Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[vetrade]

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

My wife tells me she's not interested in spending time in NY by herself while I head off to NJ to watch golf for a few days after we finish our holiday in Europe so she will head home earlier.
This raises the question about oneworld bookings in J. Is it possible to book part of the journey for 2 and then split for 2 singles coming back home? I know I could do 2 seperate bookings but that may pose problems getting seats together going over. The other problem might be having 2 available when you start but only one when you finish the first because somone else has grabbed that seat!
Maybe best to get the call centre to do the booking when the time comes?

You can't split the booking part way so you both have to follow the same itinerary. Separate bookings would be your only option but you already know the downsides of that. Surely there must be some alternative to golf in NJ your wife could do? Admittedly NJ is no Paris or London but my wife could "kill" a few days shopping no problems at all! Hotel spa? You could still meet up at night for dinners etc. so she needn't be on her own the whole time.

 

[ramboflyer]

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

I have already had that discussion but she' s not one to roam around a different city by herself. We are travelling with another couple but they head home from Europe to get back to work.
I'm sure I will find a way. Certainly would be easier if she came with me. Maybe I can tell her Adam Scott would like to meet her!

 

[yoyo]

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

I made two separate bookings for my partner and me because of this reason also but when I spoke to Qantas on the phone, they said I should have made one booking to start out with and split them later. they said this can be done and would have made it easier.

 

[hutch]

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

I have already had that discussion but she' s not one to roam around a different city by herself. We are travelling with another couple but they head home from Europe to get back to work.
I'm sure I will find a way. Certainly would be easier if she came with me. Maybe I can tell her Adam Scott would like to meet her!

A couple of things to bear in mind... these bookings can be stressful (getting seats, calling QF, getting it ticketed etc), so the more complex it is, the more that potentially can go astray. If you have to seperate bookings, then so be it, but just keep it in mind.

-You should be able to do a return to Europe for slightly under the 280J depending on who you're flying - for your wife.
-If you can avoid BA, you'll save dollars as BA charges pretty high fees... and does front/business on some flights.... and charges for seat selection in business

 

[hutch]

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

I made two separate bookings for my partner and me because of this reason also but when I spoke to Qantas on the phone, they said I should have made one booking to start out with and split them later. they said this can be done and would have made it easier.

That's interesting... if they were booked under the one PNR, i'm not sure how they would separate them? I wonder whether QF would put that in writing

Personally, it's always worth the OP asking QF, but I wouldn't be risking it without further clarification... too many cases of people on here being given wrong advice by QF (me included) and then having to HUCA!

 

[Daver6]

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

Well I just rang up QF to query the taxes and surcharges of roughly $2200/pax for my trip.

As suggested, I priced it myself and it came to just under $1600/pax. After much time on the phone, QF agreed there has been an error with the YQ (fuel) surcharge for one of the other carriers. They believe its been loaded incorrectly into the system and will investigate. In the mean time they will be refunding the difference.

So, well worth checking that, as that's a rather sizable saving.

 

[Sumnerned]

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

Just returned from our award trip, all in Y.

Routing was MAD-MIA stop YVR-HKG stop HKG-NRT stop HND-DOH-AMM stop AMM-CDG-HEL stop HEL-LHR.

We used paid flights to position to Spain and back to NZ, and variety of planes and trains in both Europe ond US, plus a couple of cruises from Miami and Helsinki.

We travelled Y, partly because of better seat availability, but also because we had splurged on some of the last JASA's.

It was great! Happy to answer any questions.

 

[ablecookie]

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

Planning a trip to include Lima. How do I check out availability on LAN? Particularly looking at LAX to LIM leg.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[yld200]

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

Has anyone here flown JFK>LHR? Which flight did you take, my preference is AA100 with the J layout but don't really like the arrival time. Any recommendations with the four AA flights?

AA100 Dep 6.10 PM - Arr 6.20 AM - 777-300
AA104 Dep 10.15 PM - Arr 10.30 AM - 777-200
AA106 Dep 7.55 PM - Arr 8.10 AM - 777-200
AA142 Dep 9.55 AM - Arr 10.10 PM - 777-200

Also I can only seem to find availability on AA100 for one day in April 2017 for 2 pax in J. Random dates for the others in April, and nothing at all in May.

 

[hutch]

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

Has anyone here flown JFK>LHR? Which flight did you take, my preference is AA100 with the J layout but don't really like the arrival time. Any recommendations with the four AA flights?

AA100 Dep 6.10 PM - Arr 6.20 AM - 777-300
AA104 Dep 10.15 PM - Arr 10.30 AM - 777-200
AA106 Dep 7.55 PM - Arr 8.10 AM - 777-200
AA142 Dep 9.55 AM - Arr 10.10 PM - 777-200

Also I can only seem to find availability on AA100 for one day in April 2017 for 2 pax in J. Random dates for the others in April, and nothing at all in May.

I'm flying AA100 J in a couple of months... arrival time is not that great, but I'm hopeful that I can talk my way into the arrivals lounge.

 

[yld200]

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

I'm flying AA100 J in a couple of months... arrival time is not that great, but I'm hopeful that I can talk my way into the arrivals lounge.

Is this a paid or award flight? If award, how did you go with availability? I'm struggling a bit to find anything post mid April 2017

 

[hutch]

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

Is this a paid or award flight? If award, how did you go with availability? I'm struggling a bit to find anything post mid April 2017

It's an award flight.

it wasn't available originally, so I had booked an Iberia JFK-MAD flight to get me across the Atlantic. Later when preparing to make other changes, I noted the AA flight was available, so I swapped (mainly because I wanted to save miles, rather than have any desire to fly AA!)

 

[yld200]

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

Planning a trip to include Lima. How do I check out availability on LAN? Particularly looking at LAX to LIM leg.
Thanks in advance for any help.

You should be able to check availability on qantas.com

I just did a quick search used a QF account on award finder and found the below availability:

 

[aussiel]

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

Planning a trip to include Lima. How do I check out availability on LAN? Particularly looking at LAX to LIM leg.
Thanks in advance for any help.

LAN flights to Lima will show up on Qantas website. Try using multi-city tool if it doesn't show up in normal search box (I seem to recall having issues at times with finding Lima in the destination list). Personally I'll be on LA531 from JFK, connecting to LA2047 (in economy) to Cusco. If CUZ is your only Peruvian destination, you can book right through (over the phone, as it's not bookable online with QF).

 

[Kangol]

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

I'm flying AA100 J in a couple of months... arrival time is not that great, but I'm hopeful that I can talk my way into the arrivals lounge.

Says here that the T3 arrivals lounge is being renovated but you can use the BA T5 one.
J COS will give you entry - the main issue is if the T3 lounge is open.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/clubs/arrivals-lounge.jsp

 

[hutch]

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

Says here that the T3 arrivals lounge is being renovated but you can use the BA T5 one.
J COS will give you entry - the main issue is if the T3 lounge is open.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/clubs/arrivals-lounge.jsp

Yep, but as far as I am aware, AA doesn't allow award bookings into the arrivals lounge normally.

 

[Cardinal]

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

I'm slowly being driven nuts. Why would Qantas staff have so much difficulty finding available QR award seats when its own website says they are available?

 

[Daver6]

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

I'm slowly being driven nuts. Why would Qantas staff have so much difficulty finding available QR award seats when its own website says they are available?

I had a similar issue. For one sector I called back several times and they could never see it even though there own website and BA could. For another sector they initially couldn't see it, but then did something and could. Makes zero sense to me.

 

[Daver6]

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

Not sure whether a new thread might be in order for this or not...but regardless.

Following on from getting the ~$1200 taxes overcharge on my award booking funded. When I spoke to QF last week they said they need to re-ticket and then it will take 5 business days to get the money back. Re-ticketing I was told would take a day or two.

On the weekend I hadn't received an email about the flights be re-ticketed so I decided to log in to check seat select. Low and behold, my three QR flights had disappeared from the booking. A call to QF yesterday to find out about this. Sure enough, some issue getting those re-ticketed. After being on hold for 15 minutes they can get two of the three flights back. They can't do anything on the weekend about the third but the lady I spoke to said she'd look into it on Monday morning and call me back.

Just got the call back. Some long winded story about they now need to wait 72 hours for QR to do something and that I should call back on Friday. No, they can't call or email me, I have to do it. I check whether this is holding up the refund and I'm told yes. They can't (read won't) refund until its re-ticketed. Now remember another 5 business days before the refund actually happens.

Personally I think this is really poor for a few reasons:

1) If I hadn't have been proactive in the first place, I would have been over-charged $1200. How many people just get ripped off I wonder.
2) If I wasn't proactive in following up the missing QR flights, I suspect I would have eventually turned up at the airport and had issues.
3) Why can't they call me back or email me to update them? Why do I need to waste my time on their lengthy hold queues...again
4) At least three weeks to get a refund from being over-charged. It really shouldn't take so long.

</whinge>

 

[hutch]

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

Not sure whether a new thread might be in order for this or not...but regardless.

Following on from getting the ~$1200 taxes overcharge on my award booking funded. When I spoke to QF last week they said they need to re-ticket and then it will take 5 business days to get the money back. Re-ticketing I was told would take a day or two.

On the weekend I hadn't received an email about the flights be re-ticketed so I decided to log in to check seat select. Low and behold, my three QR flights had disappeared from the booking. A call to QF yesterday to find out about this. Sure enough, some issue getting those re-ticketed. After being on hold for 15 minutes they can get two of the three flights back. They can't do anything on the weekend about the third but the lady I spoke to said she'd look into it on Monday morning and call me back.

Just got the call back. Some long winded story about they now need to wait 72 hours for QR to do something and that I should call back on Friday. No, they can't call or email me, I have to do it. I check whether this is holding up the refund and I'm told yes. They can't (read won't) refund until its re-ticketed. Now remember another 5 business days before the refund actually happens.

Personally I think this is really poor for a few reasons:

1) If I hadn't have been proactive in the first place, I would have been over-charged $1200. How many people just get ripped off I wonder.
2) If I wasn't proactive in following up the missing QR flights, I suspect I would have eventually turned up at the airport and had issues.
3) Why can't they call me back or email me to update them? Why do I need to waste my time on their lengthy hold queues...again
4) At least three weeks to get a refund from being over-charged. It really shouldn't take so long.

</whinge>

The same thing happened to me...a few times with QR flights and also with the over-charge. I ended up waiting several weeks for QR to respond to QF so a seat could be released. From then on, I ended up watching my itinerary like a hawk between booking and ticketing. I also tried to book things (make changes) earlier in the week, after also having the weekend issue (hence allowing more business days to fix things).

I got my booking fixed by sending a complaint to AJ and then had a "senior call centre staff" member organise ticketing and calculate taxes/refund... plus they did the calling.

One benefit of this though is that I don't seem to be in a U class seat