Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Clayton]

QR availability is challenging since April/May when QR joined Avios, and many more people gained ready access to the awards by booking on the Qatar Airlines site and paying with Avios which directly transfer from their BA or Iberia memberships.

The QF membership grade doesn't enter into booking partner awards, only for QF awards, where Gold and above get almost 2 months access to awards before Bronze and Silver even see them, at about the same time MileagePlan and AAdvantage gain access to the remaining scraps of QF awards. So you have the same chance of grabbing some JAL awards as the more high ranking QF members.

CX used to be a great source of awards in and out of Australia, so we can only hope HKG opens to the world and CX recovers, otherwise you may need to pay for a cheap ticket to position out of Australia to start your adventure.

3 business awards on the same flights is going to be difficult, so you may have to investigate strategies to split travel for one of the travellers, especially for those routes where multiple flights leave on the same day.

Good luck, feel free to ask questions as you go.

 

[kctt]

QR availability is challenging since April/May when QR joined Avios, and many more people gained ready access to the awards by booking on the Qatar Airlines site and paying with Avios which directly transfer from their BA or Iberia memberships.

The QF membership grade doesn't enter into booking partner awards, only for QF awards, where Gold and above get almost 2 months access to awards before Bronze and Silver even see them, at about the same time MileagePlan and AAdvantage gain access to the remaining scraps of QF awards. So you have the same chance of grabbing some JAL awards as the more high ranking QF members.

CX used to be a great source of awards in and out of Australia, so we can only hope HKG opens to the world and CX recovers, otherwise you may need to pay for a cheap ticket to position out of Australia to start your adventure.

3 business awards on the same flights is going to be difficult, so you may have to investigate strategies to split travel for one of the travellers, especially for those routes where multiple flights leave on the same day.

Good luck, feel free to ask questions as you go.

Thanks for your reply.
I have flight options from Miami to Paris with BA transit time either 2 hours or 11 hours (arrive London in early morning then depart in the evening).
Is it worth to choose long layover about 11 hours to get out of LHR airport and check in some famous places in London? We will have a stop in Paris so we could take return train Paris-London cross the tunnel but if we could do a London city tour in 8 hours with the long transit and save money from return train Paris-London. I don't have travel ideas for more than a day in London.
Flying from America to UK means I have to do arrival immigration for UK if I want to go out to London? Then again departure immigration stamp to take flight London-Paris.

 

[shankoz]

Hi all - first time poster here - please be kind!! Firstly, my apologies if this has been answered elsewhere and I've done a bad job in searching for it....

I live in Perth and am trying to book a RTW Oneworld Reward for next May - I have successfully found availability for all the places we want to go.....if my first flight starts in Denpasar (the itinerary still finishes in Perth). Hence, I was just planning to buy a cheap one way positioning flight to DPS

Is there any great danger in starting in DPS? I get a warning page at the beginning stating the booking is subject to "Indonesian Terms and Conditions" and that the surcharges/taxes will be charged in Indonesian Rupiah (which when converted is still reasonable). I feel like there shouldn't be any issues but this is the first time I'm doing this and I'm super nervous!!

 

[Matt_01]

@kctt just a couple of points finding x3 J seats will be difficult, in the past JL and AY seemed to be the go to carriers for x3 J but at the moment it is hit and miss. We have been travelling as a party of 3 for the past 15 years and from the outset will normally book x2 and x1 on seperate PNRs, if we all manage to get onto the same flight that is a bonus. If we have to take seperate flights I will try to sequence the flights to depart/ arrive within several hours of each other or at worst a day apart.

 

[Matt_01]

Hi all - first time poster here - please be kind!! Firstly, my apologies if this has been answered elsewhere and I've done a bad job in searching for it....

I live in Perth and am trying to book a RTW Oneworld Reward for next May - I have successfully found availability for all the places we want to go.....if my first flight starts in Denpasar (the itinerary still finishes in Perth). Hence, I was just planning to buy a cheap one way positioning flight to DPS

Is there any great danger in starting in DPS? I get a warning page at the beginning stating the booking is subject to "Indonesian Terms and Conditions" and that the surcharges/taxes will be charged in Indonesian Rupiah (which when converted is still reasonable). I feel like there shouldn't be any issues but this is the first time I'm doing this and I'm super nervous!!

Even if you finish in PER you will still need to take into consideration the milage from PER-DPS, this is included in the 35000 miles calculation even if you do need the flight. The warning page from any country out side of AU is always the same, the key take away is any changes to your booking will be recalculated in IDR and charged to your CC (assuming it is AU issued) in AUD and you may gain or loose based on the FX rates and if applicable commissions/fees may be charged by your CC provider. As QF are offering points fee changes for international classic rewards through to 31 Dec 22 have you considered booking the cheapest possible international classic rewards booking from any AU port e.g. SYD-AKL so it is charged in AUD. Once the ticket is issued you can just call QF and change the flights to what you are after and if the flight from DPS is the first flight in the booking this will be considered as the point of origin for the milage calculation. I am currently doing the same thing however I am starting in AKL, my original PNR was MEL-NRT.

 

[shankoz]

Even if you finish in PER you will still need to take into consideration the milage from PER-DPS, this is included in the 35000 miles calculation even if you do need the flight. The warning page from any country out side of AU is always the same, the key take away is any changes to your booking will be recalculated in IDR and charged to your CC (assuming it is AU issued) in AUD and you may will or loose based on the FX rate and the commission/ fees your CC provider charges. As QF are offering points fee changes for international classic rewards through to 31 Dec 22 have you considered booking the cheapest possible international classic rewards booking from any AU port e.g. SYD-AKL so it is charged in AUD. Once the ticket is issued you can just call QF and change the flights to what you are after and if the flight from DPS is the first flight this will be considered as the point of origin for the milage calculation. I am currently doing the same thing however I am starting in AKL, the original PNR was MEL-NRT.

Hi Matt - thanks for the reply! I think even finishing in Perth, and with the PER-DPS considered a surface sector, the mileage is <35,000 as at the end of the multicity search, total points for the reward booking is 318k. And thanks for the reassurance about the warning page - I appreciate there'll be a small hit with converting to IDR with an AU CC!! (still way cheaper than trying to get out of Perth with an Emirates flight haha)

 

[FishFood]

I live in Perth and am trying to book a RTW Oneworld Reward for next May - I have successfully found availability for all the places we want to go.....if my first flight starts in Denpasar (the itinerary still finishes in Perth). Hence, I was just planning to buy a cheap one way positioning flight to DPS

I'm doing the inverse, starting in PER and ending in DPS. Basically a very convoluted one way trip to Bali

 

[algae]

Just booked a flight for next year. However got a 5685UI error when I included the last leg online. So I booked the first 5 legs online and called to add the last one. However they couldn't see availability, even though I can see it online (and if I start a new booking, I can click through to the payment page).

Granted the rep stayed on the phone with me for an hour (although after every question had to go check with her team) and was overall very helpful. She said they'd have a look and call back tomorrow (i'm not hopeful of this happening).

Anyone know what the problem might be?

Below booking details (2x people all flights in business).
Flight 1: PER>HKG>YYZ - Perth to Toronto
Flight 2: YUL>LHR>MAD>RAK - Montreal to Marrakech (I plan to change this to the direct RAM flight once available)
Flight 3: RAK>LHR - Marrakech to London
Flight 4: LHR>ARN - London to Stockholm
Flight 5: ARN>HEL>KIX - Stockholm to Osaka

^This is all booked and confirmed, no problem. But adding another flight causes the 5685UI.
I asked the rep to book the below in Business (showing available online), but she couldnt find it.
Flight 6: KIX>NRT>KUL>PER - Osaka to Perth

When she couldn't do that I asked for KIX>KUL>PER in economy (just to have a booking locked in as this was also available on the Qantas website). She could find this flight, but she couldn't add it.

Any thoughts on why? Only coming in at 30,168 miles on Great circle.

 

[DC3]

… Anyone Any thoughts on why? Only coming in at 30,168 miles on Great circle.

Phantom availability somewhere in leg # 6?

Constantly checking with her team sets off alarm bells for me. Sometimes worth it to just HUACA in these cases.

 

[Wolf creek]

Hi all - first time poster here - please be kind!! Firstly, my apologies if this has been answered elsewhere and I've done a bad job in searching for it....

I live in Perth and am trying to book a RTW Oneworld Reward for next May - I have successfully found availability for all the places we want to go.....if my first flight starts in Denpasar (the itinerary still finishes in Perth). Hence, I was just planning to buy a cheap one way positioning flight to DPS

Is there any great danger in starting in DPS? I get a warning page at the beginning stating the booking is subject to "Indonesian Terms and Conditions" and that the surcharges/taxes will be charged in Indonesian Rupiah (which when converted is still reasonable). I feel like there shouldn't be any issues but this is the first time I'm doing this and I'm super nervous!!

I started in DPS flying QR ,be careful of cancellations of flights happened to me and they put me on the following day which stuffed up my destination plans.Fortunately I had a day up my sleeve in Bali and asked to go on the flight the day before instead.
Personally book your cheap flight to Bali with a day or 2 up your sleeve.

 

[shankoz]

I started in DPS flying QR ,be careful of cancellations of flights happened to me and they put me on the following day which stuffed up my destination plans.Fortunately I had a day up my sleeve in Bali and asked to go on the flight the day before instead.
Personally book your cheap flight to Bali with a day or 2 up your sleeve.

Oh wow, thanks for letting me know - I was toying with going a bit earlier just in case but now I'll definitely plan to spend a day or two in Bali beforehand!

 

[k_sheep]

Does anyone know, if you change flight dates (not destinations), does it get taxes recalculated?

Looking to push some flights out, but don't want to add on all the new fuel fines that have been introduced of late ....

 

[algae]

Sometimes worth it to just HUACA in these cases. Constantly checking with her team sets off alarm bells for me

Yeah will have to HUACA. What a pain.

Does anyone know, if you change flight dates (not destinations), does it get taxes recalculated?

I believe as it'll essentially re-issue the new dates as new 'tickets' all the taxes will be recalculated.

 

[Kangol]

Does anyone know, if you change flight dates (not destinations), does it get taxes recalculated?

Looking to push some flights out, but don't want to add on all the new fuel fines that have been introduced of late ....

It used to be a revalidation, not a reissue, so no.
Then again, things may have changed in the last couple of years - my experience with exactly this issue on OWAs is a few years old.

 

[Guvner]

Just be careful. Some agents seem to cancel and try to rebook rather than "change" (not sure if its a training issue). The result is flights can be lost or not re-ticketed properly/in time. Happened to me twice with flights that were changed due to scheduling, not by choice.. Both times taxes etc were re-calculated and re-ticketing took over week.

 

[Jacques Vert]

This will be our lifetime trip. First time on a business class flight ever.

From my test search, i cannot find any business reward flight to Europe via Doha on QR flight or on the way back. I see many booked trips have Doha in the itinerary. Comments in last few pages suggest QR business reward flight is very limited. What is my chance to book 3 business seats (J Class?) on QR flight just to get from Sydney to somewhere in Europe or on the way back?

To add to what others have said, your chances of getting 3 x J on QR ex Sydney are close to zero at present. While QR are one of my favourite airlines, it is not worth your effort in chasing something that is unlikely to happen. As you are after 3 seats, you need to take whatever you find. And as this will be your first time in Business Class, you will find most airlines to be an enjoyable experience (except perhaps EuroBusiness).

The secret to booking a Oneworld Award is to be flexible with airlines, routings and dates; and to book as far ahead as you can.

Good luck.

 

[andye]

To add to what others have said, your chances of getting 3 x J on QR ex Sydney are close to zero at present. While QR are one of my favourite airlines, it is not worth your effort in chasing something that is unlikely to happen. As you are after 3 seats, you need to take whatever you find. And as this will be your first time in Business Class, you will find most airlines to be an enjoyable experience (except perhaps EuroBusiness).

The secret to booking a Oneworld Award is to be flexible with airlines, routings and dates; and to book as far ahead as you can.

Good luck.

You might have more luck positioning to SIN/BKK/DPS/BKK etc but still hard to get 3xJ. CX used to be useful but sadly not viable now

 

[adamk8]

Following up on this. I have something booked right now, it's not ideal but it's workable. For those interested. The itinerary starts in early Dec and finishes in late Jan:

• MEL-HND
• NRT-HEL
• HEL-FCO
• MAD-DOH
• DOH-BKK
• SIN-PER
• PER-MEL (last one booked separately as I reached max 5 stops for 318k J)

Managed 4 J tickets for all segments.

The hardest part is getting back in AU basically any time in January. There was barely even a single Y award ticket from anywhere in Asia. Best they could do was book later in Jan with SIN-PER (still nothing to SYD or MEL).

I'm hoping more inventory will open up so I will have to monitor. Perhaps DOH-MEL will come back.

What is the best way to monitor for seats opening up? Manually checking? Or best to use expertflyer or a similar service to set alerts? (will that work?).

Another follow up.

I tried expertflyer alerts but nothing came through. Qantas told me that basically almost all routes back into Australia in all of Jan had no availability in business (let alone 4 seats). The exception was back via Finland and Japan (same as our outbound). Qatar re-started a lot more flights back to AU but even with that there was no business award availability.

However, I lucked out and Qantas were able to unlock seats for me from BKK-SYD (they told me this one had the best chances).

So basically we are all set now. Full itinerary is:
MEL-NRT-HEL-FCO/MAD-DOH-BKK-SYD-MEL

4 business class seats the whole way, leaving early Dec, coming back late Jan! Never thought we would be able to secure that.

 

[levelnine]

4 business class seats the whole way, leaving early Dec, coming back late Jan!

I would be buying a lottery ticket with that degree of luck!

 

[aikman]

I asked the rep to book the below in Business (showing available online), but she couldnt find it.
Flight 6: KIX>NRT>KUL>PER - Osaka to Perth

I think that agents needs to use a different system to see JL domestic but if they don't know this system exists then you have no chance.