Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Mr H]

This is an adjustment of taxes and charges ( in my favour ) after changes have been made inJanuary to a OWA for Aug this year.
What would you do considering my comments on 14343?

Personally I would not touch it with a barge pole in case anything you do causes the tickets to come unstuck. I would just accept the higher taxes. FWIW, I have never had a refund of taxes and fees for changes that I have initiated myself, only when the changes were initiated by the airlines.

 

[gfraser]

I have been nervous re the tickets coming unstuck.
I have just received a reply from an email this morning to CC stating:
“As for your request, since your booked flights are future dated, we cannot process the refund as we only handle post travel cases. Once you have utilised your ticket, you can contact us back so we can process the refund.”
Lets wait and see!!!

 

[SydneySwan]

Personally I would not touch it with a barge pole in case anything you do causes the tickets to come unstuck. I would just accept the higher taxes. FWIW, I have never had a refund of taxes and fees for changes that I have initiated myself, only when the changes were initiated by the airlines.

I agree with your sentiments. However just for the record I have had adjustments to taxes and fees refunded from changes to an OWA initiated by myself. It was September 2022, it was only A$61.51 and it only took 2 days

 

[MelbFlyer]

But this is a new flight booking. A new flight is to be added to the itinerary.

If a new flight is to be added to an already existing itinerary, it's not a new booking.

 

[Rich]

I have been nervous re the tickets coming unstuck.
I have just received a reply from an email this morning to CC stating:
“As for your request, since your booked flights are future dated, we cannot process the refund as we only handle post travel cases. Once you have utilised your ticket, you can contact us back so we can process the refund.”
Lets wait and see!!!

Good tip on who to contact when. My family recently completed a trip and I am pretty sure we are owed about $600 from an award trip. I didn't dare try to do anything before flying as I didn't want to jeopardise $13000 in award flights, but I will email the CC and report back.

 

[DC3]

If a new flight is to be added to an already existing itinerary, it's not a new booking.

Is that a Call Centre response?

Anyway, sounds like a Call Centre scam to get people off of the line.

 

[Captain Halliday]

I have an OWA starting in about a month that has been a nightmare to construct and get ticketed.

The trip is in two parts:
Jun-Jul
MNLxNRTxHEL-AMS
ZHRxLHR-DUB
DUBxLHRxSINxSYD-BNE

Dec
BNExMEL-HND
NRTxKUL-HKT (note MH sectors)

I’ve been advised of a schedule change for Dec with MEL-HND now departing before BNE-MEL arrives.

My question to the brains trust: Do I need to sort this before my first departure in June and put the whole itinerary at risk…

Or can I just ignore it until the first part of the trip is out of the way and sort the mess when I get home with far fewer sectors at risk?

Advice appreciated.

 

[DC3]

Deleted

 

[ozflier]

I can't believe that this booking fits in with OWA rules.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I have an OWA starting in about a month that has been a nightmare to construct and get ticketed.

The trip is in two parts:
Jun-Jul
MNLxNRTxHEL-AMS
ZHRxLHR-DUB
DUBxLHRxSINxSYD-BNE

Dec
BNExMEL-HND
NRTxKUL-HKT (note MH sectors)

I’ve been advised of a schedule change for Dec with MEL-HND now departing before BNE-MEL arrives.

My question to the brains trust: Do I need to sort this before my first departure in June and put the whole itinerary at risk…

Or can I just ignore it until the first part of the trip is out of the way and sort the mess when I get home with far fewer sectors at risk?

Advice appreciated.

I’d personally leave it well alone just now.
December is a long time away and it should be relatively straightforward to get an earlier BNE-MEL.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I’d personally leave it well alone just now.
December is a long time away and it should be relatively straightforward to get an earlier BNE-MEL.

Agree.

My only concern is if the ticket becomes ‘unticketed’ once they see the miss connect… which could jeopardise the MH sectors as they will auto cancel. However… not sure if that would trigger in this case?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Agree.

My only concern is if the ticket becomes ‘unticketed’ once they see the miss connect… which could jeopardise the MH sectors as they will auto cancel. However… not sure if that would trigger in this case?

This was my concern too.

I called (3xHUACA until reaching HBA) and asked about a dozen very specific questions about reticketing, revalidation etc including that it is MNL point of origin and ticketed by MNL office.

I also outlined that the MH flights had dropped three times previously due to partner changes and that on the most recent occasion the whole booking was handed over to <name> who is the OWA guru in HBA and was rebuilt from the start.

Agent could see history in the notes and commented on what a nightmare it had been.

She then advised that because this change was a QF flight they could select alternatives and “force reissue” without affecting any of the partner flights.

I pressed further on whether this required reticketing and the agent advised that yes it would, but that this could be done by the “force reissue” without affecting the partner flights.

She also offered the usual assurance that she’d keep an eye on it and the new tickets would issue “well within 2 hours and likely less than an hour”.

So apprehensively I proceeded:

Outcome was a PDF with new flight details but no ticket numbers within about 15min of the call ending.

I then checked the MH app and the new ticket numbers were showing.

Couldn’t cross-check on RJ because it had gone tech.

Amadeus issued text-only itinerary with new ticket numbers landed about three hours after the call.

As best I can tell without real-time Amadeus access it’s all worked fine.

Here’s hoping…

 

[ozflier]

I can't believe that this booking fits in with OWA rules.

Hi,
Apologies for being incorrect currently ill on my OWA thru Africa and Italy.
I'm a bit brighter now so recognise my error.
I had never thought of actually starting a OWA from outside Australia and not returning to Australia.
And congratulations on achieving such a great result!

 

[dairyfloss]

Saw this press release from OW a little earlier - hopefully will make OW RTW planning easier for all, regardless of how and where they complete the booking:

oneworld partners with Elemental Cognition on Travel Agent

oneworld Alliance and AI company Elemental Cognition have completed initial trials of their state-of-the-art booking tool for “Round the World” tickets.

www.oneworld.com

oneworld Alliance and artificial intelligence (AI) company Elemental Cognition have completed initial trials of their state-of-the-art booking tool that helps customers navigate the complex process of planning a “Round the World” ticket.

Unfortunately, no sampling to be had, just yet.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[CaptJCool]

Saw this press release from OW a little earlier - hopefully will make OW RTW planning easier for all, regardless of how and where they complete the booking:

oneworld partners with Elemental Cognition on Travel Agent

oneworld Alliance and AI company Elemental Cognition have completed initial trials of their state-of-the-art booking tool for “Round the World” tickets.

www.oneworld.com

Unfortunately, no sampling to be had, just yet.

Cheers,
Matt.

looks interesting

theres a 4 minute demo video here Travel Planning — Elemental Cognition

 

[dairyfloss]

looks interesting

theres a 4 minute demo video here Travel Planning — Elemental Cognition

Just came back here to paste that in

 

[sqrt()]

Saw this press release from OW a little earlier - hopefully will make OW RTW planning easier for all, regardless of how and where they complete the booking:

oneworld partners with Elemental Cognition on Travel Agent

oneworld Alliance and AI company Elemental Cognition have completed initial trials of their state-of-the-art booking tool for “Round the World” tickets.

www.oneworld.com

Unfortunately, no sampling to be had, just yet.

Cheers,
Matt.

You can use the tool here: rtw-site

Now add award inventory! Might make it a bit too easy.

 

[dairyfloss]

You can use the tool here: rtw-site

Now add award inventory! Might make it a bit too easy.

Very good! Odd that they did the press release and didn't indicate it was ready to roll; just that they had completed "initial trials". Will have a play around with it this week

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[borad]

It’s NOT OneWorld Award?

Just a RTW trip planner?

 

[CaptJCool]

i had a play with it earlier today.

iterative
Mind you, it took my proposed 15 city jaunt, and pushed me down to 6 given connecting city flying segment issues.

but it did it systematically

Also, this suggested theres not a whole lot of First Class seats in out of the way places

so having chopped and changed it turned up an itinerary that was like J class not F for $19k plus taxes for only one segment F

when i changed it to J dropping out the one F segment, dropped the fare to $13k