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

[The Flying Brick]

Still no Hong Kong to Sydney CX availability for April 2021.

There is plenty of CX married segment availability via HKG to SYD (eg ex LHR, ex NRT, ex HND) up to 23 Apr for most days but for whatever reason, still nothing straight out of HK on the very same flights.

Have a look on the QF multi city booking search and you can see the CX flights as long as you start somewhere else and travel via HKG.

This is not just impacting Award flights - it's paid flights as well that aren't showing up from HKG.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Still no Hong Kong to Sydney CX availability for April 2021.

There is plenty of CX married segment availability via HKG to SYD (eg ex LHR, ex NRT, ex HND) up to 23 Apr for most days but for whatever reason, still nothing straight out of HK on the very same flights.

Have a look on the QF multi city booking search and you can see the CX flights as long as you start somewhere else and travel via HKG.

This is not just impacting Award flights - it's paid flights as well that aren't showing up from HKG.

CX do not release award seats between AU and HKG (or vice versa).

They stopped doing this some time ago.

Others can probably explain the rationale better than me, but it's related to the married sector control.

If you just want HKG-SYD, you'll need to look at QF for direct flights, or JL, MH or CX and travel via another port.

 

[Cerveza]

CX do not release award seats between AU and HKG (or vice versa).

Whilst I was planning my OWA there was a lot of availability for HKG-SYD with CX.

In fact you can see these award flights if you search for March 2021.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Whilst I was planning my OWA there was a lot of availability for HKG-SYD with CX.

In fact you can see these award flights if you search for March 2021.

That’s good to know.

With really light loads at present I’m not surprised they’ve released seats to reduce the points liability.

 

[Ktan89]

Hi All,
just had my OWA booking cancelled without any notice. I found out today seeing my points being returned back to my account. Confirmed all flights are gone from my Qantas booking page too - no email notice or anything.
Has anyone experienced this? What are my chances of getting them to reinstate the booking with all flights because i can't see any award availability for the December now.
Im furious.. how can they cancel just like that. AND so surprised they can process the return of points like straight away.. i thought it's currently taking up to 5 weeks..

 

[motef]

Hi All,
just had my OWA booking cancelled without any notice. I found out today seeing my points being returned back to my account. Confirmed all flights are gone from my Qantas booking page too - no email notice or anything.
Has anyone experienced this? What are my chances of getting them to reinstate the booking with all flights because i can't see any award availability for the December now.
Im furious.. how can they cancel just like that. AND so surprised they can process the return of points like straight away.. i thought it's currently taking up to 5 weeks..

What date was your booking for?

 

[DC3]

... just had my OWA booking cancelled without any notice. I found out today seeing my points being returned back to my account. Confirmed all flights are gone from my Qantas booking page too - no email notice or anything.
Has anyone experienced this?

What date was your booking for?

Mine’s in August, but no cancellation as yet.

 

[Ktan89]

First flight 27th September.. Singapore to Copenhagen

 

[DC3]

First flight 27th September.. Singapore to Copenhagen

This is a bit of a worry, especially if the PNR cannot be kept “alive”.

If not, then it could become 318,000 points instead of 280,000 points for a ‘new’ itinerary, even if being within the 12 month rule for flights.

Edit: No chance of changing flights before cancellation, and no advice provided from QF.

 

[Daver6]

Hi All,
just had my OWA booking cancelled without any notice. I found out today seeing my points being returned back to my account. Confirmed all flights are gone from my Qantas booking page too - no email notice or anything.
Has anyone experienced this? What are my chances of getting them to reinstate the booking with all flights because i can't see any award availability for the December now.
Im furious.. how can they cancel just like that. AND so surprised they can process the return of points like straight away.. i thought it's currently taking up to 5 weeks..

Have you called QF? As far as I'd be concerned, it's up to QF to fix this and get you back on your original flights at no extra cost. If there is no reward availability then its up to QF to figure it out, not you.

 

[DC3]

If it’s an AY flight, they have big financial issues (losing two million euros each day) as do many airlines, currently. Has the route been cancelled for September, when the flight was due?

There would be alternatives for the itinerary (routing, airline, dates) as long as the PNR is kept alive.

However, the communication is appalling. What a mess.

Edit: Just looked at the AY website and they seem to be still selling Business and Economy seats for that route on 27 Sep.

 

[pye1201]

If it’s an AY flight, they have big financial issues (losing two million euros each day) as do many airlines, currently. Has the route been cancelled for September, when the flight was due?

There would be alternatives for the itinerary (routing, airline, dates) as long as the PNR is kept alive.

However, the communication is appalling. What a mess.

As per my previous posts, I was able to push the departure date for our Qantas classic OWA award flights from June 2020 to late February next year with no penalty and 12 months from February 2021 to take the itinerary (which is currently 32,500 miles - still working on a small addition to that...). I booked at the original 280k points each and the ticket was completely re-issued at no cost/additional points. I was assured by both the booking agent and a second agent when I rang to clarify, that in late 2020 when I change the dates in the second half of the itineary to new dates nearer to the end of 2021 (when those flights become available), that I still have 12 months from the new start date in February 2021 to take that itinerary.

I was lucky enough to pre-empt any cancellation of my itinerary - when I rang they told me they were just about to cancel it and refund my points. I would be getting straight on to them and asking for a reinstatement or possible date change - as has been said, this is their problem in not being able to supply the booked flights thus they should accommodate you with any changes without penalty.

Keep us posted.

 

[DC3]

... just had my OWA booking cancelled without any notice. I found out today seeing my points being returned back to my account

This has prompted me to phone QF, a few minutes ago. Premium picked up in about 2 minutes. That’s the good bit.

However, I was informed that should my OWA be cancelled by QF, then I’m stuffed. They can’t resurrect the original PNR and a new itinerary will be 318,00 points.

Advice is to monitor. However, what then? No real answer, as it will be too late. As my first flight is in August, the advice was that this is way ahead and that I should be good for the time being. Of course that doesn’t make sense.

 

[Captain Halliday]

First flight 27th September.. Singapore to Copenhagen

That terrible. Especially not to notify you.

As a data point, I have a OW Classic Flight Award ex SIN with scheduled departure date of 14 Sept. it has not yet been cancelled.

So perhaps in your case it’s the route or carrier rather than date that triggered the cancellation.

If one sector was cancelled surely a re-route would still be an option.

FWIW, I suspect international travel in September will only be TT.

 

[DC3]

.....So perhaps in your case it’s the route or carrier rather than date that triggered the cancellation ...

.... Just looked at the AY website and they seem to be still selling Business and Economy seats for that route on 27 Sep.

I’m assuming that it’s AY, but ktan89 can confirm.

 

[DC3]

...., I was able to push the departure date for our Qantas classic OWA award flights from June 2020 ....

That’s a good outcome. I was told that it’s no penalty only as far out as 31 May.

 

[Ktan89]

Just got off the phone with Qantas. First things first - some good news for people here: I was surprised i got on to a Hobart consultant today. She's informed me they have closed Manila as of yesterday for the time being and Capetown will be closed this weekend too. That leaves only Hobart and Auckland plus people in other departments in Sydney/Brisbane helping out.

Back to my issue.. she didn't understand what was going on, why it had cancel the whole bookong but then said it was system error. She said there was a schedule change on one of the flights and the system automatically cancelled the whole booking...even if it changes by 5mins - I will check this for all flights when I get home.

My booking is back on the system but not ticketed. She's put a hold request on most flights besides a Finnair leg & 1 JAL leg where there is no award availability. She sent an email to OneWorld requesting 2 paid seats to be converted as awardseats but said it could take weeks since OW is operating skeleton staff and they will attend to emergency flights first. I'm going to call up again Monday to follow up on this.

Guys constantly check your bookings. i saw this today since I checked my Qantas credit card account and saw points magically appeared. The last time I checked my booking was Thursday, it was all there.. and then on Friday the points got refunded.

Post automatically merged: May 2, 2020

I’m assuming that it’s AY, but ktan89 can confirm.

Yes I do have a HEL - JFK AY5 flight in October.

 

[DC3]

My booking is back on the system but not ticketed ....

I hope that this works out for you. If you are on the 280,000 points deal, then it will be interesting to see how your points are deducted.

 

[Ktan89]

Thanks @DC3. It is booked under the 280K deal and hopping it'll stay the same since they reactivate the old PNR. Will let you know once they take the points again.

I decided to contact Finnair and JAL myself this afternoon to see if they can still see my PNR & ticket.
JAL - guy over the phone said the ticket looks good on his end and he is able to reselect all my old seats (besides 1 leg.. damn people are fast).
Finnair - online chat. She could also see the PNR and said a new ticket was issued today. She also tried to charge me seat selection because of the new rules implemented March 31st but ended up waiving it.

Further on the conversation with Finnair, the rep said Qantas had cancelled this some time ago.... Hmmm...
The Qantas rep this morning said it was QR schedule change (I confirmed nothing changed) and\or Finnair making changes..maybe because of the new policy?
I don't know anymore, glad this is kinda sorted, just waiting for QF to take my points again.

Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:06:55): Let me see if we can make an exception to the new rule. This one time.
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:07:10): thank you
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:13:30): Ok,this is cleared now.
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:13:38): Seats are released for free.
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:13:58): thank you Mariam.
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:16:26): Of course. I am sorry that you experienced such invonvenience.
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:16:57): that's fine. Are you able to see if my booking was cancelled yesterday due to Finnair changes?
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:17:49): This booking was cancelled by Qantas some time ago,but not really something that I should be discussing on their behalf.
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:17:56): Looks like technical discrepancy.
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:18:27): The seats became chargeable,because they closed your old tickets and the new ones show date of issue 02MAY.
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:18:55): Thank you for your understanding.
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:19:04): Can you provide a date where Qantas submitted the cancellation due to technical discepancy
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:19:04): Of course.
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:19:33): No,I am sorry.
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:19:39): This is not in our authority.
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:20:53): alright i understand. I wasn't told anything or given an email notice, just saw all my flights disappeared
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:22:02): It happens sometimes very very rarely.
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:22:12): hopefully it doesn't happen again. This gave me a heart attack
Kevin (02/05/2020, 18:22:31): Thank you for your help today Mariam - much appreciated. Have a good weekend!
Mariam (02/05/2020, 18:22:40): Looking forward to seeing you on board and say safe. : )

 

[DC3]

Thanks @DC3. It is booked under the 280K deal and hopping it'll stay the same since they reactivate the old PNR. Will let you know once they take the points again.

I decided to contact Finnair and JAL myself this afternoon .... Finnair - online chat. She could also see the PNR and said a new ticket was issued today .... Further on the conversation with Finnair, the rep said Qantas had cancelled this some time ago.... I don't know anymore, glad this is kinda sorted, just waiting for QF to take my points again.

OK. Thanks for the update. Certainly you can’t afford to drop your guard it seems.

I’ve been checking my 10 x August bookings (Oz-NRT-USA-CAN-USA-Oz) at least twice a week as it is. I thought that this was a bit over the top, but maybe not, in hindsight.