Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[DC3]

… I am trying to book SIN-NRT 6AUG and NRT-HEL 7AUG us ...

if all else fails, including contacting the QF Call centre for SIN-NRT//NRT-HEL, then maybe consider bypassing NRT and fly SIN-HEL, direct (as a last resort):



This is part of a OneWorld award isn't it? I seem to recall that you were planning this. If so, then adding/amending flights will necessitate calling the QF Call Centre in any case. Anyway, I would expect that the Call Centre will be able to resolve this for you

 

[lukelegend]

dps-hkg-ber-dub-lgw-yyz-mia-lim-eze-scl-mel-nrt-dps

Awesome trips, where are your stop overs?

 

[zoom&boom]

So here is my search note that Flexible with dates is selected and they are in logical date order. If you have more than two flights in you Multi City QF only allows you have two flights with the same date selected.

So if it was
Flight 1 SYD -Sin 28th Jul
Flight 2 SIN - NRT 28th Jul
Flight 3 must be a date after 28th Jul

View attachment 181724

View attachment 181725

then select Search Flights

Calendar opens and shows dates past 30th Jul

View attachment 181726
View attachment 181727

Pick your dates and select continue noting they must be in logical date order ie you cant take Flight 2 before Flight 1
and then the results

View attachment 181728
View attachment 181729

in this example just remember you cant have China Eastern in a OWA as its not part of OW

Thank you for an incredibly detailed response. I must have a gremlin in my iPad as when I do exactly as you have described it still won’t work. I’ll try my Mac and my wlfe’s computer when I get home.

The one thing I was doing incorrectly initially was having different dates for Flight One and Flight Two. Boy the first Oneworld Award is a steep learning curve.

Thanks motef
very much appreciated.

Zoom

 

[motef]

Thank you for an incredibly detailed response. I must have a gremlin in my iPad as when I do exactly as you have described it still won’t work. I’ll try my Mac and my wlfe’s computer when I get home.

The one thing I was doing incorrectly initially was having different dates for Flight One and Flight Two. Boy the first Oneworld Award is a steep learning curve.

Thanks motef
very much appreciated.

Zoom

No problems

Remember you have to use the full site not the mobile version.

 

[zoom&boom]

No problems

Remember you have to use the full site not the mobile version.

Eating humble pie for breakfast at the moment....Reread your “How To” guide and did exactly as described on my Mac and voila Success. This the first couple of sectors which were very hard to book at QF -353. Dummy bookings should the rest of it to be ok.

Planned trip is Sin-Bkk-Hel-Arn-Cph-Lhr-Jfk-Hkg-Bkk-Doh-Nbo-Doh-Sin. Have miles left over but the 5 Stopover rule got me.

Thanks to everyone who responded. Now well on the way to my dream trip

Zoom

 

[flyingchicken]

greater than the -353

You can definately book more than 353 out (as long as the carrier in question releases them earlier). I booked my QR flights 361 out. But be warned that some CS staff will insist that you can't. Part of the very beginning of my horror story (which I forgot to mention) was that the very first lady insisted for ages that their policy forbids bookings any further out. It was only after 5+ hours that she eventually gave me a one time only 'exclusion' from the 'rule'. She had to 'go speak with the ticketing team' for hours to secure this for me, and then when she finally returned she realised that the flights had booked out whilst she was gone!

And I was only able to convince her it was even possible because the original booking I did online for myself was out 361 days...she said that must of been an error, and that Qantas staff are physically incapable of booking any further out regardless of carrier. But she also told me a lot of inaccurate things. Depending on your patience, I'd simply change up who you're speaking to and try again.

I personally would book as much as you can online, as long as your last flight isn't the first half of a married sector (which was my issue). I spoke to at least 10 people on the weekend, many SMS, one online and one phone centre. Each gave me a completely different answer and most weren't willing to be told different (save for one).

 

[zoom&boom]

You can definately book more than 353 out (as long as the carrier in question releases them earlier). I booked my QR flights 361 out. But be warned that some CS staff will insist that you can't. Part of the very beginning of my horror story (which I forgot to mention) was that the very first lady insisted for ages that their policy forbids bookings any further out. It was only after 5+ hours that she eventually gave me a one time only 'exclusion' from the 'rule'. She had to 'go speak with the ticketing team' for hours to secure this for me, and then when she finally returned she realised that the flights had booked out whilst she was gone!

And I was only able to convince her it was even possible because the original booking I did online for myself was out 361 days...she said that must of been an error, and that Qantas staff are physically incapable of booking any further out regardless of carrier. But she also told me a lot of inaccurate things. Depending on your patience, I'd simply change up who you're speaking to and try again.

I personally would book as much as you can online, as long as your last flight isn't the first half of a married sector (which was my issue). I spoke to at least 10 people on the weekend, many SMS, one online and one phone centre. Each gave me a completely different answer and most weren't willing to be told different (save for one).

Thanks for that. I’ll be able to do my first 3 sectors on line which are the most important. Have to ring for the rest unfortunately. So far the remaining one are showing availability at -353 during lots of dummy bookings. Fingers crossed.

Zoom

 

[qiaqia]

Thanks for all the posts in this thread, learned a lot, finally picked my flights, but... everything was fine, confirming passenger details and all, but when reaching "payment", I received an:

"An error has occurred in our central database. Please contact us for further information. (4002 [7597]) Start over"

Tickets I picked:
1, SYD-MEL-SIN
2, SIN-HND-LHR
3, LHR-DFW-LAX
4, LAX-LAS
5, LAS-JFK
6, JFK-HKG, within 8 hours after arriving HKG,
7, HKG-SYD

Airlines: QF,BA,JL,AA,CX.
Total miles for all 10 segments, 34566miles.
5 stopovers: SIN, LHR, LAX, LAS, JFK
4 transit: MEL,HND,DFW,HKG

did I break an RTW rule (so that I receive an error) or Do I need to call Qantas? ( that these can not be booked online but can be booked with customer service staff. )
qantas error page didn't show much detail, totally confused.

 

[exceladdict]

Thanks for all the posts in this thread, learned a lot, finally picked my flights, but... everything was fine, confirming passenger details and all, but when reaching "payment", I received an:

"An error has occurred in our central database. Please contact us for further information. (4002 [7597]) Start over"

Tickets I picked:
1, SYD-MEL-SIN
2, SIN-HND-LHR
3, LHR-DFW-LAX
4, LAX-LAS
5, LAS-JFK
6, JFK-HKG, within 8 hours after arriving HKG,
7, HKG-SYD

Airlines: QF,BA,JL,AA,CX.
Total miles for all 10 segments, 34566miles.
5 stopovers: SIN, LHR, LAX, LAS, JFK
4 transit: MEL,HND,DFW,HKG

did I break an RTW rule (so that I receive an error) or Do I need to call Qantas? ( that these can not be booked online but can be booked with customer service staff. )
qantas error page didn't show much detail, totally confused.

Are all flights available on aa or ba etc? Could be phantom availability.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Thanks for all the posts in this thread, learned a lot, finally picked my flights, but... everything was fine, confirming passenger details and all, but when reaching "payment", I received an:

"An error has occurred in our central database. Please contact us for further information. (4002 [7597]) Start over"

Tickets I picked:
1, SYD-MEL-SIN
2, SIN-HND-LHR
3, LHR-DFW-LAX
4, LAX-LAS
5, LAS-JFK
6, JFK-HKG, within 8 hours after arriving HKG,
7, HKG-SYD

Airlines: QF,BA,JL,AA,CX.
Total miles for all 10 segments, 34566miles.
5 stopovers: SIN, LHR, LAX, LAS, JFK
4 transit: MEL,HND,DFW,HKG

did I break an RTW rule (so that I receive an error) or Do I need to call Qantas? ( that these can not be booked online but can be booked with customer service staff. )
qantas error page didn't show much detail, totally confused.

As exceladdict says this could be phantom availability.

But my guess is the JFKxHKG-SYD is a married sector. Did you search JFK-SYD to get that result?

 

[Jacques Vert]

Nothing unusual about the QF website not being able to price an itinerary.

You could try a different browser while waiting for someone at QF to answer the phone.

Don't let them charge you the phone assistance fee.

 

[11sjw]

did I break an RTW rule (so that I receive an error) or

Oh and before others pop in. This isn't a "Round the World" fare. It's a "Oneworld Award" (OWA). You don't have to travel around the world to use it!!

 

[Lemon_Party]

Its taken a while, and thanks for all the contributions on this and other threads that helped, but I've just secured my first booking. A trip to NZ later this year, which the outbound will be a separate booking, and then a west coast USA trip. 2 x J awards, total official routing:

CHC-BNE stopover (QF J)
BNE-SIN-NRT-SEA (overnight in SIN but layover, QF-JAL-JAL all J)
PDX-PHX-ONT (AA J)
SFO-BNE (QF J)

The USA trip is booked for late Jan & early Feb - escape the QLD heat for a west coast winter...

Total mileage including the dropped return back to CHC is 23,400. Could achieve a lot better but I just don't have time to squeeze in other trips and we've never been to US so wanted to maximise the west coast.

Total taxes were $1853 NZD.

All booked online against every effort of the QF booking tool to frustrate me...

 

[qiaqia]

Oh and before others pop in. This isn't a "Round the World" fare. It's a "Oneworld Award" (OWA). You don't have to travel around the world to use it!!

haha, my mistake

 

[qiaqia]

Thanks for the replies, just finished the call with Qantas, successfully booked all tickets(that keeps giving me error 4002) over the phone. no phone service fee.

Still, don't know what error 4002 is, but who cares, I'm over the moon about this trip next year.

 

[rosstqz]

Hi friends - I'm in a stoush with QFF and have reached my wit's end. Can I please test my itinerary with you?

The itinerary is:
ADL-HKG CX172 (stopover)
HKG-JFK CX846 (surface to MIA)
MIA-MVO AA989 (stopover)
MVO-BUD (via MAD) IB6012, IB3290 (surface to Doha)
DOH-KUL QR844 (stopover)
KUL-ADL

I'm under 35000 miles, but I've been talking to them all day and the latest issue they've got is they want my surface sectors to count for two stopovers. Below is the message from FB. I've previously asked them to provide the relevant OneWorld rule but they ignored me.

Please tell me if I'm going mad? If not, how the heck can I convince them they're wrong?

Here is the Message:

Thanks Ross, point 14.5.5 means the surface sector while permitted, is still calculated as two separate disembarkation and embarkation ports. The Reward Point zone is referring to the 280,000 points. This is an agreement with all Oneworld airlines and is also detailed in all other Oneworld fare rules. GD


Thanks guys!

 

[exceladdict]

Hi friends - I'm in a stoush with QFF and have reached my wit's end. Can I please test my itinerary with you?

The itinerary is:
ADL-HKG CX172 (stopover)
HKG-JFK CX846 (surface to MIA)
MIA-MVO AA989 (stopover)
MVO-BUD (via MAD) IB6012, IB3290 (surface to Doha)
DOH-KUL QR844 (stopover)
KUL-ADL

I'm under 35000 miles, but I've been talking to them all day and the latest issue they've got is they want my surface sectors to count for two stopovers. Below is the message from FB. I've previously asked them to provide the relevant OneWorld rule but they ignored me.

Please tell me if I'm going mad? If not, how the heck can I convince them they're wrong?

Here is the Message:

Thanks Ross, point 14.5.5 means the surface sector while permitted, is still calculated as two separate disembarkation and embarkation ports. The Reward Point zone is referring to the 280,000 points. This is an agreement with all Oneworld airlines and is also detailed in all other Oneworld fare rules. GD


Thanks guys!

If all flights are available, can you book it online?

 

[rosstqz]

If all flights are available, can you book it online?

HI mate - no sadly; it breaks the engine (error code 3501) and the last leg on MAS isn't appearing on the website at all - they found that one for me.

Can you see why they would say what they're saying? It just makes no sense to me on this type of redemption.

Cheers

 

[Jacques Vert]

Hi friends - I'm in a stoush with QFF and have reached my wit's end. Can I please test my itinerary with you?

The itinerary is:
ADL-HKG CX172 (stopover)
HKG-JFK CX846 (surface to MIA)
MIA-MVO AA989 (stopover)
MVO-BUD (via MAD) IB6012, IB3290 (surface to Doha)
DOH-KUL QR844 (stopover)
KUL-ADL

I'm under 35000 miles, but I've been talking to them all day and the latest issue they've got is they want my surface sectors to count for two stopovers. Below is the message from FB. I've previously asked them to provide the relevant OneWorld rule but they ignored me.

Please tell me if I'm going mad? If not, how the heck can I convince them they're wrong?

Here is the Message:

Thanks Ross, point 14.5.5 means the surface sector while permitted, is still calculated as two separate disembarkation and embarkation ports. The Reward Point zone is referring to the 280,000 points. This is an agreement with all Oneworld airlines and is also detailed in all other Oneworld fare rules. GD


Thanks guys!

Hi Mate,

I've had this happen to me previously. QF is wrong but once they dig there toes in there is very little you can do.

If you HUACA, you may find (as I did) that the first agent has placed a note on your file and you won't get anywhere.

What can you do? You will need to book it online: try a different browser although that probably won't work, but it's worth a try.

You will most likely have to come up with an alternative itinerary. IME, it will be the IB flights that are causing the error, so if you replace them you may have better luck.

 

[rosstqz]

Hi Mate,

I've had this happen to me previously. QF is wrong but once they dig there toes in there is very little you can do.

If you HUACA, you may find (as I did) that the first agent has placed a note on your file and you won't get anywhere.

What can you do? You will need to book it online: try a different browser although that probably won't work, but it's worth a try.

You will most likely have to come up with an alternative itinerary. IME, it will be the IB flights that are causing the error, so if you replace them you may have better luck.

Thanks Jacques - this is nuts. I feel like i've stepped into a low-rent version of 1984. I'll try it with a flight different to the Iberia one and report back...

I just can't get my head around how bad a system this is. It's taken years to save these points up and I feel like a chronic beggar.