Qantas points calculator changed?

[philflyer]

I was on the Qantas website playing with the Points Calculator (points needed to fly) today. Late last year I was calculating various combinations of RTW trips in economy. The lowest calculating at 140,000 points. So I have 280k points put aside for 2 seats for a future trip.

Today I put in a very simple RTW trip of MELB-LAX-JFK-LON-MELB and it now comes to 162,000 points! That's quite an increase.

Has anyone else noticed a recent increase in points needed to fly?

My apologies if this has been covered in another post. I could not see anything covering this recently. I know that there is an expected change to the program coming soon but have not seen any announcements yet.

 

[simongr]

It might be that the points calculator is not able to "price" a oneworld award which would be the 140K cost I think.

No details on program changes have been announced yet. QF have implied no changes to the cost of normal awards.

S

 

[serfty]

... Today I put in a very simple RTW trip of MELB-LAX-JFK-LON-MELB and it now comes to 162,000 points! That's quite an increase.

Has anyone else noticed a recent increase in points needed to fly? ...

No changes as yet, I think you need an additional carrier.

For a Qantas Frequent Flyer oneworld 140K point award you need two carriers other than Qantas in your itinerary.

Here's the definition from the QFF T&C's:

13.5 oneworld TM Award Booking Conditions

13.5.1 A oneworld Award is an Award Flight Itinerary that includes travel on at least two oneworld Alliance Airlines other than Qantas and does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline. Jetstar Airways is not a member of the oneworld alliance.

Try this:

• MEL-(QF)-LAX-(AA)-JFK-(BA)-LON-(QF)-MEL

That should come in at 140,000 QFF points.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Yes as per Serfty.....

If you don't have the right number of different Oneworld carriers the points do not reset to the Oneworld RTW Award of 140,000 points and you instead just get the coughulative points redemption.

 

[philflyer]

Thanks guys! This has been really helpful.

Do you know of another points calculator I can use that will utilise all of the Oneworld carriers?

 

[simongr]

The QF one does cover all carriers - or are you looking at the points costs under different programs?

 

[philflyer]

No... just the one program. My points are all with Qantas.

I was looking at Serfty's suggestion of:

"Try this:

• MEL-(QF)-LAX-(AA)-JFK-(BA)-LON-(QF)-MEL"

And I was wondering how I force the calculator to look at that combination of airlines. It may not be possible at all. My previous attempt at calculating this combination brought back 162,000 points rather than the desired 140,000 points.

I should also correct my original statement. Since posting this morning I found that the following costs 140,000 points:

Melb - Buenos Aries (via LA) - Dallas - New York - London - Melb

And it's a much longer trip than my previous combination.

So it IS still possible to go RTW on 140,000 points :mrgreen:

 

[serfty]

Yes, up to 35,000 miles ... and as long as the following conditions are met:

13.5 oneworld TM Award Booking Conditions

13.5.1 A oneworld Award is an Award Flight Itinerary that includes travel on at least two oneworld Alliance Airlines other than Qantas and does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline. Jetstar Airways is not a member of the oneworld alliance.

13.5.2 Award Flights using the oneworld Award table must be no more than a distance of 56,315 kilometres (35,000 miles). Longer journeys must be broken into separate Itineraries.

13.5.3 A one way oneworld Award Itinerary will be charged as a return Itinerary. oneworld Award Itineraries finishing in a port other than the port of origin must include the distance to return directly to the port of origin when calculating the number of Points required to redeem the Flight Award and the maximum distance for the Itinerary.

13.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply:
(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

13.5.5 Surface Segments are permitted as part of oneworld Award Itineraries, but the distance between the disembarkation point and the next embarkation point will be included in the Award Point zone calculation for that Itinerary. ...

 

[JohnK]

Do you know of another points calculator I can use that will utilise all of the Oneworld carriers?

The QF award booking engine should give you the desired result. When inputting your itinerary just ensure that you stay under 35,000 miles, limit to 16 sectors, 5 stopovers and select two other airlines other than QF. I think you can either include all the sectors first and then select available flights or just add one sector at a time.

I have not tried using the new QF award booking engine but it was very easy to do with the old version. As I will be planning a RTW for around May next year I will need to learn how to use the new QF award booking engine.