Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[flyingchicken]

I don't know the answer but maybe you should try the Covid thread. That seems to be where those sort of issues are discussed.

Okay thanks. I'll try there too.

Was secretly hoping someone here with more knowledge of OWA routes might be able to help me see other options that I may be missing.

 

[ozflier]

If you start your non OWA sidetrip at Helsinki and return to Kelsinki prior to continuing on your OWA, then that counts as one stopover not two !

 

[Matt_01]

Stopovers relate to cities, not countries. You can have stopovers in more than one city within any particular country but they are counted separately

Except for NZ. As posted up thread I am trying to work out a double banger for 2023 starting in NZ April school holidays AKL-BNE-HND-SYD/MEL, either one. Second part September school holidays SYD/MEL/PER-UK/EU-AU or NZ if I have to take that flight. I know milage will be tight and went through the exercise of finding rewards flights and gave QF a call to check that it could be booked. The agent advised that the system would not it allow it to ticket and after a bit of checking was advised the AKL start was the issue as the QF seems to think AKL is part of AU

 

[DC3]

… QF seems to think AKL is part of AU

I saw this, somewhere:

“Section 6 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act says:

The States shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called a State”

Maybe QF got it mixed up. The door is still open apparently.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Indeed the door is still open, and the UK law that created the Australian Constitution was designed to specifically permit it to be so. Section 6 defined the states and also the originating states which were the states that first joined. WA joined later in 1900 and got itself retrospectively proclaimed an originating state. NZ was also in the list, but ultimately didn't join.

A potted history of NZ's dalliance with Federation is here. They attended some of the constitutional conventions and had a royal commission in 1900 on whether they should join, touring every Australian State - except the other holdout, WA, which is a whole other story.

cheers skip

 

[BillW]

Yes you can. In normal times, cancelling a Oneworld booking attracts a fee of 6,000 points per passenger; but that is currently waived. From the website:

...whether you’re looking to travel soon or down the track, when you use points to book a Classic Flight Reward, you’ll be able to change your travel dates or cancel your booking free of charge.*

Simply book:

an Australian domestic Classic Flight Reward before 30 April 2022 and you can change or cancel your booking free of charge until 30 April 2022
an Trans-Tasman or International Classic Flight Reward before 30 June 2022 and you can change or cancel free of charge until 31 December 2022
If you wish to change your travel dates, we’ll waive the change fee. If you wish to cancel, we’ll waive the cancellation fee. The total Qantas Points used and any taxes, fees and carrier charges paid will be refunded.

For complimentary credit card travel insurance purposes it may pay me to add a return leg to my current one-way flight booking.
If I do so now before departure I presume that the trip points will max out at 318,000, which is no problem.
In terms of the above quote, can I cancel the return leg anytime before end December (and make alternative insurance arrangements)?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

For complimentary credit card travel insurance purposes it may pay me to add a return leg to my current one-way flight booking.
If I do so now before departure I presume that the trip points will max out at 318,000, which is no problem.
In terms of the above quote, can I cancel the return leg anytime before end December (and make alternative insurance arrangements)?

Correct!

 

[k_sheep]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH finally booked! I have an international flight booking in MMB! Ahhhhh! (little excited)

SYD-xDFW-EZE stop for antarctica cruise, Patagonia trekking
EZE-xMAD-PRG stop for work conference in Linz, Austria
PRG-HEL stop for some northern lights or at least some skiing
HEL-xWAW-DOH stop for ..... something .... wanted to go to MCT but that's super expensive
DOH-DEL stop for ... why not, new place we've not been
DEL-xMEL-MCY

Huge thanks to the AFF assistance crew; I lacked the patience and 'outside the box' thinking to put it together myself. All in J except a ghastly 10hr DFW-EZE in Y ... send prayers. Have to book the last couple flights via phone tomorrow because online wouldn't let me do more than 6; but it seems they have fixed the crashing issue when trying to book with IB so that's progress!

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH finally booked! I have an international flight booking in MMB!

MMB is nice, but do you have an e-ticket?
It’s not over until the fat lady sings “081-……..”

 

[k_sheep]

Killjoy!

I actually don't know how to get eticket numbers now checkmytrip is dead .... but it's showing as confirmed on QR and BA websites ... cautious optimism.

 

[DC3]

A confirmed reservation is not adequate for boarding a plane and flying. The reservation needs to be ticketed.

An eticket is needed to complete the process. If QR is in the award mix (or probably any non-QF flights for that matter) then I would be following up with the QF Call Centre without delay.

 

[SYD]

Killjoy!

I actually don't know how to get eticket numbers now checkmytrip is dead .... but it's showing as confirmed on QR and BA websites ... cautious optimism.

Several OW airlines “mange booking” pages will give you e-ticket numbers for an Amedeus PNR. RJ used to be good, if not QR or AY.

 

[DC3]

In case anyone has not seen this, Executive Traveller has an article about oneworld award redemptions across partner airlines coming soon:

Qantas, BA to join Oneworld upgrades program

Qantas Points and BA Avios will enable premium economy, business and first class upgrades on other Oneworld airlines.

www.executivetraveller.com

 

[jase05]

In case anyone has not seen this, Executive Traveller has an article about oneworld award redemptions across partner airlines coming soon:

Qantas, BA to join Oneworld upgrades program

Qantas Points and BA Avios will enable premium economy, business and first class upgrades on other Oneworld airlines.

www.executivetraveller.com

Supposedly May is the word but I have my doubts

 

[fresherbill]

I've had a monster of a time rebooking an itinerary with the tax calculations coming back 2.5x what I'd estimated. I've changed it from a BNE origin to a KUL origin - I wouldn't have expected this to make much of a difference but I don't know for sure because I don't have enough points to put the whole trip into a multi-city booking to confirm. The itinerary is:

29 NOV: KUL-xBKK-xHEL-BER (MH Y/AY J/AY J)
17 DEC: BER-HEL (AY J)
21 DEC: HEL-SIN (AY J)
23 DEC: SIN-xHND-JFK (JL J)
2 JAN: JFK-xHND/NRT-KUL (JL J/MH J)

By pricing up the legs individually, I have come up with an estimate of about $620pp, but Qantas quoted $565pp in addition to the $985pp already paid on a previous iteration of the booking. This makes the total taxes $1550 per person, which is huge! I asked the agent to confirm that the $565 was in addition to the taxes already paid or if it was the new total and they confirmed it was additional. I went ahead because the original departure was imminent and had to be moved. I thought ticketing might resolve the discrepancy, but the e-ticket came in pretty quickly showing the $1550 amount.

Anyone have any idea why the increase would be so significant? Could it be due to the change of the origin from BNE to KUL?

Does anyone have enough points to try this in the multi-city tool? I can get all the flights I want on the tool but it falls over at the last step before it gives me a tax total (because I don't have enough points). Most grateful for any insights.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In case anyone has not seen this, Executive Traveller has an article about oneworld award redemptions across partner airlines coming soon:

Qantas, BA to join Oneworld upgrades program

Qantas Points and BA Avios will enable premium economy, business and first class upgrades on other Oneworld airlines.

www.executivetraveller.com

Put it this way… if it’s such a difficult thing to achieve, yet the airlines are pushing so hard for it…. you can be guaranteed it will be a bad thing for passengers.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I've had a monster of a time rebooking an itinerary with the tax calculations coming back 2.5x what I'd estimated. I've changed it from a BNE origin to a KUL origin - I wouldn't have expected this to make much of a difference but I don't know for sure because I don't have enough points to put the whole trip into a multi-city booking to confirm. The itinerary is:

29 NOV: KUL-xBKK-xHEL-BER (MH Y/AY J/AY J)
17 DEC: BER-HEL (AY J)
21 DEC: HEL-SIN (AY J)
23 DEC: SIN-xHND-JFK (JL J)
2 JAN: JFK-xHND/NRT-KUL (JL J/MH J)

By pricing up the legs individually, I have come up with an estimate of about $620pp, but Qantas quoted $565pp in addition to the $985pp already paid on a previous iteration of the booking. This makes the total taxes $1550 per person, which is huge! I asked the agent to confirm that the $565 was in addition to the taxes already paid or if it was the new total and they confirmed it was additional. I went ahead because the original departure was imminent and had to be moved. I thought ticketing might resolve the discrepancy, but the e-ticket came in pretty quickly showing the $1550 amount.

Anyone have any idea why the increase would be so significant? Could it be due to the change of the origin from BNE to KUL?

Does anyone have enough points to try this in the multi-city tool? I can get all the flights I want on the tool but it falls over at the last step before it gives me a tax total (because I don't have enough points). Most grateful for any insights.

I get 318,000 points + MYR3,207 (~AUD1,066). That includes all legs in J including your KUL-BKK. So yeah, I think you've been had.

Are you game to cancel the booking, get your points back and re-book on line? Of course, you may not get the taxes back before you depart.

 

[adamk8]

Hi all. I am wanting to book 4 business class oneworld RTW tickets and looking for some advice.

The two big challenges:

• Need 4 tickets in business class!
• Looking to book during peak season Dec 2022 -> Jan 2023. We have some flexibility with the dates (can leave early'ish Dec to beat the absolute peak and come back late in Jan)

The requirements:

• Need to start/finish in MEL
• The main destination is Europe but happy to fly in/out of anywhere and then take some internal flights/trains as needed.
• No other strict requirements really - wherever the availability is

What do you think the best way is to scope this out? Should I start by finding availability in and out of AU which typically seem to be the hardest flights to find availability? Any tips/suggestions on routes that may have more Y seats?

Thank you!

 

[Ponky]

I managed to successfully book an OWA in business for a trip to and around the USA for the wife and I for Sep-Nov routing through Japan both ways.

Circumstances now require me to delay the trip by a month and I would really like to cancel the booking and start a new booking because new routes and options have opened up since I booked back in December.

Unfortunately I don't have enough points left to book two new business OWAs unless I cancel and get my points refunded. I don't really care about how long it takes to get the money for the tax component back, but in people's experience, how long does it take for points to be recredited to your QFF account?

 

[Matt_01]

I saw this, somewhere:

“Section 6 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act says:

The States shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called a State”

Maybe QF got it mixed up. The door is still open apparently.

Indeed the door is still open, and the UK law that created the Australian Constitution was designed to specifically permit it to be so. Section 6 defined the states and also the originating states which were the states that first joined. WA joined later in 1900 and got itself retrospectively proclaimed an originating state. NZ was also in the list, but ultimately didn't join.

A potted history of NZ's dalliance with Federation is here. They attended some of the constitutional conventions and had a royal commission in 1900 on whether they should join, touring every Australian State - except the other holdout, WA, which is a whole other story.

cheers skip

For anyone interested QF are giving up their claim on NZ being part of AU when it comes to OW rewards bookings. As posted up thread I was trying to work out if a double banger from NZ-AU-JP-AU then 6-9 months later AU-UK/EU-AU would be viable. As I was planning a trip to UK/EU using OW airlines I would have dropped 318K points for the return trip alone. The idea of being able to sneak in the starting point NZ-AU to most places in Asia was just a bonus if I stayed within the rules. Anyhow after a few dummy booking attempts failed I called QF, they tried to book and also failed. Today I received a callback advising that after an internal review my proposed routing met the OW rules and an ITS ticket has been raised to rectify the problem. The AU-NZ flight would be a positioning and not part of the OW rules.