Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[QF029]

On return to the origin, the trip is finished.

So, another stop can still be utilised if needed.

Thanks for clarifying. So in my scenario I could consider doing a trip to Asia before June and adding a leg at the start.

 

[DC3]

Thanks for clarifying. So in my scenario I could consider doing a trip to Asia before June and adding a leg at the start.

If changing the country of origin, it will affect the pricing (e.g., are you looking at ticketing in SIN? Then the trip costs will be repriced as SGD). And you may have some (big) issues with the Call Centre (especially non-Hobart/non-Auckland) on recalculation of charges/fees/taxes. Some would warn against doing this. Maybe someone else will have better news.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

With significant help from this thread I have managed to book the following all in J except LAX-LAS:

MEL-LAX (QF) - Transit
LAX-LAS (AA) - 1st Stop
LAS-JFK (AA) - 2nd Stop
EWR-LHR (BA) - 3rd Stop
LHR-FCO (BA) - 4th Stop
FCO-PER (QF) - Transit
PER-MEL (QF) - Finish or 5th Stop

Taxes - AUD $1,253.95.

I'm happy with this itinerary and it comes to 24,769 miles. I'll switch NYC-LHR to AA if seats get released to save some money on taxes. I'm flying out of EWR to try the updated BA J.

My next thought it how do I add a bonus leg for another trip to it. Can I transit my city of origin? If so I'm thinking I could add a final destination of SIN/BKK/HKG a few months later and then pay for a one way flight home. I have enough miles to include the return miles to MEL. The trip above is all in 3 weeks so no issue with the 12 months.

All creative tips welcome!

Something I noticed the other day was that a BA transatlantic only seems to attract high fees if it’s standalone… ie USA-Europe. If you include it in a RTW (or multi country itinerary) the fees seem to be much lower.

I priced out an RTW including BA transatlantic but the fees were almost on par with AA. But BA for a USA-London alone were in the $800 region.

 

[Noah Count]

If changing the country of origin, it will affect the pricing (e.g., are you looking at ticketing in SIN? Then the trip costs will be repriced as SGD). And you may have some (big) issues with the Call Centre (especially non-Hobart/non-Auckland) on recalculation of charges/fees/taxes. Some would warn against doing this. Maybe someone else will have better news.

If you are starting from a non AUD location you can call and ask for the taxes to be calculated and charged in AUD. I have done this in the past if the international segments are open before the AU segments, it also ensures any additional segments are added in AUD and avoids FX gains/losses and international CC surcharges. 100% agree that the repricing will be done from the point of origin and unless you have access to the better agents it may not be worth the time or effort, I only do this as I have access to the VIP (P1) line and the agents know how to get things to work. As a final note if any one does go down this route you need to pay particular attention to the taxes that will be charged and ask the agent to ticket while on the phone so you can get the 081-xx_ ticket number as when you receive the confirmation the taxes and ticket number are not included in the e-ticket email attachment. To demonstrate below are 2 e-tickets the first is as per normal


The second is from a booking made xSIN-HKG-SYD and at the time of booking I requested to be charged in AUD not SGD.

 

[madrooster]

Something I noticed the other day was that a BA transatlantic only seems to attract high fees if it’s standalone… ie USA-Europe. If you include it in a RTW (or multi country itinerary) the fees seem to be much lower.

I priced out an RTW including BA transatlantic but the fees were almost on par with AA. But BA for a USA-London alone were in the $800 region.

Since early 2020, yes AA has fuel fines on transatlantic awards and they can actually be higher or lower than BA, on some itineraries substantially so.

Both BA and AA has two different fuel fines that can apply for origin Australia and which one applies, depends on your entire itinerary routing and what your furthest ticketed point is (particularly important on RTW/multi continent itineraries).

For itineraries for origin Australia where the furthest ticketed point IS in the US or Canada:

Example routing where the furthest ticketed point is in the US/CA: SYD QF HND JL LHR AA NYC AA LAX QF SYD

LHR-JFK is 188 USD on BA, 175 USD on AA
LHR-LAX is 266 USD on BA, 175 USD on AA
LHR-DFW is 266 USD on BA, 175 USD on AA
LHR-ORD is 188 USD on BA, 175 USD on AA
LHR-SEA is 266 USD on BA, 175 USD on AA
LHR-MIA is 188 USD on BA, 175 USD on AA

For itineraries for origin Australia where the furthest ticketed point / ultimate ticketed destination IS NOT in the US or Canada:

Example routing where the furthest ticketed point is NOT in the US/CA: SYD QF HND JL LHR AA PHL AA LAX QF SYD

LHR-JFK is 215 USD on BA, 300 USD on AA
LHR-LAX is 290 USD on BA, 300 USD on AA
LHR-DFW is 290 USD on BA, 300 USD on AA
LHR-ORD is 215 USD on BA, 300 USD on AA
LHR-SEA is 290 USD on BA, 300 USD on AA
LHR-MIA is 215 USD on BA, 300 USD on AA

The second is from a booking made xSIN-HKG-SYD and at the time of booking I requested to be charged in AUD not SGD.

15below (the provider of the system that generates the e-ticket receipts) can't read such tickets which is why it just sends you an itinerary only and no actual receipt. You can ask QF to send you the barebones dirty text version, which will also give you the full tax breakdown.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks madrooster!

It makes the inclusion of BA in OWAs quite reasonable compared to just point-to-point trans atlantic.

Another interesting thing I picked up was that AA JFK-LHR the carrier charge was something like USD100. Adding CVG-JFK-LHR the price shot up to USD175.

 

[madrooster]

Thanks madrooster!

It makes the inclusion of BA in OWAs quite reasonable compared to just point-to-point trans atlantic.

Another interesting thing I picked up was that AA JFK-LHR the carrier charge was something like USD100. Adding CVG-JFK-LHR the price shot up to USD175.

What routing and origin? Routing and origin plays a large part in what fuel fines are levied as normally domestic AA does not attract any fuel fines.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What routing and origin? Routing and origin plays a large part in what fuel fines are levied as normally domestic AA does not attract any fuel fines.

JFK-LHR USD135
CVG-LGA//JFK-LHR (same day single ticket, making own way LGA-JFK) USD195

So a USD60 surcharge for adding the CVG sector. These are booked through QFFF. While you get a points saving on the through fare they make up for it in the excess carrier charges.

Both flights in F.

 

[madrooster]

JFK-LHR USD135
CVG-LGA//JFK-LHR (same day single ticket, making own way LGA-JFK) USD195

So a USD60 surcharge for adding the CVG sector. These are booked through QFFF. While you get a points saving on the through fare they make up for it in the excess carrier charges.

Both flights in F.

JFK-LHR is 110 USD and CVG-LHR is 170 USD for the YR component. Ex-US appears to be filed based on the origin port as well as destination, eg. JFK-MAD on AA is 205 USD.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

JFK-LHR is 110 USD and CVG-LHR is 170 USD for the YR component. Ex-US appears to be filed based on the origin port as well as destination, eg. JFK-MAD on AA is 205 USD.

Thanks. Still doesn’t sit well that by adding a domestic sector they get to gouge $60 extra for fuel. The domestic sector by itself is only 5.60.

 

[madrooster]

Thanks. Still doesn’t sit well that by adding a domestic sector they get to gouge $60 extra for fuel. The domestic sector by itself is only 5.60.

It's cheap insurance in the context of at least being protected without argument in the event of delays, weather, etc. On separate PNRs you will be at the mercy of whoever you're dealing with, who may or may not care about your onwards connection. AA official policy is that you are only treated as a through-ticketed passenger if it's all on one PNR.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's cheap insurance in the context of at least being protected without argument in the event of delays, weather, etc. On separate PNRs you will be at the mercy of whoever you're dealing with, who may or may not care about your onwards connection. AA official policy is that you are only treated as a through-ticketed passenger if it's all on one PNR.

That’s a shame. Until at least 2020 AA’s policy was to treat AA-AA connections, even on separate PNRs, as ‘through ticketed’, with the same protections.

 

[madrooster]

That’s a shame. Until at least 2020 AA’s policy was to treat AA-AA connections, even on separate PNRs, as ‘through ticketed’, with the same protections.

In practice that has been the case. I haven't seen it written on paper as such on a regular basis though, so if you're dealing with a contract ground handler, which CVG is, it could go awry.

 

[jfl]

There seems to be a lot of availability on FinnAir from Japan to Europe at the moment, which is great. Managed to snag a mostly J OW:

- SYD-HND
- HND-HEL-CPH
- Non-award CPH-FCO
- FCO-DOH-JNB
- JNB-SYD in Y

Here's hoping that Qantas releases more J for the JNB-SYD leg!

 

[Guvner]

Is HND just a transit?

 

[jfl]

Is HND just a transit?

No, spending some time there.

 

[DC3]

Is HND just a transit?

No, spending some time there.

If the trip is some time away that may work, as tourists entering Japan is probably not happening any time soon.

 

[jfl]

If the trip is some time away that may work, as tourists entering Japan is probably not happening any time soon.

Yeah, took the gamble on the booking. Seeing as how it's over 6 months away, I think it's a fairly low risk gamble.

If they do still have the foreigner ban in place in 3 months time, I will try and sort it then.

 

[Oubline]

There seems to be a lot of availability on FinnAir from Japan to Europe at the moment, which is great. Managed to snag a mostly J OW:

- SYD-HND
- HND-HEL-CPH
- Non-award CPH-FCO
- FCO-DOH-JNB
- JNB-SYD in Y

Here's hoping that Qantas releases more J for the JNB-SYD leg!

Fingers crossed for the JNB-SYD leg getting further availability!

Not wanting to rain on your parade at all, just wanting to point out that Finnair hasn't actually started flying the HND-HEL route yet (due to start with the summer schedule in late-March).

I really hope they will start on schedule but I could see them delaying the launch because they do have a daily NRT-HEL flight already that presumably is flying quite empty. They do seem to be reliably running the NRT-HEL flight every day though which is good so they could always reroute on that.

I'm sure in six months everything will be different though and I'm sure that if the border is open for tourists then planes will be full again.

 

[jfl]

Fingers crossed for the JNB-SYD leg getting further availability!

Not wanting to rain on your parade at all, just wanting to point out that Finnair hasn't actually started flying the HND-HEL route yet (due to start with the summer schedule in late-March).

I really hope they will start on schedule but I could see them delaying the launch because they do have a daily NRT-HEL flight already that presumably is flying quite empty. They do seem to be reliably running the NRT-HEL flight every day though which is good so they could always reroute on that.

I'm sure in six months everything will be different though and I'm sure that if the border is open for tourists then planes will be full again.

Fingers crossed! I much rather HND as it's easier to get to on public transport, and it's closer to metro area.

The 1:30am flight is a bit gross but it will be interesting at least.