"oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

[MEL_Traveller]

I have been a bit confused about this issue but it seems that it is not just changes to dates that count but all kinds of changes if you can believe the QFF FAQ below

Flexible Classic Flight Rewards | Qantas Frequent Flyer

Book an eligible Classic Flight Reward using your points, we’ll waive any change or cancellation fees until 31 October 2020.

www.qantas.com

Frequently Asked Questions

I had originally booked an international Classic Flight Reward seat, but now I’d like to change to a domestic booking, will the point fee waiver apply to me?
Yes, with the new point fee waiver policy you can now change or cancel your existing Classic Flight Reward booking for free, until 28 February 2022, providing the booking contains Classic Flight Reward seats only, and not a commercial fare

Technically that makes sense, ‘changing’ an international booking to domestic is essentially a cancellation... the international flights are gone, and you’re rebooking a domestic one. Fees are waived.

I accept Matt_01’s experience, but the letter of the change policy refers to dates only (or cancellation)... so this afternoon they could decide to enforce that. Still not so much of a biggie... but just to be aware that several changes *could* attract 10-15k or more in fees.

 

[DC3]

Notwithstanding free changes at the moment, I’ve found the 5,000 points per change to be insignificant in the big picture. Book as availability appears works best for me.

 

[Matt_01]

For all those planning trips in early to mid 2022 do you have any confidence that the flights will occur or you just taking the punt, see what happens and cancel if required.

By my last calculation I am about 2 weeks away from pulling the trigger for an Apr 22 OW trip the main destination is NYC, CA both sides, SEA and SFO. As there is no OW options in CA my focus is on all the long haul sectors in either J or F. F may prove difficult or not economical as JL, QR and QF are no longer options from AU. JL, BA, and to a limited extent AA still have reasonable F options, although I like CX F I am not trusting of CX as looking at FR24 CX are currently using the a350 on a number of sectors that pre Covid were 777 routes. Looking at the J options QR, CX, IB and AA (flag ship) seem to be the contenders.

The current plan (prefered) is AU-JP-EU/UK-US (east coast), on the way back US (west coast) UK-SG-AU. Mileage is proving tight on this itinerary but should work. Not knowing what countries may be off limits or if transiting through will result in quarantine requirements I am booking a couple of backup options to get me to/from the US either via Asia or the Middle East. Last time I checked it seems to be a similar amount of points to go AU-HK(JP)-US return or AU-DXB(DOH)-US (east coast) return as the capped OW reward and I get this is not quite as good value, but no more and maybe a few less points required. Like many others I have a large number of 2020 returned points and with no points change penalties I am not to concerned about usage. Also not fussed about paying for flights NYC to either YUL or YYZ as these are cheap, I accept that I will have to pay for internal CA flights and getting from Vancouver to SEA will most likely be by train or ferry.

My main goal is to start the official trip on any OW carrier other than QF and I am will pay for the domestic flights to get me on my way. If things are not looking up by around Aug 21 I will just cancel and restart again for Sep 22.

 

[kingzac]

For all those planning trips in early to mid 2022 do you have any confidence that the flights will occur or you just taking the punt, see what happens and cancel if required.

I'll pulling the trigger on March 2022 shortly. Worse case I'll have to cancel and rebook.
I'm fairly confident that with being vaccinated and travelling to first world countries, that by then we'll be okay.
My main concern isn't actually getting in to other countries, rather that Australia will be sufficiently sorted to get back in without delays or added costs.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

For all those planning trips in early to mid 2022 do you have any confidence that the flights will occur or you just taking the punt, see what happens and cancel if required.

What's to lose? Free cancellation. If you wait until an announcement that we can travel all the seats will be snapped up in an instant. I wouldn't be booking non-refundable hotels!

 

[Captain Halliday]

For all those planning trips in early to mid 2022 do you have any confidence that the flights will occur or you just taking the punt, see what happens and cancel if required.

I was to be in Japan in January this year and have pushed it to Jan 22, but think that’s unlikely to happen either.

I’ll probably book to Europe in Mar/Apr but that’s also speculative.

As others have said, the current flexibility on award bookings makes it low risk.

If QF goes under then you’ll lose you points either way. By making a booking the only additional risk is the taxes.

 

[PineappleSkip]

The current plan (prefered) is AU-JP-EU/UK-US (east coast), on the way back US (west coast) UK-SG-AU

Some good ideas there, thanks. I think you'd be pretty right. Looking at similar with visits to US and EU, probably May 2022, although could do RTW rather than out and back. We will waste some miles with another Amtrack excursion west to east or vice versa.

The only wild card is what would risk averse countries (e.g. Australia) think of a world full of third world countries with low vaccination rates. May require the ouija board.

Cheers skip

 

[Spacetravel]

The current plan (prefered) is AU-JP-EU/UK-US (east coast), on the way back US (west coast) UK-SG-AU.

I'm planning similar trip to you, also hold concerns about restrictions and returning to aus. Ideally if flights were operating pre covid routes I'd do SYD - YVR - FLL - NYC - LHR - DXB or SIN - SYD. (with my own internal flights in EU) YVR is providing pretty difficult as no OW flights yet. So current itinerary I'm looking at for March 2022 is SYD - HND - LAX(no stop) - FLL - LHR - HEL - SIN - SYD

 

[ozflier]

I've already started booking a OWA in March 2022 involving travel to Egypt, Jordan, London, Iceland and Morocco.
Problems are
Connection times (MCTs) are over 4 hours in Singapore for Qatar Airways connect with QF.
Airline fees taxes and fuel surcharges are higher than I remember especially when routings involve HKG / Cathay
Many QF sectors beyond December 2021 especially those not out of SYD and MEL have placeholders so no awards on offer
Some airlines are often not releasing more than one J award ( eg AY, Royal Moroccan and Royal Jordanian ) , or awards at all, possibly because the a/c may be downgraded and they don't want too many angry J pax to complain. QR is also a good example for flights out of BNE-DOH - plenty of economy seats but nil business
New rules seem in place ( ? for commercial reasons or local agreements ) particularly in north africa and the middle east where there are only economy and first class seats on offer no business class awards ( eg Qatar DOH to Cairo and Amman) . I understand that if you buy a revenue J ticket DOH-CAI you well end up in a first class seat but this does not apply to awards.
Still, I live in hope that I will get to use my QFF points come march next year .

 

[GaryLG]

Reading ozflier's post which includes a few stops the same as my plans makes me wonder if this is the time to start booking but in the meantime I have a few questions I hope people can help with.

1. Still thinking of a "2 part" trip with the first leg to Japan and possibly somewhere else in SE Asia.

I'm in Melbourne so I thought if I ended the leg in Singapore, and of course started again there, it would be a reasonable option.

Any thoughts? Suggested alternatives?

2. I know this might be a fool's errand but is there any reasonable way of finding which routes include planes with first class cabins?

Thanks
Gary

 

[Matt_01]

I know this might be a fool's errand but is there any reasonable way of finding which routes include planes with first class cabins?

I am about to start booking and the preference is F. The F options are available but are slim as QF and QR are currently not operating aircraft with F seating. JL, CX and AA offer F on most of their 777-300 and BA has F on their 777-300, some 777-200, the 787-10 and 787-9. When booking the F option will show as available or not. I will be taking the punt on F however the issue that may come to light is carriers could swap aircraft to ones that do not offer F. It is not an indication of what travel will be like in 12 months but looking at FR24 carriers such as CX and JL who publish F seat availability on certain routes have been using the a350 and 787 which do not have F cabins. Booking F is a bit of a risk as you have used the points but may be downgraded to J.

 

[ozflier]

Reading ozflier's post which includes a few stops the same as my plans makes me wonder if this is the time to start booking but in the meantime I have a few questions I hope people can help with.

1. Still thinking of a "2 part" trip with the first leg to Japan and possibly somewhere else in SE Asia.

I'm in Melbourne so I thought if I ended the leg in Singapore, and of course started again there, it would be a reasonable option.

Any thoughts? Suggested alternatives?

2. I know this might be a fool's errand but is there any reasonable way of finding which routes include planes with first class cabins?

Thanks
Gary

There not too many locations close enough to australia that makes a 2 stage OWA feasible - singapore , manila , auckland come to mind.
Even economy fares to SIN can be very high - aud 600 depending on the season.
MNL is not served directly from all mainland capitals.
This kind of 2 stage itinerary is perfect if you are restricted how long you can stay away from home - eg kids , work etc.
Also need to be aware that the one middle stop counts as a "stopover" leaving only 4 left for the whole trip.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

New rules seem in place ( ? for commercial reasons or local agreements ) particularly in north africa and the middle east where there are only economy and first class seats on offer no business class awards ( eg Qatar DOH to Cairo and Amman) . I understand that if you buy a revenue J ticket DOH-CAI you well end up in a first class seat but this does not apply to awards.
Still, I live in hope that I will get to use my QFF points come march next year .

There are awards available in business class out of DOH to CAI and AMM in business class... RJ direct or via AMM, EK via DXB, etc. But for QR, you will either need to accept the downgrade, or buy a higher F class award from the outset (but might find yourself downgraded to business class on the long haul if the plane doesn't offer first).

If buying a revenue fare, the regional sector books into first at time of booking, so it is factored in the cost (a check on the fare BKK-DOH-CAI shows the DOH-CAI books straight into A class).

 

[Guvner]

Just remember any EK legs will invalidate an OWA

 

[kingzac]

Booked my OWA for 2022 over the weekend and oooweee what an ordeal.

Monday AM - went through flights with lovely on-shore service woman who loved that I had everything all planned, however, there was an issue with the points transferring to my account in that they appeared to be there, but on her end she couldn't access entire amount and points office was closed so couldn't chase up.

Monday PM - Offshore centre (Steven) booked the flights seemingly easily, confirmed points were there, flights appeared on account and could select seats etc.

Tuesday AM - QR messaged to say I had flights held but not completed.
- Called QF and told them, they said payment hadn't gone through, gave wildly different fees charge, when told of the original number they said they had to go calculate and would call back, never did. All points back in account now.
- Steven called out of the blue and said he noticed it hadn't ticketed as passport details weren't there, updated with him and he would get it sorted and I'd get confirmation email in 20 mins (never did).
- After call a 7700 assistance fee deducted from account.

Tuesday PM - (1.5hr on hold) - On-shore (Wendy), said whoever did the booking did a horrible job and it was full of mistakes, said he recognised who did it. Reversed fee, sorted all out, said she wouldn't hang up til everything was ticketed (I should have done this the first time).

All in all a mixed bag of incompetence and great service. Qatar CS and Wendy are my saviours.
After I sent a thank you message to Qatar for their following up they allocated us in 3E/F QSuites for the "double" bed which was nice as they show as blocked when we tried to select them.

 

[PineappleSkip]

they allocated us in 3E/F QSuites for the "double" bed which was nice as they show as blocked when we tried to select them.

They usually show up as blocked and you have to call QR to be seated there. It's on QR's website somewhere.

Enjoy your trip!

Cheers skip

 

[kingzac]

They usually show up as blocked and you have to call QR to be seated there. It's on QR's website somewhere.

Interesting, I'd seen that they open up closer to the date and I hadn't seen it on their site but good to know for the future. This time I'm going to count it as QR being great for the good feelings

 

[Matt_01]

I pulled the booking trigger this morning when the JL flight were released, now I will just need to add in other sectors as these get released. Given the state of the Covid vaccine rollout in AU only time will tell if the trip eventuates.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Booked my OWA for 2022 over the weekend and oooweee what an ordeal.

Monday AM - went through flights with lovely on-shore service woman who loved that I had everything all planned, however, there was an issue with the points transferring to my account in that they appeared to be there, but on her end she couldn't access entire amount and points office was closed so couldn't chase up.

Monday PM - Offshore centre (Steven) booked the flights seemingly easily, confirmed points were there, flights appeared on account and could select seats etc.

Tuesday AM - QR messaged to say I had flights held but not completed.
- Called QF and told them, they said payment hadn't gone through, gave wildly different fees charge, when told of the original number they said they had to go calculate and would call back, never did. All points back in account now.
- Steven called out of the blue and said he noticed it hadn't ticketed as passport details weren't there, updated with him and he would get it sorted and I'd get confirmation email in 20 mins (never did).
- After call a 7700 assistance fee deducted from account.

Tuesday PM - (1.5hr on hold) - On-shore (Wendy), said whoever did the booking did a horrible job and it was full of mistakes, said he recognised who did it. Reversed fee, sorted all out, said she wouldn't hang up til everything was ticketed (I should have done this the first time).

All in all a mixed bag of incompetence and great service. Qatar CS and Wendy are my saviours.
After I sent a thank you message to Qatar for their following up they allocated us in 3E/F QSuites for the "double" bed which was nice as they show as blocked when we tried to select them.

Sounds like an ordeal!

Just out of interest - why didn't you book on line?

 

[kingzac]

Just out of interest - why didn't you book on line?

I would have loved to, but a few too many legs so it crashed the search, and paying with a travel pass.