Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[OzziTravellers]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Have taken prior advice (thanks) and booked to the US next December rather than trying to get back to AU from there in January - but planning the 2nd major leg now and have a couple of quick questions..

a) We are looking to visit Orlando (theme parks and do a cruise from Port Canaveral), Washington, and Nashville, but no particular order - is there a city that will likely have better flight availability going to Europe close to Christmas - looking to get to Frankfurt or Manchester?

b) Later in the booking when I want to go from EU to Johannesburg, would Qatar likely have lower taxes (and if so a little or a lot) than trying to fly back through London and going with BA?

Thanks as always

 

[Danger]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Have taken prior advice (thanks) and booked to the US next December rather than trying to get back to AU from there in January - but planning the 2nd major leg now and have a couple of quick questions..

a) We are looking to visit Orlando (theme parks and do a cruise from Port Canaveral), Washington, and Nashville, but no particular order - is there a city that will likely have better flight availability going to Europe close to Christmas - looking to get to Frankfurt or Manchester?

c) Later in the booking when I want to go from EU to Johannesburg, would Qatar likely have lower taxes (and if so a little or a lot) than trying to fly back through London and going with BA?

Thanks as always

I think the answer to c is yes, the taxes will be noticeably lower due to both avoiding BA and not going through London.

 

[ozflier]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I've read in this thread that I can 'add' later sectors to an itinerary - i.e book the first flight, then when availability opens, book the second flight and so on... eventually it becomes a oneworld award (i.e. the 140k/280k/420k award). Just wondering if I can book flights out of sequence, i.e. i want to book melb-hkg then hkg-london in my trip, there's currently availability HKG-LHR, but none for MEL-HKG. Can I add the earlier MEL-HKG leg at a later date when (if) availability opens up?

I'm still a bit of a novice on these awards but my thoughts,

you can book out of sequence but

the individual sector points do add up and you may be well get over 280,000 points before your flight becomes a OWA.

not an issue if you have plenty of points to spend.

so you can build up a whole sequence of individual flights or groups or flights

of course in the end, you may need to "open jaw" a segment or two which is permitted - just remember that the openjaw gets counted as one stopover out of the max 5 permitted.

good luck

 

[OzziTravellers]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

of course in the end, you may need to "open jaw" a segment or two which is permitted - just remember that the openjaw gets counted as one stopover out of the max 5 permitted.

Does this mean an open jaw counts as an additional stopover?

For example, if I flew Melbourne>Washington, made my own way to a 2nd US destination, flew from there on this award to Orlando, drove to Miami and flew from there to Europe - would this count as just 2 stopovers, or more due to the "open jaws" / leaving from a different destination than arrival?

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Does this mean an open jaw counts as an additional stopover?

For example, if I flew Melbourne>Washington, made my own way to a 2nd US destination, flew from there on this award to Orlando, drove to Miami and flew from there to Europe - would this count as just 2 stopovers, or more due to the "open jaws" / leaving from a different destination than arrival?

Anytime you have more than 24 hrs between flights is counted as a single stopover. For a land leg (i.e. open jaw on your itinerary) only the city you fly into is counted as a stopover city and the city you depart from on your next flight is immaterial for the purposes of calculating the number of stopovers.

In the scenario you described Washington is your first stopover, your second stopover city is Orlando and Europe would be your third stopover.

Open jaw segments do not add to the number of stopovers and are, in fact, an excellent way of fitting in more destinations on a trip, either by travelling between cities by road, rail or sea OR by keeping a flight separate to the OW itinerary by having it on a separate booking by either paying for it or as a separate award booking.

 

[blu]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

The 5 stopover limitation is more restrictive that I first thought (now to look at open jaw alternatives).
Is QF codeshared on EK metal allowable?

 

[landl]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I'm only a novice - am in the process of building 2 x J RTW - but no Emirates is not a OW member.

 

[landl]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thank you to all of the people who post on this site - the information has been invaluable. I am in the process of building 2 x J RTW for Christmas 2015 and would welcome feedback on my trip. At the moment I have booked:

1. BNE-HKG-LHR-FCO (Stop)
2. LYS-LHR (Stop)
3. CDG-MAD-BCN (Stop)
4. BCN-MAD-JFK (Stop)

The overall plan is to do:

1. BNE-HKG-LHR-FCO (Stop)
2. LYS-LHR (Stop)
3. CDG-MAD-BCN (Stop)
4. BCN-MAD-JFK-BOS (Stop)
5. JFK-LAX-LAS (Stop)
6. LAX-BNE

I've managed to do the booking so far without any change fees due to the presence of some "ghost" Iberia seats, which I and the consultant could see but gave an error message when we tried to book. The consultant put a note on my booking giving me a fee-free change.
Initially I had planned to fly BCN-MAD-BOS with BA but, after reading advice on this site, I switched to Iberia (better feedback and taxes were about $A350 less). Also, thanks to this website, avoided flying out of LHR and saved $.
I realise legs 5 and 6 may be problematic due to lack of AA seats and demand on LAX-BNE route but am happy to go via HKG if I have to.
It's a conventional itinerary compared to many I have read about on this website but has taken me a fair bit of work and I would not have even gotten this far without the knowledge I have gained from all of you.
I have employed the HUACA strategy on a couple of occasions (to my benefit) and never cease to be amazed by how much incorrect information some consultants give (although I've also talked with some excellent staff who go out of their way to help).
Thanks again for all your help

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

..........I am in the process of building 2 x J RTW for Christmas 2015 and would welcome feedback on my trip...............

Looks like a good itinerary to me, landl and I can't see any weak points. It's obvious you've done your homework and it's paid off.

You don't mention what dates you intend for legs 5 & 6 but getting J from JFK - LAX will be very difficult because AA/US don't seem to release award seats on that route nowadays. It's obvious that they keep those seats for paying customers and only offer the option of indirect flights via CLT, MIA etc which you would have to take in Y (and would add to the duration of the trip). Assuming you won't get J for JFK - LAX, it might be better to bypass LAX on your way to LAS and go JFK - LAS via one of the indirect routes for which availability of Y awards should be OK (I'm guessing you've already thought about that option yourself, anyway).

Generally LAX - BNE J availability is good (we've always been able to get J to BNE and then connect to MEL when there's no J available direct to MEL) so I think you'll be OK for that leg but maybe it will be harder if you're intending to fly at the end of school holidays. Presumably you're within the 56,000 km limit if you did have to go via HKG ?????

 

[landl]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Good points Vetrade. I haven't checked the mileage on the longer route - will do that now. If we have to fly Y JFK-LAS then so be it but I'm going to try hard for the J! Will update when the whole trip is done. Thank you for the feedback

 

[pangwen]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Just giving you a heads up, I had some issues when passing trying to pass through HKG a second time when returning from LAX. The agent couldn't explain what rule I broke, but the award just wouldn't ticket.

I was trying to do:

1. BNE-xKUL-TPE
2. TPE-xHKG-xDXB-LHR
3. LHR-YYZ
4. YUL-JFK
5. JFK-YVR
6. LAX-xHKG-xKUL-xADL-BNE

I ended up changing some dates and flights around (with a friend who's also on AFF) and did:

1. BNE-xKUL-xHKG-TPE
2. TPE-xHKG-xDXB-LHR
3. LHR-YYZ
4. YUL-JFK
5. BOS-xJFK-YVR
6. LAX-BNE instead.

 

[landl]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

That does seem odd! Your final itinerary still had two HKG transits in it. However, if it was a CX flight, I have found that CX will not allow certain flights to be linked. For example, on my original itinerary, our BNE-HKG flight arrived at 6.50am and the HKG-LHR flight departed at 3.05pm. However, when I found a Sunday 1.10am HKG-LHR flight (still well under the 24-hour transit rule) and tried to change it the Qantas consultant said she could not do it with the original HKG-BNE 6.50am. I had to change to a 6.05pm arrival. (This probably seems odd but I have a teenage daughter and the plan was to see a few things and do a bit of quick shopping in HKG during the transit time). She said CX does this to force people to do stopovers and thus spend more money, which is a little ironic. The next morning I put it through the booking system and it seemed to work but when I rang, I got the same spiel and the consultant said she got an error message when she tried to change it So ... no shopping in HKG!
Unfortunately, as I've started building my tickets, I now don't have enough points to do a dummy itinerary but will ring Qantas and try to get them to put it through for me just to check. Thanks for the heads-up

 

[lovetravellingoz]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

If you have 2 airlines other than QF you don't even need to have a QF flight. If you do have a QF flight you need 2 other airlines.

As per vetrade's post...

14.5.1 A oneworld Award is a Classic Award 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.

I must have read that many times, but always incorrectly as QF plus 2 OW airlines

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Thank you to all of the people who post on this site - the information has been invaluable. I am in the process of building 2 x J RTW for Christmas 2015 and would welcome feedback on my trip. At the moment I have booked:

1. BNE-HKG-LHR-FCO (Stop)
2. LYS-LHR (Stop)
3. CDG-MAD-BCN (Stop)
4. BCN-MAD-JFK (Stop)

The overall plan is to do:

1. BNE-HKG-LHR-FCO (Stop)
2. LYS-LHR (Stop)
3. CDG-MAD-BCN (Stop)
4. BCN-MAD-JFK-BOS (Stop)
5. JFK-LAX-LAS (Stop)
6. LAX-BNE

I've managed to do the booking so far without any change fees due to the presence of some "ghost" Iberia seats, which I and the consultant could see but gave an error message when we tried to book. The consultant put a note on my booking giving me a fee-free change.
Initially I had planned to fly BCN-MAD-BOS with BA but, after reading advice on this site, I switched to Iberia (better feedback and taxes were about $A350 less). Also, thanks to this website, avoided flying out of LHR and saved $.
I realise legs 5 and 6 may be problematic due to lack of AA seats and demand on LAX-BNE route but am happy to go via HKG if I have to.
It's a conventional itinerary compared to many I have read about on this website but has taken me a fair bit of work and I would not have even gotten this far without the knowledge I have gained from all of you.
I have employed the HUACA strategy on a couple of occasions (to my benefit) and never cease to be amazed by how much incorrect information some consultants give (although I've also talked with some excellent staff who go out of their way to help).
Thanks again for all your help

CX have a direct HKG-FCO which is a good flight I've taken a few times. Award availability only over the phone usually. I'd avoid LHR if not stopping.

 

[qf unfort]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

so you can build up a whole sequence of individual flights or groups or flights

Hi, thanks to everyone on this thread for the great advice. I'm in the middle of arranging a J/280k trip for Xmas 2015 and have a leg to europe booked just before Christmas. Still trying to sort the intra Europe then back to Australia legs. I wonder, can I book these as individual legs on separate tickets (to avoid a ticket re-issue each time), then ask Qantas to combine all into one ticket? I have plenty of FF miles, so no problem going over the 280k, but I'd like to be sure that I can combine the tickets into one (then I'd end up spending 280k.)

Thanks

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi, thanks to everyone on this thread for the great advice. I'm in the middle of arranging a J/280k trip for Xmas 2015 and have a leg to europe booked just before Christmas. Still trying to sort the intra Europe then back to Australia legs. I wonder, can I book these as individual legs on separate tickets (to avoid a ticket re-issue each time), then ask Qantas to combine all into one ticket? I have plenty of FF miles, so no problem going over the 280k, but I'd like to be sure that I can combine the tickets into one (then I'd end up spending 280k.)

Thanks

QF definitely won't combine separate tickets into one OW RTW award itinerary. You can only build your itinerary via additions / changes on the one booking (ie a single PNR).

 

[qf unfort]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

QF definitely won't combine separate tickets into one OW RTW award itinerary. You can only build your itinerary via additions / changes on the one booking (ie a single PNR).

Ah, so because the QF website won't allow changes to the tickets, there's no way of avoiding calling up each time and paying the fees and FF points (the last agent I spoke to said 3,500 points per person, plus $80 per person). Seems excessive! But if that's what it is...

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Ah, so because the QF website won't allow changes to the tickets, there's no way of avoiding calling up each time and paying the fees and FF points (the last agent I spoke to said 3,500 points per person, plus $80 per person). Seems excessive! But if that's what it is...

Yes, all changes can only be done over the phone. With a J award it only costs you the 3500 points pp to make changes - the additional $80 only applies to Y tickets. Sometimes the operator might waive the 3500 pt fee if there's been a change to flight times etc that is obviously beyond your control. The fee is not charged per individual change so if you make one phone call and make, say, 3 or 4 additions/changes to your itinerary during that call you only pay the one 3500 pt fee.

 

[Jordan613]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi All,

First post although I’ve tried to read through as much of the relevant information as possible (given we’re now over 200 pages I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface!)

I’d be grateful for any assistance as everyone seems to be so helpful which is awesome. Are these assumptions correct?

1. Once the initial flight is flown, the final flight must be completed within 12 months
2. Every change of dates you make (due to the restriction of 330-353 day issue) will incur a 3,500 point fee and $80 for Y (and there’s no avoiding this?)
3. Are there additional charges payable for changing flights if an award is available on the new date?

A couple more questions with an idea of a potential itinerary. I’d look at more than 12 months if I could, otherwise pushing it to 364 days…

Flight - Melbourne - Santiago, Chile
Land Travel - Chile - NYC
Flight – NYC – Europe (e.g. London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam)
Land Travel – Western Europe - Turkey
Flight - Istanbul - Amman
Flight - Amman - Delhi
Land Travel – Delhi - SE Asia (KUL, SIN)
Flight - SE Asia - Melbourne

a) Does land travel count as a ‘stopover’? So is this actually 7 stopovers or 5?
b) Does this breach any other rules for the 140k rules?

I’m still in the early planning phase so everything is up in the air (excuse the pun) and I’m happy to change around most things if they don’t make sense.

If I could get more points, would it make more sense to break it into two trips and not worry about the 12 month issue? E.g. South America, North America, Western Europe, Australia then Australia, SE Asia, India, Middle East, Eastern Europe Australia.

Any feedback, clarification, ANYTHING would be greatly appreciated. Just recently dove into this world and understand how people get overwhelmed although resources like this help so much.

Cheers,
Jordan

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Welcome Jordan,
1. From QF T&Cs: 14.6.1 Classic Awards will be valid for one year from the original ticketed departure date, unless otherwise specified. Some promotional Classic Awards (such as Classic Awards offered for a reduced number of Points) may be valid for a lesser period. Classic Award tickets on a JAL domestic Itinerary will be valid for three months from the date of issue.
2 Nearly every change results in a change fee – there are rare exceptions made where an airline changes flight times etc.
3. There are no extra charges specific to the change but some changes might result in a re-calculation of taxes & surcharges.
4 (a) Stopovers are counted only as cities you land in and don’t depart within 24 hrs (<24hrs is termed a transit). Land legs do not add to the number of stopovers. In your example the stopovers would be Santiago, Europe (London, Paris etc), Amman, Delhi & SE Asia.
(b) You’d just need to check the total distance which can’t exceed 35,000 miles (need to include the straight line distance between cities of arrival and departure flights for land legs)
You can break it into 2 trips but this is likely to be an inefficient use of points. To compare properly you’d need to have details of specific different itineraries.