Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Just to add to this question, and apologies if silly question but does this mean that I could book say, 3 initial flights and if they met all the conditions of a OWR fare, I can later revisit and add more flights sectors? Im just trying to work out if I can lock in flights now for say 10 months away and then in coming months book the rest as they come available. ( and only pay the 5000 point fee if I book all the flights in one go)

And say I didn't meet all conditions of the OWR for the first 3 flights and paid over the 280k for J, would it later drop down when I booked the remaining flights to qualify for the OWR?
Hope this makes sense

The short answer is ‘Yes’.

You can add / change / remove flight sectors as many times as you want (for the 6k points fee each time - btw it’s gone up from 5k to 6k...), up until the first flight begins. There are a *few* opportunities to make changes once the travel has started, but the rules are quite tight - Link to Ts&Cs here: Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

Regarding the second part of the question, yes, even if the first 3 flights go over the 280k points for J (say you hadn’t used 2 non-QF sectors yet...) then once you come back to the itinerary with subsequent changes that bring the itinerary into compliance with the ‘rules’, the total points cost will drop back to the 280K cap.

Good luck with your booking.

 

[SelfFundedWP]

The short answer is ‘Yes’.

You can add / change / remove flight sectors as many times as you want (for the 6k points fee each time - btw it’s gone up from 5k to 6k...), up until the first flight begins. There are a *few* opportunities to make changes once the travel has started, but the rules are quite tight - Link to Ts&Cs here: Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

Regarding the second part of the question, yes, even if the first 3 flights go over the 280k points for J (say you hadn’t used 2 non-QF sectors yet...) then once you come back to the itinerary with subsequent changes that bring the itinerary into compliance with the ‘rules’, the total points cost will drop back to the 280K cap.

Good luck with your booking.

Thanks so much for the quick reply. Great news

 

[blu]

Is there much diffence between the GCM mileage calculator and what QF calculates. My draft itinerary is only 12 miles under the 35k with GCM.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Is there much diffence between the GCM mileage calculator and what QF calculates. My draft itinerary is only 12 miles under the 35k with GCM.

Unfortunately there can be a difference.
I was getting close to the limit on an itinerary a year or two ago with the following results:
Amadeus: 34,818
Great Circle Mapper: 34, 859 (+41)
OneWorld Flight Mapper: 34,886 (+27, total difference +68)

The good news is that I believe QF use the Amadeus system, and (in this instance) the Amadeus system came out as the lowest total.

Good luck...

 

[p--and--t]

Just to add to this question, and apologies if silly question but does this mean that I could book say, 3 initial flights and if they met all the conditions of a OWR fare, I can later revisit and add more flights sectors? Im just trying to work out if I can lock in flights now for say 10 months away and then in coming months book the rest as they come available. ( and only pay the 5000 point fee if I book all the flights in one go)

And say I didn't meet all conditions of the OWR for the first 3 flights and paid over the 280k for J, would it later drop down when I booked the remaining flights to qualify for the OWR?
Hope this makes sense

Just as a word of warning. When you add sectors to your ticket, get the Qantas operator to re-read the ENTIRE itinerary from start to finish and then go online to re-check your itinerary for completeness.

Just had a nasty experience where I asked for a flight to be added to my RTW and went online next day to find the operator had deleted one of the flight sectors (trans - pacific code-share) in the process of adding an additional one.

One hour & 20 mins on the phone finally got them to acknowledge their mistake and had the sector re-added and the ticket re-issued correctly. Compounding the problem, I believe (not confirmed) the award seats they released had been taken up by someone else and additional seats needed to be released!

 

[SelfFundedWP]

Just as a word of warning. When you add sectors to your ticket, get the Qantas operator to re-read the ENTIRE itinerary from start to finish and then go online to re-check your itinerary for completeness.

Just had a nasty experience where I asked for a flight to be added to my RTW and went online next day to find the operator had deleted one of the flight sectors (trans - pacific code-share) in the process of adding an additional one.

One hour & 20 mins on the phone finally got them to acknowledge their mistake and had the sector re-added and the ticket re-issued correctly. Compounding the problem, I believe (not confirmed) the award seats they released had been taken up by someone else and additional seats needed to be released!

Oh how I love this forum!
Great info there many thanks

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Hi everyone,
Hope someone can help me. Currently have 280K x 2 award booked and ticketed including BA flights from JFK to MAD via London. Would like to fly direct and see on the BA site availability on Iberia (IB6250)

I had other changes to make so rang up and was advised that these were not able to be booked and just because they are on BA site didn't mean they were available for QFF

Is this correct or should I try again?

Also, would you change QF25 (SYD to HAN) for JL0772 (SYD to NRT)

 

[ozflier]

Hi everyone,
Hope someone can help me. Currently have 280K x 2 award booked and ticketed including BA flights from JFK to MAD via London. Would like to fly direct and see on the BA site availability on Iberia (IB6250)

I had other changes to make so rang up and was advised that these were not able to be booked and just because they are on BA site didn't mean they were available for QFF

Is this correct or should I try again?

Also, would you change QF25 (SYD to HAN) for JL0772 (SYD to NRT)

Certainly, just because an award seat shows up on BAEC, does not mean that QFF has access to it . Every airline has arrangements with their partners that control what seats are available.
Having said that , awards on some airlines (eg JAL) show up on BAEC but not on QFF - but are available if you get the agent to specifically look for them.
I'm not sure if this applies to Iberia.

 

[exceladdict]

Certainly, just because an award seat shows up on BAEC, does not mean that QFF has access to it . Every airline has arrangements with their partners that control what seats are available.
Having said that , awards on some airlines (eg JAL) show up on BAEC but not on QFF - but are available if you get the agent to specifically look for them.
I'm not sure if this applies to Iberia.

I found lot of phantom availability on Iberia when booking an old USDM "RTW" a few years back. IB should show up on QFF website though so you can double check there?

 

[mustkill]

Hi all,

Newbie question, but can you book a routing that's not available on the Qantas website by calling Qantas, giving there is availability?

ie: MEL > HKG > LHR/CPH/BCN to lower fuel surcharges + add an under 24hr stopover?

Thanks in advance!

 

[exceladdict]

Hi all,

Newbie question, but can you book a routing that's not available on the Qantas website by calling Qantas, giving there is availability?

ie: MEL > HKG > LHR/CPH/BCN to lower fuel surcharges + add an under 24hr stopover?

Thanks in advance!

Assuming you're wanting to fly CX the whole way through, you'll need to make sure there is availability for the married segment. This is discussed a few times throughout this thread - I know it's long, search for MSC.

The TL;DR is that if it's not on the QF website as available (for CX) it's unlikely you'll be able to book it. May need to try QF to HKG and CX HKG>Europe.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Hi everyone,
Hope someone can help me. Currently have 280K x 2 award booked and ticketed including BA flights from JFK to MAD via London. Would like to fly direct and see on the BA site availability on Iberia (IB6250)

I had other changes to make so rang up and was advised that these were not able to be booked and just because they are on BA site didn't mean they were available for QFF

Is this correct or should I try again?

Also, would you change QF25 (SYD to HAN) for JL0772 (SYD to NRT)

So I did ring today and was told the same thing however luckily I was put through to the premium help desk so was able to speak to someone willing to help. In the end, Mrs Nick on IB6250 and myself on AA94 2 hours later so a great outcome (eventually)

I was able to change QF25 to JL0772, added flights from Miami to Cancun to Bogota (mixture of J and Y) return and was actually refunded $517 of what we had paid already. When I rang up a week ago to add the Bogota flights and after being forced to keep my BA flights I was actually asked to pay an extra $1028 so dropping BA and to a lesser extent QF is a $1500 turnaround

However our tickets were separated so we had one more major issue. Our existing booking flew QR from Madrid back to Sydney, my new booking was confirmed no problems however Mrs Nick not so lucky. The award ticket went back into inventory and never came out again. I rang back within 10 mins and it was escalated straight away with the ticket confirmed about 3 hours later. Was advised that it would have taken much longer if I hadn't noticed straight away so always good to check ASAP

So we now have SYD-NRT(S)LAX(S)MIA-CUN-BOG(S)DFW-MIA-LGA/JFK(S)MAD(S)DOH-SYD with only 2 short flights in Y and taxes of only $750 per person, an excellent outcome.

Thanks everyone for your help, our second 280K award in 4 years, a couple of J to F upgrades across the ditch as well, none of that would have happened if I had never found this site

 

[SelfFundedWP]

For the people who have booked these trips before, what was your method? Book the last flight 353 days ahead and then backtrack from there?
Or book your first flight 353 days ahead and await/hope flights become available?

My plan so far is to ring qantas and get a seat released 330 ish days ahead to secure my first flight and then plan the rest from there on less popular routes with good availability as they become available. Any advice on this method would be greatly appreciated.

 

[p--and--t]

For the people who have booked these trips before, what was your method? Book the last flight 353 days ahead and then backtrack from there?
Or book your first flight 353 days ahead and await/hope flights become available?

My plan so far is to ring qantas and get a seat released 330 ish days ahead to secure my first flight and then plan the rest from there on less popular routes with good availability as they become available. Any advice on this method would be greatly appreciated.

From my moniker you will see I'm a newbie so I can't say my method was best. My thoughts are

- If you chasing specific flight(s) on a specific day for multiple people (more than 2) and are not flexible in transit ports then you are going to have to work 300+ days in the future and grab what you can as fast as you can.

- If you are going to take multiple bites at the cherry so to speak then remember it's going to cost you thousands of points every time you call Qantas to make a change.

My experience :

- I did my 280k RTW itinerary only 160 days out and was flexible on transit points and departure days. I worked on a basis of I roughly want to go early Augustish and searched a week or two either side.

- If I had a 2 week tour then I was happy to find a flight that got me there on the required day or up to 2 days before. Can always get an AirBNB for a night or two to recover from jet lag etc.

- I roughed out possible itineraries using the oneworld site that gave me a matrix of which airlines did the routes that suited my holiday plans.

- Using multiple browsers open at the same time I searched the Qantas site for flights and when I struck a problem searched the BA site for flights and availability.

- I made a list of all the flight numbers and times that were shown on one or both sites as having business award availability.

- As the proposed booking included flights (JAL) or destinations that Qantas wasn't showing (smaller airports in the USA that are not hubs come up as "no such airport" on the Qantas site) I was confident I could get the operator to book the itinerary without booking fees.

- I called Qantas and was up front, saying I have an itinerary and I have flight numbers and I have dates and times and these all show availability on either Qantas or BA. The operator was pleased as punch she didn't have to do a lot of work and booking the holiday was a breeze from thereon.

- Before you call try to be sure of your facts and confident you know what you are doing (like knowledge of the 280 rules - number of sectors allowed - number of stops allowed). Be prepared to challenge a less experienced operator and get transferred to a senior if the answers you are getting don't seem right.

 

[SelfFundedWP]

From my moniker you will see I'm a newbie so I can't say my method was best. My thoughts are

- If you chasing specific flight(s) on a specific day for multiple people (more than 2) and are not flexible in transit ports then you are going to have to work 300+ days in the future and grab what you can as fast as you can.

- If you are going to take multiple bites at the cherry so to speak then remember it's going to cost you thousands of points every time you call Qantas to make a change.

My experience :

- I did my 280k RTW itinerary only 160 days out and was flexible on transit points and departure days. I worked on a basis of I roughly want to go early Augustish and searched a week or two either side.

- If I had a 2 week tour then I was happy to find a flight that got me there on the required day or up to 2 days before. Can always get an AirBNB for a night or two to recover from jet lag etc.

- I roughed out possible itineraries using the oneworld site that gave me a matrix of which airlines did the routes that suited my holiday plans.

- Using multiple browsers open at the same time I searched the Qantas site for flights and when I struck a problem searched the BA site for flights and availability.

- I made a list of all the flight numbers and times that were shown on one or both sites as having business award availability.

- As the proposed booking included flights (JAL) or destinations that Qantas wasn't showing (smaller airports in the USA that are not hubs come up as "no such airport" on the Qantas site) I was confident I could get the operator to book the itinerary without booking fees.

- I called Qantas and was up front, saying I have an itinerary and I have flight numbers and I have dates and times and these all show availability on either Qantas or BA. The operator was pleased as punch she didn't have to do a lot of work and booking the holiday was a breeze from thereon.

- Before you call try to be sure of your facts and confident you know what you are doing (like knowledge of the 280 rules - number of sectors allowed - number of stops allowed). Be prepared to challenge a less experienced operator and get transferred to a senior if the answers you are getting don't seem right.

That's great info there thankyou muchly.
So you booked the whole thing in one go?
How do I go about seeing award seat availability on other airlines websites like BA and JAL. I can only seem to see availability for seats paid with actual money.

 

[p--and--t]

That's great info there thankyou muchly.
So you booked the whole thing in one go?
How do I go about seeing award seat availability on other airlines websites like BA and JAL. I can only seem to see availability for seats paid with actual money.

I did my booking in one go on one call. However, due to a change of plans to meet a new tour choice, I had a second bite at the cherry to change a destination and add two extra sectors. Because QF site kept saying airports didn't exist, I wasn't charged a change fee.

You have to register with BA Executive Club. It's free. You need to quote a non-Australian postal address otherwise they won't register you. I have friends in the US and they allowed me to use their address.

Once you have your Executive Club member ID, login and go to "Spending Avios" and then search for award flight sectors. You don't need to have any points to search for award flights.

BA will usually show you all/most JAL availability.
Qantas shows ziltch JAL.
Qantas only shows major routes between hubs in the USA,
BA will show most routes internal to the USA if you know the route upfront but sometimes you have to be a little creative in what you search for. It helps if you have used Oneworld site first or go to AA for what routes exist and then go to BA and look for seats on that route.

 

[SelfFundedWP]

T

I did my booking in one go on one call. However, due to a change of plans to meet a new tour choice, I had a second bite at the cherry to change a destination and add two extra sectors. Because QF site kept saying airports didn't exist, I wasn't charged a change fee.

You have to register with BA Executive Club. It's free. You need to quote a non-Australian postal address otherwise they won't register you. I have friends in the US and they allowed me to use their address.

Once you have your Executive Club member ID, login and go to "Spending Avios" and then search for award flight sectors. You don't need to have any points to search for award flights.

BA will usually show you all/most JAL availability.
Qantas shows ziltch JAL.
Qantas only shows major routes between hubs in the USA,
BA will show most routes internal to the USA if you know the route upfront but sometimes you have to be a little creative in what you search for. It helps if you have used Oneworld site first or go to AA for what routes exist and then go to BA and look for seats on that route.

Thankyou!!!

 

[Danger]

So I did ring today and was told the same thing however luckily I was put through to the premium help desk so was able to speak to someone willing to help. In the end, Mrs Nick on IB6250 and myself on AA94 2 hours later so a great outcome (eventually) . . .

It really shouldn't be this hard.

Hi all,

Newbie question, but can you book a routing that's not available on the Qantas website by calling Qantas, giving there is availability?

ie: MEL > HKG > LHR/CPH/BCN to lower fuel surcharges + add an under 24hr stopover?

Thanks in advance!

I did my booking in one go on one call. However, due to a change of plans to meet a new tour choice, I had a second bite at the cherry to change a destination and add two extra sectors. Because QF site kept saying airports didn't exist, I wasn't charged a change fee.

You have to register with BA Executive Club. It's free. You need to quote a non-Australian postal address otherwise they won't register you. I have friends in the US and they allowed me to use their address.

Once you have your Executive Club member ID, login and go to "Spending Avios" and then search for award flight sectors. You don't need to have any points to search for award flights.

BA will usually show you all/most JAL availability.
Qantas shows ziltch JAL.
Qantas only shows major routes between hubs in the USA,
BA will show most routes internal to the USA if you know the route upfront but sometimes you have to be a little creative in what you search for. It helps if you have used Oneworld site first or go to AA for what routes exist and then go to BA and look for seats on that route.

Note that just because one airline's booking engine shows availability doesn't mean QF will have access to it.

 

[p--and--t]

It really shouldn't be this hard.





Note that just because one airline's booking engine shows availability doesn't mean QF will have access to it.

Thanks for that "Danger" (I have tried to qualify all my remarks that I am a Newbie myself although I just saw I've been upgraded from Newbie to Junior - not sure I deserve it LOL)

In your experience, in rough terms how often would you not be able to access a seat shown on a BA search (I luckily had a 100% match)?

I noted from my searches and booking that the likelihood of a seat being shown on the Qantas site as opposed to one I was able to book is low unless it was a seat the Qantas favoured to offer (i.e. the Qantas site does not offer up large numbers of seats across a spectrum of airlines that are actually available to book).

Qantas did not offer me up front any business award seats whatsoever when I was searching to get from MEL-DOH, I just kept coming up with no availability week after week.

However, when I searched for only HKG to DOH there appeared to be hundreds of seats spread out over a couple of months. I had to ask the Qantas engine for a multi-sector MEL-BNE, then BNE-HKG and then ask for HKG-DOH and magically they became available and I got a through connection same day all the way to DOH on the exact day I wanted.

 

[Danger]

Thanks for that "Danger" (I have tried to qualify all my remarks that I am a Newbie myself although I just saw I've been upgraded from Newbie to Junior - not sure I deserve it LOL)

In your experience, in rough terms how often would you not be able to access a seat shown on a BA search (I luckily had a 100% match)?

I noted from my searches and booking that the likelihood of a seat being shown on the Qantas site as opposed to one I was able to book is low unless it was a seat the Qantas favoured to offer (i.e. the Qantas site does not offer up large numbers of seats across a spectrum of airlines that are actually available to book).

Qantas did not offer me up front any business award seats whatsoever when I was searching to get from MEL-DOH, I just kept coming up with no availability week after week.

However, when I searched for only HKG to DOH there appeared to be hundreds of seats spread out over a couple of months. I had to ask the Qantas engine for a multi-sector MEL-BNE, then BNE-HKG and then ask for HKG-DOH and magically they became available and I got a through connection same day all the way to DOH on the exact day I wanted.

I've seen probably 10 or 12 examples in the past four or so years where AA/BA was showing availability but QF wasn't and occasionally vice versa.