Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[flapper]

So after having finished my 5 leg business OWA just recently, I'm back to Qantas' website to look for my next trip, around this time next year.

This time it won't be a OWA, as I'm looking to use points to redeem on MU, CI and JL, so it won't be capped anyway.

With the recent saga I had in relation to trying to change flights / dates within a OWA, I wonder if it's the same as per any other reward booking?

ie. Is it "harder" for Qantas consultants to amend a OWA booking compared to a regular "awards" / non-OWA booking? Or, it's the same regardless (as they're both awards bookings)?

I'm a lowly Bronze and therefore don't have access to the Hobart team.

It'll probably be a (simpler) 3 leg business itinerary this time round - but of course this time round I'll try my best to get the itinerary as I want in one go - but of course as we all know, sometimes your perfect itinerary isn't available first time round - ie. new business seats may be released after your initial booking etc.

I suspect it'll be the same BS responses as per when attempting to change flights in my now flown OWA -
- "The flights / seats you see online are only for new bookings and can't be used for existing bookings"
- "There are no reward seats showing for the day you have requested" (even despite me looking at them online in the multi city booking at the time of calling)

amongst other responses.

Looking forward to a much easier booking experience this time round (if at all possible!)

I just had that problem on Saturday where the agents can't see the seats showing on QF website I think on the 6th call the agent could see and add the flight. Don't they all have the same reservation system?

 

[MelbFlyer]

You may be better to create this as a series of one way trips point to point if it isn't going to be capped. Advantage is that each sector is more likely to be bookable online which avoids multiple change fees - disadvantage is you pay multiple cancellation fees if you change your mind.

I was thinking about this as well and it indeed is a viable alternative compared to having everything on the one PNR.

Other than possible multiple cancellation / change fees, what would be the other disadvantages of having point to point flights on separate PNRs?

At this stage, our flights would be at least 3 days apart from each other, so if there were any cancellations or delays, it "should" be okay considering the amount of time in between.

On the contrary though, if all flights were on the one booking and one flight is affected, Qantas should be able to assist to accommodate to change any other flights later in the trip?

I just had that problem on Saturday where the agents can't see the seats showing on QF website I think on the 6th call the agent could see and add the flight. Don't they all have the same reservation system?

Yep, it's a real annoyance tbh - why should one set of consultants (ie. the Hobart team) have no issues at all in seeing what is available on the Qantas multi-city portal and changing accordingly, whereas the majority of other teams have such difficulty / provide totally incorrect responses?

Due to this reason and previous OWA itinerary experience, I am considering just booking each business reward seat in separate PNRs to avoid such hassles moving forward, but I am weighing up the pros and cons of booking altogether, or booking separately.

I think at this stage tbh, I'm considering booking separately. I'll just have to cop up the 3% international transaction fee for the legs that originate overseas (if booked altogether, it would all be charged in AUD).

 

[djkelly69]

I think at this stage tbh, I'm considering booking separately.

Might also note you can book each flight as soon as it is released with separate bookings, as opposed to having to wait for the last flight to be released with a single booking.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Might also note you can book each flight as soon as it is released with separate bookings, as opposed to having to wait for the last flight to be released with a single booking.

Yep, I'll probably book each flight in separate PNRs for this trip considering there's no OWA cap to take advantage of.

I'll just cop the 3% international transaction fee for the legs the originate outside of Australia. (I don't have a 28 degrees or Latitude card etc).

Sorry to hijack the OWA thread for this but it is somewhat related considering it's still award flights / seats.

Just beware that taxes might be lower depending on your point of origin, especially if you're flying ex-HND

Yep, I've checked the taxes flying out of Japan, they're very reasonable. The same can't be said for the UK or flying on EK.

 

[Phoenix-1]

Just beware that taxes might be lower depending on your point of origin, especially if you're flying ex-HND

 

[elanshin]

Just beware that taxes might be lower depending on your point of origin, especially if you're flying ex-HND

I thought it was the other way around JL SYD > HND is $116 in taxes (Y class). But for HND > SYD its 40k yen ($430ish). The JP airlines are charging a lot ex JP.

 

[Aussiejosh]

I just had that problem on Saturday where the agents can't see the seats showing on QF website I think on the 6th call the agent could see and add the flight. Don't they all have the same reservation system?

I had a similar issue. Ended up being that I was already "holding" the seats as I was in the booking process. Agent figured it out and was very helpful (FIJI call centre)

 

[Mr H]

Just beware that taxes might be lower depending on your point of origin, especially if you're flying ex-HND

Are the taxes/fees genuinely different depending on whether the same sectors are booked individually or booked as part of a OWA? I know (from experience) that Pakistan has a huge tax on premium cabin flights on tickets where the first flight is from Pakistan, but I was not aware of any other examples. For example, the UK departure tax applies for any sector leaving the UK, regardless of whether it is the first or a subsequent sector in an itinerary.

 

[Amanad78]

- "The flights / seats you see online are only for new bookings and can't be used for existing bookings"
- "There are no reward seats showing for the day you have requested" (even despite me looking at them online in the multi city booking at the time of calling)

I'm going through this right now with a single QF1 flight SYD - LHR, trying to add a business reward flight from BNE to SYD. Trying to add it to the same PNR so I dont have to pay extra points, just some extra tax but no go so far. Very frustrating

 

[MelbFlyer]

Just beware that taxes might be lower depending on your point of origin, especially if you're flying ex-HND

The JP airlines are charging a lot ex JP.

Yep, I found this out when searching for one way awards (ie. a few separate bookings compared to point to point).

Flying out of Japan, the tax is significantly more than if you combine it as a 2nd leg etc, with the first flight originating from Australia - Almost akin to EK's ridiculous taxes they charge!

ie.
- A 2 leg PNR originating from Australia (Australia > Japan and then Japan > Australia) - Taxes are very reasonable
compared to;
- Booking 2 separate PNRs (one from Australia, the other from Japan) - Taxes is double compared to above, even with the current strong AUD against the Yen, it's still double

A shame really, because I wanted to specifically avoid the below (when calling to attempt to make a change after seeing whats available online, but phone consultants aren't able to see it).

I'm going through this right now with a single QF1 flight SYD - LHR, trying to add a business reward flight from BNE to SYD. Trying to add it to the same PNR so I dont have to pay extra points, just some extra tax but no go so far. Very frustrating

It is indeed, I've experienced this probably (literally) a hundred times - you search for seats and they're showing online, but when calling, the phone agents can't see / can't change even despite the seats showing online.

I guess in summary - If you're not Gold or Platinum (and / or don't get lucky when calling 13 12 11), you're going to have a hard time amending any reward bookings (OWA or otherwise), even despite reward seats showing online.

 

[djkelly69]

SYD - LHR, trying to add a business reward flight from BNE to SYD.

This is a slightly different issue (or perhaps a sub-class of the same issue) - QF for a while have deliberately blocked people adding domestic sectors to major airports (eg. Syd, Bris, Melb, Perth) onto an international reward flight from or into another major airport. It is a form of inventory protection I believe, basically to try and stop people snapping up award seats from their non-home airport.

As usual, I think Hobart can work around it, but OS centres can't. Unfortunately they often don't seem to know about the rule/issue that is causing the problem, so can't articulate it to the caller.

If you're not Gold or Platinum

Just noting Gold do not have access to the priority line, that is only Platinum+.

 

[flapper]

This is a slightly different issue (or perhaps a sub-class of the same issue) - QF for a while have deliberately blocked people adding domestic sectors to major airports (eg. Syd, Bris, Melb, Perth) onto an international reward flight from or into another major airport. It is a form of inventory protection I believe, basically to try and stop people snapping up award seats from their non-home airport.

As usual, I think Hobart can work around it, but OS centres can't. Unfortunately they often don't seem to know about the rule/issue that is causing the problem, so can't articulate it to the caller.


Just noting Gold do not have access to the priority line, that is only Platinum+.

It is possible to add a domestic leg. I believe it's just the OS call centres believe you can't, at least that's what they have told me but when I recently had contact with the AKL call centre and asked they said you can and added the flight for me. You can also do it when you book online.

 

[icecream]

Am I doing something wrong? Called 3 agents so far and all say that you cannot add flights to an existing booking. That they can only create a new booking and then 'link' to the current one (which I know from reading here is wrong)

 

[elanshin]

Am I doing something wrong? Called 3 agents so far and all say that you cannot add flights to an existing booking. That they can only create a new booking and then 'link' to the current one (which I know from reading here is wrong)

They're doing it wrong.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Am I doing something wrong? Called 3 agents so far and all say that you cannot add flights to an existing booking. That they can only create a new booking and then 'link' to the current one (which I know from reading here is wrong)

Definitely wrong. HUACA until you get someone who can see the reward seats you're looking at.

It may take a while, but don't stop calling until you get someone.

Try 13 12 11 if not already too.

 

[elanshin]

Just want to double check itinerary again. Hobart called me back and said their system claims it's invalid (470k+ points instead).

CGK > HKG (ticketed). 0810 -1420 (transit 20h) CX
HKG > TPE (add). +1, 1020 - 1220 (Stop 1) CX
TPE > HKG (add). 1055 - 1255 (Transit 4.5h) CX
HKG > PVG (ticketed). 1725 - 2015 (Stop 2) CX
PVG > SYD (ticketed). 1950 - +1, 0825 (Transit 9.5h) QF
SYD > MEL (add). 1800 - 1935 (Stop 3) QF
MEL > SYD (ticketed). 1100 - 1225 (transit 3.5h) QF
SYD > DFW (ticketed). 1540 - 1600 (transit 21.5h). QF
DFW> IAD (ticketed). +1, 1425 -1830 (Stop 4, surface). AA
BUF > ORD (add). 0650 - 0740 (Transit 12.5h) AA
ORD > SEA (add). 2015 - 2245 (Transit 10h) AA
SEA > LAX (add). 0900 - 1157 (transit 10.5h) AA - operated by skywest for American Eagle.
LAX > SYD (ticketed) 2230 - +2, 0635. (END) QF

GCM says 33641 miles including last leg to CGK.

With only the ticketed flights it was a valid booking, but hobart is now saying the additional makes it invalid.

 

[icecream]

I know I got extremely lucky. Next I spoke to an agent in Fiji. He was able to find J reward seats for the 4 flights I wanted to add. He advised ticketing would take 24 hours but I knew that I had to ask to stay on hold while ticketing occurs (or it might not issue). He said it would take about an hour and didn't mind me waiting on hold. He knew about airlines cancelling tickets when they weren't issued quickly enough. The agent put it through to ticketing and after some time the itinerary came up in my account booking but no tickets yet. He said it was ready and emailed but because I couldn't see it yet he manually sent it again. Still waited some time (approx 10 mins) and then it appeared. He didn't hang up on me. All up the call was 50 minutes. Now to wait for seats to come home...

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Just want to double check itinerary again. Hobart called me back and said their system claims it's invalid (470k+ points instead).

CGK > HKG (ticketed). 0810 -1420 (transit 20h) CX
HKG > TPE (add). +1, 1020 - 1220 (Stop 1) CX
TPE > HKG (add). 1055 - 1255 (Transit 4.5h) CX
HKG > PVG (ticketed). 1725 - 2015 (Stop 2) CX
PVG > SYD (ticketed). 1950 - +1, 0825 (Transit 9.5h) QF
SYD > MEL (add). 1800 - 1935 (Stop 3) QF
MEL > SYD (ticketed). 1100 - 1225 (transit 3.5h) QF
SYD > DFW (ticketed). 1540 - 1600 (transit 21.5h). QF
DFW> IAD (ticketed). +1, 1425 -1830 (Stop 4, surface). AA
BUF > ORD (add). 0650 - 0740 (Transit 12.5h) AA
ORD > SEA (add). 2015 - 2245 (Transit 10h) AA
SEA > LAX (add). 0900 - 1157 (transit 10.5h) AA - operated by skywest for American Eagle.
LAX > SYD (ticketed) 2230 - +2, 0635. (END) QF

GCM says 33641 miles including last leg to CGK.

With only the ticketed flights it was a valid booking, but hobart is now saying the additional makes it invalid.

Could it be the SEA-LAX sector operated by SkyWest?
I can see that American Eagle qualifies as an Affiliate Airline, but maybe it's too much of a stretch once SkyWest is introduced into the mix.
I'm not saying this IS a problem, just that it MIGHT BE...

 

[djkelly69]

Could it be the SEA-LAX sector operated by SkyWest?
I can see that American Eagle qualifies as an Affiliate Airline, but maybe it's too much of a stretch once SkyWest is introduced into the mix.
I'm not saying this IS a problem, just that it MIGHT BE...

Yeah I was thinking either that flight, or the system is not liking the 3 Sydney visits for some reason - maybe it thinks the last one is a third transit of SYD rather than the finish point due to needing to include theoretical flight/distance back to CGK?

Should be able to do some dummy bookings in the system to see if it will cap an OWA when including a SkyWest/American Eagle AA flight in the mix.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

maybe it thinks the last one is a third transit of SYD rather than the finish point due to needing to include theoretical flight/distance back to CGK

Yes, that could be it.
As you say: try running a test for each scenario.