Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Ross Pringle]

HI fellow travellers,

With regards to changing flights of an OWA after you have started your journey, I always thought it was against the rules.

Appently not as I was able to do so. Different days, airline and airports involved.

Go Figure.

Ross

 

[Noah Count]

Your only option for a direct flight using Oneworld airlines will be JAL from NRT to YVR. Your chances of finding a seat in J on that route in May are around zero. Even flying Y you would be unlikely to find availability to fly direct. You will probably have to connect via HKG or the USA. Premium Economy to SEA on JAL has availability.

My friend we must be brothers from another mother. I have had a very similar conversation with my parents, they could not get their head around why this could not be done. My parents are getting older and no longer want to be BIS travellers and I suspect I will end up organising and/or paying for their flights.

 

[pyramidforce]

Thank you!
How did you find specifically this premium economy flight on SEA? Any tool recommendation?

We can use tools like QF Multicity tool, or external tools like sests.aero to check if there is availability. But to know where to check in the first place, a lot of it is experience and the knowledge collected along the way. For example, I know from experience that YVR is not a strong airport for oneworld, so it would be hard to find availability on the limited flights to that airport. Meanwhile SEA is now Alaska's hub so there is a higher chance of some good interconnectivity. And so on.

 

[Albert_Thurgood]

I have been a long time watcher of these boards but do not post often... I hope someone can help with this. I am trying to put together an itinerary for a Global Explorer via Qantas. The issue is that this seems to be very difficult if one wants to avoid traveling via the US. I can see eligible flights for all other sectors but Qantas' multi-city booking page just does not allow any flights between SCL and Australia. I searched for any J seats in June or July next year and only got this unhelpful message:



There are similar problems trying to go via Canada. LHR to Canadian cities only shows economy seats going via Taipei!

I have Platinum status (just down from P1 in the last month). Could I ask them to release seats on one of their QF28 flights ex SCL?

 

[levelnine]

I am trying to put together an itinerary for a Global Explorer via Qantas.

A Global Explorer is a paid fare.

If you mean a Oneworld classic flight award, yes you can call Qantas to ask for award seats to be released on a Qantas flight.

 

[Roman Sandstorm]

I was given some nice advice in this thread recently about Classic Rewards. (Namely, to book my itinerary online with the availability at the time, and then make changes via phone when other options arise at a later time.)

So now I am waiting on availability going forward.

Looking at what is obviously a very popular route (MEL/SYD to HKG in mid December), I have noticed that a number of J class Classic Plus seats have just become available. And yes, I know that these are not Classic Rewards.

But hoping to leverage the vast experience of the users in this thread... given those Plus seats becoming available, how likely is it that similar Classic Rewards seats may do so? Or is there probably no correlation, and CR will never become available between now and then?

I don't ask for *exact* or precise details, but rather, based on your experiences, should I bother waiting and hoping, or go ahead and make my other changes? (Which include an independent MEL - DPS, then starting the CR itinerary from DPS - HKG, etc...)

Thanks in advance.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was given some nice advice in this thread recently about Classic Rewards. (Namely, to book my itinerary online with the availability at the time, and then make changes via phone when other options arise at a later time.)

So now I am waiting on availability going forward.

Looking at what is obviously a very popular route (MEL/SYD to HKG in mid December), I have noticed that a number of J class Classic Plus seats have just become available. And yes, I know that these are not Classic Rewards.

But hoping to leverage the vast experience of the users in this thread... given those Plus seats becoming available, how likely is it that similar Classic Rewards seats may do so? Or is there probably no correlation, and CR will never become available between now and then?

I don't ask for *exact* or precise details, but rather, based on your experiences, should I bother waiting and hoping, or go ahead and make my other changes? (Which include an independent MEL - DPS, then starting the CR itinerary from DPS - HKG, etc...)

Thanks in advance.

Unlikely for classic awards to become widely available mid december… huge number of students returning home, flights will be full in all classes. You might find the odd seat here and there, but I wouldn’t have an expectation.

 

[atulhumane]

Hi All,
We are 3 adult and 1child ( he will be turning 2 mid itenary). Should we book 2 Business and 2 economy as 4 business availability is next to impossible. Do airline staff allows you to switch seat for some time and if it's feasible?

Any suggestions travelling on business with kids?

Thanks

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi All,
We are 3 adult and 1child ( he will be turning 2 mid itenary). Should we book 2 Business and 2 economy as 4 business availability is next to impossible. Do airline staff allows you to switch seat for some time and if it's feasible?

Any suggestions travelling on business with kids?

Thanks

Yes, it’s reasonable to split so you have 2 business class and two economy (or premium economy) seats.

Airlines will generally allow passengers to swap seats, as long as this is done during the boarding process, and the passengers remain in their swapped seats for the entire flight.

You generally can’t swap seats midway though the flight so that passenger A spends half the flight in business, and then swaps with passenger B for the other half.

If you can get four seats in business class, absolutely no worries about travelling with an infant or child in that cabin. It’s extremely common.

 

[xxC_M_Mxx2026]

Hi! Im sorry if its already been answered but i just want to get everything right before my booking. I can only purchase a few legs of my travel when I go to book.. hopefully next week as flights won’t have been released yet.

any tips on making sure that my flights will cap at the 318k (I am wanting business) after I have added sectors to my booking? Or do i just have to be confident with my flight choices that they meet the guidelines?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi! Im sorry if its already been answered but i just want to get everything right before my booking. I can only purchase a few legs of my travel when I go to book.. hopefully next week as flights won’t have been released yet.

any tips on making sure that my flights will cap at the 318k (I am wanting business) after I have added sectors to my booking? Or do i just have to be confident with my flight choices that they meet the guidelines?

As long as the flights added meet the rules, they’ll cap at 318k. It’s not a manual process of the phone agent checking you meet the rules, it’s contained in the system, automatically.

If it doesn’t cap at 318k, come back for advice here. Agents often don’t know the real reason why it’s not capping, so will try and make stuff up… like too many transits, or too many stopovers, etc, even if that’s not the case.

 

[xxC_M_Mxx2026]

As long as the flights added meet the rules, they’ll cap at 318k. It’s not a manual process of the phone agent checking you meet the rules, it’s contained in the system, automatically.

If it doesn’t cap at 318k, come back for advice here. Agents often don’t know the real reason why it’s not capping, so will try and make stuff up… like too many transits, or too many stopovers, etc, even if that’s not the case.

Would you suggest that for my current scenario (wanting to avoid the increase in August) to book as many legs and then one returning home .. just to cap it?

Or just book what I can which will be 50% of the trip.. it won’t cap as it won’t meet the requirement as it won’t be enough points yet.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Would you suggest that for my current scenario (wanting to avoid the increase in August) to book as many legs and then one returning home .. just to cap it?

Or just book what I can which will be 50% of the trip.. it won’t cap as it won’t meet the requirement as it won’t be enough points yet.

That’s going to depend how they calculate the points after the upcoming increase.

I would assume that if you don’t currently have a capped OWA, you will almost certainly be paying the new price come August.

I don’t have skin in the game so I can’t remember what was said about changes to existing (fully capped) OWA or other bookings after August… as in whether you’d need to pay the new points price.

 

[robolb]

Sorry, but I couldn't find a previous answer to this on the search. But I'm sure it's been asked!

Using QBR portal, can I book Classic Rewards flights?
Don't see an option.

 

[tpor5488]

Hi,
I have booked the first flights for next years OWA. I am leaving from SYD. I would like my last stop to be in AKL before returning to SYD. I cannot add the last sectors for a few months but I notice that most flights from AKL to SYD are Classic Plus. Do the rules permit me to fly AKL-MEL-SYD or AKL-BNE-SYD as these are available as Qantas Classic? There will be no problem with miles or number of flights.
Thanks in advance.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi,
I have booked the first flights for next years OWA. I am leaving from SYD. I would like my last stop to be in AKL before returning to SYD. I cannot add the last sectors for a few months but I notice that most flights from AKL to SYD are Classic Plus. Do the rules permit me to fly AKL-MEL-SYD or AKL-BNE-SYD as these are available as Qantas Classic? There will be no problem with miles or number of flights.
Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can take any combination of flights you like

 

[xxC_M_Mxx2026]

Can someone please advise what I’m doing wrong here?
My points won’t cap when I do a dummy booking?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Can someone please advise what I’m doing wrong here?
My points won’t cap when I do a dummy booking?

Because you have mixed classes.

If you add up the total points required for each sector, according to class, it requires fewer points than a full business class routing.

I get the flights above coming to about 270300 points.

It will only cap if you go over 318000 points (for business)

Your award can’t cap at the premium economy band because you have a business class sector in there.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Hi,
I have booked the first flights for next years OWA. I am leaving from SYD. I would like my last stop to be in AKL before returning to SYD. I cannot add the last sectors for a few months but I notice that most flights from AKL to SYD are Classic Plus. Do the rules permit me to fly AKL-MEL-SYD or AKL-BNE-SYD as these are available as Qantas Classic? There will be no problem with miles or number of flights.
Thanks in advance.

You can't add Classic Plus to a OWA

 

[algae]

This thread has sure grown since i last visited!

We (2xpeople) did our first OWA trip last year all in business:
Perth>Hong Kong>Toronto>London>Madrid>Marrakech> London>Stockholm>Helsinki>Tokyo [train] Osaka>Tokyo>Hong Kong>Perth.

And while it was an amazing 12-flight 29,797 mile trip, god it was an absolute pain to book. I spent comfortably over 20h on the phone with Qantas over the 12 months leading up to the first flight.
The issues with qantas' inability to reticket on time were shocking and a constant source of stress and problems. Almost put me off doing it again.

I've just booked a second trip for the 2 of us. This time:
Perth>Hong Kong>Colombo>Seoul>Helsinki>Vienna> Helsinki>Tokyo>Honolulu>Tokyo>KualaLumpur>Perth

I only just did the math for this comment, but realised this 11 flight trip is 34,545 miles. Right up to the 35,000 mile limit. All in business other than the HND>HNL>HND flights which are premium economy unfortunately!

I had to call Qantas because of their website limitation on adding a 5th(or 6th?) segment, it fails. So I booked 10 flights online and then called to add the 11th. When i called, I immediately got connected (no wait! Crazy new concept for me), and when i mentioned a points booking, i was transferred to a 'specialist' who knew exactly what to do (another amazing initiative, and great job by Qantas'). When i mentioned reticketing she said it would be done in a couple hours, when i pushed, she said she would make a personal note to follow-up on it and make sure it was ticketed.
It was ticketed within an hour or two.

Congrats Qantas, you've clearly improved your phone support 100-fold (minus leaking all my data). Genuinely impressed.

Question to you all: What's the current recommendation for a CheckMyTrip replacement to check my flights are still ticketed? I note CMT does now show eticket numbers again, but doesn't seem to update anymore after theyre first added.