Reward booking rant (sorry, I'm frustrated)

[2infinity]

Sorry, I'm feeling frustrated.

Just spent 2 solid days researching and fine tuning a Oneworld classic RTW business reward redemption (318000 ff pts) to get to the destinations I want and meet the redemption rules. Because it was more than 6 segments, I couldn't book it on-line so spent more time printing it all out and having it all good for the dreaded call to Qantas to make the booking by phone. And just as I was good, all availability on the Oneworld airline flights I was going to use disappeared and was replaced with Westjet flights, which don't meet the rules.

I feel like going postal.

Trying to visit Vancouver and Dublin in July/August 2025, just one person. Completely flexible over about a 7 week period, doesn't matter which direction I took.

At one point there was Fiji Airways flights from Sydney to Vancouver, but as a Oneworld Connect airline, doesn't meet the rules and that availability is gone now anyway
Heaps and heaps of availability with China Airlines via Taipei, but not a Oneworld Airline, doesn't meet the rules
Qantas has zero availability. This is just criminal considering its their program.
AA has zero availability to connect into Vancouver
Alaska Airlines has zero availability to connect into Vancouver
Cathay Pacific has zero availability
Japan Airlines had some limited availability and was going to use them, but has now disappeared and replaced by Westjet, which doesn't meet the rules
Malaysian has some availability for some legs.
Finnair has some availability for some legs, and was going to use them, but Westjet seems to have taken over some of these too, which doesn't meet the rules
BA has availability pretty much only for between Ireland and UK

I even decided to turn to the AFF concierge to get help making a booking, but the quote was $1500, which gobsmacked me, Emirates fuel surcharges are cheaper.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[offshore171]

It can be very hard booking these, particularly for the northern summer. Everything has to line up and conform with the rules, and when you attempt to book, one of more of the sectors is no longer available because the reward seats have been snapped up by others.

Have you considered just booking some specific point to point reward flights to get you to where you want to go? Just book specific sectors as soon as they become available?

It will cost more points, but at least you can secure the seats while they are available.

 

[2infinity]

It can be very hard booking these, particularly for the northern summer. Everything has to line up and conform with the rules, and when you attempt to book, one of more of the sectors is no longer available because the reward seats have been snapped up by others.

Have you considered just booking some specific point to point reward flights to get you to where you want to go? Just book specific sectors as soon as they become available?

It will cost more points, but at least you can secure the seats while they are available.

Yes, even considered this. Was likely to cost double the Oneworld redemption cost, which would not be ideal at all.

 

[Mwenenzi]

For YVR did you consider SEA? A train ride a away, but need USA ETSA. But SEA may be as hard as YVR for awards.
DUB to UK is cheap for cash. Or even DUB EU

Hopefully when FJ become a full OW member and AS takeover of HA completes will be more QF Oneworld classic award seats to USA-Canada.

 

[Kerrodt]

Are your plans flexible enough to travel in the opposite direction? You seem to be wanting to go from Australia to Vancouver to Dublin. What if you looked at a route that was the other way i.e. Australia to Dublin to Vancouver? Even if you have to backtrack a bit it might be easier to find availability.

Also, don’t refer to the product as “RTW” etc when you’re talking to the call centre staff. The product that caps at 318k points is not a RTW product. The RTW product is a different beast entirely. If you start talking about “RTW” with the call centre staff it will confuse them as they are likely to think that you are wanting a different product and mess up your plans.

 

[05flyer]

Have you considered just booking some specific point to point reward flights to get you to where you want to go? Just book specific sectors as soon as they become available?

In Jun/Jul agree this is probably best way to go, assuming no Oneworld options available to get to or from YVR. Try doing a search starting/ending the reward booking in Asia. Finnair seems to have pretty good CR availability in and out of Asia in Jun/Jul next year at the moment.

Given how quickly availability goes for northern hemisphere summer, if you are set on using points it would be better to book as soon as you find the segments you want. It will be near impossible for the stars to align and have every segment available on a OW carrier at one time.

You could always make a OW RTW booking now then add/change segments if/when they become available, but that also means having to deal with the call centre and paying change fee each time.

 

[adenda]

Try using Flight Connections website filtered to OneWorld:

Oneworld Route Map - Flights and Destinations

All Oneworld flights on an interactive flight map, including Oneworld timetables and flight schedules. Find Oneworld routes, destinations and airports, see where they fly and book your flight!

www.flightconnections.com

Then put Vancouver (YVR) in as the "To" destination leaving the "From" field blank. This will reveal potential connection cities (eg. DFW) that might work.

Successfully used this approach myself to identify connection cities that the Qantas search engine doesn't suggest.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How long between finalising your itinerary and calling? If it was a matter of minutes, it might be that the call centre isn’t able or doesn’t understand your requirements. Is the award availability still there on line? If so, it might be a case of trying multiple agents.

Your timeline seems to suggest JL was available when you entered your flights on the qantas website, but was replaced by westjet a few minutes later when you called?

 

[2infinity]

How long between finalising your itinerary and calling? If it was a matter of minutes, it might be that the call centre isn’t able or doesn’t understand your requirements. Is the award availability still there on line? If so, it might be a case of trying multiple agents.

Your timeline seems to suggest JL was available when you entered your flights on the qantas website, but was replaced by westjet a few minutes later when you called?

I had just finalised my itinerary. Got everything I wanted. Was just about to call, but getting screen refreshed so I had it to talk to while on the phone (hadn't rung qantas at this point). When I refreshed it seconds before calling Qantas, all the JL availability to and from Vancouver disappeared. There was only China Airlines and Westjet available from that moment, on all days. So the award availability that I had found and was about to call to book, ceased to exist and is no longer there to book.

Post automatically merged: Sep 4, 2024

Try using Flight Connections website filtered to OneWorld:

Oneworld Route Map - Flights and Destinations

All Oneworld flights on an interactive flight map, including Oneworld timetables and flight schedules. Find Oneworld routes, destinations and airports, see where they fly and book your flight!

www.flightconnections.com

Then put Vancouver (YVR) in as the "To" destination leaving the "From" field blank. This will reveal potential connection cities (eg. DFW) that might work.

Successfully used this approach myself to identify connection cities that the Qantas search engine doesn't suggest.

Just tried this...won't search...says needs a departure city

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I had just finalised my itinerary. Got everything I wanted. Was just about to call, but getting screen refreshed so I had it to talk to while on the phone (hadn't rung qantas at this point). When I refreshed it seconds before calling Qantas, all the JL availability to and from Vancouver disappeared. There was only China Airlines and Westjet available from that moment, on all days. So the award availability that I had found and was about to call to book, ceased to exist and is no longer there to book.

Post automatically merged: Sep 4, 2024

Just tried this...won't search...says needs a departure city

If it was a mass disappearance of JL availability - ie on all days - suggest you wait and see if it reappears. It’s unlikely the availability across all days would be taken in that couple of minutes.

 

[elanshin]

So the first major problem is YVR.
Canada is not a OW friendly country (think of their market kind of like Australia but with AC instead of QF).

This means that your only option of awards are either JL (you're late for they release everyday on the dot), CX (you're early for), AA (whack a mole trying to find award space to to Canada). AS i wouldn't even bother with as they're SEA based and they have very weird schedules to and from YVR.

So your choice is to either gamble and wait for CX to open up award space or Find your way to SEA and migrate up yourself. Alternatively you could also try to find separate fares from US west coast up to YVR.

The award space on JL to and from North America is hyper competitive (Basically everyone wants to go to Japan and noone really wants to fly on the NA carriers if they can fly on the JP ones) and everyone knows that they drop it like clockwork everyday.

Now for the rest of your itinerary I'd say again you're probably a tad early for. It seems most of the OW airlines aren't releasing it "on-time" QF included. There seems to be more availability 270-330 days now than the advertised 353 days. Then it fades away (as they're booked_ until much closer to departure.

This doesn't help the frustrations but at least hopefully gives you some insight into how to construct your OWA and good luck with it.

 

[adenda]

I had just finalised my itinerary. Got everything I wanted. Was just about to call, but getting screen refreshed so I had it to talk to while on the phone (hadn't rung qantas at this point). When I refreshed it seconds before calling Qantas, all the JL availability to and from Vancouver disappeared. There was only China Airlines and Westjet available from that moment, on all days. So the award availability that I had found and was about to call to book, ceased to exist and is no longer there to book.

Post automatically merged: Sep 4, 2024

Just tried this...won't search...says needs a departure city

Works for me:



The cities are:
Sydney
Hong Kong
Tokyo (NRT)
Seattle
Portland
Los Angeles
Dallas-Fort Worth
Charlotte
Chicago
London – Heathrow
London - Gatwick

 

[2infinity]

Success - woot. What a drama

 

[Kerrodt]

Success - woot. What a drama

What changed to make it work?

 

[2infinity]

What changed to make it work?

Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

I think overall BA doesn't have really great LH availability. For my flown OWA, I looked 9-10 months in advance and even then there was very little. Actually, BA has good availability as they guarantee reward seats on all flights to LHR and LGW (at least 8Y, 2W & 4J) although not all of those...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Cognac]

Congratulations!!!