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

[Mr H]

I had a MH flight to KUL which was cancelled which has triggered my KUL-DOH (on QA) and DOH-JFK flights to be cancelled

I’ve rung the Qantas call centre to try get it sorted but availability is almost non-existent. QF can get me to LAX but I can’t get any award flights from LAX-JFK even via connecting cities (on AA)

Qantas has also offered a refund but that useless. Has anyone made a claim against travel insurance for such scenarios?

You would need to check your insurance policy but I doubt it covers this if you have not already left home. Are there Alaska connections from LAX? Could you go to Newark or Washington or somewhere close to New York? Or could you bear a cash flight to make up a missing link? This is a time when you need to go to the call centre with a solution, not a problem - otherwise you're looking at a refund.

 

[Mr H]

I understand credit cards offer travel insurance when the flights are paid for with the card, if I pay for the taxes only does this generally count?

Any recommendations on travel insurance credit cards would be greatly appreciated.

ANZ credit card insurance covers your whole trip if $200 of travel expenses are charged to the card before travel commences. The taxes should reach that limit. Other credit cards I think are less accommodating.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Any recommendations on travel insurance credit cards would be greatly appreciated.

The higher end CBA credit cards (eg MasterCard Diamond) don’t require any card spend at all. All you have to do is advise them of the trip (via website), and they issue a coverage certificate.
As always, read the PDS first, look right & left before crossing the road, don’t run with scissors, etc…

 

[Rach1616]

I can't see any problems with either of your options, Rach1616.
I guess you threw in the DOH-ADL-MEL to get the QSuites on the DOH-ADL flight but QR is now flying the A350-1000 (A351) on the DOH-MEL route and all of them have QSuites so the direct flight to MEL will save you an ADL transit. Award availability in J should be quite easy to book provided you don't leave it too late.

Thanks for the reply and info re DOH-MEL QSuites. Happy to report a successful booking today for the first section below (2 x J) for March/April 23 as a Silver member. The final Finnair leg was able to be booked for 24 April even though the latest date available in the initial Qantas mulitcity date search was 17 April. Using "all dates flexible", at the second screen there was an additional week available for this last leg. I was pretty keen to get on QF for SYD-HND and knew it was touch and go re availability while waiting for the last AY leg to open (6 weeks after the QF flight). Super happy right now. Thanks to everyone who contributes to this thread for all the great tips and information! Now to prepare myself for phoning Qantas to add the additional legs in a few months
Locked and loaded:
MEL-SYD-HND-KIX (QF and JL) stop 1
KIX-NRT surface sector
NRT-YVR (JL) stop 2
YVR-JFK surface sector
JFK-HEL-LIS (AY) stop 3

 

[squid01]

I had a MH flight to KUL which was cancelled which has triggered my KUL-DOH (on QA) and DOH-JFK flights to be cancelled

I’ve rung the Qantas call centre to try get it sorted but availability is almost non-existent. QF can get me to LAX but I can’t get any award flights from LAX-JFK even via connecting cities (on AA)

Qantas has also offered a refund but that useless. Has anyone made a claim against travel insurance for such scenarios?

When was your Adelaide to KUL flight for? I’m looking to book the same flight but for like six months time. Worried if this is a route they are cancelling a lot on for some reason? Or was this a rare occurrence?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

ANZ credit card insurance covers your whole trip if $200 of travel expenses are charged to the card before travel commences. The taxes should reach that limit. Other credit cards I think are less accommodating.

But more importantly, requires a return ticket to Australia to qualify. Flying out of AU To start the rtw in DPS wouldn’t be a problem per se, but you’d also need a ticket back to australia at the end.

 

[Danger]

ANZ credit card insurance covers your whole trip if $200 of travel expenses are charged to the card before travel commences. The taxes should reach that limit. Other credit cards I think are less accommodating.

Two hundred and fifty dollars.

 

[Mr H]

Two hundred and fifty dollars.

I stand corrected - it has been a while...

But more importantly, requires a return ticket to Australia to qualify. Flying out of AU To start the rtw in DPS wouldn’t be a problem per se, but you’d also need a ticket back to australia at the end.

I imagine pretty much anyone living in Australia would have a ticket home.

 

[Matt_01]

I imagine pretty much anyone living in Australia would have a ticket home.

In most cases yes but not all, I have just started OWR trip for travel in 2023. We will take a one way flight to NZ (seperate PNR) so we can commence from NZ and travel to JP and back to AU, stop in AU for 6 months, then head to the AU-EU-AU. When we return to AU from part 2 we have no plan to actually end the trip in NZ and then have to fly back to AU. I am a little lost on the ANZ card insurance thing but if my understanding/ of @MEL_Traveller post correctly the ANZ card insurance only kicks in if you have a return trip.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In most cases yes but not all, I have just started OWR trip for travel in 2023. We will take a one way flight to NZ (seperate PNR) so we can commence from NZ and travel to JP and back to AU, stop in AU for 6 months, then head to the AU-EU-AU. When we return to AU from part 2 we have no plan to actually end the trip in NZ and then have to fly back to AU. I am a little lost on the ANZ card insurance thing but if my understanding/ of @MEL_Traveller post correctly the ANZ card insurance only kicks in if you have a return trip.

Bit OT for this thread, but as long as you are coming back to Australia on the ticket it might be ok. I would confirm directly with the underwriter.

 

[Matt_01]

I'm in the process of planning out my own 2xJ 318k awards at the moment and will post my routes later, but I've set myself three rules to minimise the chance of cancelled flights - no CX, no UL, and I'm avoiding Europe to North Asia (vv) routes where possible.

I have just kicked off my bookings 2023 OWR bookings and also have found FR24 to be quite useful. When booking in May 21 for April 22 (which we cancelled) and again in Oct 21 for Sep 22 (should happen) I would just check on FR 24 if the flights ran on a regular basis. My reasoning being if they ran trough covid they would most likely be running post covid. The Russia/ Ukraine situation may have thrown a spanner into the works.

 

[Mr H]

In most cases yes but not all, I have just started OWR trip for travel in 2023. We will take a one way flight to NZ (seperate PNR) so we can commence from NZ and travel to JP and back to AU, stop in AU for 6 months, then head to the AU-EU-AU. When we return to AU from part 2 we have no plan to actually end the trip in NZ and then have to fly back to AU. I am a little lost on the ANZ card insurance thing but if my understanding/ of @MEL_Traveller post correctly the ANZ card insurance only kicks in if you have a return trip.

I had naively assumed that simultaneously holding an outbound ticket and an inbound ticket would suffice but having looked at the Ts and Cs I am not so sure - it looks like it may end to be on the same ticket number. I will ask for clarification.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I had naively assumed that simultaneously holding an outbound ticket and an inbound ticket would suffice but having looked at the Ts and Cs I am not so sure - it looks like it may end to be on the same ticket number. I will ask for clarification.

It says a return ticket. There are two ways to read that. I have always travelled on two or more separate tickets, but with a defined return date to Australia. I’m pretty sure i clarified with them previously that that was ok.But will be useful to have that confirmed.

 

[Arkana]

As mentioned you are probably putting too many segments into your search string on the Qantas site. I can search six segments but anymore and it freaks out.

One thing to note in the OWA limitations is that a surface sector counts as a segment (so add them to the number of flights you have) You are allowed a total of 16 segments so that could be a factor.

Question as it has been a while since I booked my last one, you don’t have to include a Qantas flight do you? Just so long as you have two other partner airlines you are all good? Or must you have a QF flight (I’m remembering not)?

 

[Aristotle9]

Finally sorted my ticketing. The call centre staff was on hold to points and then ticketing for over 2 hours.


I highly recommend not changing stuff ATM if ur trip is soon!

 

[jaseb]

Currently have MXP-DOH-KUL booked in J on QR. I want to change that to MXP-DOH-BKK.

Because the MXP-DOH-KUL flight is a connecting only, we would need to cancel MXP-DOH-KUL and rebook the whole thing; MXP-DOH-BKK.

Unfortunately whilst there's availability in J from DOH-BKK there is no more availability MXP-DOH.

My biggest fear is cancelling MXP-DOH-KUL and the MXP-DOH J seats not becoming available again.

Is there a way to relinquish our current J seats MXP-DOH whilst ensuring they become available to snap up again when rebooking MXP-DOH-BKK?

 

[cjd600]

Currently have MXP-DOH-KUL booked in J on QR. I want to change that to MXP-DOH-BKK.

Because the MXP-DOH-KUL flight is a connecting only, we would need to cancel MXP-DOH-KUL and rebook the whole thing; MXP-DOH-BKK.

Unfortunately whilst there's availability in J from DOH-BKK there is no more availability MXP-DOH.

My biggest fear is cancelling MXP-DOH-KUL and the MXP-DOH J seats not becoming available again.

Is there a way to relinquish our current J seats MXP-DOH whilst ensuring they become available to snap up again when rebooking MXP-DOH-BKK?

Try calling and saying you just want to change DOH-KUL to DOH-BKK and see how you go?

 

[Mr H]

Is there a way to relinquish our current J seats MXP-DOH whilst ensuring they become available to snap up again when rebooking MXP-DOH-BKK?

No guarantee and I would not risk it. Could you add on an MH from KUL to BKK?

 

[jaseb]

Try calling and saying you just want to change DOH-KUL to DOH-BKK and see how you go?

Tried that. Because MXP-DOH-KUL is a 'through' flight they confirmed I can't alter DOH-KUL only, the whole journey would need to be cancelled and rebooked

No guarantee and I would not risk it. Could you add on an MH from KUL to BKK?

That's probably what we will need to do. Just adds an extra ~day to our travel time to get home is all. Not the end of the world though!

 

[Danger]

I had naively assumed that simultaneously holding an outbound ticket and an inbound ticket would suffice but having looked at the Ts and Cs I am not so sure - it looks like it may end to be on the same ticket number. I will ask for clarification.

I can't remember the last time I had an outbound and inbound on the same ticket. Although I've rarely needed to claim through ANZ's CC insurance, it's never been an issue when I have.