Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[blu]

Looks like a overcharge, should be around $2,300 for two pax.

SYD-SIN QF
SIN-DOH-MAN QR
LHR-ARN BA
ARN-LHR-DUB BA
DUB-LHR-NRT BA
HND-SYD QF

 

[hutch]

Hey all

Just thought I'd share my recent 280J booking, which will be my second 280J.

Originally I was just doing a return trip to North America which cost me 196,000 points and around $900 tax. Considering that for only another 80,000 odd points I could get another trip in, I decided it was worth the effort. So I did some adjustments to have two trips.

Part A:
CBR-BNE-LAX (QF/QF) - Stop one
Make own way to Detroit
DTW-ORD-HKG (AA/CX) - Stop two

Fly home on separate award/revenue ticket to face 5 and 1/2 months back at work!! Damn.
Fly back to HKG on separate award/revenue ticket.

Part B:
HKG - TPE (CX) Stop 3
TPE - KIX (CX) Stop 4
Make own way to Tokyo
NRT - HEL (AY) Stop 5
HEL - DOH - ADL - CBR (QR, QR, QF)

Total points 290,000 including change fees and $1,571 taxes
10 flight segments (plus 2 non-flight segments) and 34,869 miles according to GCMap

Issues experienced in booking
1. After my first change (swapping direct USA - Australia return, LAX-SYD to DTW-ORD-HKG), the booking was ticketed. However, after the next change (adding HKG-TPE, TPE-KIX and NRT -HEL) the booking remained unticketed. I knew this was happening, but since there was no QR bookings at the time I wasn't overly concerned and no ticketing means the change fee was not charged.

2. When I rang back around 3-4 weeks later to add the final leg of my booking and make some slight date & carrier changes, I was unable to swap the NRT-HEL flight from Finnair to Japan Airlines. BAEC was showing availability, but the QF agents couldn't find any. Whilst i'm fine trying out Finnair, I did want to give JAL a go.

3. I was unable to get my preferred Finnair flight back to HKG. Given there was also limited CX availability back to Australia this was causing a few dramas. Ended up booking a HEL-PEK-HKG-SYD-CBR routing home. Interestingly, at this point there was a 36 odd hour layover in Beijing. Whilst this went through at booking time, I was a bit dodgy about it being rejected at ticketing time due to 6th stop-over (which in the end wouldn't be an issue - see point 4). At this point the agent advised taxes would be another $600.

4. A couple of hours after booking item 3, I thought about using Qatar to get home. Noted availability online (lucky!!) and rang back Qantas. Availability was found on their end and the booking changed. Given I know QR has a habit of removing non-ticketed flights, I was pleased to see my ticket issued within 30minutes.

Interestingly, by swapping to QR, my taxes went from the additional $600 to an additional $1000. So a $400 extra charge by QR over Finnair/Cathay.

My last 280J cost around $1,100 in tax and included 4 QR legs, a QF international leg, QF dom leg, CX and AA. Also avoided flying out of the UK and using BA. Anyway, not too concerned about it, as I think it's still pretty good value, but money in my pocket is always a better outcome.

Thanks for all the contributions to this forum. Great resource!

 

[fairbasa]

2. When I rang back around 3-4 weeks later to add the final leg of my booking and make some slight date & carrier changes, I was unable to swap the NRT-HEL flight from Finnair to Japan Airlines. BAEC was showing availability, but the QF agents couldn't find any. Whilst i'm fine trying out Finnair, I did want to give JAL a go.

If BA and JAL mileage bank are showing availability, then it's there.

I don't understand exactly why, but QF agents often have issues seeing JAL availability. It's been discussed a few times here. The HUCA rule applies here if the QF agent tells you there's no availability.

 

[Kangol]

Total points 290,000 including change fees and $1,571 taxes
10 flight segments (plus 2 non-flight segments) and 34,869 miles according to GCMap

280 or 290k?

 

[cjd600]

280 or 290k?

280k + 2 x 5k change fees = 290k?

 

[fairbasa]

280 or 290k?

I believe it was 280k + 2x 5k change fees

 

[nat000]

Hi
As part of the 5 stops, 16 segments, I am able to transit twice through LHR and also have it as one of the 5 stops. So 3 visits to LHR ?
eg. hkg-lhr(transit)-rek
rek-lhr (stop)
osl-lhr(transit)-yyz

 

[Auski]

Hi
As part of the 5 stops, 16 segments, I am able to transit twice through LHR and also have it as one of the 5 stops. So 3 visits to LHR ?
eg. hkg-lhr(transit)-rek
rek-lhr (stop)
osl-lhr(transit)-yyz

I tried on my dummy trial run after reading the above and seems to work.

Can this be added to the WIKI.

 

[madrooster]

Hi
As part of the 5 stops, 16 segments, I am able to transit twice through LHR and also have it as one of the 5 stops. So 3 visits to LHR ?
eg. hkg-lhr(transit)-rek
rek-lhr (stop)
osl-lhr(transit)-yyz

Yes this is permitted.

 

[hutch]

I tried on my dummy trial run after reading the above and seems to work.

Can this be added to the WIKI.

It already is in the wiki under the rules.

 

[Auski]

It already is in the wiki under the rules.

I have read all 475 pages, took a while and is a great resource, thanks to all who have contributed.
The addition of the WIKI made it a lot easier for newbies like me however my understanding was that you could have 2 transits OR 1 stop in a city and not both. That's why I thought it might be useful to add a clarification to the WIKI.

Thanks to all.

 

[hutch]

I have read all 475 pages, took a while and is a great resource, thanks to all who have contributed.
The addition of the WIKI made it a lot easier for newbies like me however my understanding was that you could have 2 transits OR 1 stop in a city and not both. That's why I thought it might be useful to add a clarification to the WIKI.

Thanks to all.

14.5.4 Stopover conditions:
(a) Five free stopovers are permitted;
(b) Additional stopovers are not permitted;
(c) You may only stop once in any one city;
(d) Only two transfers are permitted at any one city.

Sorry mate, not sure how you read it that way. Clarification might be useful (particularly on the difference between stop and transfer).

 

[nat000]

I rang qf the other day and put my itinerary to the test. It worked with 2 transits and 1 stop in lhr. It quoted the trip at 280k points. But couldn't calculate the taxes.

 

[exceladdict]

I rang qf the other day and put my itinerary to the test. It worked with 2 transits and 1 stop in lhr. It quoted the trip at 280k points. But couldn't calculate the taxes.

What was the outcome of this call?

 

[nat000]

What was the outcome of this call?

The outcome was that I confirmed that I can do 2 transits and 1 stop in LHR. But they don't know why it didn't calculate the taxes. It still couldn't after removing a LHR transit. But it did calculate the points correctly.

 

[blu]

I was having trouble with

EDI-LHR stop
LHR-ARN
ARN-LHR-DUB
DUB-LHR-NRT

CSA ended up dropping EDI-LHR and it worked.
Although it now appears total charges are wrong.

 

[PaulST]

Hi all, apologies that I’m going to be quite vague as I’m planning a 280p J 35K trip for May-June 2018.
I’m planning on spending 1 week in the UK and the flights on either side are primarily just to get me there with some interesting flights on either side of the trip to and from the UK. My initial thinking is as follows:
SYD to either BKK or HKG (either QF or CX metal) where I hope to catch the AY A350 to HEL. From there I hope to catch the A350 again down to LHR.
From LHR I essentially need to get to North America and then back to Sydney. I’m keen to try AA’s 787 J product and CX’s 77W J product, or the QF A380 J product since I haven’t tried that for a while.
Are there any particular American cities where award availability (from Europe and to Australia) is better?

 

[Auski]

Hi all, apologies that I’m going to be quite vague as I’m planning a 280p J 35K trip for May-June 2018.
I’m planning on spending 1 week in the UK and the flights on either side are primarily just to get me there with some interesting flights on either side of the trip to and from the UK. My initial thinking is as follows:
SYD to either BKK or HKG (either QF or CX metal) where I hope to catch the AY A350 to HEL. From there I hope to catch the A350 again down to LHR.
From LHR I essentially need to get to North America and then back to Sydney. I’m keen to try AA’s 787 J product and CX’s 77W J product, or the QF A380 J product since I haven’t tried that for a while.
Are there any particular American cities where award availability (from Europe and to Australia) is better?

I have booked BA1 the all business flight from LCY to JFK keen to try this one, am transiting from DUB and will avoid the LHR departure tax. BA1 also clears US customs in Shannon where it tops up with fuel, (cant take off from LCY with a full load). I found BA had best availability but their J generally not rated highly. From JFK to Syd CX had by far the best availability in777. Also flying with them SYD FRA.

 

[hutch]

I was having trouble with

EDI-LHR stop
LHR-ARN
ARN-LHR-DUB
DUB-LHR-NRT

CSA ended up dropping EDI-LHR and it worked.
Although it now appears total charges are wrong.

Is this a 140Y or 280J award? I would have thought you might have issues with:

14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

 

[hutch]

Hi all, apologies that I’m going to be quite vague as I’m planning a 280p J 35K trip for May-June 2018.
I’m planning on spending 1 week in the UK and the flights on either side are primarily just to get me there with some interesting flights on either side of the trip to and from the UK. My initial thinking is as follows:
SYD to either BKK or HKG (either QF or CX metal) where I hope to catch the AY A350 to HEL. From there I hope to catch the A350 again down to LHR.
From LHR I essentially need to get to North America and then back to Sydney. I’m keen to try AA’s 787 J product and CX’s 77W J product, or the QF A380 J product since I haven’t tried that for a while.
Are there any particular American cities where award availability (from Europe and to Australia) is better?

If looking for AY350, you might want to avoid BKK as last time I checked they were still using A330's on that route. HKG seemed pretty good for AY availability when I was booking... or if you are looking at trying products, you could try and get on JAL's 787 to HEL and then AY350 to LHR. Or backtrack from LHR back to HEL to head to North America.

As for the final leg, trying to get direct USA to Australia flights is tough. Not impossible, but tough. I've had luck through LAX before to book QFA380. Otherwise, CX has good availability to HKG from most N.A ports barring YVR (well at least I always had issues finding seats direct from there).

With the AA787... if I am not mistaken the 787-9 is reverse herringbone (good!) and the 787-8 has a front seat/back seat configuration which I wouldn't find appealing. I flew AA777-300 J which is basically the CX seat. I liked it (particularly as you have individual air vents unlike on CX.