Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Ktan89]

I've been in this situation before, where you can see award availability online but the agent cant see it.
It was AY1 (HEL to LAX) showing available on a particular date in April with no other availability 2 days on each side. I was on the phone with the CSA and told them to hold while i try book it online. The system error out once i got to the payment page saying "seats no longer available" or some error.

4-5 months later the flight was still showing available online. i guess it's a phantom seat.

Thinking about this.. i wonder if it could be someone with status having the seat/ticket on reserve?

 

[frodo]

Hi everyone - I am working on an itinerary to the UK for December 2020. I have most of the pieces in place but I cant see any availability for BA on the Qantas site from any European city. I have tried multiple cities, dates, one passenger etc but nothing is coming up.

The BA site shows plenty of availability. Can anyone assist with a work around or would I need to call?

I can't help much, but ever since the AF/KLM partnership started late last year, I cannot see any BA intra europe flights on the qantas website. Before this partnership, the BA flights would be showing properly.
When I last talked to an agent on the phone in dec, they said that they could see BA flights on their system and those flights were available.
For example, there are multiple daily BA flights from CDG-LHR which I had no trouble finding before, and even booked one in dec, but now these flights do not show up.
Best to call up for those short haul BA flights

 

[acinod]

Without wanting to rain on your parade, I think you are being VERY optimistic. SCL-SYD is one of the more difficult sectors on which to get availability. As you are looking at January you will be lucky to find availability on any day that month (as a bronze).

When talking of a Plan B, I was thinking of returning via the USA and ASIA (assuming you have enough miles remaining).

Good luck.

Given premium cabin awards for SCL-SYD don't open up for me until 1 April, should I start booking my plan B which is SCL-MIA (AA), MIA-LAX (AA) and LAX-MEL (QF)? Also when will I be able to book those routes as a Bronze QF member?

 

[motef]

Given premium cabin awards for SCL-SYD don't open up for me until 1 April, should I start booking my plan B which is SCL-MIA (AA), MIA-LAX (AA) and LAX-MEL (QF)? Also when will I be able to book those routes as a Bronze QF member?

American Airlines opens at 331 days
As a QF Bronze it will be at 297 days for LAX - MEL

 

[motef]

So i would like to add two "cash" flights to my itinerary as there is no award availability for these segments

They are HEL - KTT return on AY

Am i best to call up QF and book them on the PNR for the OWA? Is that even possible? I will ask for a waiving of the change fee as KTT doesn't appear on the QF website to be booked.

or

Book them as separate flights?

One reason i would like to keep them on the OWA PNR is that the KTT-HEL flight will connect with a HEL-DOH segment on QR and want to make sure we are "protected" if there are any delays

Thanks

 

[markus2578]

Are you looking on Qantas metal or another carrier?

Qantas metal is released in advance as per below

353days

Reduced to 297 days for Bronze & Silver
members in premium cabins on most Qantas long-haul flights
300 days for travel on Jetstar
330-339 days for travel on Emirates

Can I confirm the release dates for Qantas Club members (Bronze or Silver) are the same? Or do they get seats in advance similar to Gold?

 

[motef]

Can I confirm the release dates for Qantas Club members (Bronze or Silver) are the same? Or do they get seats in advance similar to Gold?

Qantas Club membership is not taken into account

Only Status level

Qantas Club membership is not a status level

 

[acinod]

American Airlines opens at 331 days
As a QF Bronze it will be at 297 days for LAX - MEL

Hmm that's odd. Why can I see a LAX-MEL (QF94) on 25 Dec 20? Or did you mean 297 days for Business seats?

I think the only business seat I can find is on 21 Aug 20 for this route. Is that because all the seats have been booked out after 21 Aug?

 

[k_sheep]

I'm getting nervous - the T-353 date is coming up and I'm not seeing any SYD-SCL availability opening up

 

[cjd600]

Hmm that's odd. Why can I see a LAX-MEL (QF94) on 25 Dec 20? Or did you mean 297 days for Business seats?

I think the only business seat I can find is on 21 Aug 20 for this route. Is that because all the seats have been booked out after 21 Aug?

View attachment 203352

Bronze only get Y/Economy for QF at 353

I got 2J LAX - SYD 28 Aug when released, Would have been early November from memory (I'm bronze)

 

[Basaka]

Interesting...

Booked bur-dfw-gru-eze (wanted to take Qatar later in the day but 500usd carrier fee difference) with gru-eze on economy. Followed by Scl-syd in PE for now as agent said she couldn't access the business code atm to request (not sure if true but I will need to add flights later) Funny thing is I initially tried to do lax-dfw-gru then gru-eze then scl-syd and it only showed lax-dfw-gru with lax-dfw in economy.

When I called the agent couldn't find any business seats for dfw-gru sector... But the booking went through online so fingers crossed I guess.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Anyone have issues including a JL DOM flight to their trip? I wasn't allowed to at ITM-NRT as part of my trip for some reason!

 

[dryath]

Hi all,

Update: I have finally had success. Those of you who saw my earlier post note my partner was on the phone with Qantas and they seemed to have a lot of phantom availability on the website that we were unable to book. Seems that when we called back the same evening, many flights had disappeared (Cathay) and those that were still there, we had no issue booking. So all in all, a happy result.

Here is where we ended:
BNE-SIN (stop)
SIN-DOH-VIE (stop)
MAD-LHR-JFK (stop)
SFO-HKG-BKK (stop)
BKK-NRT (stop)
HND-SYD-BNE

Is anyone please able to recommend where best to locate threads on seating selections? I'm now in the process of trying to iron out where to seat myself and my partner. Is there a general thread? So far have searched for Qantas A330 seat selection, comes up with mixed results. And i'm cognoscente of spamming this thread or creating more that are already covered.

Thanks everyone for all your help. Couldn't have done it without the invaluable info on this forum and those of you who popped in to answer my questions.

 

[knightfall88]

I am still unable to get an agent to see availability on either LHR-SYD or LAX-SYD despite seeing new availability added every day on the qantas search. un-coughing-believable these thieves.

 

[exceladdict]

Anyone have issues including a JL DOM flight to their trip? I wasn't allowed to at ITM-NRT as part of my trip for some reason!

I could only get jl dom legs as a connection to an Intl leg ie search mnl-itm not mnl-nrt, nrt-itm

 

[jeza]

Hi all,

Update: I have finally had success. Those of you who saw my earlier post note my partner was on the phone with Qantas and they seemed to have a lot of phantom availability on the website that we were unable to book. Seems that when we called back the same evening, many flights had disappeared (Cathay) and those that were still there, we had no issue booking. So all in all, a happy result.

Here is where we ended:
BNE-SIN (stop)
SIN-DOH-VIE (stop)
MAD-LHR-JFK (stop)
SFO-HKG-BKK (stop)
BKK-NRT (stop)
HND-SYD-BNE

Is anyone please able to recommend where best to locate threads on seating selections? I'm now in the process of trying to iron out where to seat myself and my partner. Is there a general thread? So far have searched for Qantas A330 seat selection, comes up with mixed results. And i'm cognoscente of spamming this thread or creating more that are already covered.

Thanks everyone for all your help. Couldn't have done it without the invaluable info on this forum and those of you who popped in to answer my questions.

Congrats on getting it all booked, we all know how frustrating it can be!

Perhaps if you post up who you are flying with, seating class & aircraft type for each leg that would make it easier for others to assist.

 

[Oubline]

Anyone have issues including a JL DOM flight to their trip? I wasn't allowed to at ITM-NRT as part of my trip for some reason!

Yes! I had lots of issues with this, trying to add HND-CTS and then later to add CTS-HND flights to my itinerary. The flights I wanted were showing as available and could have been booked online through Qantas’ website but I was told by approx 10 different consultants across both attempts to add the flights that there was no availability on the flights on their side. In fact, it is possible though and I’ve successfully ticketed both now.

Here is what I’ve learned:

- When I searched for CTS-MEL on Qantas’ website it would show up a result for CTS-NRT-MEL on JL metal. It’s as though there was a single dedicated domestic leg attached to each long haul JL flight. The consultants were always able to see this domestic leg and only this leg.

- For some reason, any other domestic legs don’t seem to show up on whatever system or method the consultants use by default. This means I was told repeatedly by the South African call centre and SMS chat that the flights don’t have availability and they were not willing/able to troubleshoot further.

- It was only after getting through to the Hobart call centre that the consultants were willing to persevere and troubleshoot it with me. It seems that there is some kind of other system or method that they need to use to book these legs - on one call they even had to change to a different computer to do it!

- I never figured out the exact problem, but one agent mentioned something about the currency which made me think maybe the problem was adding the JPY taxes on a purely domestic leg to the AUD-denominated OneWorld award booking.

- I can only suggest telling them that the award is available on Qantas’ website, that you heard they might need to use a different system, and then probably also have to HUACA a few times until you get the Australian call centre.

- Even though the Qantas website shows ‘business’ awards for domestic Japan, these definitely don’t exist on JL and so the leg will be in economy.

Good luck!

 

[Arlindo]

For economy class, is there any way to reserve/select seats if flying with LATAM?

Their online site doesn't have a seat selection option and contacting then by phone, they say you need to wait til check in opens. Does this sound right?

 

[motef]

Can somebody please explain what is classified as a "sector" under the rules of the OWA?

As I understand the main rules of the OWA are

• Up to 5 stopovers
• Up to 35,000 miles
• Up to 16 total flight sectors
• at least two Oneworld member airlines other than Qantas

I'm just not sure what counts as a "sector"

For example in this itinerary, how many sectors would there be?

NTL-BNE-SYD-SIN (STOP)
SIN-CMB-MLE (STOP)
MLE-DOH-CDG (STOP)
CDG-LHR (STOP)
EDI-LHR-HEL-KTT (STOP)
KTT-HEL-DOH-SIN-SYD

Thanks

 

[DC3]

[/QUOTE]

Just add up the total number of flights. Each flight is a sector in your example. As stated, a maximum of 16.

Edit: NTL-BNE-SYD-SIN = 3 sectors, for example. Also, remember to count any open jaw as a sector.