Oneworld award question

[gaz1]

Hi,
We are planning a Oneworld Award Booking & understand the 35000 mile maximum, but have a two questions.

1) One of our sectors is "open jaw" between 2 cities that don't have a direct oneworld flight.
Do they add the miles to fly direct between the 2 points or the miles that would be required to make the connection (in this case via a different oneworld hub)?

2) A while back I used to use seatcounter to check award seat availability, but I understand this hasn't been working for some time. What is the best way to check availability (as Qantas doesn't have all oneworld sectors on it's website)?

Thanks,
Gary.

 

[casanovawa]

There's a pretty complete thread on here for booking these OW awards...

I know when i booked one in 2011 and had some open jaws in it they just counted the miles between the two cities, not of what sort of connecting flights might have been required...

Not sure if sites like awardtravellr (or is it awardtravelr) might be able to help you, you can choose to search for award seats by the different alliances (OW, *A, ST)..

 

[serfty]

There's a pretty complete thread on here for booking these OW awards...
...

http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/showthread.php?p=103956

 

[gaz1]

Thanks for the info so far. Perhaps I am using the wrong keywords, but I tried using the search facility for "open jaw" in the Oneworld thread. It came back with 25 results & none of them mentioned if open-jaw miles were calculated as the direct distance (or via the miles you would need to use on oneworld sectors). It certainly seems logical to be the direct distance, but it would be good to know for sure.

Also, I found the hint about joining BA Avios to give better oneworld award availability - is this still the best one to use?

I appreciate the suggestions.
Thanks,
Gary.

 

[aikman]

Thanks for the info so far. Perhaps I am using the wrong keywords, but I tried using the search facility for "open jaw" in the Oneworld thread. It came back with 25 results & none of them mentioned if open-jaw miles were calculated as the direct distance (or via the miles you would need to use on oneworld sectors). It certainly seems logical to be the direct distance, but it would be good to know for sure.

Have a look at the T&Cs at the Qantas website, in particular clause 14.5.5
Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Terms & Conditions

Also, I found the hint about joining BA Avios to give better oneworld award availability - is this still the best one to use?

It's the most complete and most reliable source I have found so far.

 

[gaz1]

Thanks for the hints about the British Airways search, unfortunately it doesn't seem to show some of the flights that I can see on the Qantas site.
For example, when I try to search AKL-SCL (which I know has availability on the Qantas FF site), it just says "British Airways and its partners do not fly this route" - which obviously isn't true.
Am I doing something wrong?
It also only shows one day at a time (although the Qantas "monthly" view doesn't tell you if the flights are direct or via some convouted route, so you need to manually click on each date back & forth anyway).
Is there any easier way of finding out availability to plan a complex trip?

 

[aikman]

Thanks for the hints about the British Airways search, unfortunately it doesn't seem to show some of the flights that I can see on the Qantas site.
For example, when I try to search AKL-SCL (which I know has availability on the Qantas FF site), it just says "British Airways and its partners do not fly this route" - which obviously isn't true.
Am I doing something wrong?
It also only shows one day at a time (although the Qantas "monthly" view doesn't tell you if the flights are direct or via some convouted route, so you need to manually click on each date back & forth anyway).
Is there any easier way of finding out availability to plan a complex trip?

That route is subject to a special rule so definitely use the QF website to search for availability.

LAN (LA): Classic Award bookings are not available on the LA airline code from Australia or New Zealand to Santiago. Classic Awards must be booked using the QF airline code.

Planning the perfect itinerary does take time but I think it's half the fun. You can always get a QF phone agent to search availability for you but personally I'd prefer to search myself.

 

[bryanjones]

That route is subject to a special rule so definitely use the QF website to search for availability.

LAN (LA): Classic Award bookings are not available on the LA airline code from Australia or New Zealand to Santiago. Classic Awards must be booked using the QF airline code.

Planning the perfect itinerary does take time but I think it's half the fun. You can always get a QF phone agent to search availability for you but personally I'd prefer to search myself.

I found expertflyer.com to be a valuable assistant. The seat alert feature is well worth it alone!

 

[Kieran2274]

I found expertflyer.com to be a valuable assistant. The seat alert feature is well worth it alone!

Agreed, useful - and if you are a Gold AFF, you even get a discount on ExpertFlyer Pro Subscription (bonus!)

 

[benz]

Thanks for the hints about the British Airways search, unfortunately it doesn't seem to show some of the flights that I can see on the Qantas site.
For example, when I try to search AKL-SCL (which I know has availability on the Qantas FF site), it just says "British Airways and its partners do not fly this route" - which obviously isn't true.
Am I doing something wrong?
It also only shows one day at a time (although the Qantas "monthly" view doesn't tell you if the flights are direct or via some convouted route, so you need to manually click on each date back & forth anyway).
Is there any easier way of finding out availability to plan a complex trip?

I had the same issue booking flights from NZ to Brazil (via Chile). The QFF website showed availability on LAN for the AKL-SCL leg but couldn't find any availability (ever) for the SCL - GRU flight (which is also LAN) or just came back with an error code. After some helpful tips from others on this forum I managed to find them on the BA website & Award Nexus. The Award Nexus site is great as you can search through QFF & BA simultaneously.

 

[gaz1]

Wow - this is frustrating. I tried AwardNexus for a day that I knew Award seats were available on the Qantas website & it says nothing available. I signed up for a 5 day trial of ExpertFlyer & it doesn't give an option for LAN airlines in award bookings. If you choose Qantas & the date that I know there is availability it doesnt come up with anything either! I rang Qantas & they confirmed the dates I saw on their website.
The problem with the Qantas site is it doesn't show availability for LAN Airlines, so I can't find any websites that appear to show award availability for LAN.