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

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

---snip
As some of you have experienced with QR flights there's been no sign of a confirmation or tickets. Points are also still in my account. Remind me, how long should I wait before chasing?

Congratulations on getting through the maze, Cap'n... but to make sure that you you get to enjoy your hard won prize, I suggest that if the tickets don't issue overnight you call first thing tomorrow. Then rinse & repeat every day until they issue.
Happy travels,
J

 

[Captain Halliday]

Congratulations.

I note that your first flight is a revenue fare so that means that your award fare starts in SIN.

I presume that your stopovers are VCE, HKG, BNE, LAX and presumably DRW?

If so, don't you need to include a flight to SIN to finish off the ticket?

Technically I'm only using 4 stopovers, but that suits what we want to do.

There's no requirement to actually fly back to the point of origin.

However, the distance from your final destination back to the point of origin is included in the calculation of miles. And so it is with this itinerary.

But, still no tickets, receipt, points deduction, or credit card hit seven hours after booking.

Given QR's history, I'm starting to think mine will be one of those problem booking where I have to keep calling to get flights reinstated.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Congratulations.

I note that your first flight is a revenue fare so that means that your award fare starts in SIN.

I presume that your stopovers are VCE, HKG, BNE, LAX and presumably DRW?

If so, don't you need to include a flight to SIN to finish off the ticket?

I think rule 14.5.3 comes into play here... The distance from DRW-SIN needs to be included, but it doesn't need to be an actual flight.
J

 

[Jacques Vert]

Technically I'm only using 4 stopovers, but that suits what we want to do.

There's no requirement to actually fly back to the point of origin.

However, the distance from your final destination back to the point of origin is included in the calculation of miles. And so it is with this itinerary.

But, still no tickets, receipt, points deduction, or credit card hit seven hours after booking.

Given QR's history, I'm starting to think mine will be one of those problem booking where I have to keep calling to get flights reinstated.

I think rule 14.5.3 comes into play here... The distance from DRW-SIN needs to be included, but it doesn't need to be an actual flight.
J

Yes, of course.

Too late in the day to remember all the rules.

Still, you could add another trip to SIN in 2018 for just the price of a one-way SIN-DRW.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Yes, of course.

Too late in the day to remember all the rules.

Still, you could add another trip to SIN in 2018 for just the price of a one-way SIN-DRW.

If a OW carrier starts flying that route, I'll certainly book it. It would make a great starting point for my next OW Award trip!

 

[Jacques Vert]

If a OW carrier starts flying that route, I'll certainly book it. It would make a great starting point for my next OW Award trip!

Fingers crossed.

QF have flown that route in by-gone years so you never know your luck...

 

[Radio8tiv]

<snip>
But, still no tickets, receipt, points deduction, or credit card hit seven hours after booking.

Given QR's history, I'm starting to think mine will be one of those problem booking where I have to keep calling to get flights reinstated.

If it were me I would ring sooner rather than later, QR are bad for taking tickets back, and it could just be a simple case of something needing clarification at Qantas.

Also as suggested earlier get yourself the app "my flights" which links in with Amadeus and keeps an eye on changes for you, it has helped me greatly

Also log into your Qantas account and check your booking, or use the Qantas app and refresh often, if any flights drop off you will see it there also.

lastly as per the post by fairbasa #4264 on page 427, always ask to go through the automatic ticketing bot, this worked for me at first but then got too complicated, so would always ask for the priority manual queue as the next best thing.

 

[yld200]

Can anyone help with removing a FF number from a pax? My +1 has 2 FF #'s listed on her profile and it's causing issues when I try to select seats. I've tried to change it on the qatar site but that doesn't work. Is calling the only option?

 

[Radio8tiv]

Can anyone help with removing a FF number from a pax? My +1 has 2 FF #'s listed on her profile and it's causing issues when I try to select seats. I've tried to change it on the qatar site but that doesn't work. Is calling the only option?

I have/had the same issue, we booked under one account and under the second pax name there are two numbers also, I queried this at Qantas but was told its to reflect the pax who booked for the other, after explaining about my seat selection issue they just booked the seats I wanted, I had no problems booking seats on Cathay though, only Qatar gave me the error.

 

[madrooster]

Can anyone help with removing a FF number from a pax? My +1 has 2 FF #'s listed on her profile and it's causing issues when I try to select seats. I've tried to change it on the qatar site but that doesn't work. Is calling the only option?

There's 2 FFs most likely because one of them is the FF account that the points were redeemed from, and the other is your regular FF account for that actual passenger.


If that is true, then you can only really remove the regular FF account. The account used to redeem must stay in the booking, or the airline may cancel your seats.

 

[RooFlyer]

Unaware of the QR issue ( ), I posted my experience here.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Unaware of the QR issue ( ), I posted my experience here.

Yep. Both QR and CX were trying to take back the seats while the agent was still locking in the later part of my itinerary. All up the call took 28 minutes which just goes to show how prompt they are trying to cancel seats not ticketed.

Anyhow, my tickets didn't appear overnight. I called QF this morning and they were pushed through within the hour.

 

[Norris]

Thinking of adding in a stop in japan to break the flight over to AMM - try the new international J lounge at brisbane and the many J lounges in HND, qantas suites and remove a unworthy SYD-DOH leg in BA.

Currently MEL-SYD-SIN-DOH-AMM STOP

New flights
MEL-BRI-NRT (STOP)

HND-DOH-AMM (STOP)

Question: would the distance between the 2 ports in tokyo NRT and HND be counted as a land segment?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Thinking of adding in a stop in japan to break the flight over to AMM - try the new international J lounge at brisbane and the many J lounges in HND, qantas suites and remove a unworthy SYD-DOH leg in BA.

Currently MEL-SYD-SIN-DOH-AMM STOP

New flights
MEL-BRI-NRT (STOP)

HND-DOH-AMM (STOP)

Question: would the distance between the 2 ports in tokyo NRT and HND be counted as a land segment?

Short answer: Yes
Long Answer: I believe so. Refer rule 14.5.5 - I believe that NRT & HND are different ports, so the distance between them would need to be counted as a surface sector.
J

 

[Norris]

Made the changes .... only $14 extra in taxes, interesting as now an extra stopover in LHR and 3 extra flight segments. Flight distance is nudging the max at 33,500 miles. All seats still J. Forgot to ask about changing ports in the same city is counted as a land segment

Bit of a surprise my original LHR to MIA AA leg had been cancelled and replaced with LHR to ORD. No notifications or info given on this.

5000pts req to update booking

1	MEL		QF
2	BRIS		QF
3	NRT	STOP	LND SGMT
4	HND		QR
5	DOH		RJ
6	AMM	STOP	RJ
7	TLV	STOP	BA
8	LHR		BA
9	FCO	STOP	LND SGMT
10	ZRH		BA
11	LHR		AA (new seats hopefully)
12	ORD		AA
13	SLC	STOP	LND SGMT
14	JFK		QF
15	LAX		QF
16	SYD		QF
	MEL		-

 

[bmam]

I've been reading this thread with interest as I will be undertaking my second 280k point trip as soon as I can. I'ts been interesting reading the comments on recent pages concerning whether a land segment counts as one or two stopovers. I did a trip in J a few years ago as follows:
CBR-BNE-CNS-NRT on QF (I couldn't get on the non-stop SYD-NRT flight nor BNE-NRT. Interestingly the flight from CNS originated in BNE but I couldn't board it there!) Overnight stop of <24.
NRT-LHR on BA 1st stopover
LHR-ORD on BA 2nd stopover
ORD-CDG on AA (QF insisted this was my 3rd stopover. It was a substitute for LHR which I couldn't do under the "once only" rule.)
I flew at my own cost to LHR on a "connecting" BA flight. Stayed a few days in London then Eurostar to Brussels, SN to Berlin and then train to AMS (QF considered this my 4th stopover).
AMS-LHR-SIN QF 5th? stopover
SIN-PER Overnight stop of <24 (the days of the A330)
PER-SYD-CBR (747 to Syd)


QF insisted that both CDG and AMS were stopovers. Perhaps this was once the case. This trip was in 2007 so no point in worrying about it now. I thought it might interest readers, however. I paid $1200 in fees and taxes.

 

[snabbu]

I thought I was relatively savvy with the rules for these awards however have come up with 2 agents telling me two different things.

I have a simple booking that has maxed out at 280k points whilst only using 24,000 miles, 8 segments and one stop over. The final segment HND-SYD I called up to change to HND-HKG-SIN-SYD as I could see J availability on exactly the dates I wanted. Happy to pay the points fee for the change.

The first agent said they could not see the availability I could see (on both the QF and BA sites) so I HUACA.
Second agent tells me they can see the availability for the HND-HKG-SIN segments but they are only available to new bookings. I'm told CX have started blocking availability for existing bookings but are happy for the seats to be available for new bookings.

Does this sound right or should I try another agent?

 

[Captain Halliday]

I thought I was relatively savvy with the rules for these awards however have come up with 2 agents telling me two different things.

I have a simple booking that has maxed out at 280k points whilst only using 24,000 miles, 8 segments and one stop over. The final segment HND-SYD I called up to change to HND-HKG-SIN-SYD as I could see J availability on exactly the dates I wanted. Happy to pay the points fee for the change.

The first agent said they could not see the availability I could see (on both the QF and BA sites) so I HUACA.
Second agent tells me they can see the availability for the HND-HKG-SIN segments but they are only available to new bookings. I'm told CX have started blocking availability for existing bookings but are happy for the seats to be available for new bookings.

Does this sound right or should I try another agent?

While it is possible that CX are cracking down, it sounds more like a HUCA situation to me.

It's also worth checking that your issue isn't CX's MSC?

 

[Jacques Vert]

I thought I was relatively savvy with the rules for these awards however have come up with 2 agents telling me two different things.

I have a simple booking that has maxed out at 280k points whilst only using 24,000 miles, 8 segments and one stop over. The final segment HND-SYD I called up to change to HND-HKG-SIN-SYD as I could see J availability on exactly the dates I wanted. Happy to pay the points fee for the change.

The first agent said they could not see the availability I could see (on both the QF and BA sites) so I HUACA.
Second agent tells me they can see the availability for the HND-HKG-SIN segments but they are only available to new bookings. I'm told CX have started blocking availability for existing bookings but are happy for the seats to be available for new bookings.

Does this sound right or should I try another agent?

I've had the same thing with QR. Flights available for new bookings only.

 

[snabbu]

While it is possible that CX are cracking down, it sounds more like a HUCA situation to me.

It's also worth checking that your issue isn't CX's MSC?

I don't think it's anything to do with MSC (I could be wrong) as the agent was happy to book it for me if it was a new booking and not a change. He said on the phone this was an issue he had seen with EK for a while but it seemed a new thing with CX.