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

[DC3]

I‘m just wondering if anyone has managed to book internal US flights / Canada to USA as part of the OWA, in business class?
There appears to be no business class offering, only economy and First, however when I select First, I am advised that it would be a business class seat.

In terms of the 318,000 points, it is regarded as a First class ticket and obviously the 318,000 points no longer works.

So, in general, booking AA at the pointy end will price within the oneworld 318,000 point award (other than for 3-cabin aircraft). U Class.

Booking AS at the pointy end will push it into the 455,00 point bracket. The AS flights need to be booked in Economy for the 318,000 point redemptions. T Class.

 

[ozflier]

Hi,

When you said
For some reason they could not process :
HEL-DOH (stopover)
DOH-IST (stopover)
IST- DOH transit

did you mean that no award seats were available for those sectors or was there a problem with the overall booking if those sectors were included?
I am guessing LRH refers to London Heathrow .
Do you have a stopover in SFO?
The total mileage does seem well below the 35K limit .

 

[bookworm]

Hi,

When you said
For some reason they could not process :
HEL-DOH (stopover)
DOH-IST (stopover)
IST- DOH transit

did you mean that no award seats were available for those sectors or was there a problem with the overall booking if those sectors were included?

There was availability of seats in business class.
Call centre told me too many transits through DOH which didn't make sense to me.
Thank you

Post automatically merged: Mar 28, 2022

So, in general, booking AA at the pointy end will price within the oneworld 318,000 point award (other than for 3-cabin aircraft). U Class.

Booking AS at the pointy end will push it into the 455,00 point bracket. The AS flights need to be booked in Economy for the 318,000 point redemptions. T Class.

Thank you.
I'll look into booking on AA, this was something that call centre didn't know about.

 

[ozflier]

The OWA award allows for one stopover and 2 transits per city - you don't seem to have exceeded that but your itinerary is not clear.
I know the hassle with contacting the QFF call centre - why not ring first thing in the morning and, with luck, you may be offered a call back .

 

[jkcfc]

I'm at a loss - every time I call (7 times over 3 days) I get told the same thing regarding my positioning flights - they are all ticketed fine and there is nothing they can do. 1 of these was a proud '18 year veteran on the Premium line (SA)'. He pushed me towards the feedback form via customer care.

One agent was battling with the ticketing team for over 2 hours and put my case forward about the changes being stuck in the automated ticketing queue and that they need a supervisor to push through the ticketing. This agent only helped as I could show that one of my flights had dropped off my booking but not my partners (they split our booking during a previous change) even though 'these had been ticketed fully'.

We now have DOH-BNE-MEL & DOH-SYD-MEL bookings but neither are fully ticketed with a PDF containing the E-ticket, date issued & $ charged.

I booked MEL-ADE, DOH-SYD-MEL online (could not bear another call to have a booking originate from Doha) and did not receive an e-ticket number. I removed the MEL-ADE leg today and have been told it has been re-ticketed but of course no e-ticket pdf.

I'm guessing my only hope is to call again early Mon-Fri and keep hoping to get an Aus/NZ operator?

And now it feels like i'm living out the definition of insanity - expecting things to change but keep on calling and getting the same response even from Auckland.

This is even after my DOH-BNE flight disappeared again overnight.

I really don't know what to do. It does go through to the section where you can manually change the flight through MMB but in the past it hadn't however comes up with an error saying Qantas can't find any available flight alternatives for the 3 days either side of the booking.

Any advice?

Should I be saying something specific like the tickets haven't been issued or any other ideas?

 

[bnr032]

Another update. so even though on friday i was told 'dont worry it will be ticketed today'
it wasnt
So todays experience
7:39am - called, offered call back (told 30min-1hr wait)
10:27am - called me back. Agent said she would look into why its not ticketed, i said i wanted to be on hold not told it will be done.
12:02pm - agent picked the line up again, explained to me, the points hadnt been paid, to which i explained they were when i initially booked, told her the amount and date. on hold again
12:58pm - agent picked up again, explained no there is a fee difference - now would have to pay the difference to 318k pts, and an extra $450 something in taxes. I tried to explain its an involuntary change, as there was no other business seat options you could offer me to get me from BNE to LAX in the 5 dates i could offer. Explained the agent and I looked at them all, before Doha connection only one available.
I am now on hold again whilst she consults her support/supervisor
but mentioned she maybe able to request a business class retail seat be converted to rewards for me.
I said i dont mind which way, but i shouldnt have to pay extra for a change out of my hands.


At times i really wish i could invoice my time being on hold all of these days.

EDIT - they have officially came back and said no, the route to via doha will not be offered an no extra charge. so they are reverting my booking to a still cancelled flight and sending a 'request to convert retail seat to reward'on the direct QF flight... but she also said its not a garuntee

 

[Mr H]

At times i really wish i could invoice my time being on hold all of these days.

You can - just don't expect it to be paid.

 

[jkcfc]

At times i really wish i could invoice my time being on hold all of these days.

Even billed out at minimum wage we'd be able to fund all taxes for our upcoming trips.

 

[Lynda2475]

I think you'll find that for the last several years, for the purposes of a OWA, you can book AA first class and it will be deemed to be a booking into a U class seat i.e. J, and you still only pay 318,000 points.

This is true, my upcoming OWA J trip has 2 First Class AA domestic flights (JFK-ORD and ORD-DFW) and still capped out at 318k. That said I added those flights over the phone so don't know if magic was performed, as my original online itinerary didn't have any US domestic legs.

 

[Guvner]

My SYD-JNB flight in Sept just got moved back a day. Seems they are dropping the Sunday flights.
It's part of an OWA with QR legs. No new e-ticket yet. I have a bad feeling about this.

 

[Guvner]

As expected. it's never straight forward with this mob.
QF63 originally booked 4/9. Email recvd stating flight had changed to 5/9. Went to MMB and accepted change.
MMB shows 5/9 as expected.
No new e-ticket received 6 hours later. Went back to MMB and flight still showing 5/9. Selected "email Itinerary" and updated e-ticket received showing flight is now on 6/9. MMB still states 5/9. CMT shows 5/9.
I give up. I really don't want to call and have anyone manually mucking around with my OWA booking, particularly as it has QR sectors.

 

[jkcfc]

And now it feels like i'm living out the definition of insanity - expecting things to change but keep on calling and getting the same response even from Auckland.

This is even after my DOH-BNE flight disappeared again overnight.

I really don't know what to do. It does go through to the section where you can manually change the flight through MMB but in the past it hadn't however comes up with an error saying Qantas can't find any available flight alternatives for the 3 days either side of the booking.

Any advice?

Should I be saying something specific like the tickets haven't been issued or any other ideas?

I've gone to MMB through Finnair & Qatar (logged in on QR with the e-ticket number) and can see our e-ticket numbers listed on both sites (these match the text based emails received from Qantas).

I sent the itinerary from each site and it lists our updated flights with the e-ticket number and booking reference. Is this enough to confirm the flights are indeed ticketed or does it come down to the Qantas PDF with e-ticket number which no agent can possible get sent to me?

 

[Fil-Ski]

Just wanted to know if someone could help me with the following. The below article states that if you start your trip in a non-Australian city you can effectively get 2 trips.

Perks of starting your Qantas oneworld Classic Reward overseas

Benefits of starting your Qantas oneworld Classic Flight Reward from overseas include more holidays, and paying less in taxes.

www.pointhacks.com.au

I have tried the following itinerary:

Trip 1

HND-JFK

JFK-LHR

LHR-ADL

Trip 2

ADL-SIN

SIN-ADL



When I try on the oneWorld site I get the following validation error

You may have only one intercontinental departure and arrival in each continent. Please select a different destination.

 

[levelnine]

When I try on the oneWorld site I get the following validation error

You may have only one intercontinental departure and arrival in each continent. Please select a different destination.

Use the Qantas Multi-City booking page.

The Oneworld site is not for Qantas Oneworld Classic Rewards.

 

[Mr H]

When I try on the oneWorld site I get the following validation error

You may have only one intercontinental departure and arrival in each continent. Please select a different destination.

Are you trying to book as a Classic Rewards One World redemption or some kind of points/cash RTW booking? Many OWAs have multiple visits to a continent. My forthcoming redemption goes:

Australia
Asia (stop)
Yurp (stop)
Asia (stop)
Africa (stop)
Asia (stop)
Yurp
Asia
Australia.

 

[Fil-Ski]

Use the Qantas Multi-City booking page.

The Oneworld site is not for Qantas Oneworld Classic Rewards.

OK so that might explain it

 

[ozflier]

Just when I thought that QFF reservation line could not get any worse , it just did - the call back system is currently inoperative . I learnt this after waiting for 4 hours - at least I was not actually on the line .
I rang re a glitch in flights for tomorrow - all our business class seats seat reservations lost and I am trying to fix it and sit us together .
Could not do it online and now potential seating keeps disappearing as time goes by.
It must be incredibly frustrating for pax with more pressing issues than mine!

 

[Guvner]

As expected. it's never straight forward with this mob.
QF63 originally booked 4/9. Email recvd stating flight had changed to 5/9. Went to MMB and accepted change.
MMB shows 5/9 as expected.
No new e-ticket received 6 hours later. Went back to MMB and flight still showing 5/9. Selected "email Itinerary" and updated e-ticket received showing flight is now on 6/9. MMB still states 5/9. CMT shows 5/9.
I give up. I really don't want to call and have anyone manually mucking around with my OWA booking, particularly as it has QR sectors.

So I called today.
Got straight through (!) and explained that my e-ticket had dropped off my OWA booking after Qantas had changed my flight... not me..
Went through the whole story.. told her exactly what I needed fixing.

Agent taps away, puts me on hold. Comes back on and says did you use a credit card to pay the taxes? I asked why that was relevant, she said "Because I need to process your refund".
Me: "Refund! Noooo... I don't want you to touch any flights, Don't cancel anything, I just want the e-ticket which matches the booking."
Agent: "Let me put you on hold"
75 minutes later. "OK sir, I have fixed the issue and you need to pay 60c"
Me: laugh.. "Why's that?"
Agent: "It's been re-priced"
Me (after processing what she said): "So to summarise, I need to pay Qantas 60c extra for an e-ticket that was dropped from my booking because Qantas cancelled the original flight and put me on one the next day?
Agent; Yes.
Me: "So what would have happened if I hadn't noticed the e-ticket had dropped off, the "Accept Change" function did not say anything about more money, it just went through?"
Agent: "The whole booking would have been cancelled"
Me: Incredulous "So you are telling me that if I hadn't contacted you and just relied on the booking information on my PNR, which I got in an email from Qantas after the flight change, you would have cancelled my whole booking because of a 60c price difference, that I did not know about, and is not mentioned anywhere, due to a flight that Qantas cancelled?
Agent; Yes, that's correct.
Me: Laughing "Here's my VISA. I hope you aren't also charging me a CC fee?"
Agent "No"

I also asked about another booking and she replied “sorry sir we have been instructed to only help with one booking, you’ll have to call back”.. this aligns with earlier poster’s experience.

Apparently I can expect my new e-ticket in 24-48 hrs. Now I'm waiting for/expecting the QR legs to be auto cancelled due to the re-ticketing delay.

This is a company that has received $2 billion in wage subsidies, financial support and fee-waiving from the Federal Government since the pandemic began, but I am expected to pay a token 60c to keep my booking alive during a call to an offshore call center..

Absolute farce, I'll leave it there....

 

[bookworm]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your help, greatly appreciated.

My itinerary thus far looks like this:-

1. PER-MEL (TRANSIT)
2. MEL-NRT (TRANSIT)
3. NRT-LAX (TRANSIT)
4. LAX-LAS (STOPOVER)
5. LAS-SFO (SURFACE SECTOR)
6. SFO-ORD(TRANSIT)
7. ORD-LHR(TRANSIT)
8. LHR-IST(STOPOVER)
9. IST-DOH(STOPOVER)
10. DOH-MEL(TRANSIT)
11. MEL-PER

I am curious if I can add on :
SFO-YVR(STOPOVER)
YVR-SFO (TRANSIT)
After #5 above

Please advise.

Also I have not received an email from Qantas with the tickets. (spoke to them more than 24 hrs ago)
Flights are showing up on all the carriers and when I log in to Qantas.

Thank you very much.

 

[Mr H]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your help, greatly appreciated.

My itinerary thus far looks like this:-

1. PER-MEL (TRANSIT)
2. MEL-NRT (TRANSIT)
3. NRT-LAX (TRANSIT)
4. LAX-LAS (STOPOVER)
5. LAS-SFO (SURFACE SECTOR)
6. SFO-ORD(TRANSIT)
7. ORD-LHR(TRANSIT)
8. LHR-IST(STOPOVER)
9. IST-DOH(STOPOVER)
10. DOH-MEL(TRANSIT)
11. MEL-PER

I am curious if I can add on :
SFO-YVR(STOPOVER)
YVR-SFO (TRANSIT)
After #5 above

Please advise.

Also I have not received an email from Qantas with the tickets. (spoke to them more than 24 hrs ago)
Flights are showing up on all the carriers and when I log in to Qantas.

Thank you very much.

You should be able to add SFO-YVR-SFO provided you then travel on to ORD within 24 hours - otherwise it is likely to count as two stopovers in SFO. You could get around that by doing LAX-YVR. The thing to check is whether your flights have a ticket number. If they do then all is well - if they don't then it is a problem. Emails from QF are hit and miss and largely decorative.