Classic Awards - Partner Airlines

[Infrequent]

Hello experts!

Very useful forum, but, as my username suggests - I might be a long time flyer, but its a long, long time between trips, so, my questions will probably sound silly and obvious, but here goes:

If I can get Classic Award seats on a partner airline, do I then get a booking reference for that airline for seat selection, etc - or is this done through Qantas? And is a business class booking considered by the partner airline in the same way as one done through them (ie: same inclusions, eg chauffeur, luggage limits, etc, if normally offered by that airline - excepting points and status, obviously)?

Also - is there any difference between booking one-way versus return, when it comes to points required and cash required? (And any other downsides to this, as it seems that if one books as soon as the seats are released, there's no way of doing anything but a set of one-way trips, adding the return leg when that date-355 comes around).

Thanks ... and more questions to come, I'm sure!

 

[mviy]

I don't think you'd get chauffeur drive. I know with QANTAS you don't get chauffeur drive if the ticket was purchased using points.

You would get the business class luggage limits, yes.

Should be about the same points and cash required, however if you need to change/cancel the fees are per passenger, per booking. So if you need to change two bookings vs one you'll pay double the fees. Having said that if you wait for seats to be available for both directions you may not be able to get seats as they may all be gone for one of the directions. You can ring up QANTAS and ask them to add the return leg to the existing booking I think (you'd have to pay a change fee, I think) rather than make a separate booking.

Seats open up at different dates for different airlines. Some release award seats earlier than others.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hello experts!

Very useful forum, but, as my username suggests - I might be a long time flyer, but its a long, long time between trips, so, my questions will probably sound silly and obvious, but here goes:

If I can get Classic Award seats on a partner airline, do I then get a booking reference for that airline for seat selection, etc - or is this done through Qantas? And is a business class booking considered by the partner airline in the same way as one done through them (ie: same inclusions, eg chauffeur, luggage limits, etc, if normally offered by that airline - excepting points and status, obviously)?

Also - is there any difference between booking one-way versus return, when it comes to points required and cash required? (And any other downsides to this, as it seems that if one books as soon as the seats are released, there's no way of doing anything but a set of one-way trips, adding the return leg when that date-355 comes around).

Thanks ... and more questions to come, I'm sure!

Yes you get a booking reference for the airline and select seats through them. Some airlines eg. EK will allow seat selection on QF but in general you will find it easier on the partner airlines website.

Of the airlines available for partner awards I think only EK and QF offer Chauffeur drive and you are entitled to all the inclusions of that ticket including chauffeur transfers where available and luggage.

You can add flights as they become available to a QF business Award ticket. It's 3500 Points per change and you do it via the call centre.

 

[junbugging]

I know with QANTAS you don't get chauffeur drive if the ticket was purchased using points.

Not actually correct.

 

[Infrequent]

Thanks for the info! The potential problem I see with the ticket change technique might be that as a lowly no-status member, I've heard that the call center = hours of queues followed by disconnection ... not too good if seats disappear fast!

 

[Buzzard]

Chauffeur on EK flights booked using QFF points.

 

[Scash]

Hello experts!

Very useful forum, but, as my username suggests - I might be a long time flyer, but its a long, long time between trips, so, my questions will probably sound silly and obvious, but here goes:

If I can get Classic Award seats on a partner airline, do I then get a booking reference for that airline for seat selection, etc - or is this done through Qantas? And is a business class booking considered by the partner airline in the same way as one done through them (ie: same inclusions, eg chauffeur, luggage limits, etc, if normally offered by that airline - excepting points and status, obviously)?

Also - is there any difference between booking one-way versus return, when it comes to points required and cash required? (And any other downsides to this, as it seems that if one books as soon as the seats are released, there's no way of doing anything but a set of one-way trips, adding the return leg when that date-355 comes around).

Thanks ... and more questions to come, I'm sure!

Hi Infrequent. I have recently booked a J ticket with EK using QF points and have both a QF and EK booking reference. Both QF and EK show that I'm eligible for chauffer drive, plus I get lounge access, extra luggage etc with EK. I can also log on to either for seat selection, although from different posts I’ve read on AFF it seems you are better off doing this through the partner airline. For instance I was allocated a seat in row 8 when I booked through QF but changed this to row 7 on EK website, but it stills shows as row 8 on QF website.

From what I've seen points for a return trip are generally double a one way (ie BNE to SIN 60,000 one way in J and 120,000 for a return ticket).

 

[eminere]

Hi Infrequent. I have recently booked a J ticket with EK using QF points and have both a QF and EK booking reference. Both QF and EK show that I'm eligible for chauffer drive, plus I get lounge access, extra luggage etc with EK. I can also log on to either for seat selection, although from different posts I’ve read on AFF it seems you are better off doing this through the partner airline. For instance I was allocated a seat in row 8 when I booked through QF but changed this to row 7 on EK website, but it stills shows as row 8 on QF website.

I believe this is a glitch in QF's system not updating to show the same thing as EK's. Same thing happened to me earlier this year on a (cash revenue) flight from CDG, EK operated, QF marketed. The seat selection through EK MMB was the one that turned out to be correct, even if it didn't "stick" with QF MMB.

 

[Scash]

I believe this is a glitch in QF's system not updating to show the same thing as EK's. Same thing happened to me earlier this year on a (cash revenue) flight from CDG, EK operated, QF marketed. The seat selection through EK MMB was the one that turned out to be correct, even if it didn't "stick" with QF MMB.

Thansk eminere. I thought that might be the case but wasn't too worried either way.

 

[yohy?!]

QF Call Centre now enforcing booking fee for partner awards that do not appear online (eg JAL), was surprised to hear the number of miles quoted 30% higher than for a QF booking but I may have read the wrong burn table online.

Either way it's pushed me not to earn towards QF via CC points.

 

[Mattg]

QF Call Centre now enforcing booking fee for partner awards that do not appear online (eg JAL), was surprised to hear the number of miles quoted 30% higher than for a QF booking but I may have read the wrong burn table online.

Either way it's pushed me not to earn towards QF via CC points.

Wow, really? Did you try the HUACA method?

My initial thoughts would be that this was a mistake (unless you were booking a oneworld award). I booked a partner airline award that wasn't available online over the phone a few months ago, and was not charged a booking fee. I'm not aware of any policy change since then?

 

[Infrequent]

Hi Infrequent. I have recently booked a J ticket with EK using QF points and have both a QF and EK booking reference. Both QF and EK show that I'm eligible for chauffer drive, plus I get lounge access, extra luggage etc with EK. I can also log on to either for seat selection, although from different posts I’ve read on AFF it seems you are better off doing this through the partner airline. For instance I was allocated a seat in row 8 when I booked through QF but changed this to row 7 on EK website, but it stills shows as row 8 on QF website.

From what I've seen points for a return trip are generally double a one way (ie BNE to SIN 60,000 one way in J and 120,000 for a return ticket).

Thanks for the info Scash (and all the other helpful people here)!

As I haven't done an award flight before, could I ask... how soon can you log into the EK website to secure (re-select) the seats after using the Qantas booking system? And can anyone who has done this indicate whether all the seats in the cabin are available, as long as they haven't been selected by other pax already? (ie there aren't limitations based on using the QF award rather than a paid EK ticket)

 

[exceladdict]

Wow, really? Did you try the HUACA method?

My initial thoughts would be that this was a mistake (unless you were booking a oneworld award). I booked a partner airline award that wasn't available online over the phone a few months ago, and was not charged a booking fee. I'm not aware of any policy change since then?

Also keen to know, have a fair few JAL I'd like to book coming up

 

[Mattg]

As I haven't done an award flight before, could I ask... how soon can you log into the EK website to secure (re-select) the seats after using the Qantas booking system? And can anyone who has done this indicate whether all the seats in the cabin are available, as long as they haven't been selected by other pax already? (ie there aren't limitations based on using the QF award rather than a paid EK ticket)

You should be able to allocate a seat on the Emirates website as soon as the booking has been ticketed by Qantas.

All unallocated seats are generally available, except for exit rows.

 

[kremin]

Also keen to know, have a fair few JAL I'd like to book coming up

Same experience as mattg

Booked F return partner reward on JAL about 1/8. Tried to charge the booking fee at the end, when I said I couldnt book online it was waived.

Although I had to explain that I found the flights on BA site as she was confused that I knew the exact flight numbers & availability

K

 

[wombatcountry]

A question for the experts here: I helped a friend book a trip SYD-CNS-GOV a while ago. She used up all her points for that (2 pax x 14400 including the 20% point discount that was running at the time) and now just has 560 points left.

Now she thinks she might need to change her dates. There is some availability on the separate segments, but it no longer comes up as a single itinerary on the QF website. So I called customer service and spoke with a very uncertain agent who told me that a change would require a 3500-point handling fee, plus 8000 points for the change itself, plus the difference in booking rate - since the original discount is no longer available, she'd also have to pay the difference, which is 3600 points (18000-14400). That's a whopping 15100 points to change this ticket, more than she originally spent. Canceling and rebooking wouldn't be any cheaper, as she would still need to get customer service involved, since the website won't allow the same itinerary to be booked as a single ticket, even though it was possible a few months ago.

I asked the phone agent if there was any chance of paying at least the phone assistance fee and the change fee with a credit card instead of points, and he sounded very confused, but after a brief hold, came back and told me no.

Is that right? If you don't have the change or cancellation points in your account, you can either buy them (at a ridiculously inflated price, I should say), get a relative to transfer them to your account, or abandon the ticket altogether? Are these the only options? I tried to find the fee info on the QF website, but the only one I found that was spelled out was that 3500 phone assistance fee. I will try to call customer service again on Tuesday, and hopefully get someone a bit more knowledgeable, but in the meantime, TIA to anyone who might add some clarity.