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

[Mr H]

I did call (48mins on hold) and was quoted $400 more in taxes after a further 35mins.

Your call, but if it is a moneyhoon I would spring for the flights that your fiancee wants. It means flying all in J, no worrying about lounges, and arriving at a sociable hour having been treated like minor royalty, not feeling like you've been herded like cattle for 4 hours.

 

[Matt_01]

Even with P1, I imagine trying to get award seats in not one, but two, school holidays is going to be a big ask unless you are happy to fly QF for most legs. Looking forward to updates on how the booking process goes!

A bit OT, we often travelled international 1-2 times per year school holidays and in the past it has been relatively easy to get a couple of J rewards with QF (as a P1) although more often than not these had to be released, I would travel on revenue to maintain my status. In my experience the OW partners do not seem to have the same restrictions around school holidays as QF. We already have the MEL-NRT with JL one day apart. There looks to be pretty good AY availability for 3 PAX on the same flight SIN-HEL, HEL-CDG, then CDG-HEL-SIN, this of course may change in 6 months time. Depending on what happens with CX I may look at them but they are not at the top of the list at the moment. Looking at possible options it seems to be quite doable with the baulk of travel available with the OW airlines. I will be relying on status and seat requests as a fallback back option, I have at least one flight with JL and just need a second OW carrier in the mix. There are domestic flights we will need get us from ADL-to any departure port in AU and then back ADL, the internal domestic flights break the mileage cap so these will need to be on a seperate PNR.

The trip may shape up along these lines AKL-MEL-NRT-HND-SYD-HEL-CDG-HEL-SIN-SYD-(AKL, only there for the total miles calculation). According to GC Maps this comes in at 34621 miles I do not know how accurate this is and how it compares to QF miles calculations. The end goal is just to get to JP and the EU and back in J for 318K points, if I have to pay for some internal EU flights I am happy to do this. I am only having a crack at this as I have to 31 Dec to make this work without points penalties, and I have access to the VIP line.

 

[levelnine]

I would travel on revenue to maintain my status.

That makes it a bit easier having one person revenue, as I do find 2x J far more possible — the big challenge I've always encountered is getting flights in and out of Australia during school holidays. JL is fairly good, as was CX in the before times, but QF was pretty atrocious, but I guess that changes when you're P1.

 

[Mr H]

There looks to be pretty good AY availability for 3 PAX on the same flight SIN-HEL, HEL-CDG, then CDG-HEL-SIN, this of course may change in 6 months time.

There will be excellent availability in AY in the future once people twig that they have installed seats that don't recline.

 

[cambriamarsh]

They kind of are.

I don't think so!

 

[Mr H]

I don't think so!

But many of the greatest Australians come from New Zealand.

 

[ChrisMars]

The trip may shape up along these lines AKL-MEL-NRT-HND-SYD-HEL-CDG-HEL-SIN-SYD-(AKL, only there for the total miles calculation). According to GC Maps this comes in at 34621 miles I do not know how accurate this is and how it compares to QF miles calculations.

I don't have much experience, but the one OWA I booked had less than 50miles left according to GCmaps, and got ticketed without issues. Had to cancel since, and I only book simple awards one leg at a time for flexibility.

 

[Matt_01]

That makes it a bit easier having one person revenue, as I do find 2x J far more possible — the big challenge I've always encountered is getting flights in and out of Australia during school holidays. JL is fairly good, as was CX in the before times, but QF was pretty atrocious, but I guess that changes when you're P1.

For the QF reward flights, I would normally check online on the day seats were released and if I could not book them would request seat release. Requesting on the day of release worked for some routes while others I needed to wait a few days or longer. My plan has always been to get the reward seats for Mrs&MissM for a location that we were happy/ willing to go too, once these were locked in I would just sit back and wait for the J sales to come along and then book my flights. As a 3 PAX travelling group we realised long ago that x2 J rewards x1 J in revenue (J sale promotion) was often was around the same price, sometimes higher or lower than 3 in Y revenue when travelling in school holidays.

 

[Matt_01]

There will be excellent availability in AY in the future once people twig that they have installed seats that don't recline.

I am aware that AY have introduced this new seat type and looking at the reviews on YouTube (limited) seem to suggest it is not a bad product. Most of the reviews I have seen are relatively short flights between HEL-LHR or LHR-HEL (trial flights?). For the routes I am looking at these are night flights and as long both flights (SIN-HEL or HEL-SIN) are flat, no incline etc. happy to give it a whirl and see what happens.

 

[jkcfc]

Tempted to try again tomorrow and just test if it was the agent or the new cost of flying.

I called back and the agent said the direct flight is part of a married segment and that they would have to cancel our MEL-DOH flight and try to add it back manually and add the direct flight manually. Shut that concept down very quickly after reading about the married segments in the past.

Asked to have our Colombo to Male flight changed to business class as 2 seats opened up over night - got hung up on while they were calculating fare difference.

Called back and the next operator tried to put in for a business class upgrade rather than changing the existing seats to business. Finally she understood what I was asking to change but had troubles with the $20 payment for taxes. (why is it always sooooo painful)

She was adamant that ticketing for the change will take 24-48hrs. I asked if it will be a new e-ticket number or just an itinerary change and her response was 'I assume so because we changed the class'. Does anyone know if it will be a new e-ticket number?

So not the direct flight but guaranteed to have lounge access for the 2.5hr stopover in Colombo and business class on all flights for the trip.

 

[levelnine]

I called back and the agent said the direct flight is part of a married segment and that they would have to cancel our MEL-DOH flight and try to add it back manually and add the direct flight manually. Shut that concept down very quickly after reading about the married segments in the past.

Can you say a bit more about this? If MEL-DOH is married to DOH-MLE, why is that a problem? That's what you want, right? Or were you worried about the MEL-DOH segments not reappearing if they were cancelled?

 

[jkcfc]

Can you say a bit more about this? If MEL-DOH is married to DOH-MLE, why is that a problem? That's what you want, right? Or were you worried about the MEL-DOH segments not reappearing if they were cancelled?

Correct, once she said they would have to cancel the MEL-DOH to be able to book the direct flight DOH-MLE, I just couldn't take that risk of something going wrong and losing MEL-DOH.

I still don't have faith that they have changed our other flight to J even though its such a simple change.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I called back and the agent said the direct flight is part of a married segment and that they would have to cancel our MEL-DOH flight and try to add it back manually and add the direct flight manually. Shut that concept down very quickly after reading about the married segments in the past.

Asked to have our Colombo to Male flight changed to business class as 2 seats opened up over night - got hung up on while they were calculating fare difference.

Called back and the next operator tried to put in for a business class upgrade rather than changing the existing seats to business. Finally she understood what I was asking to change but had troubles with the $20 payment for taxes. (why is it always sooooo painful)

She was adamant that ticketing for the change will take 24-48hrs. I asked if it will be a new e-ticket number or just an itinerary change and her response was 'I assume so because we changed the class'. Does anyone know if it will be a new e-ticket number?

So not the direct flight but guaranteed to have lounge access for the 2.5hr stopover in Colombo and business class on all flights for the trip.

Change of class should just be a re-validation… same ticket number I would have thought?

 

[Mr H]

I called back and the agent said the direct flight is part of a married segment and that they would have to cancel our MEL-DOH flight and try to add it back manually and add the direct flight manually. Shut that concept down very quickly after reading about the married segments in the past.

Learning point: when offered something as part of a redemption booking, do not go away and think about it.

 

[ozflier]

Change of class should just be a re-validation… same ticket number I would have thought?

I've had different experiences with this kind of class only change - one time no need for ticket change and another, the Agent insisted on reticketing. Luckily no need for an increase in taxes and fees.

 

[jkcfc]

I've had different experiences with this kind of class only change - one time no need for ticket change and another, the Agent insisted on reticketing. Luckily no need for an increase in taxes and fees.

I called back again as my credit card wasn't charged.

SA rather than Fiji this time.

Agent advised that as it is a change of class and not just an update to flight/departure date that it can't be re-validated and did need to be re-ticketed.

Said that somewhere along the way with changes that our tickets were in the automated queue but there was a glitch. He waited on hold with ticketing and took my cc details again and new ticket was in my inbox within 3 minutes of my card showing the charges taken.

Another 1hr 50mins but have the updated e-ticket and business class locked in on all legs. In hindsight could've got them to do the direct flight if I knew this simple change would cause similar issues.

Now there is no way I'm willing to touch the itinerary again with less than 2 weeks to go.

 

[Mr H]

Another 1hr 50mins but have the updated e-ticket and business class locked in on all legs. In hindsight could've got them to do the direct flight if I knew this simple change would cause similar issues.

Yes, you could have seen whether the direct flight really did have a married sector restriction or whether it was just an excuse provided by an agent for not doing something complicated. Just FWIW, I make a written list of things before I call the agent so I do not lose sight of my desired outcomes in preference order and the options I have identified to try to achieve those outcomes.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I would probably be inclined to believe the married sector restriction on QR-QR.

 

[bookworm]

Good Day .

BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE

I'm booked on a OWA in August, all in J , with the exception of 1 flight in Y.

I'll be using a combination of airlines,
Qantas PER - MEL
JAL MEL - NRT- LAX
AS LAX-LAS
AA SEA -ORD
Royal Jordanian ORD- QAIA-IST
Qatar IST-DOH-MEL-PER

Stopovers in LAS ; QAIA; IST & DOH

My ticket says 40kg allowance on Qatar, yet I'm allowed at least 2 x 32 kg on most of the other airlines.

Is this really the case? Please advise.

A pity I didn't plan my trip in the reverse order.

Thank you so much.

 

[Mr H]

Good Day .

My ticket says 40kg allowance on Qatar, yet I'm allowed at least 2 x 32 kg on most of the other airlines.

Is this really the case? Please advise.

According to the e-ticket:

Interline travel: Qantas baggage allowance may not apply. If your travel on this ticket involves more than one airline, the baggage allowance of the most significant carrier in your itinerary will apply to each journey, except in relation to travel to, from or within the USA. Under US DOT regulations, if your travel to, from or within the USA involves more than one airline, the baggage rules of one airline will apply to all of the flights in your itinerary. This is determined by the first carrier in your itinerary. For travel between Australia and the USA, usually (both not always) Qantas' baggage allowance will apply to the whole itinerary. ​

That reads to me as the allowance you have from Perth to Melbourne being the one you must carry through to the entire itinerary - but I am not a lawyer and this is not very clearly worded.