Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

Another 'wow' OWA question.
I changed my OWA booking Feb 25 and it was ticketed (still is according to RJ - ahh farewell CMT - I knew you so well.....)
But I have just downloaded my Tax Invoice and it still shows the old itinerary. Is this just good old QANTAS inefficiency or reason to panic?

I don't think you can tell from the RJ site whether or not your booking is still ticketed - only that it was ticketed at some previous point.
 
I had OWA flight changes today.. thanks BA!

Reached HBA on call 2 but still didn’t ticket in time and MH sectors have started dropping.

Some data points for life without CMT:

1. On RJ, as soon as the agent began making changes, the old ticket numbers dropped out.

2. I had set up both seat alerts and aircraft change alerts on EF. These fired quickly and were my first clue that the MH sectors were gone.

Frustratingly I can’t select new seats with reinstatement pending, so other than constantly checking, I don’t see another way to monitor flights.
 
I've got my e-ticket for my OWCA but points have yet to be deducted. I have a -318k charge and then a credit for 318k immediately after. My flight was ticketed about 24 hours after these "charges". Will the points be taken eventually or should I call up and make sure it's taken?
Don't call up. I booked mine back in late October 2022 for August - October this year. Same thing happened to me and points still haven't been taken.

Ticket numbers etc all valid and have the points still in my account in case they realise they need to take them.
 
I don't think you can tell from the RJ site whether or not your booking is still ticketed - only that it was ticketed at some previous point.
Ugh. QANTAS System may be an Oxymoron. So this is what it feels like to be flying naked.... No certainty until we return home? 🙀
 
Am looking at a PDX - HEL leg in Nov/Dec as part of a OWA in J and the taxes are pricing at USD1000 I'm assuming cause it has a connection through LHR. I realise flying out of LHR is tax stupidity but that was the cost of my whole OWA taxes a few yrs ago. Have things changed - or do taxes somehow even out once the OWA legs are confirmed and 318K used?! Any clues on other ways from NW USA to Europe, avoiding LHR?
 
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Am looking at a PDX - HEL leg in Nov/Dec as part of a OWA in J and the taxes are pricing at USD1000 I'm assuming cause it has a connection through LHR. I realise flying out of LHR is tax stupidity but that was the cost of my whole OWA taxes a few yrs ago. Have things changed - or do taxes somehow even out once the OWA legs are confirmed and 318K used?! Any clues on other ways from NW USA to Europe, avoiding LHR?

I have not researched this deeply, but taxes and fees are much higher now than they have ever been. Some airlines are reportedly expensive and others less so. I consistently hear RJ and BA cited as expensive. The UK's air passenger duty is high for long distance international routes in premium class, but personally I would not bother with the inconvenience you have in trying to avoid it. It just adds to the overall bill you have to pay, but I don't investigate the bill too closely. I just fly with my airlines and routes of choice subject to availability. I know this is illogical as I will get a nosebleed if I have to pay more than $100 a night for accommodation, more than $60 for a visa or more than about $20 for ground transportation.
 
Am looking at a PDX - HEL leg in Nov/Dec as part of a OWA in J and the taxes are pricing at USD1000 I'm assuming cause it has a connection through LHR. I realise flying out of LHR is tax stupidity but that was the cost of my whole OWA taxes a few yrs ago. Have things changed - or do taxes somehow even out once the OWA legs are confirmed and 318K used?! Any clues on other ways from NW USA to Europe, avoiding LHR?

My latest J OWA booked in Feb is SYD-DFW (QF) stop DFW-LHR (BA) stop LHR-DUB (BA) stop DUB-HEL (AY) stop HEL-JFK(AY) thent LAX-SYD (QF) total taxes $1.3k so they have gone up a little since last year's OWA which was SYD-SIN-LHR (QF)-EDI(BA) stop // GLA-LHR (BA) stop LHR-JFK(BA) stop JFK-ORD (AA) stop ORD-DFW(AA)-SYD(QF) which was $1.1k for taxes; but both had LHR stops.

Doesn't seem right that one leg would add $1k extra in taxes; have you priced this doing a dummy booking for whole itinerary or was it quoted by a call centre agent?

On AY (Finnair) you can fly ORD or JFK to HEL and then onward to most major ports in EU. Iberia also fly from New York, Chicago O’Hare, Boston and Washington. Or you can g the long way from US via DOH to EU.
 
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My latest J OWA booked in Feb is SYD-DFW (QF) stop DFW-LHR (BA) stop LHR-DUB (BA) stop DUB-HEL (AY) stop HEL-JFK(AY) thent LAX-SYD (QF) total taxes $1.3k so they have gone up a little since last year's OWA which was SYD-SIN-LHR (QF)-EDI(BA) stop // GLA-LHR (BA) stop LHR-JFK(BA) stop JFK-ORD (AA) stop ORD-DFW(AA)-SYD(QF) which was $1.1k for taxes; but both had LHR stops.

Doesn't seem right that one leg would add $1k extra in taxes; have you priced this doing a dummy booking for whole itinerary or was it quoted by a call centre agent?

On AY (Finnair) you can fly ORD or JFK to HEL and then onward to most major ports in EU. Iberia also fly from New York, Chicago O’Hare, Boston and Washington. Or you can g the long way from US via DOH to EU.
Thanks @Lynda2475 for the tax comparisons and routing ideas.

The taxes for the dummy booking (using multi city tool) were $1031.10 (USD) for 1 person in J.
 
The high taxes aren't due to the connection through London as much as the carrier being BA* and the flight originating in the US. But as part of a OWA, the taxes will recalculate according to wherever you start your OWA. Assuming that's Australia, have you tried the dummy booking with Australia as country of origin, i.e. try a local domestic flight as Flight 1 and see the difference this makes.

*As Lynda mentioned, you'll find the taxes on AY to be considerably lower than on BA.
 
The high taxes aren't due to the connection through London as much as the carrier being BA* and the flight originating in the US. But as part of a OWA, the taxes will recalculate according to wherever you start your OWA. Assuming that's Australia, have you tried the dummy booking with Australia as country of origin, i.e. try a local domestic flight as Flight 1 and see the difference this makes.

*As Lynda mentioned, you'll find the taxes on AY to be considerably lower than on BA.
This!

BA TATL by itself is very expensive. Once part of a OWA the surcharge in carrier fees for TATL reduces significantly.

On a US-HEL-LHR itinerary there shouldn’t be any significant LHR fees, except maybe an arrival fee.
 
My OWA was surprisingly extremely affordable - possibly due to human error.

MEL - NRT - FRA (JL) - LCY (BA) in J
MAD - JFK (IB) in J
JFK - CUN (AA) in Y
CUN - AUS - LAS (AA) in J
LAX - KIX (JL) in J
NRT - MEL (JL) in J

Only $635 AUD pp for taxes. Somehow my last two legs were ticketed for no fee at all.

Taxes to get from FRA - LCY were close to the same as getting from MEL - FRA.
 
Hi,

I have a Qantas Oneworld Award booking in economy which I am trying to make changes to.

The existing booking is:

Mon 17th Apr, SIN-SYD, QF2. transit.
Tue 17th Apr, SYD-BNE, QF504. stop.
surface sector BNE-SYD
Mon 10th Jun, SYD-HNL, QF103. stop.
Sun 25th Jun, HNL-SYD, QF104. stop.
Sat 22nd Jul, SYD-KUL, MH140. stop.
Wed 26th Jul, KUL-CMB, UL316. transit.
Wed 26th Jul, CMB-BOM, UL141. stop.
surface sector BOM-DEL
Mon 14th Aug, DEL-MEL, QF70. transit.
Tue 15th Aug, MEL-NTL, QF1598


I want to remove the SYD-HNL flight on the 10th Jun and add SYD-DRW on the 15th Sep.

I have been told by two different agents now that this throws up an error on their end and they can't make the changes for me.

One advised to cancel and rebook and the other seemed to be saying that rebooking would not help.

There are also some other changes that I want to make, but these two are the most important.

If I could make the changes, the booking would be:

Mon 17th Apr, SIN-SYD, QF2. transit.
Tue 17th Apr, SYD-BNE, QF504. stop.
surface sector BNE-HNL
Sun 25th Jun, HNL-SYD, QF104. stop.
Sat 22nd Jul, SYD-KUL, MH140. stop.
Wed 26th Jul, KUL-CMB, UL316. transit.
Wed 26th Jul, CMB-BOM, UL141. stop.
surface sector BOM-DEL
Mon 14th Aug, DEL-MEL, QF70. transit.
Tue 15th Aug, MEL-NTL, QF1598. stop.
surface sector NTL-SYD
Fri 15th Sep, SYD-DRW, QF842


Are the three surface sectors the problem?

Or is there some other problem that I am not seeing?

Miles are OK - in great circle mapper I get 32,585 miles for: sin-mel, mel-bne, bne-hnl, hnl-syd, syd-kul, kul-cmb, cmb-bom, bom-del, del-mel, mel-ntl, ntl-syd, syd-drw, drw-sin
 
Or is there some other problem that I am not seeing?

I could be wrong but it looks like on your original you have 2 stops in SYD due to your surface sector from bne-syd; and while you can transit the same city twice you cant stop there twice. If it was ticketed in error originally could be a problem to chnage now.
 
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Hello all. I had a great trip booked in J for 2023 MEL-DOH-FCO then CDG-HEL then HEL-NRT-MEL. After QR segments droped off I spent hours and hours trying to reinstate the seats I gave up and changed trip to Japan only.

Interesting that I only got my points refund 292k and $1000 CC credit after posting on Twitter as my last resort when I was told I wasn't due anything by call centre in Fiji.

Anyway I am back trying to book a Europe trip for 2024 and preparing by doing some dummy bookings and searches and I have questions.

First thing I noticed was Finnair seats HEL-NRT do not come up ever. All their European reward seats show up on BA site not HEL-NRT :(
Have Finnair changed their availabilties?

Secondly, I have been looking at QR in that case to get to Europe and return home. Qantas site does not show QR availability at all but seats show up on BA so that is where I am looking.

However BA has 354 days our limit to their search. QR has 361. So there would be seats on QR free but the BA site cannot show. Is there a better site to look for QR seats?

Finally once I find QR seats do I then have to call Qantas to make the booking?

Hope someone can assist.
 
Hello all. I had a great trip booked in J for 2023 MEL-DOH-FCO then CDG-HEL then HEL-NRT-MEL. After QR segments droped off I spent hours and hours trying to reinstate the seats I gave up and changed trip to Japan only.

Interesting that I only got my points refund 292k and $1000 CC credit after posting on Twitter as my last resort when I was told I wasn't due anything by call centre in Fiji.

Anyway I am back trying to book a Europe trip for 2024 and preparing by doing some dummy bookings and searches and I have questions.

First thing I noticed was Finnair seats HEL-NRT do not come up ever. All their European reward seats show up on BA site not HEL-NRT :(
Have Finnair changed their availabilties?

Secondly, I have been looking at QR in that case to get to Europe and return home. Qantas site does not show QR availability at all but seats show up on BA so that is where I am looking.

However BA has 354 days our limit to their search. QR has 361. So there would be seats on QR free but the BA site cannot show. Is there a better site to look for QR seats?

Finally once I find QR seats do I then have to call Qantas to make the booking?

Hope someone can assist.

You can only book what you see on the Qantas website. Almost all QR flights are not available using Qantas points.
 
I think - but I'm hazy on this - that a surface sector counts as a stop in the port where you land but not the port where you take off.

Interesting, I’ve always just included the surface sectors in my GCM calculations as if Id flown the route directly.
 
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