Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[cjd600]

Woot I finally will have enough points to book 560K J oneworld awards next year, so preparing early. Only a lowly bronze with Qantas. I've been reading this thread and pretty much understand all the ins and outs of the rules.
As everyone seems to indicated its best to book the flight out of Australia first upfront, once available, and then add extra sectors later. Cheers

You should look to book the first available sector by release date (after doing your homework), not necessarily your first flight from Australia.
e.g. if flying AUS-Europe, you might find HKG/SIN/NRT - Europe with AY is the first leg released, and you can add the AUS-Asia leg to that booking once it is released (e.g. J on QF for Bronze will be abt 300-310 days, if available by that time).
As Danger alluded you don't even quote anything about 280k/560k award when dealing with QF, you just call to say you want to "make a change to an existing award booking", and give the flight details to be added (don't have to be sequential). The 'rules' should take care of themselves and automatically max out at the 280/560 (for 2 x J), as all rules are satisfied and this limit is reached. Plan when your hoped-for sectors are relased by doing dummy booking searches so you are ready to pounce sector by sector

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

Taxes and surcharges are high on QF, CX & QR - try to avoid them if you can. RJ are low.

Also taxes are much lower starting in HKG or MNL. You could consider a positioning flight to one or other of those (or somewhere else in Asia).

Hope this helps.

JV

Thank you all for the advice.

Just to close the loop, we wound up taking advantage of the recent 25% off Economy classic flight rewards and booked MEL-DXB-SEZ-DXB-SIN-MEL in January all on Emirates for $617 and 94,500 points each. We couldn't be happier. It saved $5000 net on the revenue price.

 

[Abrcrmb]

Thanks again to the tips and tricks in this thread. We had to get creative on our 4th and 5th 280K redemptions this time around, leaving it very late with only 8 weeks to departure!

Travelling together on the the Moscow, St Petersburg, Helsinki, London, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Tokyo and Osaka legs

#4 SWMBO: SYD>PEK>OVB>DME(QF+S7) / DME>LED(S7) / ground sector / HEL>LHR(AY) / LHR>HKG>MEL (BA+QF) / ground sector / BNE>NRT (QF) / NRT>CAN>KUL>SYD (JAL+MH) $1437 in taxes

#5 HWNTBA: DME>LED(S7) / ground sector / HEL>LHR(AY) / LHR>HKG>MEL (BA+QF) / MEL>SIN>NRT (QF+JAL) / ground sector / KIX>BKK>DOH (JAL+QR) / DOH>PEK (QR) $1,961 in taxes

Effectively two separate holidays on the one itinerary, Russia and Europe, then Japan and Middle East 6 months later.

Requested and received 2 x J seats be released on the HKG>MEL (QF) leg. Very happy with the QFF CSRs today!

 

[p--and--t]

I haven't seen anyone else mention this yet so here goes - my understanding of the new QFF rules from Oct 24th.

• For top up points, the 60K limit has gone and been replaced with 150K (more than enough for a 140K redemption - but cost is poor value for this redemption).

• The 20% limit rule has gone.

• You can now buy 4 times per year in lieu of once.

• 150K costs $3,549 (subject to change) - a hell of a lot less than a RTW J seat on most airlines.

This creates endless possibilities for members sitting on not insignificant points balances (maybe 100K+ from a credit card signup) but no-where near a 280K redemption.


The downside is that there will be more people in the pool looking for the already limited redemption seats.

 

[benjy]

Hi folks,
Seeking your experiences with QR award seats. I currently have J award seats on QR304 and QR904 (HEL > DOH > MEL) for May next year mainly for a placeholder on my current OneWorld ticket (that I start next week) so I can change dates for my final sectors for later in 2019 (Sept/Oct).

Looking at QR304,QR904, I notice there are no seats available for these connecting flights from May onwards but plenty on Tuesday and Wednesdays before May. Based on your experiences, how likely are QR going to release seats for QR304,QR904 for September/October 2019 and when should I start looking? Or should I just give up my hope that they will release seats and change to JL flights (who seem to release more frequently) or another alternative?

I understand QR are very tight on award seats but looking at availability early next year, it gives me a bit of hope. And I need to make my decision before the my first flight.

 

[ellen10]

I have been watching the lack of J award seats returning from Europe to Sydney for next year (looking in September at the moment but I want flights in October, so just trying to work out any pattern). It seems I can get to Hong Kong but home from there in J is none existant at the moment.
If I book J award but part of it is in economy or premium economy (it has the exclamation mark) is this allowed in 280k rule?

 

[Jacques Vert]

I have been watching the lack of J award seats returning from Europe to Sydney for next year (looking in September at the moment but I want flights in October, so just trying to work out any pattern). It seems I can get to Hong Kong but home from there in J is none existant at the moment.
If I book J award but part of it is in economy or premium economy (it has the exclamation mark) is this allowed in 280k rule?

Definitely allowed; but it prices at 280k even if only one flight is in J.

Lack of availability is due to peak season; lots of Aussies returning from Europe after visiting friends, family or just holidaying. Airlines can sell most seats at that time of year so inventory is very restricted. October should be better, hopefully. Where in Europe are you returning from?

 

[p--and--t]

I have been watching the lack of J award seats returning from Europe to Sydney for next year (looking in September at the moment but I want flights in October, so just trying to work out any pattern). It seems I can get to Hong Kong but home from there in J is none existant at the moment.
If I book J award but part of it is in economy or premium economy (it has the exclamation mark) is this allowed in 280k rule?

Ellen
I had a similar problem with returning home last month from a RTW sojourn when I planned the trip earlier in the year. I found trying to get back to Sydney or Melbourne direct from overseas was nigh near impossible but there were heaps of flights with availability returning to Brisbane (ex HKG & NRT); and of course a flight from Brisbane to home was easy to snaffle. The class of seat for a 1-2hour flight is not so important to me as a 13hr flight. (But I did manage to find J all the way)

In my experience, Jacques is correct, you can select lower class seats on one or more of your sectors but the whole trip will still be 280K regardless.

 

[ellen10]

Definitely allowed; but it prices at 280k even if only one flight is in J.

Lack of availability is due to peak season; lots of Aussies returning from Europe after visiting friends, family or just holidaying. Airlines can sell most seats at that time of year so inventory is very restricted. October should be better, hopefully. Where in Europe are you returning from?

Thanks Jacques. Yes it is not ideal but it would only be a short leg e.g. CX J HKG to PER and then QF economy. A few weeks ago there was an abundant load of J flights using a multi via HKG and now nothing for the second leg to Sydney. We would be looking at flying home from Spain, either Barcelona or Madrid. There is nothing using direct but if I break it up into a multi a few weeks ago there were choices, but nothing lately. Our flights would be around the 22-24 Oct 2019. I have booked the flights over, I have a list of my internal Eurpoean flights to be booked and added when I book the final flights home.

 

[ellen10]

Ellen
I had a similar problem with returning home last month from a RTW sojourn when I planned the trip earlier in the year. I found trying to get back to Sydney or Melbourne direct from overseas was nigh near impossible but there were heaps of flights with availability returning to Brisbane (ex HKG & NRT); and of course a flight from Brisbane to home was easy to snaffle. The class of seat for a 1-2hour flight is not so important to me as a 13hr flight. (But I did manage to find J all the way)

Thanks p--and--t, I hadn't thought of via Brisbane, I will have a look.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Thanks p--and--t, I hadn't thought of via Brisbane, I will have a look.

Also ADL can have good availability; as can the JL flight to MEL from NRT and IB6801 MAD-NRT often has reasonable availability.

Good luck.

 

[p--and--t]

Thanks p--and--t, I hadn't thought of via Brisbane, I will have a look.

Ellen
BTW: I couldn't find all my sectors home from Europe via USA on the QF website.
As others have previously advised to do, I registered and used the BA site to plot my way home from Europe.
I then rang Qantas call centre with the missing flight sector from LAX to NRT that I found on BA and got the call centre to book it for me (no penalty charge to book flight as it was a website problem)

 

[ellen10]

I will be glad when all the bookings are done.
Lots of helpful advice, thank you all.

 

[flapper]

I have been watching the lack of J award seats returning from Europe to Sydney for next year (looking in September at the moment but I want flights in October, so just trying to work out any pattern). It seems I can get to Hong Kong but home from there in J is none existent at the moment.
If I book J award but part of it is in economy or premium economy (it has the exclamation mark) is this allowed in 280K rule?

I came back from my 5th OW RTW a few months back and am in the early stages of planning my 6th. I've noticed each trip it gets harder and harder to get flights into and out of Oz. CX were always a good option as they had J seats on most days of the week. But I've noticed they are now patchy. Seats for a few weeks and then none for a few weeks.
Don't forget to search for married segments eg MAD to SYD - I've noticed some of these married segments are available to SYD & MEL when the lone segment from HKG isn't.
Also CX sometimes release more seats later on. It is worth checking even after you book to see if a better flight becomes available.

 

[ellen10]

Thank you for your advice and comments flapper. How do you check for married segments?

 

[Jacques Vert]

Thank you for your advice and comments flapper. How do you check for married segments?

As flapper suggests, search for MAD-SYD, as well as MAD-HKG + HKG-SYD.

Sometimes the flights are only available as a through connection, not as two separate legs/searches, even when on exactly the same flights.

CX is an airline where married segments are not uncommon.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Has anyone booked an F Award recently ?
I’m looking to book one in the next few weeks for October next year. Hoping to snag the holy grail of two F seats together on most sectors.
Been having a look and think it’s probably doable going out through the USA to Europe and hopping around there in J and back via Asia but the Asia to SYD part could be an issue.

 

[exceladdict]

Has anyone booked an F Award recently ?
I’m looking to book one in the next few weeks for October next year. Hoping to snag the holy grail of two F seats together on most sectors.
Been having a look and think it’s probably doable going out through the USA to Europe and hopping around there in J and back via Asia but the Asia to SYD part could be an issue.

I have seen a bit of QR F to PER available on their A380 with 2 seats at a time.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I have seen a bit of QR F to PER available on their A380 with 2 seats at a time.

Oh brilliant !!!

 

[Daver6]

I have seen a bit of QR F to PER available on their A380 with 2 seats at a time.

Oh brilliant !!!

Don't get too excited. I can't seem to find it, but pretty sure I read that QR is dropping the A380 from PER prior to next October