Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[vetrade]

Stuie,
Are you booking a Y or J award?

 

[Stuie]

Stuie,
Are you booking a Y or J award?

The whole thing is a SYD - Vienna - USA - SYD trip with various stops along the way. I don't think I can add LAX as a stop over as I'll then be over the 5 stopover limit. It might already be counted that way in any case as I'm coming into SFO a week earlier so have been looking at various options inc. a surface segment from SFO-LAX. This is for a Y award.
I'm booking in the separate LAX-SYD flight now so at least I've got it reserved (still much better than paying cash for it) and if I can come up with a better option I'll cancel it. It'll be interesting having a conversation with them about it when I've got the flight actually booked. I struggle to see how they can then tell me it's not available if I offer to cancel my own booking to make the seats available.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The whole thing is a SYD - Vienna - USA - SYD trip with various stops along the way. I don't think I can add LAX as a stop over as I'll then be over the 5 stopover limit. It might already be counted that way in any case as I'm coming into SFO a week earlier so have been looking at various options inc. a surface segment from SFO-LAX. This is for a Y award.
I'm booking in the separate LAX-SYD flight now so at least I've got it reserved (still much better than paying cash for it) and if I can come up with a better option I'll cancel it. It'll be interesting having a conversation with them about it when I've got the flight actually booked. I struggle to see how they can then tell me it's not available if I offer to cancel my own booking to make the seats available.

They won't be able to combine tickets, and if you cancel the one you have even while you're on the phone with them, there's little chance it will come back into the award inventory for you to be able to book it again. The only way this would work is if there were additional award seats already available.

 

[vetrade]

The whole thing is a SYD - Vienna - USA - SYD trip with various stops along the way. I don't think I can add LAX as a stop over as I'll then be over the 5 stopover limit. It might already be counted that way in any case as I'm coming into SFO a week earlier so have been looking at various options inc. a surface segment from SFO-LAX. This is for a Y award.
I'm booking in the separate LAX-SYD flight now so at least I've got it reserved (still much better than paying cash for it) and if I can come up with a better option I'll cancel it. It'll be interesting having a conversation with them about it when I've got the flight actually booked. I struggle to see how they can then tell me it's not available if I offer to cancel my own booking to make the seats available

Can I suggest that "conversation with them" won't be interesting at all because it is doomed to fail before it even starts. You need to understand that QF is virtually a law unto itself when it comes to these awards (and many other things) and there is absolutely no one you can complain to about it that will do anything. As MEL_Traveller pointed out you can't just ring up QF and say you wan't them to mix-and-match different bookings.

I suggest that you need to focus on working out what might circumvent your dilemma of not being able to add that LAX-SYD flight to your itinerary. If you don't like routing through HKG or Tokyo maybe look at LAX - BNE - SYD.

 

[DC3]

Don’t worry about having interesting conversations with the Call Centre. Flexibility with routes/flights/dates is what will make an itinerary work. If the Call Centre says ‘No’ to a certain flight, keep looking for other options. Not worth getting into any time-wasting discussions.

Edited

 

[Stuie]

Thank you all,
Your insights and experience are genuinely invaluable.
One big positive at the moment is being able to make cancellations/changes with no fees, so I can hang on to what I've got as it's still pretty good, and maintain flexibility in looking out for other options that may work better, even at close to the last minute.
You've all saved me plenty of time on fruitless phone calls so I greatly appreciate that and I hope I can return the favour some day.

 

[AussiePom]

Hi Brains Trust. I've put together an itinerary for J (318k points) about 7 days ago and now when i look to go to book, the outbound flight from SYD-DOH is no longer available (both when searching normally and via multi-city). Interestingly however, when I search on British Airways (Book a flight with Avios), it shows 3 J class seats available for that flight. Also, I found a routing of MEL-BNE-SYD-DOH for the same day on Qantas which does allow the booking of the SYD-DOH flight as part of that routing. Can anyone provide insight as to why this may be happening. What are the chances that they can book me on the flight when i call the call-center?

 

[motef]

So as far as Qantas is concerned what you can see on BA or any other OW carrier is irrelevant so no use talking to them about that.

I would suggest booking the MEL-BNE-SYD-DOH

 

[DC3]

… I've put together an itinerary for J (318k points) about 7 days ago and now when i look to go to book, the outbound flight from SYD-DOH is no longer available (both when searching normally and via multi-city) ….

I book as availability opens. Waiting just allows others to grab those seats that I wanted.

 

[Jacques Vert]

What are the chances that they can book me on the flight when i call the call-center?

Not much better than zero IME. Any time you see QR flights ex SYD, grab them; they won't be there for long.

 

[vetrade]

AussiePom, as DC3 said, if you're after QR J seats it's best to grab them when you see them, especially on any flight from Australia to DOH.

But I wouldn't be quite as pessimistic as others about what might be available when you ring and ask. When booking flights for my 318K award recently I was checking various options each day for a series of flights around Europe. Admittedly I wasn't looking for QR flights but I noticed that availability for flights like CPH - LHR or LHR - NCE or vice versa fluctuated wildly from day to day and I just couldn't believe it was because people were booking all the award seats. Using CPH - LHR as an example, one day there'd be J available on most of the 5 - 7 flights on a particular day but if I checked back a day or 2 later there might not be any availability showing at all. Then the availability would reappear a day or two later again. It seemed very odd. The good thing was that the CSA was able to see and book all the availability when I rang to add those legs that had "disappeared". The bottom line is that I think there are a variety of idiosyncrasies with the QF website including when, and how, availability is updated each day so I wouldn't be dismissive of what the call centre might see. You've got nothing to lose, so why not ask?

If you can book MEL-BNE-SYD-DOH, I'd do that, but with the intention of seeing if the unwanted leg/s could be dropped sometime "down the track" once you have structured more of your overall itinerary. It's quite possible that even if there is a block on just booking SYD-DOH now, maybe that will be different in, say, a month's time. I'd get the CSA to be absolutely sure that the SYD-DOH leg would stay if you dropped the dom. legs, though.

 

[Aristotle9]

Hey guys,

For some reason on the step after selecting flights and filling passenger details it errors out saying it could not confirm booking (step prior to payment). Unsure if there's something else wrong that someone else also has noticed? Tried taking legs out but still happens. Happens on Qantas as well as the one world round the trip portal.

SYD-JNB-MAD OSL-JFK-MIA LAX-SYD

We are unable to confirm your selected flights. Select ‘Start over’ and choose alternative flights. (15079 - 23951 - 421)

 

[AussiePom]

I had this error this evening. The issue may be that the availability on the website is not necessarily the actual availability. This can happen with Qantas flights strangely enough, but more often it happens with third party airlines.. The booking systems used by staff are more up to date than the webisite.

Call the call center.

Hey guys,

For some reason on the step after selecting flights and filling passenger details it errors out saying it could not confirm booking (step prior to payment). Unsure if there's something else wrong that someone else also has noticed? Tried taking legs out but still happens. Happens on Qantas as well as the one world round the trip portal.

SYD-JNB-MAD OSL-JFK-MIA LAX-SYDase

 

[Aristotle9]

but more often it happens with third party airlines.

Ta! That was it for the QR JNB-MAD leg. I booked instead to JNB-LHR and will train it to the continent. So I have 2 QF (SYD-JNB, LAX-SYD), 1 QR/BA (JNB-DOH-LHR), 1 IBERIA (MAD-JFK), 2AA(JFK-MIA, MIA-LAS)

Annoying that Alaska lists J as F so it prices the whole trip at F. Would have gone to Seattle instead of Vegas.

 

[repete]

Hey guys,

For some reason on the step after selecting flights and filling passenger details it errors out saying it could not confirm booking (step prior to payment). Unsure if there's something else wrong that someone else also has noticed? Tried taking legs out but still happens. Happens on Qantas as well as the one world round the trip portal.

SYD-JNB-MAD OSL-JFK-MIA LAX-SYD

That error is so frustrating, all the more so because it lets you get all the way to having passenger details in etc. before failing! I battled with that one the other night, before taking out a codeshare Finnair flight that seemed to be working and swapped it to an actual Finnair flight, and it worked!

We have now booked (in Y-class which I know is not everyone's cup of tea! but it is for a family of 6!!):
CBR-PER (stop) ->YVR (stop) -> MUC (stop) -> SIN (stop) - home
Quite the journey! With the main goal to see family in Germany and friends in Canada. It's for July/August next year and not sure if it will all happen of course. Just speaking to family in Germany tonight they are about to go back into lockdown!! (I probably posted up thread about a similar trip that was cancelled two years ago!) If it does happen, hopefully we won't have to pay for Covid tests pre and post all those flights too!

Aside from the frustration from the opening comment above, it took a while to find flights of course and get things to line up, but was happy when we got to the final booking stage and e-tickets arrived soon after paying.

Interesting to note that when I requested one flight change, Qantas have said there is seats and can make the switch but it would cost 6x5000pts to change!
EDIT: update below that they waived the fee.

Enough from me... thanks all for the inspiration!

 

[Mr H]

hopefully we won't have to pay for Covid tests pre and post all those flights too!

I have a convoluted redemption booked for the second half of 2022 and if Covid testing is still a thing, I will cancel without a second thought. It's not just the expense of the tests, it's the potential for a positive result to have a devastating impact on the trip. If we are learning to live with Covid, and if there is Covid in the community at either end of a flight, there's no reason why a person with Covid should not fly.

 

[vetrade]

repete, I suggest you familiarise yourself with this Classic Awards rule:
14.3.5 A Classic Award Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

I suspect your booking is not what you think it is. You can't fly into BNE and then fly out of Oz again to NZ unless you start your trip in NZ.

Suggest you check your ticket and how many points you have been charged carefully

 

[DC3]

… Qantas have said there is seats and can make the switch but it would cost 6x5000pts to change! ….

Currently, there are no change fees for classic awards. The 5,000 point change fee is currently waived.

 

[adenda]

Hi Brains Trust. I've put together an itinerary for J (318k points) about 7 days ago and now when i look to go to book, the outbound flight from SYD-DOH is no longer available (both when searching normally and via multi-city). Interestingly however, when I search on British Airways (Book a flight with Avios), it shows 3 J class seats available for that flight. Also, I found a routing of MEL-BNE-SYD-DOH for the same day on Qantas which does allow the booking of the SYD-DOH flight as part of that routing. Can anyone provide insight as to why this may be happening. What are the chances that they can book me on the flight when i call the call-center?

Qatar Airways has essentially boycotted QFF members access to any more than 1 J seat on their flights out of Australian cities. I've frequently found the same as you have - multiple J seats on BA/AA/JL websites but at most 1 seat via QF.
Intrigued how you found the availability through multiple cities - was that just trial and error? were you searching for more than 1 seat?

BTW, there's a whole separate thread on this issue here:

Different award availability between OneWorld ff programmes: QF gets less!

I'm trying use my Qantas points get two, one-way business seats with Qatar from LHR-BNE. The QF site only shows one available each day whereas BA and AA both show two. I called Qantas Premium to try and see if they can see different but they see the same as me. My question is: is it normal for...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[repete]

Currently, there are no change fees for classic awards. The 5,000 point change fee is currently waived.

Thanks DC3. Qantas have just agreed on Twitter, so that's good news