Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Oubline]

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?

I might be missing something but could you just phone and change the current booking to new flights on dates that you want? The routing and destinations can be different within the existing booking reference.

Otherwise in my own experience the points have not come back for quite some time (weeks) after cancelling and in many cases only after I called to follow up. Others seem to have been lucky and it only take a few days for them.

Call centre staff do seem to be able to refund the points on the spot if you call to follow up though, so that would be an option if you were desperate.

 

[cjd600]

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!

Start searching the legs you are after for 330-360 days from now, to give an idea of which airline options you have, and also which may release 4 x J (Business), and the timing of release for each.. You're probably already too late for Dec '22.
But finding availability in/out of AU shouldnt necessarily be your start point, your start point should be the first-released leg of your planned trip (e.g. a flight in Europe might be released before your targetted flight out of MEL, book this first, add MEL-xx_ later when released). You can add on before/after legs as you go, but snapping up when released is the key, especially if after 4J.
I've managed a 4J SYD-USA-EUR-USA-SYD, for Sep/Oct, but pounced on each leg as soon it was available - well, after 4 hours on hold to QF call centre,haha - (and knew the day each became available through earlier test/dummy searches).
Good luck with Dec/Jan!

 

[adamk8]

Start searching the legs you are after for 330-360 days from now, to give an idea of which airline options you have, and also which may release 4 x J (Business), and the timing of release for each.. You're probably already too late for Dec '22.
But finding availability in/out of AU shouldnt necessarily be your start point, your start point should be the first-released leg of your planned trip (e.g. a flight in Europe might be released before your targetted flight out of MEL, book this first, add MEL-xx_ later when released). You can add on before/after legs as you go, but snapping up when released is the key, especially if after 4J.
I've managed a 4J SYD-USA-EUR-USA-SYD, for Sep/Oct, but pounced on each leg as soon it was available - well, after 4 hours on hold to QF call centre,haha - (and knew the day each became available through earlier test/dummy searches).
Good luck with Dec/Jan!

Oh I see. I had no idea you could just book legs as they open up and then keep adding as needed. So I could book some random single leg in Europe for the full 318k points right now and then keeping adding legs one by one?

How were you checking availability? At exactly 330/360 days ahead you check that single day? Using qantas.com or ba.com?

 

[DC3]

To score oneworld award flights, flexibility is the key. Especially the dates. You may never get the dates that you are after, so you need to work within the dates where availability exists.

It took me some months to get my head around oneworld awards, as there’s a lot to take in. There’s so much useful information throughout this thread.

 

[djkelly69]

One for the brains trust:

I am at the tail end of booking an OWA for Dec22/Jan23 for 3pax in J. We have made it as far as DOH-SIN on 8 Jan 23, but I can't find any reward seats to get home to Aus, even in Y. Prefer to SYD (and then on to CBR), but don't really mind.

This is on a Gold QFF account. I can't work out if we have missed literally all availability, or if QF haven't released seats yet for some reason. I realise it is a bit past 353 days, but we have been looking for a couple of weeks and there hasn't been any seats on QF metal. Is there known periods for which QF doesn't release any reward seats?

Have also tried CGK, HKG, KUL, DPS, MNL, DEL, etc, but can't find anything. It doesn't help that both QF search engines (normal and multi-city) seem to be having a lot of issues with phantom availability and general errors in searching flights around these regions in particular.

Happy to change the DOH-SIN flight to somewhere else in Asia Pacific if need be, as we are out of stopovers anyway so just looking to get home in a fairly direct fashion, in J if possible. Also in no way wedded to flying home on QF, but no other options are presenting themselves at this stage.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions? Thanks in advance

 

[jase05]

One for the brains trust:

I am at the tail end of booking an OWA for Dec22/Jan23 for 3pax in J. We have made it as far as DOH-SIN on 8 Jan 23, but I can't find any reward seats to get home to Aus, even in Y. Prefer to SYD (and then on to CBR), but don't really mind.

This is on a Gold QFF account. I can't work out if we have missed literally all availability, or if QF haven't released seats yet for some reason. I realise it is a bit past 353 days, but we have been looking for a couple of weeks and there hasn't been any seats on QF metal. Is there known periods for which QF doesn't release any reward seats?

Have also tried CKG, HKG, KUL, DPS, MNL, DEL, etc, but can't find anything. It doesn't help that both QF search engines (normal and multi-city) seem to be having a lot of issues with phantom availability and general errors in searching flights around these regions in particular.

Happy to change the DOH-SIN flight to somewhere else in Asia Pacific if need be, as we are out of stopovers anyway so just looking to get home in a fairly direct fashion, in J if possible. Also in no way wedded to flying home on QF, but no other options are presenting themselves at this stage.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions? Thanks in advance

Not sure if phantom or not or how you are situated for miles/stops etc but some BKK-HND-SYD availability around those dates on JL

 

[cjd600]

Oh I see. I had no idea you could just book legs as they open up and then keep adding as needed. So I could book some random single leg in Europe for the full 318k points right now and then keeping adding legs one by one?

How were you checking availability? At exactly 330/360 days ahead you check that single day? Using qantas.com or ba.com?

Search using Multi City/ Use Points Only, even if only searching a single leg. This will give you the award availability. QF availability release will vary depending on your status. Other airlines you can gauge by checking their furthest current availability now, check tomorrow etc etc to get an idea of the patterns....BA355 days, JL 360 days etc etc to nail the date of release for what you're after...and see if they do/don't release weekend flights for awards etc etc....
You can book any random single leg in Europe and will only be charged points for that leg. After the first leg is booked (can be done online), you need to call to add more legs (cannot be done online). No cost to add more legs at the moment, usually 5k pts per person. Important to make sure they add the new leg(s) to your existing booking ref/PNR. Your booking points cost will keep accumulating until you hit 318k and then max out and not increase - assuming you have met the requirements for the OneWorld Award (2 airlines other than QF etc etc).

 

[adamk8]

Search using Multi City/ Use Points Only, even if only searching a single leg. This will give you the award availability. QF availability release will vary depending on your status. Other airlines you can gauge by checking their furthest current availability now, check tomorrow etc etc to get an idea of the patterns....BA355 days, JL 360 days etc etc to nail the date of release for what you're after...and see if they do/don't release weekend flights for awards etc etc....
You can book any random single leg in Europe and will only be charged points for that leg. After the first leg is booked (can be done online), you need to call to add more legs (cannot be done online). No cost to add more legs at the moment, usually 5k pts per person. Important to make sure they add the new leg(s) to your existing booking ref/PNR. Your booking points cost will keep accumulating until you hit 318k and then max out and not increase - assuming you have met the requirements for the OneWorld Award (2 airlines other than QF etc etc).

Awesome, thanks for the tips. Super helpful. I found a few good legs already so will try and lock them in shortly and keep building upon it from there.

 

[fresherbill]

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.

Thanks so much for running that That's a much more reasonable figure. After 3 calls and 2.5 hours on the phone with Qantas yesterday, I finally got someone to provide a tax/charges breakdown, which the agent read out line by line. The last item was a YQ totalling $565.88, the exact "extra" amount that was to be paid. This seems a bit arbitrary - all the other fees were codes I would have expected, including some smaller YQs. But that last one seems like it was added on just to be punitive. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to cancel and rebook as this is an itinerary I've been kicking down the road since the 280,000 point days and rebooking would mean using 318,000 points instead.

At this stage I have no idea what to do except to leave the taxes where they are until I rebook those US sectors and trigger another repricing. It leaves me with an icky feeling at the lack of transparency around this, and how unwilling Qantas is to help. I'd love to know if anyone else has been extorted on taxes and what they did about it.

 

[Ponky]

I might be missing something but could you just phone and change the current booking to new flights on dates that you want? The routing and destinations can be different within the existing booking reference.

Problem is it's going to be a whole bunch of new flights and I'm not going to know the availability without searching online, and without the points in my account the search tool will only give me access to the flights my current points total can afford.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Problem is it's going to be a whole bunch of new flights and I'm not going to know the availability without searching online, and without the points in my account the search tool will only give me access to the flights my current points total can afford.

the booking engine should still show the results, albeit you won’t be able to price out the $$ as you can’t get to that stage. You could also use other OW airlines to get indicative availability.

You could collect the individual flight sectors and read to the agent to change your booking.

 

[fresherbill]

the booking engine should still show the results, albeit you won’t be able to price out the $$ as you can’t get to that stage. You could also use other OW airlines to get indicative availability.

You could collect the individual flight sectors and read to the agent to change your booking.

Just be prepared with some backup options as the availablity shown to agents sometimes doesn't match up with what's shown on the website. I've been lucky getting the same flights a day either side so far though. YMMV. As always, some flexibility is needed in your planning.

 

[Ponky]

the booking engine should still show the results, albeit you won’t be able to price out the $$ as you can’t get to that stage. You could also use other OW airlines to get indicative availability.

Thanks, yeah I was searching last night and results were only showing for economy classic rewards with my 71k points, except when choosing shorter routes e.g Japan, where I could see premium economy and some business.

I might log in and search with my wife's account as she has enough for a single business OWA

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks, yeah I was searching last night and results were only showing for economy classic rewards with my 71k points, except when choosing shorter routes e.g Japan, where I could see premium economy and some business.

I might log in and search with my wife's account as she has enough for a single business OWA

SYD-TYO is 82K points on QF, so if you can see those with your 71K points you should be able to see availability on other segments. It might be that business class availability has gone for the segments you are after?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

I might log in and search with my wife's account as she has enough for a single business OWA

Just beware that by searching for 1 business seat, you might find flights that only have a single award seat available (leading to future frustrations…).

 

[Oubline]

Thanks, yeah I was searching last night and results were only showing for economy classic rewards with my 71k points, except when choosing shorter routes e.g Japan, where I could see premium economy and some business.

I might log in and search with my wife's account as she has enough for a single business OWA

Just to be clear it doesn’t matter if you have the points in the account or not, it will show the same availability. Just don’t want you to cancel the other booking on that understanding. There could be different availability for different status, potentially, though.

 

[Ponky]

Yeah thanks for that advice. I'll have s good look at availability before I do anything.

 

[Noah Count]

Now it looks like plan may work I am now working on routes. So stops and transfer in the same city is it 1 stop and 2 additional transfer or 1 stop and 1 transfer.

Ideally looking for x3 J on the same aircraft but can split to x2 and x1 departing and arriving around similar times get back from the UK 1 could depart the following day if the best I can get is x2. JL presents the best options however as JL and QF seem to mainly use HND this may be problematic. This was one option

Apr 23
ADL-AKL (positioning flight)
AKL-BNE/MEL-HND (QF) or AKL-MEL-NRT (JL) - Stop
HND-SYD. (QF or JL) - Stop

Sep 23
SYD-HND-CDG (JL). or MEL-NRT-HEL-CDG - Stop
CDG-LHR-HND-SYD-ADL (BA/JL/QF) - Finish

For the return as the points cap and the ticket is reissued after each change I have no plan to return to NZ. This routing is around 33K-34K miles so is tight. The concerns I have with the above is that what may be available JL been the best option we are stopping in HND then 2 transfers, is this allowed under the rules.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

The concerns I have with the above is that what may be available JL been the best option we are stopping in HND then 2 transfers, is this allowed under the rules.

Yes, you are allowed 1 stop & 2 transfers in the same city. I have done so on multiple occasions.

From the QFF T&C’s:

14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Classic Flight Rewards:
(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

 

[Spacetravel]

I'm closing in on my OWA departure date 7th March, getting excited!

Is it possible to make changes to the OWA after departing?