Round the world Award

[PlutekPlutek]

Hi everyone,

My better half and I are planning to go on a round the world holiday in July next year. I have accumulated around 300k points on my QFF account. How do I go about searching for flights/seats, etc?
We wanted to go for two months at the start of July 2007, and go the following way:
Sydney - LA (Or San Francisco) - Miami - New York - Paris - Warsaw - London - Shanghai - Hong Kong - Bangkok - Sydney.

How many points per person are required for this kind of trip if at all possible ?
What is the best way of actually going ahead and booking/checking for available seats ?
How soon should I book these flights and is it possible to alter dates later on ?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Lukasz

 

[dajop]

Lukasz,

Best bet is a one-world round the world award - but there is a catch as only five stopovers are allowed. This award can be used on up to 35,000 miles (your itinerary would be under this) and requires use of 2 one world carriers other than Qantas (as well as Qantas if you want to) - again no problem with your itinerary. Will cost you 140,000 pts each + 2,500 pts if you need to book over phone.

As on the proposed itinerary, you will exceed the number of stopovers, you need to think about the best way of doing this. One rule that is useful is that arriving into one city and departing from another only counts as one stopover, therefore you could use a separate award booking, paid flights or ground transportation as appropriate to fill the gaps.

With this in mind I'd suggest: Syd - Los Angeles (1) - Miami (2) .. New York (3)- Paris.... pick up ticket again in London (4) - Shanghai .... pick up ticket again in Bangkok (5) - Sydney. You would not be able to use the ticket between Shanghai and Hongkong anyway as currently no oneworld carriers fly directly between the two cities. You could do Miami/New York as one stopover and pay for a ticket (or do a separate award booking) between the two and use that stopover elsewhere (eg Hongkong).

 

[PlutekPlutek]

I think the Hong Kong and Bangkok legs would have to be culled, to result in:
1. Sydney - Los Angeles
2. Los Angeles - Miami
3. Miami - New York
4. New York - Paris
5. Paris - Warsaw
6. Warsaw - London
7. London - Shanghai
8. Shangai - Sydney

That is 7 stops, so to eliminate two, I am thinking about flying with a different (low cost) airline for 2 of those legs, possibly these:

2. Los Angeles - Miami
3. Miami - New York
5. Paris - Warsaw
6. Warsaw - London

As they seem to have the greatest Low Cost airline coverage.
The Warsaw destination can be switched to either Krakow or Lodz as the low costs flying there are cheaper.
Is there any particular ones you would suggest to minimize the $ spent?
How far in advance should I try to book these ? a year ? 6 months ? 3 months ? I have looked at the Qantas website, and the latest they have there is June 2006, but a lot of low cost airlines don't allow that much advance bookings.
Also, what would the implication of this be for allowable baggage ? How much can you take with you on the OneWorld ticket ? I remember going a few years back and it was something like 60kg each. I don't imagine the low costs allowing this much - so would have to factor in additional charges.

Thanks,
Lukasz

 

[NM]

You can also consider using the trains in Europe with a Eurail Pass. That can be a good way to see some other places briefly along the way if you like. Its reasonably priced, comfortable and generally as reliable as flying. You can also save some money on airport transfers since the train stations tend to be in the centre of the city. Just be sure to purchase before you leave Australia.

I did just this on a similar OneWorld award a few years back and found it suited our schedule and itinerary very well.

Do also be aware of all the terms and conditions of using the OneWorld Award from Qantas. One that you should be aware of is that once you have commenced travel you cannot make any changes to the ticket, including change of date/time. So if you miss a flight due to anything other than the fault of the airline, you may find the remainder of the ticket cancelled. So do make sure you have appropriate travel insurance. You may want to send a PM to NickP who works in the insurance business and may be able to assist in that regard.

 

[Gazza]

Silly question.

What are the rules and costs (in points) for a round the world in J?

Gazza

 

[serfty]

Silly question.

What are the rules and costs (in points) for a round the world in J?

Gazza

See OneWORLD Award Table: You'll need a zone 10 to circumnavigate the globe, so 282,500.

Rules for Award Flights

...
3.5 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 oneworld Alliance Airline.

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.

13.5.6 Where mixed-class travel is booked, the whole Itinerary will be calculated using the Points level for the highest class booked. ...

 

[Ev1dent]

I am travelling to the US (ORD) in March next year for study and so my fare will be tax deductable, whereas my wife's won't be. Therefore, I was thinking of transfering some of my FF points to her and trying to use our combined points (she is gold) to 'pay' for her trip. We are also planning on stopping in on some friends in Jo'burg on the way home to CBR.

How hard are Oneworld business class seats to get - I note that it should cost 282,500 points - but is availability going to be near impossible?

Are there other tricks if we buy two economy RTW tickets to use our points to upgrade the long haul flights?

 

[littl_flier]

Welcome to AFF Justin2906.

First of all, it will be pretty difficult to get business class on the sectors with QF involved (ie. accross the pacific). Depending on how long you are going for, you need to book fairly soon. Do note that you can only book 355 days in advance though so if you don't come home until say December (not sure how long study is??), you couldn't book the last of the segments (or in fact, any of the itinerary) until January. By this stage, a Business Class seat in July to LAX will be highly unlikely.

The FF award as noted in another thread at the moment will give you 5 stops and up to 16 segments and mileage of 35,000. It would be possible to come home via JNB with mileage permitting but J class will be difficult here again, unless you have enough mileage to travel via HKG with Cathay Pacific.

As for buying an Economy RTW, these book into L class which are discount economy for QFF and will require quite a number of points to upgrade and this can only be done on a QF flight number on QF metal. This limits your options to SYD-LAX/JFK and JNB-SYD based on CBR-SYD-LAX-ORD-LHR-JNB-SYD-CBR as a suggestion and are a relatively inefficient method of using some points.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
littl_flier