Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[The Bison]

Apologies if this answer exists somewhere in these 835 pages

Currently the multi city tool is allowing me to start a trip

SYD-PER week stopover
PER-LHR

I thought this wasn’t within the OWA rules. Will it reject once I go to book or is it allowed in your country of origin? All prelim plans at the moment so don’t want to go down a route that’s not worth it

 

[elanshin]

Apologies if this answer exists somewhere in these 835 pages

Currently the multi city tool is allowing me to start a trip

SYD-PER week stopover
PER-LHR

I thought this wasn’t within the OWA rules. Will it reject once I go to book or is it allowed in your country of origin? All prelim plans at the moment so don’t want to go down a route that’s not worth it

There's not a separate OWA booking portal. It's just normal bookings and if it qualifies then you'll get capped. If you want to test if its valid, go make a dummy set of booking in economy and if the multi city caps it when it shoukd have definitely gone over then you're all set.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Apologies if this answer exists somewhere in these 835 pages

Currently the multi city tool is allowing me to start a trip

SYD-PER week stopover
PER-LHR

I thought this wasn’t within the OWA rules. Will it reject once I go to book or is it allowed in your country of origin? All prelim plans at the moment so don’t want to go down a route that’s not worth it

Domestic connections are only blocked if you try and force a same day connection where it isn’t offered automatically in a point-to-point booking.

For example if you plug in MEL-LHR and the system offers you MEL-PER-LHR that’s fine. But if you use multi-city to try and force MEL-PER then PER-LHR it will be blocked.

Adding a 24 hour stopover or next day or whatever is fine. The block only applies to same day.

The above is for regular travellers… those with access to hobart can usually get around the restriction.

 

[ozflier]

Heads up for reward availability .
Malaysian have available J reward seat available KUL-Paris 10-11 months ahead both ways .
To/from Australia not as good but Adelaide to KUL consistently has some J seats available in that date range.

 

[vetrade]

Quick question: Is it true that you can not book more than 2 flights on the same day as part of a OW Classic Reward booking?
We are flying UL501 CMB - CDG departing 03.25. and arriving 10.55. I then wanted to book CDG to MAD (1.5hrs) and then MAD - NCE (2 hrs) on the same day.
There was plenty of J availability on the MAD flights I wanted with plenty of transit time for both too, but QF have knocked me back a few times with the "no more than 2 reward flights in a day" the explanation offered by one CSA.

 

[MelbFlyer]

There are award seats but they can't be added to existing bookings. They can only be booked as a new booking.

Qantas are still claiming this rubbish? Wow, thought they fixed up their systems but it's evident they haven't.

There's no (or shouldn't be a) reason a classic reward seat that is showing online isn't able to be added to an existing classic rewards itinerary. None.

I had to deal with this 2 years ago and almost pulled out hairs due to the time spent on it and the resulting frustration.

 

[vetrade]

Qantas are still claiming this rubbish? Wow, thought they fixed up their systems but it's evident they haven't.

There's no (or shouldn't be a) reason a classic reward seat that is showing online isn't able to be added to an existing classic rewards itinerary. None.

I had to deal with this 2 years ago and almost pulled out hairs due to the time spent on it and the resulting frustration

Yes , it may be frustrating but QF won't be changing it because it forces pax to pay extra cash or points to book the domestic leg separately.
I don't think it has anything to do with "fixing up their systems" because it works perfectly fine for them as it is. QF would be counting on the fact that most people wouldn't risk cancelling their international leg and re-booking because they may lose availability if they do so.

 

[ozflier]

Quick question: Is it true that you can not book more than 2 flights on the same day as part of a OW Classic Reward booking?
We are flying UL501 CMB - CDG departing 03.25. and arriving 10.55. I then wanted to book CDG to MAD (1.5hrs) and then MAD - NCE (2 hrs) on the same day.
There was plenty of J availability on the MAD flights I wanted with plenty of transit time for both too, but QF have knocked me back a few times with the "no more than 2 reward flights in a day" the explanation offered by one CSA.

Not true.
An upcoming tip has me travelling EDI-HEL-DFW -LAX all on the same day.
No problems with booking.

 

[elanshin]

The above is for regular travellers… those with access to hobart can usually get around the restriction.

Not all the time. Last time they couldn't force through a different BNE - MEL connection (to be fair i wasn't fussed, i just wanted to hop on the a220 for once as I always missed it for one reason or another the past 12 months).

Quick question: Is it true that you can not book more than 2 flights on the same day as part of a OW Classic Reward booking?
We are flying UL501 CMB - CDG departing 03.25. and arriving 10.55. I then wanted to book CDG to MAD (1.5hrs) and then MAD - NCE (2 hrs) on the same day.
There was plenty of J availability on the MAD flights I wanted with plenty of transit time for both too, but QF have knocked me back a few times with the "no more than 2 reward flights in a day" the explanation offered by one CSA.

You most certainly can. Just find a different operator.
Online, you may run into potential issues if you try to book US connections from Aus because you're "going back in time" and the next flight "departs" before you take the flight from Sydney. Any actual human operator would do a check on the arrival date and departure dates.

 

[flapper]

Quick question: Is it true that you can not book more than 2 flights on the same day as part of a OW Classic Reward booking?
We are flying UL501 CMB - CDG departing 03.25. and arriving 10.55. I then wanted to book CDG to MAD (1.5hrs) and then MAD - NCE (2 hrs) on the same day.
There was plenty of J availability on the MAD flights I wanted with plenty of transit time for both too, but QF have knocked me back a few times with the "no more than 2 reward flights in a day" the explanation offered by one CSA.

You could always take the TGV from Paris to Nice. I think train travel is much Nice(r) than flying.

 

[vetrade]

You could always take the TGV from Paris to Nice. I think train travel is much Nice(r) than flying.

Yes, that is always an option.

 

[DC3]

You could always take the TGV from Paris to Nice. I think train travel is much Nice(r) than flying.

N(o)ice.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Quick question: Is it true that you can not book more than 2 flights on the same day as part of a OW Classic Reward booking?
We are flying UL501 CMB - CDG departing 03.25. and arriving 10.55. I then wanted to book CDG to MAD (1.5hrs) and then MAD - NCE (2 hrs) on the same day.
There was plenty of J availability on the MAD flights I wanted with plenty of transit time for both too, but QF have knocked me back a few times with the "no more than 2 reward flights in a day" the explanation offered by one CSA.

Presumably nothing comes up if you search CDG-NCE? That’s the way I got around it last time, and luckily got offered the connection (I was wanting to book QF to SIN, then EK SIN-DXB-JFK. Separately you run into the ‘no more than two flights’, but SYD-SIN followed by SIN-JFK did the trick, routing via DXB)

 

[drmatte]

Hi, looking at putting an itinerary together and was going to include SYD-JNB. But it seems JNB, and Southern Africa in general is a bit of a dead end for Oneworld. You can fly to Doha with Qatar (but booking via Qantas well known to be difficult/impossible).

Seems like options are -
Try and get on BA to London From Johannesburg or Capetown.
Make your way up to Tanzania and take Oman Air to Muscat (once they are Oneworld).
Back track across Indian Ocean to Sydney with Qantas or Hong Kong with Cathay.


Obviously when Latam was Oneworld you could fly to South America.
Amazes me that there is not a flight with AA between US and Africa. Delta and United both fly multiple routes to South Africa and elsewhere in Africa as well.

Am I missing anything?

 

[vetrade]

Hi, looking at putting an itinerary together and was going to include SYD-JNB. But it seems JNB, and Southern Africa in general is a bit of a dead end for Oneworld. You can fly to Doha with Qatar (but booking via Qantas well known to be difficult/impossible).

Seems like options are -
Try and get on BA to London From Johannesburg or Capetown.
Make your way up to Tanzania and take Oman Air to Muscat (once they are Oneworld).
Back track across Indian Ocean to Sydney with Qantas or Hong Kong with Cathay.


Obviously when Latam was Oneworld you could fly to South America.
Amazes me that there is not a flight with AA between US and Africa. Delta and United both fly multiple routes to South Africa and elsewhere in Africa as well.

Am I missing anything?

We've done JNB - LHR on BA four times and haven't had any problems getting J rewards - it's the obvious one to go for but unfortunately BA now doesn't release rewards predicably at 354 days out like they used to. I think you are still likely to get reward seats (Y or J) for that route but my guess is that you will have to wait till about 60 - 90 days out. Suggest you do some dummy searches to get a feel for when availability might show up. The taxes are steep but, as you have found, there are few options.

I suggest you forget about CPT - LHR because that's a popular route for British holidaymakers heading to Cape Town. I always found availability on that route poor (one year we stayed in CPT and could only get availability to LHR by flying back through JNB).

Suggest you also dismiss QR through Doha as an option. Some say QR now releases rare availability to QF only at 3 days defore travel, which makes it an unrealistic options for OW reward trips.

WY is the interesting one. I did spend a bit of time last year searching WY reward options when it was announced they were joining OW. Back then rewards seemed to be regularly available on routes they fly daily (such as MCT - LHR) but where they only fly to places 3 - 4 times per week (such as ZNZ - MCT) I didn't see much availability at all. Even though you can't book their flights as part of a OW Classic Reward yet, QF is still showing rewards availability for later in the year now, which helps with planning ahead.

Apart from the huge amount of extra miles burned in flying back to SYD, the obvious problem that counts that out is that under the OW rules you can only depart the country of origin once.

FWIW that LATAM route from JNB to Sth America you mentioned was always a dud. I searched for rewards on that route frequently for several years and never once did I see even a Y reward available.

 

[drmatte]

We've done JNB - LHR on BA four times and haven't had any problems getting J rewards - it's the obvious one to go for but unfortunately BA now doesn't release rewards predicably at 354 days out like they used to. I think you are still likely to get reward seats (Y or J) for that route but my guess is that you will have to wait till about 60 - 90 days out. Suggest you do some dummy searches to get a feel for when availability might show up. The taxes are steep but, as you have found, there are few options.

I suggest you forget about CPT - LHR because that's a popular route for British holidaymakers heading to Cape Town. I always found availability on that route poor (one year we stayed in CPT and could only get availability to LHR by flying back through JNB).

Suggest you also dismiss QR through Doha as an option. Some say QR now releases rare availability to QF only at 3 days defore travel, which makes it an unrealistic options for OW reward trips.

WY is the interesting one. I did spend a bit of time last year searching WY reward options when it was announced they were joining OW. Back then rewards seemed to be regularly available on routes they fly daily (such as MCT - LHR) but where they only fly to places 3 - 4 times per week (such as ZNZ - MCT) I didn't see much availability at all. Even though you can't book their flights as part of a OW Classic Reward yet, QF is still showing rewards availability for later in the year now, which helps with planning ahead.

Apart from the huge amount of extra miles burned in flying back to SYD, the obvious problem that counts that out is that under the OW rules you can only depart the country of origin once.

FWIW that LATAM route from JNB to Sth America you mentioned was always a dud. I searched for rewards on that route frequently for several years and never once did I see even a Y reward available.

Thanks for considered reply.
From what I have seen so far there are definitely seats showing on BA and Alaska for JNB-LHR that are not showing on Qantas site.

 

[flapper]

Thanks for considered reply.
From what I have seen so far there are definitely seats showing on BA and Alaska for JNB-LHR that are not showing on Qantas site.

The rewards flights showing on BA are available for Avios points holders. BA now release far fewer seats to non-Avios airlines like QF. The seats they release depends on the route, time of year and day of week. You will need to research the QF website to see what seats they release on any particular routes.