Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[SelfFundedWP]

Thats a really good itinerary. I like it.
Congratulations and enjoy the travels!!

Thanks mate, can hardly keep the lid on my excitement!

 

[Kiwifruit]

I have been lurking on this thread for quite some time in the hope that once I had the opportunity to take some long service leave then I could put some of your tips to good use in constructing my trip. This proved to be a great source of information and I just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed. I also thought I should add my experience in the hope it benefits someone else.

I finally got a window of opportunity to get away from mid-December through March but wasn't too hopeful in finding availability for two J class seats. However armed with the tips and tools picked up off this thread I set about researching availability on the individual sectors that I wanted. In my case I think the key was flexibility as we didn't need to be in a particular place at a particular time but had a few years places that we wanted to visit though in no particular order. We had also decided that in order to maximise the value we should try and visit those places that interested us but were a bit out of the way and also try and use as many different carriers as possible.

The first road block that we faced was that not surprisingly it was impossible to find two J seats on any of the routes that we wanted out of Australia in the week leading up to Christmas. Thinking outside the box I thought why not start from outside Australia and armed with the knowledge from this thread that taxes are lowest out of Hong Kong (which can easily be accessed on a cheap commercial fare) this seemed a good place to commence the trip. I started checking availability of the individual sectors online where this was possible and checked that our proposed trip fell within the allowable mileage.

Once I had done as much as I could online I then called Qantas and the lady at the premium desk was absolutey brilliant. First I asked her to book in the sectors that I knew were available then we set about filling in the gaps and she was even able to come up with some creative solutions to find availability. Bottom line was that in the course of one telephone call lasting just over an hour it was all booked in and ticketed.

For reference the itinerary we ultimately booked was:

Leg 1: HKG-AMM (RJ)
Leg 2: AMM-DOH-NBO (RJ/QR)
Leg 3: ZNZ-DOH-MAD (QR)
Leg 4: MAD-EZE (IB)
Leg 5: EZE-LIM-MIA (LA/AA)
Leg 6: JFK-NRT-TPE-HKG (JL/CX)

As you can see we were able to include stopovers in five different continents with a a couple of sneaky 23 hour transfers along the way all for 280K points and $940 in tax per person.

In our case we were lucky we had flexibility with dates which made things easier but you also need to think outside the box some times. An example of this was getting from EZE to MIA as there was absolutely no availability coming up when you searched the city pairs but by looking at EZE-LIM and LIM-MIA individually the availability was there and you could piece them together.

Thanks again for everyone contributing to this thread as without the knowledge I gleaned whilst lurking I wouldn't have known where to start in constructing an itinerary.

 

[sjk]

Indirectly related to this thread, but not irrelevant:

If I book the first leg of a multi-leg trip as soon as it becomes available, and then call to book the next leg (say two weeks later when that becomes available), are QFF operators generally familiar with doing that for a 5,000-point change fee and getting the tax calculations correct? I'm assuming that's far better than waiting for the second leg to become available and risk the first disappearing in the meantime.

 

[cjd600]

Generally, yes.
Definitely better to grab the seats while you can if you have enough 5k change fees up your sleeve. Unless it’s a leg with a lot of availability

 

[slinky123]

I just put the following itinery into the Qantas Multi City and it appears I can go right through to the booking online stage. Is that possible, I've read that it most cases its a phone call to Qantas to set it all up. This is for early November ( Possible availability due to past the Euro Summer time and getting cooler)

MEL-SIN - QF
SIN-LHR - BA

LHR-VCE- BA

ATH-DOH -QR
DOH-SYD -QR
SYD-MEL- QF

Do I need to call Qantas if I can book that online? Just exploring at this stage.

 

[rock86]

I just put the following itinery into the Qantas Multi City and it appears I can go right through to the booking online stage. Is that possible, I've read that it most cases its a phone call to Qantas to set it all up. This is for early November ( Possible availability due to past the Euro Summer time and getting cooler)

MEL-SIN - QF
SIN-LHR - BA

LHR-VCE- BA

ATH-DOH -QR
DOH-SYD -QR
SYD-MEL- QF

Do I need to call Qantas if I can book that online? Just exploring at this stage.

If it goes through the payment page and then processes it, then AFIAK it should be all good to go and you just await it to be ticketed - someone with a whole lot more experience on this forum will be able to confirm or tell different though.

 

[tricky1337]

I just put the following itinery into the Qantas Multi City and it appears I can go right through to the booking online stage. Is that possible, I've read that it most cases its a phone call to Qantas to set it all up. This is for early November ( Possible availability due to past the Euro Summer time and getting cooler)

MEL-SIN - QF
SIN-LHR - BA

LHR-VCE- BA

ATH-DOH -QR
DOH-SYD -QR
SYD-MEL- QF

Do I need to call Qantas if I can book that online? Just exploring at this stage.

When I booked mine, I also managed to get to the end of the booking online stage. However when I tried to confirm and pay, it errored out. This happened a couple of times so I ended up doing it over the phone. It had about 9 segments.

 

[Captain Halliday]

I just put the following itinery into the Qantas Multi City and it appears I can go right through to the booking online stage. Is that possible, I've read that it most cases its a phone call to Qantas to set it all up. This is for early November ( Possible availability due to past the Euro Summer time and getting cooler)

MEL-SIN - QF
SIN-LHR - BA

LHR-VCE- BA

ATH-DOH -QR
DOH-SYD -QR
SYD-MEL- QF

Do I need to call Qantas if I can book that online? Just exploring at this stage.

Yes if the system will let you. I booked one about six weeks ago and it went through online without any issues. Though as a long-time reader of this thread, I’d say that I’m in the minority no needing to call.

 

[cjd600]

I just put the following itinery into the Qantas Multi City and it appears I can go right through to the booking online stage. Is that possible, I've read that it most cases its a phone call to Qantas to set it all up. This is for early November ( Possible availability due to past the Euro Summer time and getting cooler)

MEL-SIN - QF
SIN-LHR - BA

LHR-VCE- BA

ATH-DOH -QR
DOH-SYD -QR
SYD-MEL- QF

Do I need to call Qantas if I can book that online? Just exploring at this stage.

Do you have +24hrs between ATH-DOH and DOH-SYD?

 

[slinky123]

Thanks everyone for the replies.
ATH-DOH
DOH-SYD. No, there is a stopover in DOH of about 14 hours.

 

[JohnM]

That could be a problem.

I've been caught with QR not allowing a <24h connection on a DONE5.

But I'd say try to book and pay online and if the payment goes through, it should be fine. If not, try a >24h stop in DOH.

 

[jewles]

I also tried to do a QR PER-DOH-ATH with an 8 hour stopover and QR segment control stopped me being able to book. I had plans for all of my stopovers and didn't want to lose one to stay in Qatar for 24+ hours so ended up flying Cathay instead.

 

[Battymum]

Quick question.
I have my first one world award flight coming up this Saturday on Cathay Pacific, am I able to checkin online or do I have to wait until getting to the airport?

Thanks

 

[ellen10]

Well after a few (actually many!) times back and forwards I have managed a dummy booking of a J award (which I need in a few months time). It seems like it may go through (no errors and through to the payment page)

Flight 1 SYD - HAN (JAL) overnight
Flight 2 HAN - MUC (BA via LON)
Surface Munich to Venice
Flight 3 VEN - DUB (BA via LON)
Flight 4 DUB - LON (BA)
Flight 5 LON - BCN (BA)
Flight 6 MAD - HKG (CX) overnight
Flight 7 HKG - SYD (CX)

When I input this for 1 person taxes are $1295.22
When I try to do this for 2 people Flight 7 only comes back as PE. (For one person I can get J of course on the actual booking dates 2 x J may be available
I have jiggled the Flight 6 dates but to get J seats it routes me via Doha to Hong Kong and then Hong Kong to Sydney via Cairns. I'm sure by the end of a trip this may not be enjoyable.

Any suggestions I tried to get some Finnair flights in but could only get economy.
There are quite a few BA flights so not sure of their product.

 

[SelfFundedWP]

Quick question.
I have my first one world award flight coming up this Saturday on Cathay Pacific, am I able to checkin online or do I have to wait until getting to the airport?

Thanks

I have flights with cathay and BA in my rtw booking. I downloaded both their apps and entered the qantas booking number into both apps and can view all your flights for that particular airline and can change seats etc etc Just make sure you put the Initial of your middle name into the cathay app.

 

[tuppaware]

So I've booked my 140k rtw award flights a couple of months ago, but my first flight ADL-KUL has been retimed by MAS which leaves me with 10 mins to connect to my KUL-BKK flight (on the same booking ref). Question is do I call Qantas or Malaysian to fix it ?

 

[madrooster]

So I've booked my 140k rtw award flights a couple of months ago, but my first flight ADL-KUL has been retimed by MAS which leaves me with 10 mins to connect to my KUL-BKK flight (on the same booking ref). Question is do I call Qantas or Malaysian to fix it ?

QF - always the ticketing carrier.

 

[tuppaware]

QF - always the ticketing carrier.

Sighhh.... Seems American also re-scheduled a heap of my flights making me leave a destination before I arrive. Qantas Platinum line were very helpful but the segments are married so they have to send it to AA to fix

 

[Saurs82]

Mauritius can you get there on a one world award? Various searches via Qantas website are only giving me options of flying there with emirates. Tried Greece (Athens or Mykonos) and venice and tried flying to cape town for a night then to Mauritius.

 

[madrooster]

Mauritius can you get there on a one world award? Various searches via Qantas website are only giving me options of flying there with emirates. Tried Greece (Athens or Mykonos) and venice and tried flying to cape town for a night then to Mauritius.

Yes - BA from LGW or JNB.