Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[sunny_aus]

You should be able to through check your bags both times because your flights are in the same ticket and the transit is less than 24 hours in any one airport. You will need to retain your luggage receipts and you may not get the boarding passes all at once, in which case the transit deals will ask to see those luggage checks.

If it is reassuring, I through checked luggage AMM-LHR-HEL-DEL-MEL using three different airlines (RJ, AY and QF) with long transits and the overall journey spreading over four days

Thanks, that is reassuring.

So just to confirm, even though on the Qantas online booking section it lists Flight 1 as BKK-AMM with RJ, and then Flight 2 as AMM-LHR-CPH with BA, I should be ok to get bags checked all the way through to the end destination?

 

[Mr H]

Thanks, that is reassuring.

So just to confirm, even though on the Qantas online booking section it lists Flight 1 as BKK-AMM with RJ, and then Flight 2 as AMM-LHR-CPH with BA, I should be ok to get bags checked all the way through to the end destination?View attachment 309007

Yes

Obviously nothing in life is ever 100% certain as you will meet unexpected situations, but if you ask for your bags to be through checked there is no reason why they would not be. If, by some freak occurrence, they do not through check your bags then you will need to stump up for a visa on arrival in Jordan and collect your bags, take them upstairs and check them in again. But this will not happen.

Either way, if your inbound flight is late and causes you to miss the connection, it will be up to RJ or BA to re-accommodate you. Both airlines fly to London and there are plenty of flights from LHR to CPH.

 

[am0985]

After the e-tickets came through a refund of 318,000 points were credited back to my account with the description "CANCELLED - CLASSIC FLIGHT 1 ADT REF xx_xx_ ON REDEMPTION". I was immediately scared that the agent had cancelled one of my tickets... BUT, I have 2 new e-tickets with the confirmed itinerary and I can still see my booking on the Qantas website and also seat selection for 2 pax is also showing on all the airlines websites.

So, long story short do I need to be alarmed or should I keep quiet and accept that Qantas' incompetency has benefitted me 318k in points???...

Cheers, Ash

This same thing happened to me about two months ago. They didn't debit the 318,000 points yet, so as it stands I've got a RTW ticket for 0 points and about $1500...

 

[algae]

Hey all,
I've got flights booked for a trip in April next year, which i've had for quite some time.
The trip starts with PER>HKG>YYZ with Cathay in J.

Perth to HKG, no issue. Cathay is flying 3 days a week from Perth, including the Friday i'm booked on.
HKG to Toronto on the other hand, they operate 7 flights per week in April.... but not on the Saturday i'm booked on.
Theyre not selling cash tickets on Saturday anymore either. However my booking is still working on their website and hasnt been cancelled yet.

Any idea what's most likely?
- Flight will get cancelled closer to the date and my whole month long trip will be stuffed
- They will move me to the Sunday flight (making it a 15h stopover in HKG)
- Timetable might change again and they'll add a Saturday flight?

 

[Rich]

I am wondering, with flight cancellations and time changes, when should I get worried and when should I leave it alone as I am concerned about calling QF unnecessarily and then they mess something up.
As a simple example, I have an award booking for March flying QF metal to USA but returning on 2 x AA flights. Originally to SFO, but QF were pro-active in advising they delayed resumption of SFO flights and put me on an alternative. (The alternative wasn't really suitable but there was no problem calling as a PB and getting that fixed, but maybe I was just lucky).
What about AA?
From what I understand, if they cancelled my flight before we started the journey (left Australia), that would be a concern and probably (?) leave us without a holiday, but if they cancelled after we started they would have to get us home. Please correct me if I am wrong.
What I am not sure about is a change of flight time. When do flight time changes cause problems?

 

[Westly]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post for information. Sorry for any confusion, I have been confusing terminology between RTW and OWA tickets in my research – The OWA ticket, flying economy is what I am looking to book.

I would like to book as much as I can on the OWA ticket, and will need to book the remainder myself. I can find available OWA reward seats for:

Signapore ->Athens (British Airways)
Reykjavik->Barcelona (British Airways)
Madrid->Lima (American Airlines)
Cancun->Tokyo and; (America Airlines)
Tokyo->Perth (JAL/Qantas) or (JAL/MH)

This leaves Perth->Signapore, Athens->Reykjavik and Lima->Mexico City to be booked outside of the OWA ticket. I realise this isn't ideal - but this is potentially the only time to use these points, so gaining some benefit is better than none.

I can find all these flights on the Qantas multi-city search, I was hoping to book all shortly through this to avoid booking through the call centre. Is there any issues with booking through the multi city search on the qantas website?

Thanks again to those who replied with help / suggestions.

 

[Mr H]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post for information. Sorry for any confusion, I have been confusing terminology between RTW and OWA tickets in my research – The OWA ticket, flying economy is what I am looking to book.

I would like to book as much as I can on the OWA ticket, and will need to book the remainder myself. I can find available OWA reward seats for:

Signapore ->Athens (British Airways)
Reykjavik->Barcelona (British Airways)
Madrid->Lima (American Airlines)
Cancun->Tokyo and; (America Airlines)
Tokyo->Perth (JAL/Qantas) or (JAL/MH)

This leaves Perth->Signapore, Athens->Reykjavik and Lima->Mexico City to be booked outside of the OWA ticket. I realise this isn't ideal - but this is potentially the only time to use these points, so gaining some benefit is better than none.

I can find all these flights on the Qantas multi-city search, I was hoping to book all shortly through this to avoid booking through the call centre. Is there any issues with booking through the multi city search on the qantas website?

Thanks again to those who replied with help / suggestions.

You have too many flights to book online. You should call up asap before flights disappear. I am surprised you can't get ATH-LHR-KEF with BA in economy. SIN is usually doable via KUL.

 

[Westly]

You have too many flights to book online. You should call up asap before flights disappear. I am surprised you can't get ATH-LHR-KEF with BA in economy. SIN is usually doable via KUL.

Thanks, we can get ATH-LHR-KEF, by it has a long overnight layover, so thought it better to just book a direct flight outside OWA.

Might need to look at more options for PER-SIN, it was a late change of idea to go through Signapore. We were originally going to book PER-ATH ourselves also, when we struggling to find a reasonable PER-ATH without too many stop overs.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Signapore ->Athens (British Airways)
Reykjavik->Barcelona (British Airways)
Madrid->Lima (American Airlines)
Cancun->Tokyo and; (America Airlines)
Tokyo->Perth (JAL/Qantas) or (JAL/MH)

Is there any issues with booking through the multi city search on the qantas website?

You will have issues trying to book that combination of flights using the multi-city tool because of the number of surface sectors. It doesn't play well with those.

 

[Mr H]

Thanks, we can get ATH-LHR-KEF, by it has a long overnight layover, so thought it better to just book a direct flight outside OWA.

Might need to look at more options for PER-SIN, it was a late change of idea to go through Signapore. We were originally going to book PER-ATH ourselves also, when we struggling to find a reasonable PER-ATH without too many stop overs.

Your call - I would have stepped outside the airport and had a night in one of the airport hotels.

 

[ozflier]

Your call - I would have stepped outside the airport and had a night in one of the airport hotels.

There is a 3 day per week Madrid to KEF direct service by Iberia leaving 2230 hrs - worth looking up ATH-MAD-KEF for your dates

 

[Danger]

It's more expensive to fly one leg in Y and one in J than both in J? What am I missing here?

 

[algae]

Hey all,
I've got flights booked for a trip in April next year, which i've had for quite some time.
The trip starts with PER>HKG>YYZ with Cathay in J.

Perth to HKG, no issue. Cathay is flying 3 days a week from Perth, including the Friday i'm booked on.
HKG to Toronto on the other hand, they operate 7 flights per week in April.... but not on the Saturday i'm booked on.
Theyre not selling cash tickets on Saturday anymore either. However my booking is still working on their website and hasnt been cancelled yet.

Any idea what's most likely?
- Flight will get cancelled closer to the date and my whole month long trip will be stuffed
- They will move me to the Sunday flight (making it a 15h stopover in HKG)
- Timetable might change again and they'll add a Saturday flight?

Following on from this, as i get the feeling my itinerary might get cancelled at some point (as the HKG>YYZ flight is comfortably the most expensive of the entire trip and wouldn't be easy to replace).

I've gone ahead and booked an entirely separate OWA at the same time in May. By some miracle managed to get J availability to Japan, Finland, Europe & India for 2x passengers at this short notice.

So now i have 1.27m qantas points tied up in two bookings for May 2023.

Is there any issue having the same passengers booked on two separate itineraries at the same time?

I've got flights that 'conflict' with the other booking (eg. I'll be flying from Stockholm>Helsinki on AY in one booking at 7am on Monday, while at the same time/date flying from Stockholm>London on BA in the other booking).

No conflicts are the same airline however.

Anything i should watch out for? I plan to hold on to both and cancel whichever has issues closer to the date.

 

[ozflier]

I have done the same for the same reasons.
No problems so far!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's more expensive to fly one leg in Y and one in J than both in J? What am I missing here?

Is there a message when you click on the 61k point option? (similar to the one that comes up for the 75k option where it says one leg is in business class)

 

[ozflier]

FYI,
I can see a spattering of economy , Prem Y and business class seat availability for DFW -MEL in May and June 2023- not many mind you but some !

 

[ms1]

I have finalised today the following for 3 pax travelling in July next year:

SYD-HKG-DEL-LHR (CX/BA)
CDG-HEL-JFK (AY)
LAX-SYD (QF)

I originally had ticketed
SYD-HKG-DEL-LHR (CX/BA)
CDG-HEL-HKG-SYD (AY/CX)
as this was just a return trip to Europe but seeing it already capped at 318k I decided to extend the trip to the US. Will potentially try add a stop in Asia if availability comes up to try and get more value. Also hoping that HKG-LHR seats on CX pop up so I can avoid DEL and BA.

In future I will just continue to HUACA until I get Hobart as the overseas teams could not get this finalised as they insisted that HEL-JFK was on waitlist even though classic seats were available on qantas.com

 

[Mr H]

In future I will just continue to HUACA until I get Hobart as the overseas teams could not get this finalised as they insisted that HEL-JFK was on waitlist even though classic seats were available on qantas.com

You do not say what status you have. My understanding (and my experience) is that if you are lower than Platinum, it does not matter how many times you call, you will not get through to Hobart. Your FF number will block that from happening.

 

[ms1]

You do not say what status you have. My understanding (and my experience) is that if you are lower than Platinum, it does not matter how many times you call, you will not get through to Hobart. Your FF number will block that from happening.

Platinum. In the past I feel like I would get through to Hobart almost every single time but nowadays more often than not it's South Africa.

 

[squid01]

Am currently three weeks into my 15 week OWCA.

The first leg from ADL to LHR consisted of five flights lol. One in the middle was cancelled by MH with no other OW option, if you recall from my complaining in this thread. So I had to purchase flights on Malindo from KUL to HKT. All five flights pretty well on time except that mail do one which was an hour late. All worked out ok. Got to sample MH and QR business seats. Got to Doha and asked if they could upgrade on the next leg to first, lady said they only had one seat did we want it. Stupidly didn’t as wanted to share the experience with my partner, we both kind of kicking ourselves now hah.

Currently in the Finnair lounge in Helsinki about to go to NYC for the middle leg of the trip.

Overall, dealing with the cancellations and with the call centre over months to get this fixed, I will never book an itinery like this again. Only if they fix their customer service quality. Until then I will enjoy all the free champagne and business class seats I can, having only ever paid for one Qantas fare in my life haha.

Nine weeks into the fifteen week trip now. That Finnair flight from HEL to JFK was amazingly good. The new Finnair J seat is phenomenal, it’s like being on a really comfy large sofa or day bed. The middle seats are great for a travelling pair, much better than MH or QR (rev herringbone) configurations. Food was fantastic, HEL lounge was nice. Fiancé and I drank them out of champagne on the flight, had a lot of fun.

Then had AA from JFK to BOG via MIA. Pretty much a slightly better version of Jetstar business class, but still alright. Next up MEX to LAS business on AA, then LAS to LAX then finally LAX to MEL on QF in J.

Is the Qantas lounge at LAX the best oneworld lounge option?