Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Aceskywalker]

I have a flight on a OWA that recently got moved from BA8 to BA6 Haneda to Heathrow. Had a connecting flight from LHR to Munich MUC that was not moved.
Escalated and after 5 days just got back an updated connecting flight but there is only a 35 minute stopover in LHR which seems like way too short.Both flights are Same terminal - Terminal 5
Looked at history of BA6 flight and it runs 40-1hr late on average into LHR.
Thoughts?
Can I challenge this short stopover?

There could be a Japan Airways flight that day ( but can’t see any rewards seats left)
But agent said they are trying to get BA to find a fix first.
Can One World swap between carriers to fix a delay with too shorter stopover?

If I do nothing and accept this then if my HND - LHR is delayed and I miss my flight and I am stuck in London at 8pm at night what would happen? (Likely) Would the airline put you in an accommodation for the night and find you another flight the next morning?


As a note - Had to book my OWA through Indonesia Qantas and start in Bali as in Feb when I booked there were no flights out of Australia from Perth. Now because the flights were paid in Indo rupiah the main call centre can’t help me they say as they only deal in AUS/US/UK currency. So the Qantas Indonesia agent then has to deal with Qantas in Australia for any changes(she called them One World team). Just a consideration if anyone is considering a OWA flight start not from Australia. It allowed me to book my holiday at the time so all good. Just not great on changes. But you can email and get responses from the same agent which is very nice.

It's BA's problem to resolve, if BA can't or won't, Qantas escalation team should take it to oneworld dispute desk for resolution, lay over seems too short.

The note below about Indo rupiah. I did the same, started a rtw redemption booking out of Bali & had the same problem, all OS call centre's won't touch & say you need to call Indonesia Qantas. Finally got through to Hobart & they rubbished the idea that you need to call Indonesia to sort out & fixed it. Positives are Taxes are ridiculously reduced going from Indonesia, I paid under 1k for 4ppl. nearly 34,500miles. Where on my last rtw redemption exiting Australia (with a Heathrow departure) for 4ppl was 7k in taxes & charges. Negative is that it's only 1 bag per person on my ticket, not sure why?? + if you get OS call centre it's painful.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have a flight on a OWA that recently got moved from BA8 to BA6 Haneda to Heathrow. Had a connecting flight from LHR to Munich MUC that was not moved.
Escalated and after 5 days just got back an updated connecting flight but there is only a 35 minute stopover in LHR which seems like way too short.Both flights are Same terminal - Terminal 5
Looked at history of BA6 flight and it runs 40-1hr late on average into LHR.
Thoughts?
Can I challenge this short stopover?

There could be a Japan Airways flight that day ( but can’t see any rewards seats left)
But agent said they are trying to get BA to find a fix first.
Can One World swap between carriers to fix a delay with too shorter stopover?

If I do nothing and accept this then if my HND - LHR is delayed and I miss my flight and I am stuck in London at 8pm at night what would happen? (Likely) Would the airline put you in an accommodation for the night and find you another flight the next morning?


As a note - Had to book my OWA through Indonesia Qantas and start in Bali as in Feb when I booked there were no flights out of Australia from Perth. Now because the flights were paid in Indo rupiah the main call centre can’t help me they say as they only deal in AUS/US/UK currency. So the Qantas Indonesia agent then has to deal with Qantas in Australia for any changes(she called them One World team). Just a consideration if anyone is considering a OWA flight start not from Australia. It allowed me to book my holiday at the time so all good. Just not great on changes. But you can email and get responses from the same agent which is very nice.

Yes, BA needs to resolve this. Yes, they *may* accommodate you on another airline, but unlikely.

Being an EU carrier on a flight to the EU, you will be compensated and provided with accommodation, food and all other expenses if you are delayed. If you were caught overnight that would be €600 cash in addition to the accommodation etc.

Not a lot Qantas can do here, it’s outside their control. It might be they offer you a refund. But BA needs to fix this, so unless you want the refund, you need to persist. You could try calling BA if you get nowhere with QF.

 

[Pete98765432]

I’ll be calling QF later this week to add an Iberia flight JFK - MAD to my OWA booking. If I’m unfortunate and get an overseas call centre who can’t see the flight, is it worthwhile booking it myself online in a new booking then emailing the escalations team to request the bookings be merged?

I’ve been monitoring the flights and they seem to be only available for a day or two after release.

 

[Phoenix-1]

I think people have had success via Twitter and Facebook. I'd try those and HUACA. Also apparently asking them to look at for the flight first and then asking them to add to an existing booking might yield a better result.

 

[Roundtheworld123]

I’ll be calling QF later this week to add an Iberia flight JFK - MAD to my OWA booking. If I’m unfortunate and get an overseas call centre who can’t see the flight, is it worthwhile booking it myself online in a new booking then emailing the escalations team to request the bookings be merged?

I’ve been monitoring the flights and they seem to be only available for a day or two after release.

I tried this with my OWA flight as like you I could see once the flight came out it only last a day or so before someone else nabbed it.
I could see the flight on the Qantas site and could book it on rewards but they said that they couldn’t book it as it was needing a ‘X’ class/code for them to book it.
So I booked it seperate to my main OWA five destination flights. It meant I had to pay more and not cap it at 132k for economy and burn the points and pay the taxes but it was either that or not get home and get the direct flight I needed. And luckily I had a few points left to do it.
Unlikely there is such a thing as ‘merging’ two seperate bookings. They would like have to relinquish the tickets you booked with no guarantee you would get them back.

 

[flapper]

I’ll be calling QF later this week to add an Iberia flight JFK - MAD to my OWA booking. If I’m unfortunate and get an overseas call centre who can’t see the flight, is it worthwhile booking it myself online in a new booking then emailing the escalations team to request the bookings be merged?

I’ve been monitoring the flights and they seem to be only available for a day or two after release.

Bookings can't be merged. CC operators may advise that you book it and they can link the 2 bookings but that flight won't be included in your OWA limit. HUACA is definately best.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Bookings can't be merged. CC operators may advise that you book it and they can link the 2 bookings but that flight won't be included in your OWA limit. HUACA is definately best.

This.

Over the past few months I went through well over 100 calls in an attempt to add reward seats onto my existing PNR - some were new, some were to replace existing seats ie. upgrading an economy leg to business.

Most consultants will give you some BS spiel about the seats that you see online being only available for new bookings or similar.

As soon as the consultant (whoever I got) mentioned that they weren't able to make the change / couldn't see what I could see online / made excuses, after asking them to leave it as-is - I hung up and called again.

On some days, I called Qantas more than 10-15 times.

From my perspective though, if you can see reward seats online, there's no reason why consultants can't either, and be able to add them to existing bookings to benefit from OWA capping.

You just have to be persistent and callback until you get someone who can add them.

Unfortunately not all of us are Gold / Platinum and don't get access to the Hobart team.

 

[Lynda2475]

Observation about my latest completed OWA (booked when I was gold but flown as a platinum); none of the legs except those on QF flight numbers/metal have shown up in my FF activity.

Whilst I did not expect to earn any points or SCs from the non QF legs, in the past these have always shown up in my activity as 0 earn.

It seems that my QFF # some how got unlinked from the non QF legs, meaning BPs were defaulting to J lounge status and Id then have to convince the lounge dragon at the BA and AY first lounges I was a OWE to gain admittance (no issue at AA flagship).

Anyone hoping to benefit for the fight club benefit re BA domestic J awards would do well to ensure at check in the agent relinks you QFF #.

 

[PointsTraveller!]

I think people have had success via Twitter and Facebook. I'd try those and HUACA. Also apparently asking them to look at for the flight first and then asking them to add to an existing booking might yield a better result.

Did this today via Facebook and it worked a treat. They even called me to collect the taxes within 5 mins of me confirming my phone number, ticketed within an hour.

 

[Roundtheworld123]

Did this today via Facebook and it worked a treat. They even called me to collect the taxes within 5 mins of me confirming my phone number, ticketed within an hour.

What group do you use for Facebook?

 

[djkelly69]

What group do you use for Facebook?

You contact the actual Qantas page through FB Messenger. It starts with a bot, but you can click a "Talk to a person" or similar button. It is slow (ie. they can take 6-12 hours to respond), but definitely works.

 

[blacknwhite]

Just needing your wisdom on flights I can see on BA executive for reward flights but not on Qantas website.
In the past,I have been able to call Qantas with the flight nos and able to add them on.Not now!They say they are not avaible.
They are BA flights.
I have tried to HUACA twice but to no avail.
I am also oneworld gold.
Your thoughts please

 

[Captain Halliday]

Just needing your wisdom on flights I can see on BA executive for reward flights but not on Qantas website.
In the past,I have been able to call Qantas with the flight nos and able to add them on.Not now!They say they are not avaible.
They are BA flights.
I have tried to HUACA twice but to no avail.
I am also oneworld gold.
Your thoughts please

It’s possible the seats have not been made available to QF.

This is very common with some airlines like QR.

Award inventory that’s available to BA members is usually also offered to QF, but not always.

 

[flapper]

Just needing your wisdom on flights I can see on BA executive for reward flights but not on Qantas website.
In the past,I have been able to call Qantas with the flight nos and able to add them on.Not now!They say they are not avaible.
They are BA flights.
I have tried to HUACA twice but to no avail.
I am also oneworld gold.
Your thoughts please

Generally BA awards flights are available on QF. I have noticed that SYD-SIN-LHR flights are not available on QF, there may be other routes as well.

 

[Pete98765432]

I’ll be calling QF later this week to add an Iberia flight JFK - MAD to my OWA booking. If I’m unfortunate and get an overseas call centre who can’t see the flight, is it worthwhile booking it myself online in a new booking then emailing the escalations team to request the bookings be merged?

I’ve been monitoring the flights and they seem to be only available for a day or two after release.

I called today and was able to add the Iberia flights without trouble. Now just waiting for the ticket. Is Iberia one of the airlines that cancel a booking if not ticketed promptly?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

I called today and was able to add the Iberia flights without trouble. Now just waiting for the ticket. Is Iberia one of the airlines that cancel a booking if not ticketed promptly?

Keep in mind that ALL sectors* in the itinerary are at risk while it remains in re-ticketing purgatory, not just the ones you’ve added…
I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of IB, but CX & QR can be very grabby if given the chance.


* QF sectors should be ok.

 

[Des1801]

What’s the best way people do the Hang up when they don’t get through to Hobart ? The other week the call picked up and I knew immediately it was Cape Town, so I just hung up. But then the CT consultant called me back saying oh your call dropped out lol. I feel bad saying I don’t want to speak to you so I am going to hang up, so the last time I called I just had to say that I had sorted out my query so I didn’t need assistance anymore, I then called back straight away magically got to Hobart

 

[ozflier]

I called today and was able to add the Iberia flights without trouble. Now just waiting for the ticket. Is Iberia one of the airlines that cancel a booking if not ticketed promptly?

In my experience , Cathay and Qatar have given me grief by cancelling flights due to delay with Qantas ticketing .Never been a problem with QF flights .

 

[Mr H]

In my experience , Cathay and Qatar have given me grief by cancelling flights due to delay with Qantas ticketing .Never been a problem with QF flights .

MH is the quickest to cancel confirmed flights that aren't ticketed - my record was within 2 hours - and AT has also cancelled confirmed flights on me.

 

[blu]

Is Iberia one of the airlines that cancel a booking if not ticketed promptly?

Like BA, I don't think so. My only problem has been QR disrupting flights.