Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[vetrade]

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

Is the 3500 pts/person a one off charge? If I am calling up qf to book the first leg of an ATW trip how am I charged? Do I have to have the full amount of points required (280k) plus the 3500 pts/person prior to booking my first leg?

Depends - your booking starts as a standard classic award and as you add flights the points cost increases. Then when you get up to 280K points your booking automatically moves to being a OW RTW award and any flights you add after that are added without the points cap of 280K increasing. Most people book their initial flight/s online so the 3500 pt fee for the first booking doesn't come into play. Each subsequent change incurs the 3500 pt cost. Note that if you add, say, 3 flights during a single phone call to the call centre you only pay a single 3500 pt fee.

At each stage of the process you can only book flights for which you have sufficient points accumulated in your account i.e. you need the full 280K points to book a full RTW itinerary. Plus you have to have enough points in advance to cover whatever 3500 pt changes you make.

 

[Inuniform]

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

Depends - your booking starts as a standard classic award and as you add flights the points cost increases. Then when you get up to 280K points your booking automatically moves to being a OW RTW award and any flights you add after that are added without the points cap of 280K increasing. Most people book their initial flight/s online so the 3500 pt fee for the first booking doesn't come into play. Each subsequent change incurs the 3500 pt cost. Note that if you add, say, 3 flights during a single phone call to the call centre you only pay a single 3500 pt fee.

At each stage of the process you can only book flights for which you have sufficient points accumulated in your account i.e. you need the full 280K points to book a full RTW itinerary. Plus you have to have enough points in advance to cover whatever 3500 pt changes you make.

Thank you, starting to make a bit more sense now. I've got some work ahead of me!

 

[Danger]

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

I am accumulating points for two ATW tickets in J and am getting to the stage where I am starting to think about strategising a booking. One question that I can't seem to find the answer to is, how can I book an ATW ticket a year out when all of the legs of that trip won't be released at the same time? It seems that if I booked each leg as it became available it would be at a far greater cost. Alternatively, if I tried to book each leg of the ATW ticket at the same time I there would be a lack of availability. I'm hope there's an easy answer, but if there is I can't seem to find it.

Thanks in advance.

At each stage of the process you can only book flights for which you have sufficient points accumulated in your account i.e. you need the full 280K points to book a full RTW itinerary. Plus you have to have enough points in advance to cover whatever 3500 pt changes you make.

As you're saving up for the buy, pweekes, not that you may well need more than 280k per person to begin with because the itinerary has to satisfy the conditions of the five stop award (which is technically what this is, not necessarily a RTW) before it maxes out at 280k.

 

[Sumnerned]

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

Thank you, starting to make a bit more sense now. I've got some work ahead of me!

Yes! Although it can be fun. (Helps if you are a masochis_.)
To minimise the number of 3500*2 change fees, you can take the small risk of checking that there are several award seats on your first flight(s), and delay starting the booking until you get to, say, 4 left. Do this by means of a dummy run for several people. I use 7, no real reason. Lastly, try and organise your trip so that the parts which have lots of flights and/or you have route flexibility are at the beginning. That way you can delay booking until some of your 'must have' seats have just been released.
You may find that many experienced users join other reward schemes to find seats that are not shown on the Qantas website, but there are traps. I recently tried to book seats on JAL shown as available, (I am a Mileage Bank member) via Qantas, only to be told, 'those seats are not available to Qantas'! If you need to go down that route, BA are generally well regarded as the most comprehensive. They will accept most dummy UK addresses for the purpose of joining.
There are even some cities which are not f;lly shown on the Qantas website. For example, Amman does not show up on the list for originating a flight. These seem to be few in number. You can check availability by dummy booking a return to such cities, from somewhere you know there are flights.
Don't forget that Jetstar and Emirates are not oneworld; a major pain for us in NZ where there is no domestic Qantas etc.
If you and your partner are both saving points, remember that there is an annual limit of 100000 for a family transfer. However I was recently told by a QFF consultant that points for a booking can be taken from any of the Pax' accounts. We didn't test this.
One last minor bonus we discovered recently. You can end in a city where you have previously had a stopover. This is helpful if visiting family is part of your purpose.

 

[coles525]

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

Yes! Although it can be fun. (Helps if you are a masochis_.)
To minimise the number of 3500*2 change fees, you can take the small risk of checking that there are several award seats on your first flight(s), and delay starting the booking until you get to, say, 4 left. Do this by means of a dummy run for several people. I use 7, no real reason. Lastly, try and organise your trip so that the parts which have lots of flights and/or you have route flexibility are at the beginning. That way you can delay booking until some of your 'must have' seats have just been released.
You may find that many experienced users join other reward schemes to find seats that are not shown on the Qantas website, but there are traps. I recently tried to book seats on JAL shown as available, (I am a Mileage Bank member) via Qantas, only to be told, 'those seats are not available to Qantas'! If you need to go down that route, BA are generally well regarded as the most comprehensive. They will accept most dummy UK addresses for the purpose of joining.
There are even some cities which are not f;lly shown on the Qantas website. For example, Amman does not show up on the list for originating a flight. These seem to be few in number. You can check availability by dummy booking a return to such cities, from somewhere you know there are flights.
Don't forget that Jetstar and Emirates are not oneworld; a major pain for us in NZ where there is no domestic Qantas etc.
If you and your partner are both saving points, remember that there is an annual limit of 100000 for a family transfer. However I was recently told by a QFF consultant that points for a booking can be taken from any of the Pax' accounts. We didn't test this.
One last minor bonus we discovered recently. You can end in a city where you have previously had a stopover. This is helpful if visiting family is part of your purpose.

100k max family transfer?

Isn't it 4x per year at maby 100k each time?

 

[coles525]

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

Just looked it up and yes:

4x per year @ 100k max per request/transfer.

Answer = upto 400k per year on family transfers

 

[Kangol]

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

As you're saving up for the buy, pweekes, not that you may well need more than 280k per person to begin with because the itinerary has to satisfy the conditions of the five stop award (which is technically what this is, not necessarily a RTW) before it maxes out at 280k.

Note that it is a maximum of five stops. Also it is a distance based award, not a RTW and a requirement is that you have two OW airlines other than QF.

 

[Jacques Vert]

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

As you're saving up for the buy, pweekes, not that you may well need more than 280k per person to begin with because the itinerary has to satisfy the conditions of the five stop award (which is technically what this is, not necessarily a RTW) before it maxes out at 280k.

You can get around this by booking flights (that you don't actually want) that complete the RTW 280k award. Then you just change them later when/if the flights you want open up/become available.

 

[adelee]

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

One last minor bonus we discovered recently. You can end in a city where you have previously had a stopover. This is helpful if visiting family is part of your purpose.

Interested to read this. I recently tried to do the same thing (end trip in ADL after earlier stopover), but was advised when trying to do this that the system wouldn't accept this, and the booking MUST end in the originating city (MEL). Hence we've had to book a final leg from ADL-MEL that we don't plan to use. Anyone else have any experience with this?

 

[Sumnerned]

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

Interested to read this. I recently tried to do the same thing (end trip in ADL after earlier stopover), but was advised when trying to do this that the system wouldn't accept this, and the booking MUST end in the originating city (MEL). Hence we've had to book a final leg from ADL-MEL that we don't plan to use. Anyone else have any experience with this?

Hmm! I think these earthquakes must have addled my brains, because I now realise that in the recent changes to my plans I am no longer stopping over in London, where our oneworld award ends. At least not as part of the award, but on some paid flights that are part of our overall plan. Many apologies.
Our itinerary is now:
CHC-SYD-DXB-LHR stop paid flights
LHR-SVQ paid
MAD-MIA award
YVR-HKG award
HKG-TYO award
TYO-DOH-AMM award
AMM-CDG-HEL award
HEL-LHR award
LHR-CHC not yet booked

 

[Kangol]

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

Uh-oh.
American & US Airways Integrating Reservations Systems On October 17, 2015 - One Mile at a Time

I was planning on a 420k award with 4x QF transpacs and AA/US as my OW carriers.

 

[Mattg]

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

Uh-oh.
American & US Airways Integrating Reservations Systems On October 17, 2015 - One Mile at a Time

I was planning on a 420k award with 4x QF transpacs and AA/US as my OW carriers.

If it's of any use to you, CX fly YVR-JFK and LA fly SYD-AKL. Perhaps you could incorporate one of those legs.

 

[flychrisfly]

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

Uh-oh.
American & US Airways Integrating Reservations Systems On October 17, 2015 - One Mile at a Time

I was planning on a 420k award with 4x QF transpacs and AA/US as my OW carriers.

?? Not sure what the problem is. U.S flights become AA flights - AA is still OW

 

[Kangol]

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

If it's of any use to you, CX fly YVR-JFK and LA fly SYD-AKL. Perhaps you could incorporate one of those legs.

Woah. That is awesome, LA SYD-AKL. My plan was a few pages back.
How do you search for LAN award availability? QF and EF don't show it, I've used BA and nothing is coming up on the dates I want but in saying that, there are some blog entries saying BA doesn't show availability when it actually exists...

 

[Kangol]

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

?? Not sure what the problem is. U.S flights become AA flights - AA is still OW

The problem is in the rules of the award. Look up the rules and you will see why this is a problem. Give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish.

 

[Mattg]

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

?? Not sure what the problem is. U.S flights become AA flights - AA is still OW

I believe the issue was that 2 oneworld carriers other than Qantas need to be used to make it a oneworld award. If AA/US merge then that's only one carrier.

 

[Mattg]

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

Woah. That is awesome, LA SYD-AKL. My plan was a few pages back.
How do you search for LAN award availability? QF and EF don't show it, I've used BA and nothing is coming up on the dates I want but in saying that, there are some blog entries saying BA doesn't show availability when it actually exists...

I would have thought that for the SYD-AKL run, LA availability would show on QF. If not, then perhaps try BA? FWIW I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding availability on that sector.

 

[Kangol]

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

I would have thought that for the SYD-AKL run, LA availability would show on QF. If not, then perhaps try BA? FWIW I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding availability on that sector.

Ah, I had some issues with my browser and it is showing on the QF site for QF321 SYD-AKL, it's just that there is no availability on my preferred date. I will look at other dates though.

 

[Meggsy]

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

I believe the issue was that 2 oneworld carriers other than Qantas need to be used to make it a oneworld award. If AA/US merge then that's only one carrier.

Would flights on US count as 1 of the 2 oneworld carriers though when they are not part of oneworld. Genuine question as I thought affiliates did not count, only members.

 

[vetrade]

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

Would flights on US count as 1 of the 2 oneworld carriers though when they are not part of oneworld. Genuine question as I thought affiliates did not count, only members.

Affiliates do count, Meggsy