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

[ozflier]

Hi,

I have made a couple of OWAs including internal South American flights in the last 18 months.

I am trying again and, of course, there is the usual dread - not just being able to find business award seats but ,apart from that , please read on-

Many domestic LATAM services now have premium economy instead of business. If you want to book just one flight eg SCL-EZE , the system will allow you to do the booking online to get a classic premium economy award seat using QFF points .

But the minute that sector becomes part of a business class multi city itinerary eg SYD-SCL-AEP, it will only book you into economy for SCL-EZE!

So you call QFF service centre - they rarely understand that just because there is no availability for a J class award seat , there may be premium econ seats available .(Award booking classes are different). Example screenprint from QFF booking site below with reference to LA455 0925 SCL - EZE 1130 .

So they say it can't happen or they aren't available, finally they ring their supervisor(s) who fixes it up.

Then of course it costs me an extra 2x5000 points now for 2 pax to do this .

I have managed to have this waived on one occasion but

surely there is some way this hassle can be avoided.

As I said, it is hard enough to find business or equivalent seats, but it is really frustrating to have to spend hours on the phone to include premium econ in our itinerary and then have to argue over why we should be slugged for not using the online booking process.

Am I the only one or is there some obvious solution that I am missing out on?

 

[blu]

Currently mid itinerary 280k award & encountering problems with codeshared checkins. Seems similar to, "no eTicket raised" for codeshared flights. MMB shows booking/seats confirmed. Online checkin results in a "go to airport" error. Airport staff then take significant time to fix.
Rang QF SIN who could see no problems. Still have JL & CX flights and expect similar.

 

[jetpack]

Has anybody come across these issues on QR before

1. J availability is showing on the BA website but it is not showing on the QF website

2. I want to book a long transit in Doha to see the city but the booking system will not let me book the individual flights resulting in the long transit. From what I can gather this happens if a shorter connection is available for the city pair, even though there may not actually be any award availability on the shorter connection. The only workaround I can come up with is to fly to/from a destination with only one flight a day which then forces a longer transit.

 

[ozflier]

Has anybody come across these issues on QR before

1. J availability is showing on the BA website but it is not showing on the QF website

2. I want to book a long transit in Doha to see the city but the booking system will not let me book the individual flights resulting in the long transit. From what I can gather this happens if a shorter connection is available for the city pair, even though there may not actually be any award availability on the shorter connection. The only workaround I can come up with is to fly to/from a destination with only one flight a day which then forces a longer transit.

I've been in a similar situation with QR before like this-flying WAW-DOH-HKG.
I already had a longish stopover in Doha but found a better but earlier connection out of HKG.
I already had J award seats from WAW-DOH-HKG.
I found award seats from DOH-HKG on the later fight that I wanted but
I could not change my pre existing booking to include both the pre existing WAW - DOH and the later DOH-HKG departure.
I suspected that there was a award J seat allocation from WAW-HKG and i was already using it.
I spoke with a very competent QFF agent and we both crossed our fingers while she cancelled the WAW-DOH-HKG booking and changed to the later connection out of DOH.
It worked but it reminded me of how complicated airline fare and itinerary calculations are.
Hope the above is not too confusing.

 

[Guvner]

Can you book individual award flights using DOH as the origin on QF site? I didn't think you could.

 

[madrooster]

Can you book individual award flights using DOH as the origin on QF site? I didn't think you could.

QR is a MSC carrier so that's not really all that useful as the availability may not be there as through-availability.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

What is the issue with booking Latam flights as part of 280k award. Trying to get to Bogota

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Hi everyone,

3 years since our last 280K award but over the holiday period tried my best to book another as Mrs Nick and myself wanted to get to Bogota to meet our new soon to be born grandchild. Plan was to fly in by Santiago then home again via the US over the last quarter of 2018.

It all started so promising, plenty of J availability on the QFF site with Latam to cover off side trips in Santiago and Lima as well as get me to either NY or LA in the states. From there I found lots of availability direct or via Tokyo or Hong Kong back home. Eventually put together an itinery Mrs Nick was happy with and pulled the trigger on the Qantas site. Result - System Error/Various Error Codes, please start over!!!

A couple of calls to the Call Centre, apparently a known error that Latam refuse to fix where availability shows up on the QF site. One of the helpful call centre staff went through all dates in Sept and Oct and could only find 1 actual PE ticket to SCL but then nothing. Suggested I take it and pay cash for remaining flights

So wondering if anyone can advise how to find and book valid LAN reward tickets or is this not possible???

Nick

ps. I have successfully booked a pretty good itinery, once again with assistance from the call centre as online tool had troubles. No assistance fee charged thankfully

SYD-HND(s)-LAX(s)-MIA(s)-JFK(s)-HKG(s)-SYD.
​

I will purchase a return MIA-BOG-MIA in the middle unless availability does come up and I can replace the MIA stop with a BOG stop

 

[Danger]

Has anybody come across these issues on QR before

1. J availability is showing on the BA website but it is not showing on the QF website.

After many years of booking awards with AA and QF, I'm convinced that not all oneworld airlines necessarily share the same award availability with all carriers. Assuming it's not phantom availability, QR is making seats available to BA that it hasn't made available to QF.

 

[rock86]

After many years of booking awards with AA and QF, I'm convinced that not all oneworld airlines necessarily share the same award availability with all carriers. Assuming it's not phantom availability, QR is making seats available to BA that it hasn't made available to QF.

Completely agree with this. I've been doing some planning for possible dates and can see QR flights that come up on the BA search but nothing shows on the QF search engine.

I know it may be a long bow to draw, but does it have anything to do with QF ties to EK and the current ME dispute running?

 

[ozflier]

QR is a MSC carrier so that's not really all that useful as the availability may not be there as through-availability.

Please help - I always assumed that IATAs "most signifigant carrier" rule applied only to baggage .
Does it also apply to award routings?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Please help - I always assumed that IATAs "most signifigant carrier" rule applied only to baggage .
Does it also apply to award routings?

In this context, MSC = Married Segment Control. Nothing to do with baggage.

In other words if you can see QR availability for SYD-DOH and DOH-LHR it doesn’t mean you can book an award SYD-LHR... the SYD-LHR award needs to be visible in the system as a stand-alone option, or in industry jargon, a married segment.

 

[ozflier]

In this context, MSC = Married Segment Control. Nothing to do with baggage.

In other words if you can see QR availability for SYD-DOH and DOH-LHR it doesn’t mean you can book an award SYD-LHR... the SYD-LHR award needs to be visible in the system as a stand-alone option, or in industry jargon, a married segment.

Ta for that .

 

[jewles]

I'm currently on hold to Qantas making changes to my 280k award and the operator is telling me that I can't include an economy flight in the mix because a ticket wouldn't be issued for it. According to the rules 'Where mixed-class travel is booked in a oneworld Classic Flight Reward, the whole Itinerary will be calculated using the Points level for the highest class booked.' so I can't figure out what the problem would be. Any suggestions?

*UPDATE

I stood firm and kept pushing that it wasn't against the T&C's and 2 hours 24 minutes later I have my itinerary complete.

CX136 Fri 14 Sep 7:10 – 15:10 Perth PER to Hong Kong HKG
CX520 Sat 15 Sep 10:30 – 15:55 Hong Kong HKG to Narita NRT
STOP
Surface: Tokyo to Osaka
JL792 Sun 23 Sep 22:05 – 11:10+1 Osaka KIX to Honolulu HNL
STOP
Surface: Honolulu to Kauai
AA286 Mon 1 Oct 21:57 – 06:27+1 Lihue LIH to Los Angeles LAX
AA6056 Tue 2 Oct 10:40 – 12:56 Los Angeles LAX to Seattle SEA
STOP
Surface: Seattle to Vancouver (taking a lap through Washington to visit family and back through the Rockies to Vancouver)
AA1251 Sat 13 Oct 13:15 – 19:23 Vancouver YVR to Dallas DFW
AA2533 Sat 13 Oct 20:30 – 21:59 Dallas DFW to Memphis MEM
STOP
Surface: Through the Smokey Mountains, Carolinas and along the coast to Miami
AA38 Mon 22 Oct 19:45 – 09:25+1 Miami MIA to London LHR
BA632 Tue 23 Oct 13:15 – 18:55 London LHR to Athens ATH
STOP
Surface: Flying Athens to Vienna, trains Vienna to Zurich
QR096 Sun 4 Nov 16:20 – 00:25+1 Zurich ZUR to Doha DOH
QR900 Mon 5 Nov 02:25 – 18:40 Doha DOH to Perth PER

15 segments and 31,790 miles.. Glad to get there in the end!

 

[Mumanddad]

Very nice jewles, it's a bit of a marathon to get there isn't it? Envious of your AA MIA-LHR, after a flight change we tried to get seats on that flight about the same date, but settled for Fort Lauderdale-Gatwick on BA instead.

 

[RoseD]

I’m in the middle of planning the 280k award for 2 couples.
Itinerary is Oct 2018 HKG-AMS stop, MUC-DOH-ADL stop, then April 2019 ADL-SYD-NRT stop, HND-MEL (way under the 35k miles including the MEL-HKG mileage).

Couple 1 (that’s me n hubby) is definite in doing the Oct 2018 and April 2019. Couple 2 is sure with the Oct, but not the April segments.

I could now see some availability with the Oct segments and as I have learned here, I have to act with urgency as these seats could go quickly. Is it better to book under 2 PNRs? or book the 4 people together for October and then split once booked?

 

[jewles]

Very nice jewles, it's a bit of a marathon to get there isn't it? Envious of your AA MIA-LHR, after a flight change we tried to get seats on that flight about the same date, but settled for Fort Lauderdale-Gatwick on BA instead.

That was one of the easier flights to get surprisingly! I haven't read great reviews about BA business class so was willing to move around to find an AA flight but didn't end up needing to. JFK to LHR also had pretty good availability and the taxes are significantly cheaper than BA so I would have been easily convinced to spend a few nights in New York!

 

[ozflier]

Bewar

That was one of the easier flights to get surprisingly! I haven't read great reviews about BA business class so was willing to move around to find an AA flight but didn't end up needing to. JFK to LHR also had pretty good availability and the taxes are significantly cheaper than BA so I would have been easily convinced to spend a few nights in New York!

Beware you need to pay hundreds extra if you want to prebook seats in BA business( if you do not have OW elite status).
Free if you are prepared to wait until 24 hours pre departure.

 

[jewles]

I'm currently on hold to Qantas making changes to my 280k award and the operator is telling me that I can't include an economy flight in the mix because a ticket wouldn't be issued for it. According to the rules 'Where mixed-class travel is booked in a oneworld Classic Flight Reward, the whole Itinerary will be calculated using the Points level for the highest class booked.' so I can't figure out what the problem would be. Any suggestions?

*UPDATE

I stood firm and kept pushing that it wasn't against the T&C's and 2 hours 24 minutes later I have my itinerary complete.

CX136 Fri 14 Sep 7:10 – 15:10 Perth PER to Hong Kong HKG
CX520 Sat 15 Sep 10:30 – 15:55 Hong Kong HKG to Narita NRT
STOP
Surface: Tokyo to Osaka
JL792 Sun 23 Sep 22:05 – 11:10+1 Osaka KIX to Honolulu HNL
STOP
Surface: Honolulu to Kauai
AA286 Mon 1 Oct 21:57 – 06:27+1 Lihue LIH to Los Angeles LAX
AA6056 Tue 2 Oct 10:40 – 12:56 Los Angeles LAX to Seattle SEA
STOP
Surface: Seattle to Vancouver (taking a lap through Washington to visit family and back through the Rockies to Vancouver)
AA1251 Sat 13 Oct 13:15 – 19:23 Vancouver YVR to Dallas DFW
AA2533 Sat 13 Oct 20:30 – 21:59 Dallas DFW to Memphis MEM
STOP
Surface: Through the Smokey Mountains, Carolinas and along the coast to Miami
AA38 Mon 22 Oct 19:45 – 09:25+1 Miami MIA to London LHR
BA632 Tue 23 Oct 13:15 – 18:55 London LHR to Athens ATH
STOP
Surface: Flying Athens to Vienna, trains Vienna to Zurich
QR096 Sun 4 Nov 16:20 – 00:25+1 Zurich ZUR to Doha DOH
QR900 Mon 5 Nov 02:25 – 18:40 Doha DOH to Perth PER

15 segments and 31,790 miles.. Glad to get there in the end!

Another update on this... Qantas called to say they had made some mistakes with the booking and taxes and would need to refund me and then charge me the correct amount. I said that's fine, I can handle that.

A couple of hours later I received another phone call saying they had lost our Qatar flight from Zurich to Perth. Pretty devastated because it means we lose the top deck of the A380 and the bar. They have instead offered us BA from Zurich to London, and to open up seats on QF10 from London to Perth for us. I just received an e-mail saying it has been ticketed so hopefully this is all sorted now.

 

[exceladdict]

Another update on this... Qantas called to say they had made some mistakes with the booking and taxes and would need to refund me and then charge me the correct amount. I said that's fine, I can handle that.

A couple of hours later I received another phone call saying they had lost our Qatar flight from Zurich to Perth. Pretty devastated because it means we lose the top deck of the A380 and the bar. They have instead offered us BA from Zurich to London, and to open up seats on QF10 from London to Perth for us. I just received an e-mail saying it has been ticketed so hopefully this is all sorted now.

With no increase in taxes I hope?