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

[blu]

Like others before me, Agent (Fiji?) told us this morning, "no mixed classes". It's our final sector (from Japan) with no J availability routing anywhere through Asia.
JL has also apparently frozen PE / Z awards, although they still show availability online (but not to QF Agent).
Also QF are showing only a A332 to HND for next April which may not have a PE cabin. Guessing it will probably swap to a B789 before then? Does EF send aircraft substitution alerts?

 

[Lynda2475]

Mixed class OWA is allowed, but you are charged the points for the highest class of travel include dint he itinerary. HUACA and remind them of this rule.

 

[Matt_01]

Does EF send aircraft substitution alerts?

Yes you can set up aircraft change alerts.

 

[flapper]

Mixed class OWA is allowed, but you are charged the points for the highest class of travel include dint he itinerary. HUACA and remind them of this rule.

I've lost count of the number of agents who have told me you can't have mixed classes on the one booking despite the rules indicating you can. They just refuse to do it even after reading out the rule.

 

[kctt]

Some partner airlines will delete their flights if the whole booking is not ticketed within 24 hours. QR & CX are 2 that I know do. This is automatic. I don't know if any other airlines do it. (Does anyone know of other airlines that do this?) I understand the procedures are if a booking contains a flight with a partner airline the agent should do the ticketing before they take the next call. Most agents in the OS call centres will refuse to do it. You need to keep calling until you find one that will. This will likely take 5 or more calls. I understand that they need to call ticketing and that includes waiting on hold for 30 mins or more so they often refuse to do it. If they tell you it has been sent to ticketing and will take an hour or 2 don't take their word, keep calling until it is ticketed.

4th call to Philippines. The guy is polite and repeats that ticket is queuing to ticket team
I said i want to get it done ... If 1st flight is dropped, my whole trip is not good anymore. So he kept me on hold while he tried contacting ticket team.
Call was dropped around an hour mark (1st 45 minutes waiting in queue for an agent).
He called back immediately, on hold another 35 minutes. He gave me update he's with support team, there is some issue with the change and they have to do some matching / fixing before it can go to ticketing team. And he had to drop my call and will give me update when he has update.
Previously I asked whether my change is all good with points and tax. He said all good, just wait for ticketing

 

[Mr H]

Previously I asked whether my change is all good with points and tax. He said all good, just wait for ticketing

Please keep refreshing CMT to see whether ticket numbers appear. Do not rely on the QF website which is not up to date, or on getting an email which doesn't always happen.

 

[Muppet501st]

Have had a couple of changes to our J flights.
Our LHR-CVG via PHL, changed to LHR-PHL-CLT-CVG, with a 30min connection at CLT!!
Been looking at alternatives, in the day, and day after.
What happens if we miss the CLT-CVG flight? Would AA cover the hotel that night ?

 

[kctt]

Please keep refreshing CMT to see whether ticket numbers appear. Do not rely on the QF website which is not up to date, or on getting an email which doesn't always happen.

Three old flights on the way back to Sydney were removed on Qantas website. Checkmytrip still shows old flights and new replacement flights in same booking reference number. This is at same status as after 3rd agent. I'm not sure if there is some progress in backend with 4th agent. All flights have confirmed status. I will wait a few hours, hoping he's actually working with Support team to sort out whatever issue with the ticket. I tried asking him more details but he could not provide details what the issue is.

 

[Mr H]

Three old flights on the way back to Sydney were removed on Qantas website. Checkmytrip still shows old flights and new replacement flights in same booking reference number. This is at same status as after 3rd agent. I'm not sure if there is some progress in backend with 4th agent. All flights have confirmed status. I will wait a few hours, hoping he's actually working with Support team to sort out whatever issue with the ticket. I tried asking him more details but he could not provide details what the issue is.

On CMT you seem to have to delete all the web address and load just the plain checkmytrip.com to refresh. Then click on the flight number and it will show you a screen that includes a ticket number if that sector has been ticketed. You want to try that on the new flights to see when the ticket has been issued and the old flights will drop off.

 

[kctt]

I check CMT again. I logged in and it shows my booking which is already in my account.
The old flights now disappear but new flights do not have E-ticket number yet.

 

[DC3]

He said all good, just wait for ticketing

‍

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Have had a couple of changes to our J flights.
Our LHR-CVG via PHL, changed to LHR-PHL-CLT-CVG, with a 30min connection at CLT!!
Been looking at alternatives, in the day, and day after.
What happens if we miss the CLT-CVG flight? Would AA cover the hotel that night ?

You’d have to check minimum connecting time in CLT, but I suspect 30 mins is ok if it has ticketed. Connection times like that at CLT should be ok if flights are in time.

AA may or may not cover your hotel, depending on the reason for the delay. If it is outside their control you may need to rely on your travel insurance.

I had a similar connection recently in PHL, it was down to about 20 minutes once we pulled up at the gate. I made the flight but my luggage didn’t unfortunately. AA was proactive… bag delivered to my door the next day and I was reimbursed for additional expenses such as PJs and stuff I needed for the day.

With the extra 10 mins - plus the fact that flights times are fairly heavily padded in the US - you should be fine. Just move quickly on arrival

 

[Muppet501st]

You’d have to check minimum connecting time in CLT, but I suspect 30 mins is ok if it has ticketed. Connection times like that at CLT should be ok if flights are in time.

AA may or may not cover your hotel, depending on the reason for the delay. If it is outside their control you may need to rely on your travel insurance.

I had a similar connection recently in PHL, it was down to about 20 minutes once we pulled up at the gate. I made the flight but my luggage didn’t unfortunately. AA was proactive… bag delivered to my door the next day and I was reimbursed for additional expenses such as PJs and stuff I needed for the day.

With the extra 10 mins - plus the fact that flights times are fairly heavily padded in the US - you should be fine. Just move quickly on arrival

We’re travelling HLO,
When searching for alternatives, the flight we’ve been moved to, doesn’t come up.
I think we might stick with it, who doesn’t like a bit of an adventure. Plus we don’t have rock solid plans till days after that flight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We’re travelling HLO,
When searching for alternatives, the flight we’ve been moved to, doesn’t come up.
I think we might stick with it, who doesn’t like a bit of an adventure. Plus we don’t have rock solid plans till days after that flight.

I suspect between now and november there might be more schedule changes anyway.

 

[Mr H]

I suspect between now and november there might be more schedule changes anyway.

There may well be. but @Muppet501st will want to ensure that he or she has a fully ticketed, valid itinerary at all times. That means being proactive and fixing holes as and when they occur.

 

[kctt]

5th call to Fiji last night: 2 hours phone call with 50 minutes wait in queue, around 50 minutes on hold waiting for agent to contact Support. Eventually she still waited for support and told me she will end the call and will call me back tomorrow morning but no call this morning
Agent said 1st half of trip is ticketed (from original booking), second half of trip needs re-price. She encounters some re-price error and needs to contact Support
A new flight with more convenient flight time is available among set of new flights back to Sydney that have not been ticketed yet. I asked agent if i can change now while flights are not ticketed yet to save from doing this whole change process all again but she said no, it will mess up further when they cannot do a reprice with current change and i put in another change. The change is for next day flight same departure and arrival destination.

 

[Mr H]

5th call to Fiji last night: 2 hours phone call with 50 minutes wait in queue, around 50 minutes on hold waiting for agent to contact Support. Eventually she still waited for support and told me she will end the call and will call me back tomorrow morning but no call this morning
Agent said 1st half of trip is ticketed (from original booking), second half of trip needs re-price. She encounters some re-price error and needs to contact Support
A new flight with more convenient flight time is available among set of new flights back to Sydney that have not been ticketed yet. I asked agent if i can change now while flights are not ticketed yet to save from doing this whole change process all again but she said no, it will mess up further when they cannot do a reprice with current change and i put in another change. The change is for next day flight same departure and arrival destination.

Ignore the agent. You can ask for new changes to be made to the itinerary - do not mention that there are changes currently being worked through as that is not relevant and will just confuse things.

If there are errors in pricing, then it is a potential sticking point. I had that for the longest time and did not work out why. In the event, it was a flight that had originally been QR that had become an Oman Air flight with a QR codeshare - which broke the rules and stopped any changes being ticketed. Once that problem was identified and the route altered, I was able to get tweaked itineraries priced and ticketed.

 

[kctt]

6th call to Fiji: agent searched and found the flight with new flight time but could not add to booking. She says there is some pricing error. I asked if she knows what that means or has experiences with this. She told me because it is classic reward and multi city, she has to get help from Support team in Australia. So now on hold while she tries to contact support team based in Australia.
My trip has 7 flights so it cannot be searched / booked directly on website.
I did a test search of exact same route in Economy leaving out last leg BKK-SYD. Reward points max out matches with OWA limit so there should be no problem with airlines or destinations.
I don't have any QR flight in the trip.

 

[DC3]

6th call to Fiji ..

Unfortunate to see that your calls don’t get picked up by someone who will sort this out for you. I would be continuing to HUACA, sadly.

 

[Lynda2475]

They really need to stand up a dedicated team (and menu option) for OWAs since its clearly a specialist skills set that Mind pearl don't understand how to resolve.

Call volumes would drop dramatically if issues were resolved first time by well trained competent staff.

Ive not had luxury of time to be on hold, am hoping to get through to Hobart or NZ over the weekend if I HUACA enough times.