Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Aussiejosh]

Thanks aussiejosh - yes - I can see AA Business/First Mile Saaver seats available which is confirmed by Expert Flyer....but it’s not showing up on Qantas’ available classic awards. If I can see them on these two platforms, will a Qantas CSO assist in adding them to my Oneworld Award?

Yes. All the times I've booked AA flights I check on their website first and then call qantas. Just be careful with AA site as I find if you click the next day when searching it will bring up different day. Best way I find is to click the flight and check the date that comes up in the upper left

 

[Warren Mason]

I have the first of our flights booked and I have selected the seats on the QF section but the CX seats are not able to be chosen. Can anyone tell me the process and when this can happen? I flew with the 5 years ago and from memory I wasn't able to choose seats till 48hrs prior to the flight. Is this the case? I would feel a lot safer I had the seats selected as that would indicate (to me at least) that CX should have acknowledged my flights. I have read a few horror stories of people turning up for flights to find the booking hadn’t been received from QF. Maybe it is just a trust issue .

 

[rock86]

I have the first of our flights booked and I have selected the seats on the QF section but the CX seats are not able to be chosen. Can anyone tell me the process and when this can happen? I flew with the 5 years ago and from memory I wasn't able to choose seats till 48hrs prior to the flight. Is this the case? I would feel a lot safer I had the seats selected as that would indicate (to me at least) that CX should have acknowledged my flights. I have read a few horror stories of people turning up for flights to find the booking hadn’t been received from QF. Maybe it is just a trust issue .

You received an e-ticket then?

 

[Warren Mason]

You received an e-ticket then?

I got an email from QF with an E-Ticket number and a reference number for the booking.

 

[rock86]

I got an email from QF with an E-Ticket number and a reference number for the booking.

You're all good then. If you want to have a look at selecting seats on your CX legs, head to the Cathay site and 'manage my booking'.

 

[Warren Mason]

You're all good then. If you want to have a look at selecting seats on your CX legs, head to the Cathay site and 'manage my booking'.

Thanks for that. I am sure I tried that before and it didn't work. All good now it seems. Having never flown in J class before, what are the best seats for a couple? In the middle of the plane, either side of the aisle or one in front of the other? There seems to be a fair amount of separation with any choice.

 

[Aussiejosh]

Thanks for that. I am sure I tried that before and it didn't work. All good now it seems. Having never flown in J class before, what are the best seats for a couple? In the middle of the plane, either side of the aisle or one in front of the other? There seems to be a fair amount of separation with any choice.

Give CX a call and they are happy to book seats for you

 

[blacknwhite]

I have been trying to find seats on AA from Vancouver to Honolulu,both classes,but cannot find seats for the 4th August.
As my husband is Platinum,can we,request 2 seats from AA as you can with Qantas.
Needs to be with Oneworld airlines as is classic reward J ticket.
Also do you think they release seats closer to departure-is it worth waiting?
Thanks in advance

 

[Danger]

I have been trying to find seats on AA from Vancouver to Honolulu,both classes,but cannot find seats for the 4th August.
As my husband is Platinum,can we,request 2 seats from AA as you can with Qantas.
Needs to be with Oneworld airlines as is classic reward J ticket.
Also do you think they release seats closer to departure-is it worth waiting?
Thanks in advance

No, the Platinum benefit extends only to Qantas marketed and operated flights. From memory, AA flies to HNL from LAX, DFW, ORD and PHX which are one-stop cities to YVR so the chance of a seat opening up, even if only in Y, is obviously better than if there were less connections.

 

[Firejacko]

Hi guys, is there a limit in surface segments with the qantas multi city search engine? I am trying to book a oneworld economy class ticket, with the following itinerary:

SYD-PVG, PVG-GMP (surface segment), GMP-HND-CTS, CTS-HND-SFO, SFO-LAX, LAX-DEN (surface segment), DEN-PHX-YVR, YVR-LAX-SYD

However, if I decide to add another surface segment into the search engine, it comes up with an error:

Up to DATA(LIMIT) flight interruptions (ground transportation between one arriving city and the next departing city) can be defined in your itinerary. Please modify and resubmit your request.(#7122)

It seems to allow up to 2 surface segments, then on the 3rd one it gives that error. Can anyone explain this? Is it just the search engine or is it not allowed?

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Aus ATC]

Hi guys, is there a limit in surface segments with the qantas multi city search engine? I am trying to book a oneworld economy class ticket, with the following itinerary:

SYD-PVG, PVG-GMP (surface segment), GMP-HND-CTS, CTS-HND-SFO, SFO-LAX, LAX-DEN (surface segment), DEN-PHX-YVR, YVR-LAX-SYD

However, if I decide to add another surface segment into the search engine, it comes up with an error:

Up to DATA(LIMIT) flight interruptions (ground transportation between one arriving city and the next departing city) can be defined in your itinerary. Please modify and resubmit your request.(#7122)

It seems to allow up to 2 surface segments, then on the 3rd one it gives that error. Can anyone explain this? Is it just the search engine or is it not allowed?

It could be that you are already at 5 stopovers (PVG, CTS, SFO, LAX, YVR) - and adding a 6th stopover is triggering the error. Or are you trying to add a surface segment to one of the 5 stopovers?

 

[Firejacko]

It could be that you are already at 5 stopovers (PVG, CTS, SFO, LAX, YVR) - and adding a 6th stopover is triggering the error. Or are you trying to add a surface segment to one of the 5 stopovers?

Yes I am trying to add a surface segment to one of the stopovers.
Adding a 6th stopover is fine, it just doesn't count as a oneworld classic award ticket. The search engine is for multi city searching, not for oneworld award ticket only.

Has anyone tried to do 3 surface segments before? I am clueless as to why it doesn't allow you to book it.

 

[markyb]

Hi everyone - thanks for all your input on this thread. I've been saving points half my lifetime and in September I booked 3 stops of our first J award trip for my wife, 2 young boys and I ($3300 taxes/fees/surcharges so far):
SYD-SFO (QF)
LAX-DFO-WAS (Y in AA)
WAS-LHR (BA)

The past 3 months have been hectic but now I'm behind in booking the last 2 stops/legs. My wife would love to visit Croatia and Greece (islands) before returning to SYD but Croatia doesn't even show up in the Qantas booking machine. I also can't find any availability home (for 4 in J) from ZAG-DOH-SYD in early Sep 2019 when searching aa.com. We'd be happy to come home via Spain, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan - my fear is that as a bronze FF I won't find 4 J seats home in early Sep.

Can anyone help me see availability, point me to where I can find availability or suggest another route?

 

[bobcat]

Distances
Total: 29,981 mi
Average: 2,726 mi

• SYD NRT 351° (N) 338° (N) 4,846 mi
  NRT HKG 247° (SW) 254° (W) 1,842 mi
  HKG FCO 313° (NW) 316° (NW) 5,778 mi
  FCO MAD 269° (W) 266° (W) 829 mi
  MAD LIS 250° (W) 251° (W) 320 mi
  LIS LHR 023° (NE) 025° (NE) 972 mi
  LHR BOS 288° (W) 288° (W) 3,265 mi
  BOS DCA 235° (SW) 249° (W) 399 mi
  DCA ORD 294° (NW) 305° (NW) 612 mi
  ORD NRT 323° (NW) 327° (NW) 6,274 mi
  NRT SYD 170° (S) 178° (S) 4,846 mi
  29,981 mi

Thanks for everybody's help in recent months. Am mostly booked in .. now just torn between waiting/hoping for DFW>SYD J flights to come up (I have no QF status) and booking something available in now. We're flexible on dates.

Does anybody see any issues with the above?
*If DFW>SYD does become available later, will I be ok to change both ORD-NRT-SYD and DCA-ORD? There's no restrictions on changing flights (as opposed to adding new ones) provided you're happy to pay the points fee?
*Spending a week in NRT at start, whereas 4 hours on way back .. so presume this is ok (one being stopover, one being transfer)
*HKG, MAD, LHR, NRT (2nd) all transfers
*NRT, FCO, LIS, BOS, ORD stopovers
*BOS>DCA is surface sector (hopefully agent can recognise this is different to stopover, if not .. hopefully HUACA works)

Cheers
BC

 

[Jacques Vert]

Yes I am trying to add a surface segment to one of the stopovers.
Adding a 6th stopover is fine, it just doesn't count as a oneworld classic award ticket. The search engine is for multi city searching, not for oneworld award ticket only.

Has anyone tried to do 3 surface segments before? I am clueless as to why it doesn't allow you to book it.

The QF multi-city tool often gives errors or won't price valid itineraries. You'll need to call.

 

[exceladdict]

Hi everyone - thanks for all your input on this thread. I've been saving points half my lifetime and in September I booked 3 stops of our first J award trip for my wife, 2 young boys and I ($3300 taxes/fees/surcharges so far):
SYD-SFO (QF)
LAX-DFO-WAS (Y in AA)
WAS-LHR (BA)

The past 3 months have been hectic but now I'm behind in booking the last 2 stops/legs. My wife would love to visit Croatia and Greece (islands) before returning to SYD but Croatia doesn't even show up in the Qantas booking machine. I also can't find any availability home (for 4 in J) from ZAG-DOH-SYD in early Sep 2019 when searching aa.com. We'd be happy to come home via Spain, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan - my fear is that as a bronze FF I won't find 4 J seats home in early Sep.

Can anyone help me see availability, point me to where I can find availability or suggest another route?

IB, BA and AY should fly to Split (SPU) from MAD, LHR or HEL respectively for your Croatia leg.

I have previously seen 4x J on AY, CX and QR; it all depends on how you want to get home. Try all of the routes from HEL to Asia, and similarly legs to all of the different Australian ports from wherever you find availability in Asia - QR availability can be easier into PER, for example.

Your boys are going to be absolutely spoilt!

 

[Firejacko]

The QF multi-city tool often gives errors or won't price valid itineraries. You'll need to call.

Will there be any fee involved with booking via phone?

 

[cjd600]

Will there be any fee involved with booking via phone?

For Economy there is an 8000 points assistance fee (per passenger) - but if you advise you could not complete the booking online, they should waive this.
Business class has no assistance fee.

 

[wingtip626]

Earlier this week I made the final change to my booking, adding in two JL flights. Pleased to have the trip all confirmed and ticketed.
My itinerary (including positioning flights and surface sectors) takes me to Thailand, Greece, London, Iceland, New Caledonia, Japan, and China.

Unfortunately, the taxes came to a total of ~$2300. Qantas were unable to provide a breakdown so I am unable to verify this figure. But I do know they had to manually calculate the taxes due to some unusual routings in my booking.

Nonetheless, I am very much looking forward to this trip!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Will there be any fee involved with booking via phone?

If you tell them that you tried to book online but the system keeps returning an error, they should waive the fee but it may depend on the agent you get; there is also the chance the agent will tell you that each of your surface sectors must be counted as two stopovers (not correct but what can you do?)

I should have also suggested that you try a different browser: I've sometimes had success using Edge after getting repeated errors for the same itinerary using Chrome, and vice versa.

You could also try using the online tool during a quiet period (late night/early morning) as it could be a time-out error when pricing a complex itinerary.

Good luck.