Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Jacques Vert]

Thank you - that is very impressive - are you prepared to divulge the name of the insurer ?

Sure; it was QBE purchased through Qantas Assure. Unfortunately, QBE sold their Travel Insurance business to NIB a while back and I can't comment of the new product.. There are a couple of threads on travel insurance & Covid that may be of assistance to you.

Whatever you decide, read the Terms and Conditions carefully before you purchase.

 

[Muppet501st]

Glad we could help. I still remember several months ago looking at return reward flights from Melbourne to Tehran and someone suggested for very few extra points I could do a OWA - which I had never even thought of. It has transformed the way I see reward flights .

Id read thru this thread a while ago, and it didnt make a lot of sense to me. Now its all come together and fallen in place, its not that difficult. Just need to be prepared for long calls to QF

 

[ozflier]

Sure; it was QBE purchased through Qantas Assure. Unfortunately, QBE sold their Travel Insurance business to NIB a while back and I can't comment of the new product.. There are a couple of threads on travel insurance & Covid that may be of assistance to you.

Whatever you decide, read the Terms and Conditions carefully before you purchase.

Good advice ,thank you.

 

[ozflier]

I've had flights on QF BNE to NRT cancelled . I was transiting there to get to JFK .
No other ways of getting to JFK on points.
I'm hoping that QFF will convert revenue seats on their metal for me to get there another way.
Any idea what revenue fare classes are used for a conversion revenue to award seats - eg some of the options say via LHR on QF have no 'I' seats available.

 

[EestiTiger]

I have never been in a position where remaining award flights are cancelled thru illness and then having to claim thru insurance.
Has anyone had this experience - ie claiming on travel insurance at least to get home after a broken journey on frequent flier points .
I am wondering if the insurer would pay a business class fare if the award was in J or would they just default to economy because the original is not a revenue fare?

Hey Ozflier - this happened to me two years ago. I had taken a few flights to get to Europe and was only there a couple of days, in Sofia, before my step-mother suddenly died
It was on a weekend and it was tough trying to get onto QF.
I liased with my TI provider and they said we will cover flight home in same class (J). I was very lucky that one of my best mates is a travel agent and was able to find me J ticket on QR that same day to Adelaide then a domestic connection to BNE.
I didn't try to claim points back but was reimbursed for anything I was unable to get a refund for including Euro internal flights in J and accommodation.
There might be an incomplete Trip Review somewhere on here of Eurotrash 2019. Backing that into a couple of years of Covid makes Eurotrash 2022 one hell of a trip! #fingerscrossed

Edit: Insurer was Holiday Rescue underwritten by Holland Insurance Group. They were really good but there was a lot of doco I needed to dig out / provide.

 

[ozflier]

I've had flights on QF BNE to NRT cancelled . I was transiting there to get to JFK .
No other ways of getting to JFK on points.
I'm hoping that QFF will convert revenue seats on their metal for me to get there another way.
Any idea what revenue fare classes are used for a conversion revenue to award seats - eg some of the options say via LHR on QF have no 'I' seats available.

Just to be a bit clearer re my post .
Re my flight BNE-HND late august 2022, I received an email from from Qantas Customer Services telling me to contact QFF and organise to change to alternate flights as the service had been cancelled .
I also subscribe to "Executive Traveller" and it notes there that Australia to Japan flights will now be delayed until at least september 2022. Qantas delays restart of flights to Tokyo
Weirdly, my QFF online booking page says that the BNE-HND flight is still going 29 august.
I rang 131313 and, despite the Agent being aware of QF press release coming out early today announcing the cancellations, she checked my booking and said there were no notations re cancellations of my flight !!! So she can't do anything until it is officially noted in my booking .
So I am just waiting !

 

[Fil-Ski]

I've had flights on QF BNE to NRT cancelled . I was transiting there to get to JFK .
No other ways of getting to JFK on points.
I'm hoping that QFF will convert revenue seats on their metal for me to get there another way.
Any idea what revenue fare classes are used for a conversion revenue to award seats - eg some of the options say via LHR on QF have no 'I' seats available.

I had the same flights. Qantas put me on a SYD-LAX flight. However they couldn’t get a LAX to NYC flight with AA.

In the end I’m going ADL-KUL-DOH-JFK

I had the same situation with a canceled QF HKG-SYD leg. It was LHR-HKG-SYD. The lovely lady put me on the LHR-PER flight without asking once she released the seats from full fare.

So yes QF will release paid seats. In some cases you need to push them and ask. Other times you need to call back.

 

[gourmet333]

Hi Everyone, I was just on the QF FF website kicking tyres and looking to see if I could get a more direct flight to Milan than I have already (I used the multi city search function). Got very excited to see an EK fight that would get me there with 1 stop and I had the choice of choosing First/ Business or economy in various combinations and permutations over the 2 legs. Jumped in to book it but just after I've put all my information in it keeps coming up with an error. I've tried numerous times but no success. Has anyone struck this before? Do I have to ring and wait 5 hours on the phone! Any idea's gratefully received. Thanks

 

[vetrade]

Hi Everyone, I was just on the QF FF website kicking tyres and looking to see if I could get a more direct flight to Milan than I have already (I used the multi city search function). Got very excited to see an EK fight that would get me there with 1 stop and I had the choice of choosing First/ Business or economy in various combinations and permutations over the 2 legs. Jumped in to book it but just after I've put all my information in it keeps coming up with an error. I've tried numerous times but no success. Has anyone struck this before? Do I have to ring and wait 5 hours on the phone! Any idea's gratefully received. Thanks

EK is a QF partner but not a OneWorld airline so you can't use them for a OWA.

 

[Mr H]

Hi Everyone, I was just on the QF FF website kicking tyres and looking to see if I could get a more direct flight to Milan than I have already (I used the multi city search function). Got very excited to see an EK fight that would get me there with 1 stop and I had the choice of choosing First/ Business or economy in various combinations and permutations over the 2 legs. Jumped in to book it but just after I've put all my information in it keeps coming up with an error. I've tried numerous times but no success. Has anyone struck this before? Do I have to ring and wait 5 hours on the phone! Any idea's gratefully received. Thanks

As well as not being eligible for a OWA, this looks like terrible value. One flight is in economy, and with the high fees it looks like you would effectively be paying the full economy fare plus 144k points just to upgrade a single flight to business class.

 

[ozflier]

I ha

Just to be a bit clearer re my post .
Re my flight BNE-HND late august 2022, I received an email from from Qantas Customer Services telling me to contact QFF and organise to change to alternate flights as the service had been cancelled .
I also subscribe to "Executive Traveller" and it notes there that Australia to Japan flights will now be delayed until at least september 2022. Qantas delays restart of flights to Tokyo
Weirdly, my QFF online booking page says that the BNE-HND flight is still going 29 august.
I rang 131313 and, despite the Agent being aware of QF press release coming out early today announcing the cancellations, she checked my booking and said there were no notations re cancellations of my flight !!! So she can't do anything until it is officially noted in my booking .
So I am just waiting !

I had another attempt last night and it did take a while but the agent finally agreed that the BNE-HND flight no longer exists on that date.
He suggested that i wait until some one contact me who was doing the flight re assignments .
QF will not be flying Australia to Japan until september at the earliest so another OW airline would be needed.
I said i was not so much concerned about QF sectors being fixed but more about other OW airlines which did not have the capacity to convert revenue seats to award.
I told him that i could see QF BNE-SIN ( no award seats in J) on that day connecting with a JAL service SIN-HND which had J award seats available.
The agent was not too happy re this unilateral change but I was concerned that not acting quickly , the JAL "u" seats might disappear.
So he agreed to speak to superiors and he rang back in 60 minutes saying my suggested reroute had been agreed to and "u" seats created in the BNE-SIN sector.
Overall happy with the eventual outcome .
I hope other posters in this forum are just as lucky.

 

[Wolf creek]

Hello brains trust looking to book Sydney to Milan on Qatar Is it an advantage to have qantas platinum or that advantage only applies to QF flights

 

[Wolf creek]

Looking at May 2023 ty

 

[levelnine]

only applies to QF flights

Only QF flights. No early access to or ability to request release of partner awards.

 

[Wolf creek]

Is it an advantage to have qantas platinum or that advantage only applies to QF flights

 

[vetrade]

He suggested that i wait until some one contact me who was doing the flight re assignments .

Does anyone have info about this "flight re-assignment" process and how satisfactory and timely it is from a passenger's point of view?
Does QF routinely & proactively contact customers when some schedule change demands a change of flight/s or do customers need to take the initiative?
If a re-route is required, especially where one flight is replaced by 2, do they re-calculate the taxes for the whole itinerary and charge you more?

We have a re-schedule required for KUL - MEL in Sept because our DOH - KUL flight now arrives after the connecting flight has departed.
Received this 3 days ago: "We know you have a connecting flight MH129 from Kuala Lumpur at 9:20AM on 21 September 2022. We’re monitoring your booking and will send an update with your new flight details if we need to make changes"
Not impressed with the "if we need to make changes" bit.

Concerned that if QF sits on their hands too long, the scant J award availability of options through Tokyo etc might evaporate.
Any details of AFFers' experiences appreciated.

 

[squid01]

I was looking at getting from ADL to FCO (or anywhere in Central Europe) and came across a Qatar route ADL>MEL>DOH>FCO.

On JAL website it has this available in J when I search Adelaide to Rome. But when I search individual legs no availability. Also the full trip adl to fco says no availability when searching on Qantas or British air websites.

Is it likely this is phantom availability showing on jal website?

 

[ozflier]

I was in your exact position recently , It was a couple of days in advance that my BNE-HND flight was cancelled. I kept waiting for some notation on my booking that there was an issue - so I waited.
I did find a 2 flight option that would work if QF would free up business class seats BNE-SIN.
I have to say that i wanted to wait until QFF recognized there was a problem before i put the request in .
If i did the change , I guessed that i would be up for recalculation of taxes and fuel surcharges.
I gave up and just convinced the agent that my flight no longer exist.
In any case , changes were made and no extra charges were levied.
I wonder what will happen if i make future changes - will i then be up for a recalculation of fees including the latest 2 sectors.
It is not a great situation we are all in at the moment but just imagine using your own money and getting screwed around as we all have been ( to be fair , mostly not QFs fault)

I knew 3

Does anyone have info about this "flight re-assignment" process and how satisfactory and timely it is from a passenger's point of view?
Does QF routinely & proactively contact customers when some schedule change demands a change of flight/s or do customers need to take the initiative?
If a re-route is required, especially where one flight is replaced by 2, do they re-calculate the taxes for the whole itinerary and charge you more?

We have a re-schedule required for KUL - MEL in Sept because our DOH - KUL flight now arrives after the connecting flight has departed.
Received this 3 days ago: "We know you have a connecting flight MH129 from Kuala Lumpur at 9:20AM on 21 September 2022. We’re monitoring your booking and will send an update with your new flight details if we need to make changes"
Not impressed with the "if we need to make changes" bit.

Concerned that if QF sits on their hands too long, the scant J award availability of options through Tokyo etc might evaporate.
Any details of AFFers' experiences appreciat

 

[ozflier]

I was looking at getting from ADL to FCO (or anywhere in Central Europe) and came across a Qatar route ADL>MEL>DOH>FCO.

On JAL website it has this available in J when I search Adelaide to Rome. But when I search individual legs no availability. Also the full trip adl to fco says no availability when searching on Qantas or British air websites.

Is it likely this is phantom availability showing on jal website?

Is our old friend "married segment" raising its ugly head again.
In short flights connecting A to C via B may allowed but not A-B or B-C.
Not uncommon on Qatar or Cathay.

Qatar is known or selectively releasing award seats to airlines ( particularly mean to QF) so what is offered to, and available on BA or JAL or AA websites is not what is necessarily available to QFF fliers. This happens regularly on Iberia and in particular Air Nostrum . Far more business class availability on BA website vs QFF one ( maybe that's because BA and Iberia are owned by the same company - International Airways Group )

Re "phantom availability " there are some rational explanations for this .
One I know of is this
An airline say BA has a Qatar award seat available on their FF site - it is available on. QFF .
The seat is taken by someone out there in the frequent flier universe but individual airlines request or are given award availability at different times eg 4 or 6 hourly dumps .
So I can understand that at one particular time ,
the QR seat is no longer available but BA may still be offering it and it no longer exists on QFF.
Of course , this is just guesswork on my behalf!

 

[Captain Halliday]

Does anyone have info about this "flight re-assignment" process and how satisfactory and timely it is from a passenger's point of view?

I can offer only a single data point.

In my case it was HND-SYD for 3 pax in J flying JL.

QF flights same day and the following day were showing I0 and they refused to convert revenue seats. The also refused to release seats into BNE which was my ultimate destination.

Needing three may have been a factor, but from a passenger point of view I though it was very unsatisfactory especially as it meant cancellation of the entire PNR and they held my money for a further eight weeks.