"oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

[blu]

Thanks, didn't see that.

 

[PaulST]

Sooo... I'm close to making a booking for late April next year.
I'll have to ring as I'll need to request an opening on LAX-MEL so how quickly does that happen? Can the award be released and ticket all organised on the same phone call?

SYD-HKG (currently a CX 77W although on the phone I'll ask to open up a QF A333 via BNE or MEL)
HKG-HEL (AY A359)
HEL-LHR (AY A321 - the A359 didn't come up but it's only a short hop so I'll be interested to try something different anyway)
(around 16hrs in LHR, so I'm assuming this doesn't count as a stop-over?)
LHR-ATH (BA A320)
ATH-LHR-IAD (BA A320 and then a BA 744)
Make my own way to LAX. I'm assuming AA would be able to put send my bags directly through to SYD?)
LAX-MEL (have to call and request a release of the QF 789)
MEL-SYD

280,000 QF points.
Total $1280AUD.

Seem reasonable? My god this stuff takes a long time.

 

[blu]

Can see how to fix my stopover problem, but involves cancelling flights. May need to try and avoid that.
What is the charge for cancelling two award flights (6,000 points each flight per pax + service fees) ?
Taxes and charges for new itinerary were converted to $1,620 per pax.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I'll have to ring as I'll need to request an opening on LAX-MEL so how quickly does that happen? Can the award be released and ticket all organised on the same phone call?

My experience is that the request is dealt with there and then. I can't remember which day I was on the phone but it was definitely during business hours. Probably best to ring on a Monday to Friday; others may be able to confirm situation on a weekend.


Yes, all can be organised on the same phone call but it may be a few days before it is actually ticketed.

JV

 

[Jacques Vert]

(around 16hrs in LHR, so I'm assuming this doesn't count as a stop-over?)

<24 hours is a transit, NOT a stopover.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Can see how to fix my stopover problem, but involves cancelling flights. May need to try and avoid that.
What is the charge for cancelling two award flights (6,000 points each flight per pax + service fees) ?
Taxes and charges for new itinerary were converted to $1,620 per pax.

You will be charged the change fee (in points); the service fee will not be charged if you are in J, but will be if you are in Y.

From the T&C's:

Service Fees will not be applied when changing Classic Flight Rewards booked for travel in Business or First class.

And the change fee is now 5,000 points per change, per passenger; so try to make all your changes in one call.

(I'm assuming that the original itinerary has been booked and ticketed already? Your post 4799 seems to suggest that you were only trialing the itinerary?)

 

[snabbu]

Sooo... I'm close to making a booking for late April next year.
I'll have to ring as I'll need to request an opening on LAX-MEL so how quickly does that happen? Can the award be released and ticket all organised on the same phone call?

My experience is similar to JV above, dealt with there and then. Each time I've made the request it needed to get approved by someone higher than the original phone agent. Process from request to release hasn't been more than 10 minutes.

 

[blu]

And the change fee is now 5,000 points per change, per passenger; so try to make all your changes in one call.

Hoping that's the only cost to cancel three flights.

 

[fairbasa]

Hoping that's the only cost to cancel three flights.

You're just talking about removing some flights from the booking aren't you? Not cancelling the whole booking altogether? If you're just removing some flights from the booking, it will cost you the 5k points per passenger. You can remove/add/change as many flights as you like in the one call for the one fee so do it all at once where possible.

 

[blu]

Thanks, QF's various flight cancellation T&C's confused the issue for me.
Now need to move some points and hope I get a knowledgable CSA (uncharacteristically, the last one was very sarcastic).

 

[PaulST]

I just tried to book:
SYD-HKG-HEL-LHR-ATH-LHR-BDI- purchased flight - LAX-MEL-SYD starting April 21 2018 but the lady said that they couldn't request any releases on the SYD-HKG flight as it was too far out (apparently the requests are made to flex J?), and she suggested I call back in a week. Does this seem right?

I was going to just book on CX and change it to QF when there was availability, but then CX wouldn't let me fly J to HEL so I gave up. I guess I call them in a week and see if I have any luck.

 

[madrooster]

I just tried to book:
SYD-HKG-HEL-LHR-ATH-LHR-BDI- purchased flight - LAX-MEL-SYD starting April 21 2018 but the lady said that they couldn't request any releases on the SYD-HKG flight as it was too far out (apparently the requests are made to flex J?), and she suggested I call back in a week. Does this seem right?

I was going to just book on CX and change it to QF when there was availability, but then CX wouldn't let me fly J to HEL so I gave up. I guess I call them in a week and see if I have any luck.

Definitely incorrect. You can request up to 10 MAY 2018 as of today.

With CX and AY you may need to try asking for the CX flight to be added first, then the AY flight. If that doesn't work, try it the other way around, AY flight first then CX.

 

[PaulST]

Definitely incorrect. You can request up to 10 MAY 2018 as of today.

With CX and AY you may need to try asking for the CX flight to be added first, then the AY flight. If that doesn't work, try it the other way around, AY flight first then CX.

I think the issue was that there were no awards available (CX was available, but not QF), and she couldn't yet request an award be released because there were none in the right fare bucket.

 

[wingtip626]

I am currently planning my RTW trip from SYD travelling to Asia, Europe and then the USA. Returning home from the USA I wish to fly SFO-xHKG-SYD on CX (A350) and QF (A333).

However, when testing this routing in ITA Matrix or via the Qantas' multi-city tool only CX flights are available. I suspect this is due to CX's married segment rules. Any tricks to book the QF flight?

 

[madrooster]

Any tricks to book the QF flight?

Is there a reason that you want to pay $50 more in fuel fines to do the QF flight?

If you are keen on the QF flight, is there availability on the QF flight on its own?

 

[wingtip626]

Is there a reason that you want to pay $50 more in fuel fines to do the QF flight?

If you are keen on the QF flight, is there availability on the QF flight on its own?

I am keen to have a QF sector in my itinerary.
There are a few dates with availability on the QF flight.

 

[snabbu]

I am keen to have a QF sector in my itinerary.
There are a few dates with availability on the QF flight.

Can I ask why this is?

Personally I'm the opposite, I prefer not to have QF in my international itins if at all possible as there are many other superior options (IMO ofc).

 

[wingtip626]

Can I ask why this is?

Personally I'm the opposite, I prefer not to have QF in my international itins if at all possible as there are many other superior options (IMO ofc).

My main motivation is to travel on a wide range of OW carriers, including Qantas. My current plan has me travelling with CX, JAL, QR, AY and AA. I would like to include QF in the itinerary if possible.

 

[Battymum]

So for curiosities sake - I was checking on expedia.com.au the prices of award flights I am hoping to book.
I notice they give a breakdown of the fare including the taxes and this pretty much equated to what the QF site was giving me.

I have a couple of JAL flights I hope to take, I am wondering if its a fair assumption to use expedia to estimate the taxes. ??

Interestingly, the flights I hope to book come in at $63077.66 retail (2 pax in J) and taxes are $1718.00 - I hope I can pull this off!!

Just waiting patiently for my dates to roll around - curiosity is getting the better of me.

 

[madrooster]

I have a couple of JAL flights I hope to take, I am wondering if its a fair assumption to use expedia to estimate the taxes. ??

Use Matrix ITA to estimate taxes as you will need to deduct whatever fuel surcharge shows up on ITA as they don't necessarily apply to awards. See the wiki in this thread for calculating the fuel fines for awards.