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

[k_sheep]

Is it possible to change the first flight of the OWA without totally stuffing up the rest of it? I'm currently booked SYD-xDFW-EZE but if by some miracle the SYD-SCL route starts again I'd much rather that.

 

[levelnine]

OWA without totally stuffing up the rest of it? I'm currently booked SYD-xDFW-EZE but if by some miracle the SYD-SCL route starts again I'd much rather that.

As long as it retickets, it'll be fine. But I wouldn't rate your chances of getting award seats on SYD-SCL even if it does restart in time.

 

[sudoer]

I've recently been in process of booking my first oneworld J award (for 2 pax) and have the following already locked in:

SYD-HND (QF) stop 1 / surface sector
NGO-xHND-xSIN (JL) 18 hour day transit in SIN
-xHEL (AY) 10 hour day transit in HEL
-MXP (AY) stop 2
TBC-JFK stop 3
JFK-xHND-SYD (JL)

Taxes so far have come to $378pp.

Planning to visit Madrid, London and Amsterdam before crossing the pond, but might book some of those as Iberia cash fares for cheap SCs while I'm in the neighbourhood.

Transatlantic seats haven't yet opened up for the dates I'm looking at, but leaning towards the new BA J seats on the A350. Open to any suggestions/critiques!

 

[algae]

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.

Are there issues with CX im not aware of?

I know when i previously booked my oneworld J award for 2020 travel (then moved to 2021 and then cancelled) there was plenty of CX J availability from perth to Canada.

Trying to book a similar trip for 2023 now, and i'm seeing next to nothing for Cathay flights.

 

[sudoer]

Are there issues with CX im not aware of?

Just my opinion: including Hong Kong as a stop or transit feels risky as we don't know what testing/entry rules will exist in 6-12 months in response to future variants. Given both the pandemic and geopolitical situation we also don't know which routes CX can sustainably operate, as demand for business and leisure travel will probably remain significantly down vs 2019. I hope CX pulls through but things are looking pretty grim.

 

[levelnine]

Open to any suggestions/critiques!

If you are flexible with your schedule, wouldn't it be better to go to JFK first then MXP? Avoids the backtrack to SIN if you choose the right route back to Australia (eg via DOH).

 

[sudoer]

If you are flexible with your schedule, wouldn't it be better to go to JFK first then MXP? Avoids the backtrack to SIN if you choose the right route back to Australia (eg via DOH).

Fair point. Unfortunately we're not too flexible with schedule - we are travelling over the 2023 Easter/Anzac day public holidays to maximise our annual leave, and that happens to line up with cherry blossom season. We also want to get the Japan component out of the way right at the start as we'll be visiting an in-law for their 80th birthday, and want to reduce the chance of passing along any bugs we pick up on our travels...

From Japan, we decided to head to Europe before the US as we have a strong preference for travelling westward to help with the jet lag. I would've booked straight from Tokyo to Europe had it not been for the situation with Russia adding 3-4 hours to those flight paths, so it felt a little safer (from a flight reliability perspective) to backtrack down to SIN and pivot back up to Europe.

The silver lining is a full day transit in Singapore, free wifi for OWEs on AY, and I've always wanted to check out the HEL Platinum Wing sauna. I'd also be pretty happy to try their new 'no recline' seats if they are running on this route too.

I was hoping to get seats released on the SIN-LHR portion of QF1 for the Points Club SC earn, but the droid wasn't cooperating. I may still swap AY out for QF down the track if the droid changes its mind.

 

[levelnine]

I was hoping to get seats released on the SIN-LHR portion of QF1 for the Points Club SC earn, but the droid wasn't cooperating. I may still swap AY out for QF down the track if the droid changes its mind.

If Points Club earn is important, I'd be asking the droid to see if they can release seats on QF for the leg home. You'd hope that it would say yes to at least one of the US ports from which QF departs to Australia.

 

[sudoer]

If Points Club earn is important, I'd be asking the droid to see if they can release seats on QF for the leg home. You'd hope that it would say yes to at least one of the US ports from which QF departs to Australia.

Will definitely be doing that once the seats go on sale

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agree with BA TATL. As part of a OWA the TATL fuel surcharges are quite reasonable.

 

[DC3]

Trying to book a similar trip for 2023 now, and i'm seeing next to nothing for Cathay flights.

That would be because CX is flying next to no flights these days.

 

[p--and--t]

Hi Team

Haven't logged on for a long time.

Just wondering if someone would kindly cast your eyes over this itinerary and see if I have made any fatal errors

8Oct BNE-SIN (QF-Y) SIN-KUL (MY-Y) Stop One

10Oct KUL-DOH (QR-J) DOH-CMN (QR-J) Stop Two

18Oct CMN-CAI Surface sector Stop Three

25Oct CAI-AMM (RJ-J) Stop Four

29Oct AMM-DOH (RJ-J) DOH-KUL (QR-J) KUL-HKT (MY-Y) Stop Five

4Nov HKT-KUL (MY-Y) KUL-ADL (MY-J) ADL-BNE (QF-J) Home

2 x mixed BUS and Economy 318K x 2 plus taxes

 

[Captain Halliday]

Hi Team

Haven't logged on for a long time.

Just wondering if someone would kindly cast your eyes over this itinerary and see if I have made any fatal errors

8Oct BNE-SIN (QF-Y) SIN-KUL (MY-Y) Stop One

10Oct KUL-DOH (QR-J) DOH-CMN (QR-J) Stop Two

18Oct CMN-CAI Surface sector Stop Three

25Oct CAI-AMM (RJ-J) Stop Four

29Oct AMM-DOH (RJ-J) DOH-KUL (QR-J) KUL-HKT (MY-Y) Stop Five

4Nov HKT-KUL (MY-Y) KUL-ADL (MY-J) ADL-BNE (QF-J) Home

2 x mixed BUS and Economy 318K x 2 plus taxes

Biggest problem here is that MY doesn’t fly to KUL or ADL, so there’s some sectors there that won’t work. If you mean MH for the airline (Malaysian Airlines) the they will be fine.

The other obvious one is the sectors in Y. Not a problem as such, just not amazing value to pay 318k points and have so much of the trip in Y. I’d be keeping a close eye and changing any that you can to J.

 

[aikman]

Hi Team

Haven't logged on for a long time.

Just wondering if someone would kindly cast your eyes over this itinerary and see if I have made any fatal errors

8Oct BNE-SIN (QF-Y) SIN-KUL (MY-Y) Stop One

10Oct KUL-DOH (QR-J) DOH-CMN (QR-J) Stop Two

18Oct CMN-CAI Surface sector Stop Three

25Oct CAI-AMM (RJ-J) Stop Four

29Oct AMM-DOH (RJ-J) DOH-KUL (QR-J) KUL-HKT (MY-Y) Stop Five

4Nov HKT-KUL (MY-Y) KUL-ADL (MY-J) ADL-BNE (QF-J) Home

2 x mixed BUS and Economy 318K x 2 plus taxes

Looks fine.

CMN & CAI counts as 1 stop so you can add another stop somewhere else if you wanted to.

 

[Mr H]

Hi Team

Haven't logged on for a long time.

Just wondering if someone would kindly cast your eyes over this itinerary and see if I have made any fatal errors

8Oct BNE-SIN (QF-Y) SIN-KUL (MY-Y) Stop One

10Oct KUL-DOH (QR-J) DOH-CMN (QR-J) Stop Two

18Oct CMN-CAI Surface sector Stop Three

25Oct CAI-AMM (RJ-J) Stop Four

29Oct AMM-DOH (RJ-J) DOH-KUL (QR-J) KUL-HKT (MY-Y) Stop Five

4Nov HKT-KUL (MY-Y) KUL-ADL (MY-J) ADL-BNE (QF-J) Home

2 x mixed BUS and Economy 318K x 2 plus taxes

You seem to be counting CMN as a stop twice (once as landing there and once as a surface sector). You only need to count it once which gives you a spare stop if you want.

You will need to make sure your stop in KUL is at least 24 hours to avoid transiting the city three times. Your dates are tight so worth checking flight times.

Also, it does look like you are flying a very lot in a short space of time with incredibly short stops... But that's your choice.

 

[p--and--t]

Biggest problem here is that MY doesn’t fly to KUL or ADL, so there’s some sectors there that won’t work. If you mean MH for the airline (Malaysian Airlines) the they will be fine.

The other obvious one is the sectors in Y. Not a problem as such, just not amazing value to pay 318k points and have so much of the trip in Y. I’d be keeping a close eye and changing any that you can to J.

Thanks - I did mean MH

I couldn't find a pair of J seats from any city in AU 3 days either side of when I need to fly

MH doesn't offer J to HKT

Other options (not on points) had me paying $10K

Post automatically merged: May 1, 2022

Looks fine.

CMN & CAI counts as 1 stop so you can add another stop somewhere else if you wanted to.

Thankyou

Post automatically merged: May 1, 2022

You seem to be counting CMN as a stop twice (once as landing there and once as a surface sector). You only need to count it once which gives you a spare stop if you want.

You will need to make sure your stop in KUL is at least 24 hours to avoid transiting the city three times. Your dates are tight so worth checking flight times.

Also, it does look like you are flying a very lot in a short space of time with incredibly short stops... But that's your choice.

Thanks - I will double check the KUL bit

 

[Rtw]

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.

Thank you for the advice
Upon searching up this cover I have found that

"ANZ Black/Platinum/Travel Adventures CC Complimentary International and Domestic Travel Insurance now including COVID Cover"​

Definitely worth looking into for anyone travelling soon.

 

[Ponky]

Happy days - my itinerary and e-ticket came through after 9 days without having to run the customer service phone gamut.

Ticket is showing up in CMT too.

Until next unsolicited change then...

 

[p--and--t]

Thanks - I did mean MH

I couldn't find a pair of J seats from any city in AU 3 days either side of when I need to fly

MH doesn't offer J to HKT

Other options (not on points) had me paying $10K

Post automatically merged: May 1, 2022

Thankyou

Post automatically merged: May 1, 2022

Thanks - I will double check the KUL bit

Well after repeated tries to book online and getting "unknown error" or "try again". I tried calling 131313.

After 5 hours listening to music, I thought I'd give it another go and try and find out if it was a particular segment with issues or a website error like one of the airports not loaded.

Blow me down, whole booking went through first try without a glitch and even suggested a better connection direct to HKT from DOH in J.

Grinning from ear to ear today.

Thanks for the feedback. AFF contributors are awesome as usual.

BTW: I used BA Avios engine for my research and found and got everything I wanted (except a J out of AU to ASIA).

 

[p--and--t]

New question:

Now I have my itinerary, manage my booking will not let me select a seat - "not eligible".

The last time I booked a J "one world award", pre-covid, I was able to select seats.

I am only Bronze, but a Lifetime QC member

Has something changed so seat selection is no longer included/available?