Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[jaseb]

Thanks to all the advice and tips on the forum, we have managed to have booked our first OneWorld Award in J for 2 people

Generally managed to get all the stops and routing we wanted.

SYD-HKG-CTU (Cathay)
CKG-HEL (Finnair)
VIE-MAD-JFK (Iberia)
LGA-MIA-UIO (American Airlines)
UIO-LIM-SCL (Latam)
SCL-SYD( QF)

Total surcharges + taxes ~$1200 per person. The last QF leg makes up most of it unfortunately so will keep an eye out any Latam seats that pop up.

Congrats !
Quick question - if you end up altering the last leg from QF to LAN and this results in a lower amount of taxes to be paid for the whole booking, do they refund you in cash to your bank account/credit card? Or do you get a credit or something similar...?
Thanks

 

[wentworthmeister]

Having done some more research, our trip plan is looking as follows:

MEL-PER-LHR (QF)
LHR-MAD (Surface sector)
MAD-JFK-YYZ (IB, AA)
YYZ-ORD-YYC (AA)
YYC-LAX (Surface sector)
LAX-SCL-PNT (LAN)
PNT-SCL-MEL (LAN)

My only issue at this point is that PNT (Puerto Natales) doesn't exist in the Qantas system, so the LAN flights aren't visible via the multi-city tool. I assume this means I'll need to do the booking over the phone? It'd be nice if they waive the 6000 points seeing as it's not actually possible to book online.

 

[Jacques Vert]

if they waive the 6000 points seeing as it's not actually possible to book online.

It's 5,000 points for a change, 6,000 if you cancel.

 

[cjd600]

Congrats !
Quick question - if you end up altering the last leg from QF to LAN and this results in a lower amount of taxes to be paid for the whole booking, do they refund you in cash to your bank account/credit card? Or do you get a credit or something similar...?
Thanks

Refund back to the method you paid, in theory. Although I’ve been able to fill an online secure form to have it returned to a different card than that I paid with

 

[Phoebej]

Congrats !
Quick question - if you end up altering the last leg from QF to LAN and this results in a lower amount of taxes to be paid for the whole booking, do they refund you in cash to your bank account/credit card? Or do you get a credit or something similar...?
Thanks

Not sure, I'd hope a refund to credit card

 

[11sjw]

Thanks to all in here for answering my queries. I now have my Multi City J booking in place for next Xmas

PER-JFK(via HKG)-FCO-PRG-x-CDG-SIN-PER(via HKG).

Will also book a separate award PHL-YYZ-JFK/LGA. Also a couple of easyjet flights Krakow-London and London-Paris.

A busy and, mostly, cold 5-6 weeks!

 

[cjd600]

Thanks to all in here for answering my queries. I now have my Multi City J booking in place for next Xmas

PER-JFK(via HKG)-FCO-PRG-x-CDG-SIN-PER(via HKG).

Will also book a separate award PHL-YYZ-JFK/LGA. Also a couple of easyjet flights Krakow-London and London-Paris.

A busy and, mostly, cold 5-6 weeks!

Nice work!
Do you mind sharing airlines and $+ on the award piece?

 

[rock86]

Thanks to all in here for answering my queries. I now have my Multi City J booking in place for next Xmas

PER-JFK(via HKG)-FCO-PRG-x-CDG-SIN-PER(via HKG).

Will also book a separate award PHL-YYZ-JFK/LGA. Also a couple of easyjet flights Krakow-London and London-Paris.

A busy and, mostly, cold 5-6 weeks!

Good stuff!

 

[11sjw]

Nice work!
Do you mind sharing airlines and $+ on the award piece?

Sure, more than happy to.

CX: PER-JFK & SIN-PER
BA: JFK-FCO & FCO-PRG
QR: CDG-SIN

It was booked on 3 separate occasions as J availability was seeming to dry up quickly. Surcharges came to app $1750 pp.

 

[cjd600]

Sure, more than happy to.

CX: PER-JFK & SIN-PER
BA: JFK-FCO & FCO-PRG
QR: CDG-SIN

It was booked on 3 separate occasions as J availability was seeming to dry up quickly. Surcharges came to app $1750 pp.

Thanks, always good to keep mental data points on successful routings/bookings

 

[11sjw]

Thanks, always good to keep mental data points on successful routings/bookings

Happy to help. A tiny down payment back on the help received!

 

[11sjw]

Just a tip for those doing this. It may have been mentioned but I haven't scanned every post so I'll drop it in here.

It was last night we decided to add the last flight. After making the changes I was told all was ok and that the itinerary will be out in a few minutes. My mistake was hanging up there and trusting the process. I logged on this morning (around 9am WA time), as a friend was asking a question, and all of the CX flights had dropped off my itinerary.

Apparently if your itinerary involves CX you should stay on the line and wait until you have an itinerary in your inbox as they have very tight ticketing arrangements where redemption bookings are involved. The staff member on the other end of the phone admitted it was a mistake by the person that had made the change last night and that QFF would've made good on the original booking. I would hate to be relying on that, hence my post here.

STAY ON THE PHONE UNTIL YOU HAVE A NEW ITINERARY IF CX IS INVOLVED!!!!!

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Just a tip for those doing this. It may have been mentioned but I haven't scanned every post so I'll drop it in here.

It was last night we decided to add the last flight. After making the changes I was told all was ok and that the itinerary will be out in a few minutes. My mistake was hanging up there and trusting the process. I logged on this morning (around 9am WA time), as a friend was asking a question, and all of the CX flights had dropped off my itinerary.

Apparently if your itinerary involves CX you should stay on the line and wait until you have an itinerary in your inbox as they have very tight ticketing arrangements where redemption bookings are involved. The staff member on the other end of the phone admitted it was a mistake by the person that had made the change last night and that QFF would've made good on the original booking. I would hate to be relying on that, hence my post here.

STAY ON THE PHONE UNTIL YOU HAVE A NEW ITINERARY IF CX IS INVOLVED!!!!!

Not a new itinerary, an actual eticket. I've had a new itinerary emailed out showing all details as correct and still had problems when the eticket finally issues. I always try and get them to ticket straight away but depending on who you are talking to they may not do it whilst you are on the phone as this part of the process goes to a different team. Qantas will actually take ownership when this occurs however you may not get the original routing.

In my experience, QR much worse than Cathay, they can and have taken the ticket back within a few minutes. LAN can also be problematic, apparently they will take flight back if not ticketed quickly enough however have noticed they will rectify immediately the issue raised back via Qantas

 

[cjd600]

Agree QR have burnt before in this manner

 

[Warren Mason]

How frustrating is this process!! Just called attempting to complete my booking only to be told she couldn't see the flight I was looking at and that she didn't have access to book Iberia flights and the only way she could see to get us from London to Porto involved 5 flights via Madrid and then onto an airline she had never heard of and she couldn't prounce the name of. I gave up and said I would call back lol. She was from the SA call centre. Back on the phone merry-go-round. Sigh.....

 

[cjd600]

How frustrating is this process!! Just called attempting to complete my booking only to be told she couldn't see the flight I was looking at and that she didn't have access to book Iberia flights and the only way she could see to get us from London to Porto involved 5 flights via Madrid and then onto an airline she had never heard of and she couldn't prounce the name of. I gave up and said I would call back lol. She was from the SA call centre. Back on the phone merry-go-round. Sigh.....

I had problems with adding IB.
Married segments, new bookings only....blah blah
Ended up giving up and had to go with BA/AY

 

[ellen10]

I added Iberia flights together with some BA flights to my J booking back a few months ago. Maybe I was lucky.

 

[Danger]

Of great concern is this "new bookings only" has clearly become the norm when trying to add in award flights to an existing reservation.

 

[cjd600]

Its a lottery.
I called back 3 days in a row, as new IB flights became 'available' and got a different excuse each time.....

 

[Warren Mason]

All done. Called back and got someone from Auckland and they had no problems seeing the IB flights an hour later. Must be a SA problem only lol. Thanks everyone for the advice and guidance. I may be able to sleep tonight lol.