Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[vetrade]

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

Right, I'm close to pulling the trigger on this but just want to make sure off one or two things first.

I will have to book this ticket in two stages. I want to get 3 of my stops booked now and then in about 3 months book the other remaining stops and add them to the ticket. Can this be done? I know that I have to ring up and they charge 3,500 points (is this per booking or per person on the booking) to add the extra stops to the booking.

However, I am a little confused on the points cap side of things. Will Qantas know that I am booking a one world fare and cap it at 280,000 for J even though my fare has yet to be 'completed'?
Say I book the three stops online or over the phone at it comes to 350,000 points individually but as part of this reward fare it should be capped at 280,000. What happens here?

Or do you have to book the whole thing in one go and change the dates after?

Yes, you can add flights after the 3 months - most people have to do it that way. Each time you change your J booking the cost is 3500 pts per pax. If you call and, say, add 3 flights to your itinerary during that one call the cost is 3500 points - you don't pay the fee for each individual change.

Your initial bookings will be booked as classic awards at whatever the standard points cost is. Provided your itinerary stays within the rules the points will be capped at 280K as you add more flights. You don't have to specify that it's a OW award when you start booking. The only problem you might come across would be the unlikely situation where your initial bookings exceeded the number of points in your account before you had satisfied all the rules for a OW award. If say your initial bookings totaled 350,000 points (I doubt they would) you would need 350K points to cover that but once it converts to a OW award the points will drop back to 280K. QF won't allow you to book flights in excess of the no. of points in your account.

 

[Doctore1003]

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

The only problem you might come across would be the unlikely situation where your initial bookings exceeded the number of points in your account before you had satisfied all the rules for a OW award. If say your initial bookings totaled 350,000 points (I doubt they would) you would need 350K points to cover that but once it converts to a OW award the points will drop back to 280K. QF won't allow you to book flights in excess of the no. of points in your account.

One situation where this might occur is if you don't have two airlines other than Qantas in your itinerary. Until you add that second airline, the points tally will continue to rise.

 

[Ultan Lankford]

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

OK, thanks for that.
I actually will not be using qantas at all so that will not be an issue for me.
Ill give it a dummy run and see how it goes.

 

[Jacques Vert]

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

The only problem you might come across would be the unlikely situation where your initial bookings exceeded the number of points in your account before you had satisfied all the rules for a OW award. If say your initial bookings totaled 350,000 points (I doubt they would) you would need 350K points to cover that but once it converts to a OW award the points will drop back to 280K. QF won't allow you to book flights in excess of the no. of points in your account.

One situation where this might occur is if you don't have two airlines other than Qantas in your itinerary. Until you add that second airline, the points tally will continue to rise.

For those who don't have sufficient points (in excess of the 280k needed), you can get around this by including a "dummy" return leg(s) back to you starting point, thus closing out the award ticket at the 280k limit. This also will confirm that you have met all the rules on the flights you actually wish to keep.

When your other flights open up, you simply add/amend/change the itinerary to what you want at the cost of 3,500 points per person as others have already confirmed.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

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

As I have GDS access, specifically access to Amadeus which is the same system that QF uses, if anyone with really close to the 35000 miles limit itineraries wants an actual confirmation of the GDS distance without having to call, please feel free to PM me the full routing.

Can I please take you up on your kind offer, MadRooster?
I'm looking at a routing as follows:

SGN-NRT-PEK-PVG-HKG-MEL-HKG-LAX-JFK-DOH-SGN (PEK-PVG is surface)

Total miles per the OneWorld Flight Mapper is 34,886, just 14 miles shy of my new self-imposed maximum allowance of 34,900 miles (to allow for the previously mentioned 'fuzzy miles').

Great Circle Mapper measures the same route at 34,859 miles - a difference of *only* 27 miles.

It'll be interesting to see what Amadeus has to say.

Thanks in advance,
TooJ

 

[madrooster]

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

Mileage below:

FQM   SGN   TYO   BJS   SHA   HKG   MEL   HKG   LAX   NYC
DOH   SGN


CTY   DC   TPM   cough   MPM  DC LVL  <HGL  >LWL   25M  XTRA
SGN 3
TYO 3 EH  2706  2706
BJS 3 EH  1313  4019
SHA 3 EH   676  4695
HKG 3 EH   773  5468
MEL 3 EH  4614 10082
HKG 3 EH  4614 14696
LAX 1 PA  7249 21945
NYC 1 US  2458 24403
DOH 2 AT  6689 31092
SGN 3 EH  3726 [b]34818[/b]

SGN-NRT-PEK-PVG-HKG-MEL-HKG-LAX-JFK-DOH-SGN (PEK-PVG is surface)

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

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

Mileage below:

FQM   SGN   TYO   BJS   SHA   HKG   MEL   HKG   LAX   NYC
DOH   SGN


CTY   DC   TPM   cough   MPM  DC LVL  <HGL  >LWL   25M  XTRA
SGN 3
TYO 3 EH  2706  2706
BJS 3 EH  1313  4019
SHA 3 EH   676  4695
HKG 3 EH   773  5468
MEL 3 EH  [URL="tel:4614 10082"]4614 10082[/URL]
HKG 3 EH  [URL="tel:4614 14696"]4614 14696[/URL]
LAX 1 PA  [URL="tel:7249 21945"]7249 21945[/URL]
NYC 1 US  [URL="tel:2458 24403"]2458 24403[/URL]
DOH 2 AT  [URL="tel:6689 31092"]6689 31092[/URL]
SGN 3 EH  3726 [B]34818[/B]

That was quick, thanks.
It'll be very interesting to see how far QFF say it is...
I'm not going to be able to complete the whole booking for quite a while, but I'll report back when I do.

Progress Scores, in ascending order:
Amadeaus: 34,818
Great Circle Mapper: 34, 859 (+41)
OneWorld Flight Mapper: 34,886 (+27, total difference +68)

Thanks again.
J

 

[Ultan Lankford]

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

Thanks, Can confirm that my dummy run of three of the stops did indeed cap it at 280,000. So we are looking good. I'm a little shy of points though for two people booking this trip.

 

[Ultan Lankford]

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

I am looking for some AA flights between Dub and the US e.g. Boston but they are few are far between on the Qantas Search Engine.
Yet on the AA website there are availability for the dates I am looking for on MileSAAver fares. I presume that these fares would be available if I ring up Qantas?

I can use BA to get to where I want to go but I want to avoid them due to high taxes and charges, so would prefer AA

Also, if an airport does not come up on the qantas search engine does that mean they can't see it at all at all. I am looking for AA flights between BOG->MIA
BOG doesn't exist according to qantas.com

Lastly, once I have a leg ticketed that has a flight number by an airline in One World is it within the rules even if the metal is with another carrier? BA fly to ORK from LHR but its an actual EI flight but the flight number can be BAxx_x and of course EIxx

Heh, it will be so much easier once EI become a one world member!! Wish it was tomorrow but id say its another year away.

 

[Daver6]

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

I am looking for some AA flights between Dub and the US e.g. Boston but they are few are far between on the Qantas Search Engine.
Yet on the AA website there are availability for the dates I am looking for on MileSAAver fares. I presume that these fares would be available if I ring up Qantas?

I can use BA to get to where I want to go but I want to avoid them due to high taxes and charges, so would prefer AA

Also, if an airport does not come up on the qantas search engine does that mean they can't see it at all at all. I am looking for AA flights between BOG->MIA
BOG doesn't exist according to qantas.com

Lastly, once I have a leg ticketed that has a flight number by an airline in One World is it within the rules even if the metal is with another carrier? BA fly to ORK from LHR but its an actual EI flight but the flight number can be BAxx_x and of course EIxx

Heh, it will be so much easier once EI become a one world member!! Wish it was tomorrow but id say its another year away.

Would you consider using QR via DOH?

 

[hutch]

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

I am looking for some AA flights between Dub and the US e.g. Boston but they are few are far between on the Qantas Search Engine.
Yet on the AA website there are availability for the dates I am looking for on MileSAAver fares. I presume that these fares would be available if I ring up Qantas?

I wouldn't assume that. AA seats tend to show up on the QF website and it is possible that AA may make seats more available to their own members. By all means I would call QF to check whether the seat is available, but have a second, third option etc.

I can use BA to get to where I want to go but I want to avoid them due to high taxes and charges, so would prefer AA

Also, if an airport does not come up on the qantas search engine does that mean they can't see it at all at all. I am looking for AA flights between BOG->MIA
BOG doesn't exist according to qantas.com

Bogota is one of those weird places... you can search MIA to BOG, but not BOG to anywhere. You will need to call QF. I had to do this to book MGA flights before with points. I'm not sure whether you're doing a Y or J booking, but LAN also flies this route.

Lastly, once I have a leg ticketed that has a flight number by an airline in One World is it within the rules even if the metal is with another carrier? BA fly to ORK from LHR but its an actual EI flight but the flight number can be BAxx_x and of course EIxx

Heh, it will be so much easier once EI become a one world member!! Wish it was tomorrow but id say its another year away.

The t&c's say "does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline." I read this as the all flights need to be on OW metal. In any case, whenever I search the QF site, the BA code does not come up...only the EI code.

 

[Coley]

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

As I have GDS access, specifically access to Amadeus which is the same system that QF uses, if anyone with really close to the 35000 miles limit itineraries wants an actual confirmation of the GDS distance without having to call, please feel free to PM me the full routing.

Any chance I could also take you up on your offer to check distance madrooster?

Route is: BNE-SIN-SYD-DOH-FCO-CDG-ORD-HKG-BNE (FCO-CDG is a land route) GCmap gives me 34,860 miles.

 

[Ultan Lankford]

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

Would you consider using QR via DOH?

Using QR via DOH to get to the US? Possibly but at the moment they do not fly from Dublin (aparently they are due to start next May) and it would burn lots of miles just to get to the US when I could pick up an AA flight from Dublin or somewhere in the UK.
Anyway, I have it planned that I will be using QR to get to Africa and back to the UK.

 

[Ultan Lankford]

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

I am looking for some AA flights between Dub and the US e.g. Boston but they are few are far between on the Qantas Search Engine.
Yet on the AA website there are availability for the dates I am looking for on MileSAAver fares. I presume that these fares would be available if I ring up Qantas?

I wouldn't assume that. AA seats tend to show up on the QF website and it is possible that AA may make seats more available to their own members. By all means I would call QF to check whether the seat is available, but have a second, third option etc.

I can use BA to get to where I want to go but I want to avoid them due to high taxes and charges, so would prefer AA

Also, if an airport does not come up on the qantas search engine does that mean they can't see it at all at all. I am looking for AA flights between BOG->MIA
BOG doesn't exist according to qantas.com

Bogota is one of those weird places... you can search MIA to BOG, but not BOG to anywhere. You will need to call QF. I had to do this to book MGA flights before with points. I'm not sure whether you're doing a Y or J booking, but LAN also flies this route.

Lastly, once I have a leg ticketed that has a flight number by an airline in One World is it within the rules even if the metal is with another carrier? BA fly to ORK from LHR but its an actual EI flight but the flight number can be BAxx_x and of course EIxx

Heh, it will be so much easier once EI become a one world member!! Wish it was tomorrow but id say its another year away.

The t&c's say "does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline." I read this as the all flights need to be on OW metal. In any case, whenever I search the QF site, the BA code does not come up...only the EI code.

1) I suppose the only way to be sure is to ring up Qantas and ask them about AA availability

2) Yeap, it was weird alright about BOG because I could have sworn I saw it listed there but then when I choose to make it a departure point it was gone. Again a call to Qantas will confirm whats available

3) Your probably right. Ah, its not that big a deal, just would be more convenient for me to have it ticketed as one flight. I am sure the Qantas reps can clarify. As an aside, strong rumors indicate that QR are going to start flights from Doha to Dublin next May so that may solve it for me. Now, who knows if they offer new routes up as awards! Something to keep an eye on.

Thanks again for all your help, by the way. I would never be able to book all this without the expert knowledge that has been imparted here.

 

[madrooster]

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

Any chance I could also take you up on your offer to check distance madrooster?Route is: BNE-SIN-SYD-DOH-FCO-CDG-ORD-HKG-BNE (FCO-CDG is a land route) GCmap gives me 34,860 miles.

This is an invalid route. Once you re-enter the origin country you cannot exit again.

See 14.3.5 at https://www.qantas.com/fflyer/dyn/program/terms

 

[madrooster]

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

As I have GDS access, specifically access to Amadeus which is the same system that QF uses, if anyone with really close to the 35000 miles limit itineraries wants an actual confirmation of the GDS distance without having to call, please feel free to PM me the full routing.

If you are requesting a mileage calculation, please PM me. I will no longer accept mileage calculation requests here in the thread. This is meant to be a discussion thread not a requests thread.

 

[Daver6]

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

Using QR via DOH to get to the US? Possibly but at the moment they do not fly from Dublin (aparently they are due to start next May) and it would burn lots of miles just to get to the US when I could pick up an AA flight from Dublin or somewhere in the UK.
Anyway, I have it planned that I will be using QR to get to Africa and back to the UK.

Apologies for my silly suggestion. I read your initial post rather quickly and thought you meant Dubai, not Dublin. Ooops

Similar suggestion, but not burning quite as many miles might be AY via HEL though.

 

[madrooster]

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

Similar suggestion, but not burning quite as many miles might be AY via HEL though.

AY charges YQ and they are also difficult to get seats on in J. There's also IB and AB... both require notable backtracking.

 

[Ultan Lankford]

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

So my trip consists of something like this.

mad-scl-lim-gru-doh-nbo-jnb-doh-man-dub-bos-mad
GCmapper give me
35,375 mi


Could go JNB-LHR but availability is more hit and miss on this one, plus will have to pay those BA taxes
Or could just go SCL-GRU and get my own flight to GRU, the rest of the trip is handy..
or..do DOH-NBO-DOH and get my own flight from Cape Town where I will be to NBO.

Going to have to sacrifice something as I won't be able to get it all. Never thought the millage would be a factor but you certainly burn through them.

 

[cjd600]

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

Did you speak to the premium desk or do you not have any status? The premium desk is certainly better at it. You have to escalate... it's definitely possible as I've had to go down that procedure a few times.

As part of a 4 x 280k J Award we had 4 x J SYD-CDG with CX locked in.
Availability arose for 4 x J SYD-DOH, DOH-CDG on QR....but we could not book as there was no SYD-CDG showing.
However, SYD-HEL on QR was showing 4J, so we booked that and cancelled the CX
QR took all 4 x J SYD-HEL back, and QF are saying that they will only re-release 2 of them, or 2 x J and 2 x F at points upgrade cost pp (which I can't do under the 280k award anyway, as assume would reprice the whole lot at 420k pp)
QF 'solution' is to have me and one young daughter rebooked on a CX flight SYD-CDG (7 hour layover at HKG), and my wife and our other young daughter booked on separate CX flights arriving at CDG 12 hours after us....

Not happy, we had 4 x CX J same flight locked in and only changed when QF confirmed SYD-HEL QR had 4 J seats available, and booked them for us, confirmed tax recalculations, took card details and update booking.

I told QF that putting us on separate CX flights was not a 'solution' as much time and effort (and time on hold to QF) has ben spent designing our perfect trip, with all 4 of us on same J flights throughout....which was achieved.
Am now awaiting a call back as they 'look at options'.

Any advice?
Or do I just have to suck up what they 'offer'?

Cheers.