US Dividend Miles - Oneworld Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[d.diddy_13]

Question Regarding Qantas and co - terminals.

I was looking for Mel to CNS and found some flights rang US and they mentioned that you can not fly intra zone without going through a home / co terminal (IE NOT Brisbane)

Therefore only valid route is through Sydney... Thoughts?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Question Regarding Qantas and co - terminals.

I was looking for Mel to CNS and found some flights rang US and they mentioned that you can not fly intra zone without going through a home / co terminal (IE NOT Brisbane)

Therefore only valid route is through Sydney... Thoughts?

I would call again. There is no such rule that I am familiar with.

Co-terminals applies to cities with more than one airport, or to cities which are sufficiently close that they are considered the same city for ticketing purposes. Not sure how that applies in this circumstance either.

 

[serfty]

Some USA based operators aren't necessarily geographically knowledgeable when it comes to the antipodes and might think CNS is near SYD.

I have had an AA operator adamant that AKL and MEL were in the same country.

HUACA ...

 

[d.diddy_13]

Thought so..

so either way

MEL - SYD - CNS
MEL - BNE - CNS

is valid.

 

[bcworld]

Thought so..

so either way

MEL - SYD - CNS
MEL - BNE - CNS

is valid.

Both should be...and you could check on the AA website to see what it shows. US definitely has no published rule against MEL-BNE-CNS. Although this situation you're describing has come up before with someone being told similar.

 

[bigsleep55]

Can anyone shed some light on a few of the bookings I've seen in the 'successful oneworld bookings' thread?

I've noticed some people are booking itineraries that do not return from the original destination or have a stop over in a city that isn't the destination.

May 20
QF571 3*J SYD-PER 17:30-20:25
QR901 3*J PER-DOH 23:30-05:50+1 (20 hour transit at Doha)

May 22
QR059 3*J DOH-MUC 01:50-07:00 (destination)

June 11
JL408 2*J + 1*F FRA-NRT 19:20-13:40+1 (openjaw, 6 hour transit at Narita)
June 12
JL771 3*J NRT-SYD 19:50-06:35+1

Miles: 120K for all J itinerary, and 135K for the one with 1 leg of F for JL408 (I thought it would be 150K but I didn't say anything).
Taxes: 288.34USD/pp including the 50USD ticketing fee

OR

Just booked 1 x J SYD to JFK (via HKG, CX), JFK to LAX (Stopover, AA), LAX to HKG (CX), HKG to SYD (QF) for March/April next year. 110k miles to A$186 in taxes. All done and ticketed in 15 minutes. Very helpful agent. (although I did spent one day researching availability and routing before hand so I knew the flights, dates and times I wanted).

Have I missed something or reading these itineraries incorrectly?

Thanks

 

[sergeyvzn]

Can anyone shed some light on a few of the bookings I've seen in the 'successful oneworld bookings' thread?

I've noticed some people are booking itineraries that do not return from the original destination or have a stop over in a city that isn't the destination.



OR



Have I missed something or reading these itineraries incorrectly?

Thanks

you have probably missed the rule reading the Membership guide...if you have read the guide

you are allowed either one open jaw or one stopover per itinerary

 

[bigsleep55]

you have probably missed the rule reading the Membership guide...if you have read the guide

you are allowed either one open jaw or one stopover per itinerary

You are kidding me?! I just returned from a PER-VAN (via BKK-PVG) - VAN-PER (via PEK-BKK). We had to book a one way JFK to VAN for the return. Would have much rather included that!

Oh well. Next time.

 

[FrankC]

You are kidding me?! I just returned from a PER-VAN (via BKK-PVG) - VAN-PER (via PEK-BKK). We had to book a one way JFK to VAN for the return. Would have much rather included that!

Oh well. Next time.

VAN? Van, Turkey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[anat0l]

VAN? Van, Turkey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm going to guess Vancouver, which is YVR.

 

[sergeyvzn]

VAN? Van, Turkey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Probably Vancouver -

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You are kidding me?! I just returned from a PER-VAN (via BKK-PVG) - VAN-PER (via PEK-BKK). We had to book a one way JFK to VAN for the return. Would have much rather included that!

Oh well. Next time.

Provided you had no stopovers, you could have flown in to Vancouver and out of New York (or vv).

 

[jgm]

Sounds like what we are doing next year PER-HKG-JFK-YVR, YVR-JFK-HKG-PER all with CX in J.

 

[d.diddy_13]

I have a couple general questions:

Can you book premium eco on cx if so will the points be somewhere between y & j?

When booking a 'dummy' return does it have to be the flights you are planning on taking just not on the correct day or can you change all aspects like carrier and times?

If i was doing a booking such as MEL - HKG - LHR and my MEL - HKG was is Y and HKG -LHR was is J if a seat opened up a few days before departure can i just make a change to this ticket or would the existing ticket need to be cancelled then re-issued with the chance that i could not get the existing flights?

With above scenario i guess a work around is to book each segment individually (IE MEL - HKG and HKG - LHR) giving you some flexibility in changing without losing all your flights however downside more points used and two separate tickets (this may not be an issue if its a layover anyway)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have a couple general questions:

Can you book premium eco on cx if so will the points be somewhere between y & j?

When booking a 'dummy' return does it have to be the flights you are planning on taking just not on the correct day or can you change all aspects like carrier and times?

If i was doing a booking such as MEL - HKG - LHR and my MEL - HKG was is Y and HKG -LHR was is J if a seat opened up a few days before departure can i just make a change to this ticket or would the existing ticket need to be cancelled then re-issued with the chance that i could not get the existing flights?

With above scenario i guess a work around is to book each segment individually (IE MEL - HKG and HKG - LHR) giving you some flexibility in changing without losing all your flights however downside more points used and two separate tickets (this may not be an issue if its a layover anyway)

premium economy is is not available for award travel through USDM.

changing flights, carriers and times is permitted after the ticket has been issued, but it will cost $150 each time (although you can make multiple changes in one call).

Exitisting flights don't need to be cancelled in order to effect changes, if an operator insists in cancelling, hang up and call again.

you are permitted one stopover per itinerary. Unless you needed to stop in HKG in both directions, it will be cheaper to buy one through ticket, all the way to Europe, and make changes when the flights you want or class of service opens up.

 

[k_sheep]

Question for the brains trust:

Am trying to get an award ticket for my Dad from Scotland to JNB to start a DONE6 from there. It looks like using AA miles will be 50k + USD$700 ish one way for first class (not showing any J availability). To buy the miles right now is USD$1135, making it close to $2k one way (not bad, given it's $2.5k to buy a revenue fare in J).

If I use USDM instead it'd be 100k points return in first (USD$1881.25 currently, again no J availability that I can find in the next month), meaning I could probably do an open jaw on the return from anywhere in Africa to anywhere in Europe, correct? Looks like the BA tax is a killer though, looks like taxes will be GBP 650 if what I can figure out on ITA is correct. But that might be better value if I gets him from Nairobi (his current DONE6 finish point) back to Europe.

Any thoughts on minimising taxes, or other routes that might be better? Y is not an option for long haul flights, but okay for short <3hr or so.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

meaning I could probably do an open jaw on the return from anywhere in Africa to anywhere in Europe, correct?

not quite - you can do an open jaw at either end, not both. So if you chose to fly out of any other African port, you'd need to fly back to the departure airport in Scotland. A work-around would obviously be if the flight back to scotland was via LHR, you could then short-check bags and not take the last sector.

 

[k_sheep]

not quite - you can do an open jaw at either end, not both. So if you chose to fly out of any other African port, you'd need to fly back to the departure airport in Scotland. A work-around would obviously be if the flight back to scotland was via LHR, you could then short-check bags and not take the last sector.

Good point, thanks. Wouldn't be a problem to fly back to GLA or EDI anyway.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Question for the brains trust:

Am trying to get an award ticket for my Dad from Scotland to JNB to start a DONE6 from there. It looks like using AA miles will be 50k + USD$700 ish one way for first class (not showing any J availability). To buy the miles right now is USD$1135, making it close to $2k one way (not bad, given it's $2.5k to buy a revenue fare in J).

If I use USDM instead it'd be 100k points return in first (USD$1881.25 currently, again no J availability that I can find in the next month), meaning I could probably do an open jaw on the return from anywhere in Africa to anywhere in Europe, correct? Looks like the BA tax is a killer though, looks like taxes will be GBP 650 if what I can figure out on ITA is correct. But that might be better value if I gets him from Nairobi (his current DONE6 finish point) back to Europe.

Any thoughts on minimising taxes, or other routes that might be better? Y is not an option for long haul flights, but okay for short <3hr or so.

Use Qatar instead of BA. No fuel surcharges

 

[casanovawa]

Hmmm, knew how to use the ANA site to search for flights when in *A, but haven't really tried since the OW transition... Signed up for JAL membership tonight but didn't have much luck finding where to go and search for availability... Seems people also say BA is good for seeing all OW airlines, do you have to sign up for a membership in whatever the FF scheme is???