Changes to Oneworld 318K flights once journey has commenced

[petunia]

We're in London, midway through a three month 318K Oneworld Award trip and have just found out my aged Mum (90) is in palliative care with only days to live. We're scheduled to fly to Singapore in a month's time, spend five days there before flying back to Perth at the end of Feb.
I understand the terms of the Oneworld award flight and that it can't be amended once the first flight has been taken. But has anyone had experience of Qantas ever allowing sympathetic changes to flight dates under these circumstances?

 

[madrooster]

You can make changes, but the routing and carriers must stay the same, including any stopover points. So if you have a stopover in Singapore, then it needs to remain a stopover, ie. > 24 hours.

 

[Kerrodt]

Firstly, my thoughts and prayers are with you, your mum and your family in what must be a challenging time.

What changes would you be seeking? This isn’t clear in your original post. I am assuming here that your mum is in care in Perth.

A couple of options I can think of:

Option A:
If you need to get from London to Perth ASAP, then you could do that as a direct return flight LHR-PER paid by cash or points to get home without disrupting your holiday or OWA ticketing. Call Qantas to arrange the booking as I am sure they would be sympathetic to your situation. Check your travel insurance, as you may have cover for an incident like this.
Then, if/when you desire to resume travels, you can fly back PER-LHR and resume the OWA ticket, so long as you are back in London before your departure to Singapore “in a months time”.

Option B:
Call Qantas and try and restructure the OWA to get you back to Perth ASAP. This could be challenging given (a) the sectors left to travel, (b) the time it will take to run those sectors to get back to Perth, (c) the immediacy of the travel, and (d) the likely lack of available award seats at such short notice for >1 pax. Qantas May be sympathetic to the situation and move heaven and earth to deliver you an outcome here but it may simply not be possible. Again, you may have coverage here under insurance to claim points lost/foregone in a situation like this.

I do hope everything works out well for you.

 

[dajop]

Option A:
If you need to get from London to Perth ASAP, then you could do that as a direct return flight LHR-PER paid by cash or points to get home without disrupting your holiday or OWA ticketing. Call Qantas to arrange the booking as I am sure they would be sympathetic to your situation. Check your travel insurance, as you may have cover for an incident like this.
Then, if/when you desire to resume travels, you can fly back PER-LHR and resume the OWA ticket, so long as you are back in London before your departure to Singapore “in a months time”.

If paying cash or points also worth checking other carriers who might be able to get you there quickly as well, although with the nonstop service QF likely to be quickest, but depends on how soon you want to travel. Also if doing this and advice regarding the conditions are correct (same routes, same stopovers etc) also could just try to push these out to a much later date where there is availability so not restricted rather than trying to resume the journey within a month.

petunia, hope something works out and you get home as quickly as you can. It's a difficult and stressful situation to be so far away, thoughts are with you, and hope you can find a sympathetic ear at QF or another airline. I've had a couple of dashes back to Melbourne from Singapore to deal with grave situations of my father and grandmother at different times and I took whatever airline I could to get back as quickly as I could.

 

[petunia]

I appreciate all for your replies and suggestions. Very complicated situation and travel insurance won't cover because Mum is over 80.
The drawbacks of travelling around the world with aged parents at home.
My siblings at home have been vehement that I don't rush back, and suggested Mum's funeral be delayed till our return in a month. Heartbreaking all the same.
In the end I haven't contacted Qantas while we wait to see how things develop.

 

[ozflier]

Sorry to hear of your situation.
I agree about the maximum age of a relative at home that the insurance will cover you for urgent return.
This is a recent change and I believe the upper age limit varies and that some insurers do not even have a limit.
Of course there may be other issues as well - eg if there was a pre existing condition that the insured was aware of.
Hope all goes well.

 

[moa999]

This is a recent change and I believe the upper age limit varies and that some insurers do not even have a limit.

Been in many policies for a while. Some also have carveouts for certain pre-existing conditions