded the next day by courier. AA paid out AUD60 for essential purchases I’d made to get me through the night/day.

People and bags routinely make these connections.Worth noting in the USA that the block time and flight time can can vary wildly… MCO-DCA is blocked at 2hrs15 but the flying time is around 1hr30. So there’s usually wiggle room.

 

[tooten69]

They are doable. I had a similar connection a few months ago in CLT. We were ultimately late arriving due to a storm and I had just ten minutes to get from gate to gate. I made it but unfortunately the bags just missed out. They were forwarded the next day by courier. AA paid out AUD60 for essential purchases I’d made to get me through the night/day.

People and bags routinely make these connections.Worth noting in the USA that the block time and flight time can can vary wildly… MCO-DCA is blocked at 2hrs15 but the flying time is around 1hr30. So there’s usually wiggle room.

Oh great, thanks for the information.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Oh great, thanks for the information.

If your flights are several months away they will almost certainly be subject to schedule changes. This usually gives you the opportunity to change/rearrange to something with a bit more padding.

 

[GoneMissed]

G'day all

Does anyone know of any rough J reward seat availability (EK or QF, understanding QR is slim to none) coming back from Europe to SYD/MEL/BNE in February or March next year? I've run a few searches on Award Nexus but I'm burning through my points - hoping someone can help narrow the search down somewhat!

 

[Captain Halliday]

What you see on the QF website is what’s available.

Demand is extremely high for the coming 12 months.

Note also, that this is the One World Classic Flight Award thread, so not the best place for EK related questions (though the answer is the same).

 

[levelnine]

Does anyone know of any rough J reward seat availability (EK or QF, understanding QR is slim to none) coming back from Europe to SYD/MEL/BNE in February or March next year?

Chances are close to 0 this close out given current demand/supply imbalance. I'd be booking Y to ensure you have a seat home and checking multiple route combinations every day to see if something in J pops up.

Also, there's PE seats available on QF2 on Mon 27 Feb.

 

[CanadianJay]

After a few months of following AFF, and many, many hours planning and reworking flights, I have finally managed to book a ticket, with Business Class on every leg, for $429 AUD (and 318k Qantas points of course). Booking is for June 2023, so about 8 months in advance. There were so many issues to debug along the way, thanks to Matt in particular for the podcast and articles, but also the many other community members!

LST-DEL(via MEL)-HEL-JFK-HEL-DEL-PER(via KUL)

Lots of business class availability with Finnair to/from Europe/North America via Delhi right now – getting back into Australia and min/maxing layovers/stopovers along the way to meet trip criteria were the tricky parts.

Thanks All!

 

[djkelly69]

I have finally managed to book a round the world ticket

Congrats!

Just try to remember not to call it a 'RTW ticket' in the future, particularly in this thread, lest you be banished to god knows where. It is an OWA.

 

[Captain Halliday]

After a few months of following AFF, and many, many hours planning and reworking flights, I have finally managed to book a ticket, with Business Class on every leg, for $429 AUD (and 318k Qantas points of course). Booking is for June 2023, so about 8 months in advance. There were so many issues to debug along the way, thanks to Matt in particular for the podcast and articles, but also the many other community members!

LST-DEL(via MEL)-HEL-JFK-HEL-DEL-PER(via KUL)

Lots of business class availability with Finnair to/from Europe/North America via Delhi right now – getting back into Australia and min/maxing layovers/stopovers along the way to meet trip criteria were the tricky parts.

Thanks All!

That’s very cheap as far as the carrier imposed charges go.

What airlines are you using?

 

[CanadianJay]

That’s very cheap as far as the carrier imposed charges go.

What airlines are you using?

Qantas to Delhi, FinnAir in Europe/North America, and Malaysia Air getting back to Perth. I intentionally avoided London and Doha due to the higher charges.

Qantas return flights back from DEL-MEL also would nearly double the price but they kept failing with a weird error code (I debugged each flight to find it was the Qantas return flights breaking the trip) and I needed a second non-Qantas carrier anyhow so this saved some trouble in Europe by letting me use Finnair back and forth to JFK since they have the most availability its easier to find appropriate flights.

Still need to tack on a flight back to LST from PER and some short flights from New York into Canada (sucks that WestJet doesn't count for this ticket), but I am quite pleased with the booking overall.

 

[CanadianJay]

Question about adding on the final flight from PER-LST:
-Does the trip end when you return to Australia (i.e., can I call Qantas to add on a 7th domestic flight from PER or does that violate "14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.")?
-That rule is a bit confusing, not sure if it just means you can't leave Australia again once you return to Australia or if you can't have any departures at all, including domestic, once you return to Australia.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Does the trip end when you return to Australia

No.

That rule is a bit confusing, not sure if it just means you can't leave Australia again once you return to Australia or if you can't have any departures at all, including domestic, once you return to Australia.

It means that once you return to the country from which you depart, you can’t leave that country again. So in your case, you can’t leave Australia again. (Not on this award at least )

PLUS

You can’t leave the city from which you first departed a second time. So in your case, you can’t have a second departure from LST.

Both requirements apply.

 

[CanadianJay]

No.

It means that once you return to the country from which you depart, you can’t leave that country again. So in your case, you can’t leave Australia again. (Not on this award at least )

PLUS

You can’t leave the city from which you first departed a second time. So in your case, you can’t have a second departure from LST.

Both requirements apply.

Thanks! That's what I thought but I wanted to be certain before wasting time on the phone getting an extra domestic flight added on at the end (and maybe even an extra flight in NA if I can find one that works).

 

[aus_flyer]

Sorry in advance as I'm sure this has been asked - but I can't find the answer - can Fiji Airways flights be used in these awards? Or are "Oneworld Connect" airlines excluded?

 

[cjd600]

Sorry in advance as I'm sure this has been asked - but I can't find the answer - can Fiji Airways flights be used in these awards? Or are "Oneworld Connect" airlines excluded?

No they can't

 

[aaa99]

I was under the impression that segments in a multi city classic reward booking cannot be changed or cancelled once the first leg has been taken. But the agent i talked to this morning said, just take the other legs and call us back to change/cancel your last segment. Is this incorrect info?