Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[squid01]

If you read through this thread and some other Qantas complaint threads (there are a few in the Qantas forum), you'll see that some people have had luck getting Qantas to convert a revenue ticket to an award ticket on their own flights. That's probably as best you can hope for. Note it may take a lot of patience finding a phone agent able and willing to do it for you. That's what I'd be doing in your shoes.

Also keep checking availability on QR. They just opened up more award space on one of my flights I'm taking in January.

Just got off a lengthy call with QF. Called and was on hold for a min then got through to NZ! (I’m a bronze). But this girl was new and wasn’t trained in award bookings. She transferred me to award team but it was just Manila. They then transferred me again and I got SA.

Explained that I now have a gap in my leg from ADL>LHR and they need to sort out a solution to get me to LHR. I cheekily pushed for them to put in a request with the Oneworld desk for Qatar to open some seats on a flight from ADL to DOH to LHR. They put the request in (took a long time on hold for some reason). Not counting on it but who knows. May as well try that and if it fails will probably make them open up QF seats on the direct PER to LHR flight.

I have had success in getting seats opened up on QF metal. In the same OWA I was doing LAX>SYD>MEL to get home they cancelled the domestic flight and suggested a later time in the day. I phoned and asked them to open seats on the LAX>MEL flight and they did! Anyway fingers crossed but not counting on this Qatar flight to be opened up.

 

[melbkate]

Thanks for that - well update I got through to Fiji and great consultant who saw it hadn't been ticketed - went on hold to 'the team' siad it would take too long and she would call me back. She did an hour later and hey presto got the email with proper e-ticket so thanks for advice and this forum for alerting me that my confidence in my booking was remiss I had no idea bout this reticketing business so thank you

Follow up question to those in the know - if I want to add a flight to my OWA now what is the best way to address the reticketing issue and make sure I don't lose legs - my flights currently MEL-CBR (QF) - CBR-DOH-FCO (QR) CDG-HEL (AY) HEL-NRT (AY) NRT-MEL (JL) thanks

 

[levelnine]

Follow up question to those in the know - if I want to add a flight to my OWA now what is the best way to address the reticketing issue and make sure I don't lose legs - my flights currently MEL-CBR (QF) - CBR-DOH-FCO (QR) CDG-HEL (AY) HEL-NRT (AY) NRT-MEL (JL) thanks

Call early in the day and ask the agent to have the booking ticketed immediately due to the risk of the Qatar sectors being lost if it does not occur straight away. They'll probably tell you it's been put in the queue and say it'll be done in an hour or two. Hang up, wait 20 minutes and call again. Ask for it to be ticketed. Keep doing this all day until someone gets it done.

---

Has anyone ever had any luck unmarrying two Qatar segments? I want to change the second sector to J now that J is available, but it has become married to the longer Australia-Qatar sector in J. Only way agent knew of getting around the issue would be to cancel the Australia-Qatar sector and try to book the whole thing again. I definitely don't want to do that as it risks losing the Australia-Qatar seats if they don't go back into award inventory.

 

[Mr H]

Good luck.
In my recent similar issue, it took 20 days (and many phone calls) for a Reinstatement Request to go from Waitlisted to Confirmed.

I am a pessimist and yesterday/last night I was distraught.

Then I had a flash of perspective.

Basically, a OWA is (up to) six point to point flights. Looking at my broken itinerary, there are now three missing sectors:

• MEL-SYD-KUL-DEL (two MH flights gone) - this could be salvaged if QF released a seat on their direct MEL-DEL flight giving me an extra day at home (save a day's annual leave) or in Delhi.
• LHR-DOH-IKA (two QR flights gone) - there are economy revenue flights to Tehran with LH for around $1000 or business class options for around $2500 that would save me an overnight in Doha, giving me an extra day with my mum in England.
• IKA-DOH-CMN-TUN (two QR flights and one AT flight gone) - there are economy options for around $700 and there is a business class option with TK for around $2000 that could avoid overnights in DOH and CMN, giving me two extra days in Tunis.

This makes me happier that I will, at least, be able to travel and I can see upsides to each of the alternatives, even if it is not what I had originally planned. So let's see what QF can do to retrieve the situation, but I feel much more at peace with myself now. Everything will be alright.

 

[ozflier]

I know. The flights that have gone are the MH, QR and AT ones - so presumably there was a need for reticketing and it was not reticketed within 24 hours. The agent on the phone right now (Api in Fiji) can see the flights that should have been there and he is trying to rebuild the itinerary.

I have suffered many non qantas airline flight cancellations on my remaining OWAs. Your situation is a recurring nightmare for me . Good luck.

 

[Mr H]

I have suffered many non qantas airline flight cancellations on my remaining OWAs. Your situation is a recurring nightmare for me . Good luck.

In this case, I think it was a retiming of a QR flight by five minutes. I had to accept the change, which I did online (big mistake). This presumably triggered a need to reticket the entire itinerary and when that was not done within 24 hours, every MH, QR and AT booking was cancelled. This seems to be a fundamental weakness in the system and will presumably impact many people.

 

[melbkate]

In this case, I think it was a retiming of a QR flight by five minutes. I had to accept the change, which I did online (big mistake). This presumably triggered a need to reticket the entire itinerary and when that was not done within 24 hours, every MH, QR and AT booking was cancelled. This seems to be a fundamental weakness in the system and will presumably impact many people.

That is terrible! Why was it a 'big mistake'? Could it have been avoided do you think?

 

[Mr H]

That is terrible! Why was it a 'big mistake'? Could it have been avoided do you think?

If I had known it would lead to a reticketing, I would have phoned up and tried to stay on the line while it was reticketed. I think accepting the change online was pretty much equivalent to clicking a button saying "please cancel my booking without refund".

 

[acinod]

One of my destinations is Osaka but I have to fly to Tokyo Haneda in order to be under the 35000 limit for the oneworld award. I'm thinking of booking a ticket straight after I land in Tokyo but how much time do I need to allow for luggage? I think I'll need to pick up my luggage and check in again given it's a separate ticket? Say I land at 1pm, would I be safe booking a flight to Osaka departing at 3pm?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

One of my destinations is Osaka but I have to fly to Tokyo Haneda in order to be under the 35000 limit for the oneworld award. I'm thinking of booking a ticket straight after I land in Tokyo but how much time do I need to allow for luggage? I think I'll need to pick up my luggage and check in again given it's a separate ticket? Say I land at 1pm, would I be safe booking a flight to Osaka departing at 3pm?

That sounds very optimistic to me.
It wouldn’t take much to go wrong to cause you to miss the 2nd flight.
Late departure flight 1, arrival airport congestion causing holding pattern, congestion at immigration, slow luggage offloading, congestion at customs, etc., etc…

 

[FishFood]

One of my destinations is Osaka but I have to fly to Tokyo Haneda in order to be under the 35000 limit for the oneworld award. I'm thinking of booking a ticket straight after I land in Tokyo but how much time do I need to allow for luggage? I think I'll need to pick up my luggage and check in again given it's a separate ticket? Say I land at 1pm, would I be safe booking a flight to Osaka departing at 3pm?

Have you considered the Shinkansen?

 

[acinod]

Have you considered the Shinkansen?

At first I disregarded this since it takes 3 hours and slightly more expensive. But it's going to take more than 3 hours for me to pick up my luggage, wait for the next flight and train into Osaka then Shinkansen seems to be more worth. Now to work out what time I should book my Shinkansen ticket. Or am I better off buying it when I get there?

 

[Mr H]

Api said specifically and more than once that he (i.e. Qantas) guarantees that the flights will be reinstated and ticketed. I pressed for a timeframe and was told after some difficulty that they would be fully ticketed within 72 hours.

Called again today for a progress update. Efa in Fiji now says it takes at least a week to hear back from the other airlines. He is trying to blame them for cancelling the flights - really, three airlines decide to cancel my flights all on the same morning!

I asked about whether I could book revenue flights and get reimbursed by Qantas. He said yes. So I asked, just to be clear, that I could go ahead with the booking and be guaranteed that Qantas would pay. Oh no, he said, I was welcome to book and then apply for compensation but it was not guaranteed this would be paid.

 

[jeza]

In this case, I think it was a retiming of a QR flight by five minutes. I had to accept the change, which I did online (big mistake). This presumably triggered a need to reticket the entire itinerary and when that was not done within 24 hours, every MH, QR and AT booking was cancelled. This seems to be a fundamental weakness in the system and will presumably impact many people.

I had a retimed QR flight & aircraft change alert come through on CMT last night. Logged into QF, accepted the change & received new E-ticket about half an hour later. This is the 2nd retiming on this ticket I've had.

So it appears it does work sometimes, I'm wondering if there is point where the system can no longer do the process automatically. My ticket was booked online in the one go with no flights added or removed since that point. The only changes are the 2 flight retiming & 1 aircraft change..

The only issue is it's tightened up my layover time at DOH to 1hr 10min which leaves me a bit nervous...

 

[acinod]

I've been making changes to my oneworld booking and the additional taxes don't make sense to me. I first made this booking at the start of the year and taxes totaled $1.2k.

MEL-HKG (Cathay)
HKG-TLV (Cathay)
JRO-DOH-ARN (Qatar)
ARN-JFK (Finnair)

One of my flight dates got changed so I had to change all the dates of the last 2 legs but the new ticket would cost an additional $265 in taxes. Any reason why I need to pay additional taxes despite these being the exact same flights just on different dates? Have the cost of taxes increased since I last booked and hence the ticket cost total has updated.

In the end I paid the additional $265 in taxes. A week later I wanted to add another leg to my flight for HEL-HND. Booking on Qantas shows taxes are only $448 but when I tried to add this leg over the phone, the call staff informed me that the cost will be $890. Any reason why the cost of adding this flight is twice the cost of a separate ticket? They said it might be because there were no points deducted so the cost is more but I'm not convinced.

 

[CaptainCurtis]

I know. The flights that have gone are the MH, QR and AT ones - so presumably there was a need for reticketing and it was not reticketed within 24 hours. The agent on the phone right now (Api in Fiji) can see the flights that should have been there and he is trying to rebuild the itinerary.

Exact same thing just happened to me today with MH flights. Qantas didn't reticket a change I made within 24 hours, so poof, all of my MH flights dropped off the booking.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

I've been making changes to my oneworld booking and the additional taxes don't make sense to me. I first made this booking at the start of the year and taxes totaled $1.2k.

MEL-HKG (Cathay)
HKG-TLV (Cathay)
JRO-DOH-ARN (Qatar)
ARN-JFK (Finnair)

One of my flight dates got changed so I had to change all the dates of the last 2 legs but the new ticket would cost an additional $265 in taxes. Any reason why I need to pay additional taxes despite these being the exact same flights just on different dates? Have the cost of taxes increased since I last booked and hence the ticket cost total has updated.

In the end I paid the additional $265 in taxes. A week later I wanted to add another leg to my flight for HEL-HND. Booking on Qantas shows taxes are only $448 but when I tried to add this leg over the phone, the call staff informed me that the cost will be $890. Any reason why the cost of adding this flight is twice the cost of a separate ticket? They said it might be because there were no points deducted so the cost is more but I'm not convinced.

Part of the reason will be that whenever there’s a change to the ticket, the ENTIRE ticket charges get recalculated.
So, if there are significant changes in exchange rates, or fuel fees, etc., then the effects can be larger than otherwise expected.
Both exchange rates and fuel fees have moved adversely in the last few months…

 

[sqrt()]

Just starting my J OWA today.

Was supposed to be SYD-MEL-SIN on QF435 (737) and QF35 (330) with a 2:25 connection time.

First flight cancelled this morning and then auto rebooked to the 13:00 SYD-MEL QF445. Knew I could do better so asked about availability on QF1 this afternoon, as I saw some F availability on EF when I checked (but no J/I etc?). Mentioned I was worried about the new SYD-MEL being cancelled or delayed and missing connection - it probably would have been OK but figured I'd ask regardless.

Regular service desk in SYD absolutely swamped but no line whatsoever for priority. Lovely agent (not sure of her name) went off for five and came back to tell me I was now booked direct on QF1 - RESULT! Looking at the QF app it looks like they originally tried rebooking me on the direct QF81 at 11:10, but I don't think I would have had time to get to SYD T1.

I think this is how everything is supposed to work...

Got my Chai Latte in the SYD J lounge, gonna be a difficult five hours.

 

[acinod]

Part of the reason will be that whenever there’s a change to the ticket, the ENTIRE ticket charges get recalculated.
So, if there are significant changes in exchange rates, or fuel fees, etc., then the effects can be larger than otherwise expected.
Both exchange rates and fuel fees have moved adversely in the last few months…

OK I think I figured it out.

It looks like the taxes reduce if I put in the last leg and return to Melbourne.

Here are the taxes required for the following flight routes:

• MEL-HKG-TLV-JRO-DOH-ARN-JFK-HEL-HND - $2320.40 (what I currently have booked)
• MEL-HKG-TLV-JRO-DOH-ARN-JFK-HEL-HND-NRT-MEL - $1492.94
• HKG-TLV-JRO-DOH-ARN-JFK-HEL-HND-NRT-MEL - $1940.11

As you can see, starting and ending my trip in MEL appears to significantly reduce the total taxes. If I book my NRT-MEL flight, will Qantas refund me the difference in total taxes or will I just pay no taxes?

Potentially if they don't refund me and I pay no taxes, I might be better off switching to a higher tax route (e.g. QSuites) like below:

• MEL-HKG-TLV-JRO-DOH-ARN-JFK-AMS-DOH-MEL - $2023.86

 

[points]

Hello to all the amazing experts on this forum. I managed to book a OWA business for two -
MEL - KUL stopover MH
KUL - BCN QR
ATH - BNE QR
At the time BNE - MEL availability hadn't been released and wasn't sure how we would fill the month from arriving in Barcelona and departing Athens (obviously no hardship finding things to do in Spain and Greece!) I had intended just adding in flights however after some further research I'm now very concerned that if I try to add in additional flights the whole booking may have to be reticketed and I could lose the whole booking. Any advice from the gurus would be greatly appreciated.