Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[sergeyvzn]

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

Qatar ex MEL?

no first class, only business

 

[Kefuan]

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

I am blind.......where is the option to book with points? Everytime I build an itinerary it just gives me a dollar figure but no set 140k etc points. Or is the only way to spend to 2500 points to ring up and book?

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

I am blind.......where is the option to book with points? Everytime I build an itinerary it just gives me a dollar figure but no set 140k etc points. Or is the only way to spend to 2500 points to ring up and book?

tick the box "Classic Awards". It's on the left at the bottom of the search page

 

[Kefuan]

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

Yeh I was going through one world.........Eh

 

[blu]

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

We punched all our 9 flights in online, but the QF database crashed returning an error code, when we proceeded to finalise payment (entering pax details etc). This happened twice.
Rang 131113 (afterhours) & luckily got Liz in Hobart who managed to finalise the redemption (& appropriately with no service fee).

 

[abbijacobson]

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

I was wondering -

What's the most accurate way to check taxes for certain legs of an itinerary?

And if an airline decided to remove a fuel surcharge later on in the year, after I've booked a flight with them, would I be refunded the difference?

 

[aikman]

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

What's the most accurate way to check taxes for certain legs of an itinerary?

The Qantas online award booking engine. The next best option is matrix.itasoftware.com

And if an airline decided to remove a fuel surcharge later on in the year, after I've booked a flight with them, would I be refunded the difference?

No you will not get a refund. On the flip side, if the airline decides to increase a fuel surcharge they will not ask you to pay more. If you are keen to get the refund, you could always cancel your itinerary and rebook it with the lower fuel surcharge but this is very risky as the award seats may not come back to inventory for you to be able to rebook.

 

[abbijacobson]

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

The Qantas online award booking engine. The next best option is matrix.itasoftware.com



No you will not get a refund. On the flip side, if the airline decides to increase a fuel surcharge they will not ask you to pay more. If you are keen to get the refund, you could always cancel your itinerary and rebook it with the lower fuel surcharge but this is very risky as the award seats may not come back to inventory for you to be able to rebook.

Okay, thanks!

 

[abbijacobson]

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

The Qantas search seems to have bugs in it...

Cape Town to Doha (Dec 14), then Doha to Oslo (Dec 25) both on Qatar Airways, I get a total for taxes of 2146.72 ZAR
Cape Town to Doha by itself, the total is 1793.72 ZAR, which would imply that the Doha to Oslo leg is 353 ZAR

However, if I put in a different leading flight, say SYD to JNB (Nov 25), then the Doha to Oslo leg I get a total of $538.42 AUD
SYD to JNB by itself is $268.42, implying that Doha to Oslo is $270

Why the difference? It is because two flights on Qatar gives a discount?

I've also noticed that although the credit limit on the card I used for booking has been reduced by the value of the booking, no payment has actually been made. Any idea when this payment will actually occur, say X days away from the first flight?

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

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

The Qantas search seems to have bugs in it...

Cape Town to Doha (Dec 14), then Doha to Oslo (Dec 25) both on Qatar Airways, I get a total for taxes of 2146.72 ZAR
Cape Town to Doha by itself, the total is 1793.72 ZAR, which would imply that the Doha to Oslo leg is 353 ZAR

However, if I put in a different leading flight, say SYD to JNB (Nov 25), then the Doha to Oslo leg I get a total of $538.42 AUD
SYD to JNB by itself is $268.42, implying that Doha to Oslo is $270

Why the difference? It is because two flights on Qatar gives a discount?

I've also noticed that although the credit limit on the card I used for booking has been reduced by the value of the booking, no payment has actually been made. Any idea when this payment will actually occur, say X days away from the first flight?

These are not bugs, but the complexities of fare construction. An airfare is not just the sum of its parts, and often different combinations will return different results.

The credit card charges are dependent on when the merchant processes it. They do a pre-authorisation which reduces your credit limit, then when they finalise their transactions it will hit your account.

 

[aikman]

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

I don't think it's a Qantas search bug. ITA Matrix is showing the same.

QR is charging YQ at A$161 for DOH-Europe, A$152 for South Africa-Europe, and A$253 for Australia-Europe.

Because you have a SYD-JNB leg in there, the QR YQ is being charged at A$253 even though you are not flying QR from Australia. QF is charging it's own YQ for the SYD-JNB leg therefore you have higher taxes. Why is it being calculated this way? Who knows.

 

[adelee]

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

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the help so far. I've finally managed to input an acceptable booking via the system, and have pressed the magic button on my J award itinerary!
3/12/15 ADL-SYD-JNB
14/12 JNB-LHR (system error message kept popping up when I tried to change to another city to avoid London taxes - will try to change via phone)
24/12 OSL-MAD
7/1 AMS-HKK (stopover required as Cathay wouldn't release the seats if just transiting through)
11/1 HKK-BNE
12/1 BNE-ADL (need to leave the next day as the flight from HKK gets in the previous night at 11 pm)

I still have a few changes I'd ideally like to make, but given the really slim pickings currently for seats for 2 x adults in J class over Dec / Jan, I decided to go ahead and book. A few questions relating to this booking, if anyone is able to assist:

1) Is it possible to use Connair flights within this award? A phone rep I spoke to today stated that it wasn't possible (I was looking at JNB-MRU - LHR).
2) The routing back via HKK and BNE in particular is not ideal, given we need to stay overnight in BNE before going on to Adelaide -I literally could not find anything else to get us back from Europe around early to mid Jan that wasn't Emirates (cancelling out the award) - does anyone have any suggestions?
3) With change fees, are they charged for each individual segment changed, or each raft of changes grouped together?

 

[sergeyvzn]

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

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the help so far. I've finally managed to input an acceptable booking via the system, and have pressed the magic button on my J award itinerary!
3/12/15 ADL-SYD-JNB
14/12 JNB-LHR (system error message kept popping up when I tried to change to another city to avoid London taxes - will try to change via phone)
24/12 OSL-MAD
7/1 AMS-HKK (stopover required as Cathay wouldn't release the seats if just transiting through)
11/1 HKK-BNE
12/1 BNE-ADL (need to leave the next day as the flight from HKK gets in the previous night at 11 pm)

I still have a few changes I'd ideally like to make, but given the really slim pickings currently for seats for 2 x adults in J class over Dec / Jan, I decided to go ahead and book. A few questions relating to this booking, if anyone is able to assist:

1) Is it possible to use Connair flights within this award? A phone rep I spoke to today stated that it wasn't possible (I was looking at JNB-MRU - LHR).
2) The routing back via HKK and BNE in particular is not ideal, given we need to stay overnight in BNE before going on to Adelaide -I literally could not find anything else to get us back from Europe around early to mid Jan that wasn't Emirates (cancelling out the award) - does anyone have any suggestions?
3) With change fees, are they charged for each individual segment changed, or each raft of changes grouped together?

1)Definitely can use Comair, we used them to fly from Cape Town to JNB on our 280K award last year - incompetent agent, just hang up and ring again
2) if you can't get anything else (have you tried MH via kUL? They seem to only have 1 J seat per fight these days though) stay for the night at Novotel Brisbane Airport and relax
3)one change fee per passenger on a whole itinerary, not per segment

 

[Daver6]

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

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the help so far. I've finally managed to input an acceptable booking via the system, and have pressed the magic button on my J award itinerary!
3/12/15 ADL-SYD-JNB
14/12 JNB-LHR (system error message kept popping up when I tried to change to another city to avoid London taxes - will try to change via phone)
24/12 OSL-MAD
7/1 AMS-HKK (stopover required as Cathay wouldn't release the seats if just transiting through)
11/1 HKK-BNE
12/1 BNE-ADL (need to leave the next day as the flight from HKK gets in the previous night at 11 pm)

I still have a few changes I'd ideally like to make, but given the really slim pickings currently for seats for 2 x adults in J class over Dec / Jan, I decided to go ahead and book. A few questions relating to this booking, if anyone is able to assist:

1) Is it possible to use Connair flights within this award? A phone rep I spoke to today stated that it wasn't possible (I was looking at JNB-MRU - LHR).
2) The routing back via HKK and BNE in particular is not ideal, given we need to stay overnight in BNE before going on to Adelaide -I literally could not find anything else to get us back from Europe around early to mid Jan that wasn't Emirates (cancelling out the award) - does anyone have any suggestions?
3) With change fees, are they charged for each individual segment changed, or each raft of changes grouped together?

Connair...probably not. Nicolas Cage wont allow you on board

Comair, you sure can. When speaking to the doofus agent, refer it as BA. Should help, especially given they are BA flight numbers.

 

[vetrade]

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

Adelee,
No need to try and change LHR because the APD (airport departure tax) is not payable the way your itinerary is structured - it only applies if you fly out of LHR, not in. I presume you are making your own way from London to OSL).
Comair are a subsidiary of BA so the only reason the agent could reasonably have for telling you you couldn't fly with them would be if there were no award seats available on the JNB - MRU - LHR segments.
JNB - MRU would be on BA's LCC, Kulula, which I don't think would have a J cabin - so maybe check if the agent knocked you back because they were only looking for J seats for you. Have you tried searching for Y seats?
To try and avoid the BNE stopover have you looked at what QR combinations you could put together to get back from Europe to ADE?

 

[vetrade]

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

Yes, I think JNB - MRU is your problem adelee. Just had a look and there are J award seats (so my guess it was only Y was wrong) on 12/12/15 but nothing else available around your travel date. Plenty of both J & Y earlier in Dec. but that's not helpful.

 

[vetrade]

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

Some suggestions for your routing from AMS to ADL, adelee............
I haven't checked for award seats but this is a scenario you might like to check:
QR fly AMS - HKG via DOH with a convenient 2.5 hr stopover in DOH. Flying QR fixes the problem of CX not allowing a transit in HKG if you wanted to connect on to Oz.
There are then heaps of CX flight options back to ADL from HKG via SYD or MEL etc. - there's even a direct flight HKG - ADL but it only operates on alternate days (10th / 12th Dec. etc) so it might require you to juggle your dates a little.

 

[prozac]

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

Your comments make for interesting reading Vetrade and I am sure very helpful for adelee. I know I have learned a thing or three for future reference.

 

[adelee]

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

Hi Vetrade, many thanks for your advice, particularly around clarification of LHR taxes.
In regards to the Europe to Aus leg of our trip, I've investigated a number of options without success. QR flights ( to DOH and then on to an Australian airport) seem to be very thin on the ground in Jan (I can find no J awards for 2 pax on QR either to or out of DOH at all, and only BA from AMS - DOH). Similarly, there is no availability with MH via KUL. Will keep an eye out as the year progresses to see if any more fares are released - but not the end of the world if we need to stick with the AMS - HKK - BNE - ADL routing.

 

[Jordan613]

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

Apologies for another question, I tried to search TAM but was too short to search.

If a flight is marketed by TAM (and available to see on LAN website) but actually operated by South African Airlines (Star Alliance) I assume it isn't an eligible flight as it will be breaching the following condition:

14.5.1 A oneworld Classic Flight Reward is a Classic Flight Reward 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 aoneworld Alliance Airline.

I was just curious whether it had an impact if it was being marketed by TAM and LAN? Like I said, I assume not (and it's not an available option on the Qantas site) although thought some people here may have had experience.