I assume you booked on the phone given the number of segments. The agent at the time of booking will have confirmed the number of points your itinerary was going to cost. If that wasn't 318K (which it won't have been because, as others have said, you have included a currently non-OW carrier in the mix) then you should not have proceeded. In fact, I'm surprised (and suspicious) that you were even able to proceed and pay the taxes if you did not have sufficient points.
Thanks so much everyone for your replies! You’re, of course, all correct. I had looked at the list of oneworld airlines on the OneWorld website and somehow missed that it said “Future Member” in the corner of the box associated with Oman Air and had thought they were joining earlier.
I’ve actually booked a OWA successfully (in economy) before but for me at least this continues to be a learning process. I’m beating myself up for such an odd oversight, back to the drawing board!
In response to Fiona, there was indeed some confusion about the points which I pointed out at the time and that something may be wrong as the call centre had somehow originally put the itinerary through for less than the 318,000 cap, however, as it was less I thought it was worth a try to pay the taxes and immediately get in contact with ticketing to see if it ticketed - and if not, to try and figure out where it had all gone wrong.
Does anyone know the best way to approach fixing this? Do I need to wait for ticketing to lapse and the seats to be released and re-book changing out those sectors? Or am I able to do it now while my other seats are still saved by calling Qantas?
Thanks so much everyone for your replies! You’re, of course, all correct. I had looked at the list of oneworld airlines on the OneWorld website and somehow missed that it said “Future Member” in the corner of the box associated with Oman Air and had thought they were joining earlier.
I’ve actually booked a OWA successfully (in economy) before but for me at least this continues to be a learning process. I’m beating myself up for such an odd oversight, back to the drawing board!
In response to Fiona, there was indeed some confusion about the points which I pointed out at the time and that something may be wrong as the call centre had somehow originally put the itinerary through for less than the 318,000 cap, however, as it was less I thought it was worth a try to pay the taxes and immediately get in contact with ticketing to see if it ticketed - and if not, to try and figure out where it had all gone wrong.
Does anyone know the best way to approach fixing this? Do I need to wait for ticketing to lapse and the seats to be released and re-book changing out those sectors? Or am I able to do it now while my other seats are still saved by calling Qantas?
By the sound of it, you have made two separate booking, Qantas can't merge those bookings into one, without cancelling one of them (and taking the risk that the cancelled award are not put back into award inventory). If you want an OWA, you need to build your itinerary on the same booking (you can add segments when they appear).
Hi, wondering if you can clarify this?
We have tried every itinerary under the sun and despite confirming flight availability for each leg on the multi-city booking tool, when we try and book the whole thing we receive an error (or the call centre tells us that certain flights can only be booked individually, and it won't let them book our whole itinerary).
If we book 90% of our itinerary at once, meeting the OWA criteria and paying 318,000 each, can we then later add flight segments on without having to pay additional points?
By the sound of it, you have made two separate booking, Qantas can't merge those bookings into one, without cancelling one of them (and taking the risk that the cancelled award are not put back into award inventory). If you want an OWA, you need to build your itinerary on the same booking (you can add segments when they appear).
My partner and I have tried every itinerary under the sun and despite confirming flight availability for each leg on the multi-city booking tool, when we try and book the whole thing we receive an error (or the call centre agent tells us that certain flights can only be booked individually, and it won't let them book our whole itinerary). We just got to the page where it told us our itinerary would cost 636,000 points + $1500ish in tax, put our names and numbers in (had never got this far before) and clicked submit, and were given an error.
If we book 90% of our itinerary at once, meeting the OWA criteria and paying 318,000 each, can we then later add flight segments on without having to pay additional points?
If we book 90% of our itinerary at once, meeting the OWA criteria and paying 318,000 each, can we then later add flight segments on without having to pay additional points?
It may not be phantom… could be married segments… or the hard system block preventing domestic connections (meaning you can’t separately add a domestic connecting flight from a capital city to another, for example you can’t add MEL-SYD onto an existing SYD-LAX), or it could be the ‘you can only book these flights for new bookings’
By the way… have we got a solution to the last one yet? That is, when you go to add flights, agents say they are only for new bookings?
Unless you are platinum status or higher, getting through to hobart can be very difficult (if not impossible)
This sounds like agent ineptitude/ignorance for explaining why certain flights can't be added onto a booking (could be POS issues, could be married etc etc). Or more general incompetence ofc
My partner and I have tried every itinerary under the sun and despite confirming flight availability for each leg on the multi-city booking tool, when we try and book the whole thing we receive an error (or the call centre agent tells us that certain flights can only be booked individually, and it won't let them book our whole itinerary). We just got to the page where it told us our itinerary would cost 636,000 points + $1500ish in tax, put our names and numbers in (had never got this far before) and clicked submit, and were given an error.
Are you able to post the itinerary - the knowledgeable folk here might be able to point out where it's going wrong without you having to spend years (exaggeration, but still) on the phone
It may not be phantom… could be married segments… or the hard system block preventing domestic connections (meaning you can’t separately add a domestic connecting flight from a capital city to another, for example you can’t add MEL-SYD onto an existing SYD-LAX), or it could be the ‘you can only book these flights for new bookings’
By the way… have we got a solution to the last one yet? That is, when you go to add flights, agents say they are only for new bookings?
Unless you are platinum status or higher, getting through to hobart can be very difficult (if not impossible)
This is the itinerary: 6 August MEL - NRT
14 August NRT - FRA
13 September OSL - HEL
14 September HEL - ICN 22 September ICN - HKG
22 September HKG - MEL
Can see availability for the whole itinerary - get to the payment page and get an error. Call centre says they can book the bolded segments individually, but not include them in the whole OWA reward booking.
I guess the last two flights are married segments, but not the first two. Dunno what the issue is there.
This is the itinerary: 6 August MEL - NRT
14 August NRT - FRA
13 September OSL - HEL
14 September HEL - ICN 22 September ICN - HKG
22 September HKG - MEL
Here's the whole thing. Have checked partner airlines so the first two don't look like they're phantom.
We are looking at how we can change the last two now to avoid the married segment issue.
This sounds like agent ineptitude/ignorance for explaining why certain flights can't be added onto a booking (could be POS issues, could be married etc etc). Or more general incompetence ofc
There’s some way to add new flights to an existing itinerary… a way of seeing and ‘selling’ them… but o/s agents aren’t necessarily trained how to do it. HBA can add the same flights with no difficulty as they understand how the system works. There’s some special way to be able to see the flights when looking from within an existing PNR. O/s agents only see them when doing a fresh search.
If we can work out the exact process, we’d be able to advise the agents.
There’s some way to add new flights to an existing itinerary… a way of seeing and ‘selling’ them… but o/s agents aren’t necessarily trained how to do it. HBA can add the same flights with no difficulty as they understand how the system works. There’s some special way to be able to see the flights when looking from within an existing PNR. O/s agents only see them when doing a fresh search.
If we can work out the exact process, we’d be able to advise the agents.
I'm battling this at the moment and I cannot manage to jag a HBA agent. I'm trying to add Qantaslink regional connections to the start and end of my booked international CR intinerary. The o/s agents I've spoken to quote one of:
1. there are no awards available on these flights (there are)
2. there are no flights on this route (there are)
3. there are awards but they're only available on new bookings.
I'm battling this at the moment and I cannot manage to jag a HBA agent. I'm trying to add Qantaslink regional connections to the start and end of my booked international CR intinerary. The o/s agents I've spoken to quote one of:
1. there are no awards available on these flights (there are)
2. there are no flights on this route (there are)
3. there are awards but they're only available on new bookings.
Adding domestic connections in australia has been blocked since 2021/22. You cannot search MEL-SYD and SYD-LAX separately and create a single trip. The only way you can do it is search MEL-LAX, and if it offers you via SYD, you’re good to go.
That’s different from adding sectors outside australia, for example adding HKG-SIN into an existing award. Some agents say they can only book it as a new booking, because they don’t know how to search for the availability within the existing PNR.
The block on adding domestic sectors is impossible to get around unless you get Hobart or Auckland.
The block works quite well. If the agent searches MEL-SYD, then the flight SYD-LAX doesn’t show in their system. If they book the SYD-LAX first, then the MEL-SYD doesn’t show!
I have a question about interpreting one of the fare rules:
"You must include at least two other oneworld airlines besides Qantas, and not include any non-oneworld airlines."
Does this mean you HAVE to include Qantas in your itinerary, or not necessarily and it is valid to have an itinerary without any Qantas flights?
FYI we have booked our OWA itinerary successfully and it includes a final leg with Qantas from Singapore to Melbourne. But the final flights are just dummy bookings for now because it was too far out to see flight availability for when we are planning to return home. So the question is about whether we will need to find a replacement Qantas reward seat to get home once the calendar opens up, or whether we could swap that last Qantas flight out for another one world airline if there was a better option available.
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