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

[Captain Halliday]

Similarly, on a route like SYD-AKL where you might have the choice between a Qantas 737-800 or a LATAM 787-9, the LATAM product would win hands down despite the rankings.

LATAM is not a One World member.

 

[pangwen]

LATAM is not a One World member.

True - I was just using it as a more extreme example of how (imo) business class product quality is heavily influenced by equipment, rather than specifically making a recommendation for that particular leg of an OWA.

 

[Mr H]

I am a pessimist and yesterday/last night I was distraught.

Then I had a flash of perspective.

Basically, a OWA is (up to) six point to point flights. Looking at my broken itinerary, there are now three missing sectors:

• MEL-SYD-KUL-DEL (two MH flights gone) - this could be salvaged if QF released a seat on their direct MEL-DEL flight giving me an extra day at home (save a day's annual leave) or in Delhi.
• LHR-DOH-IKA (two QR flights gone) - there are economy revenue flights to Tehran with LH for around $1000 or business class options for around $2500 that would save me an overnight in Doha, giving me an extra day with my mum in England.
• IKA-DOH-CMN-TUN (two QR flights and one AT flight gone) - there are economy options for around $700 and there is a business class option with TK for around $2000 that could avoid overnights in DOH and CMN, giving me two extra days in Tunis.

This makes me happier that I will, at least, be able to travel and I can see upsides to each of the alternatives, even if it is not what I had originally planned. So let's see what QF can do to retrieve the situation, but I feel much more at peace with myself now. Everything will be alright.

Update

After a week of trying, I finally got a Cape Town agent - hallelujah!

• MEL-SYD-KUL-DEL - still no solution about how to get me between MEL and DEL. MEL-SYD is booked and KUL-DEL is available... Wait and see whether (a) MH reinstate the cancelled flight (they won't) and (b) whether QF will then release a revenue seat MEL-DEL direct (I believe they won't look at this until MH decline the reinstatement). If necessary I will have to do a revenue flight.
  
  
• LHR-DOH-IKA - I suggested an alternative routing LCY-MXP-DOH-IKA. This is now booked. My alternative is not as good as LCY-MXP on BA is no different to a Y booking - no lounge and no difference in seating. The MXP connection is very tight (1hr 25m). The better QR flight LHR-DOH is still waitlisted.
  
  
• IKA-DOH-CMN-TUN - I suggested an alternative routing IKA-DOH-TUN. This is now booked. This was originally on my booking but I had to reroute through CMN when the direct DOH-TUN flight was labelled Oman Air.

The agent understood what I was trying to do - which makes such a difference. She said it would be put through for ticketing as an involuntary reroute and it would be marked as important. I will keep phoning until it is ticketed.

So after multiple useless calls to Fiji, one call to Cape Town has got me an almost fully booked route and a promise of ticketing. Please, QF, close the Fiji centre. They are embarrassing you.

 

[DC3]

So after multiple useless calls to Fiji, one call to Cape Town has got me an almost fully booked route and a promise of ticketing.

Oh. So you got to speak with the CSO in Cape Town who knew what to do. I’ve heard about that one. Nice work.

 

[Mr H]

Oh. So you got to speak with the CSO in Cape Town who knew what to do. I’ve heard about that one. Nice work.

I have found multiple competent agents in Cape Town and never found one yet in Fiji.

One of the key differences IMO is that with a good Cape Town agent, you can tell them what you are trying to achieve and discuss options, propose solutions, be told about barriers/obstacles. You feel like you are dealing with a person.

With Fiji, once the agent hears something (that they may have misunderstood) then that is the sole focus of their conversation and their actions. They just tell you about support teams, needing to wait, Qantas policy or whatever other reason they can think of to not do anything. Plus some of them just lie.

 

[Lynda2475]

I have found multiple competent agents in Cape Town and never found one yet in Fiji.

Which is the complete opposite to my experience.

 

[Mr H]

Which is the complete opposite to my experience.

Maybe we should swap numbers

 

[DC3]

I have found multiple competent agents in Cape Town and never found one yet in Fiji.

One of the key differences IMO is that with a good Cape Town agent, you can tell them what you are trying to achieve and discuss options, propose solutions, be told about barriers/obstacles. You feel like you are dealing with a person.

I’ve only ever been put through to Cape Town a couple of times. However, I felt as though I was disturbing sleep. One kept yawning and was rather useless. I’m dreading dropping to gold next year.

 

[Formal Hall]

Similar to upthread, finding it hard to add MEL-SYD as the first leg of an already ticketed OWA to connect with QF1. There is award availability online on just about every flight all day, but Cape Town keeps telling me that it is only availability for new bookings, and can only offer my the 1500 flight - which misconnects.

Is there something I'm missing (number of segments in a day)? Not looking for a stopover, don't transit SYD on the rest of the ticket and I have plenty of segments and mileage left.

 

[levelnine]

Is there something I'm missing (number of segments in a day)? Not looking for a stopover, don't transit SYD on the rest of the ticket and I have plenty of segments and mileage left.

You're probably running into a married segments issue. Nothing you can do to get around it unfortunately.

 

[Formal Hall]

I thought as much, but can't work out why they'd offer a 1500 flight that misconnected if that were the case. I could get it fine on the multi-city engine but left it out as it only offers six legs - thought it would be easier to add later than some of the more exotic segments!

 

[theatreperson]

Hello all - it's been a while since I booked our last OWR J flights to Europe from Melb. Involved spreadsheets and lots of monitoring of various sites to see avails. Destination Italy, France, Spain sometimes via Tokyo HKG, Singapore and Helsinki.

I know I used BA and qantas but are there any other sites people can recommend to see how many J seats are available on different route options? I'm not getting very far with BA and Qantas sites. Looking to travel June 2023 and would love the Perth-FCO flight but any sites that show FF seats would be a great help. Thanks Kate

I've been using awardnexus.com
I think it's worth the cost.

 

[ChrisMars]

You're probably running into a married segments issue. Nothing you can do to get around it unfortunately.

That shouldnt be a married seg, should it? My understanding of married seg is that we can't necessarly book a leg of a multi leg itinary if it is married, and equally we can't necessarly divorce (drop) a leg of a multi leg itinery redeemed as married segments. Here the goal is to add a leg that is clearly bookable as an award by itself, to an existing itinery. Imho it should be possible.
Not sure why offshore call centers can t do it, while Hobart does it fine.

 

[DC3]

Similar to upthread, finding it hard to add MEL-SYD as the first leg of an already ticketed OWA to connect with QF1. There is award availability online on just about every flight all day, but Cape Town keeps telling me that it is only availability for new bookings, and can only offer my the 1500 flight - which misconnects.

Is there something I'm missing (number of segments in a day)? Not looking for a stopover, don't transit SYD on the rest of the ticket and I have plenty of segments and mileage left.

Did you try to book MEL-SYD a day earlier? See if that works. Maybe worth trying?

 

[jkcfc]

It looks like I need to move my flights halfway through our trip.
We left on 9 May 2022 22:20.
I have found our last leg is available on 9 May 2023 landing back in Aus at 21:55.

For the 365 day rule would this be possible giving the departure/arrival times or no go as it is day 366 regardless?

(Called to test it ... agent just hung up after 45mins going through the itinerary changes I proposed following the 1hr on hold)

 

[djkelly69]

Cape Town keeps telling me that it is only availability for new bookings

This "only available for new bookings" BS which a number of people have posted recently is a massive change if true.

Has anyone actually been told this by HBA, or is it maybe just a throw-away excuse O/S call centres are using to fob people off when they can't see their desired flight?

 

[aikman]

This "only available for new bookings" BS which a number of people have posted recently is a massive change if true.

Has anyone actually been told this by HBA, or is it maybe just a throw-away excuse O/S call centres are using to fob people off when they can't see their desired flight?

Say it enough times and people will start to believe it.

 

[DC3]

Say it enough times and people will start to believe it.

Cape Town.

 

[Guvner]

I suspect it’s to reduce the manual re-ticketing (for complicated tickets) backlog.

 

[Mr H]

Update

The agent understood what I was trying to do - which makes such a difference. She said it would be put through for ticketing as an involuntary reroute and it would be marked as important. I will keep phoning until it is ticketed.

Update - now being told that the booking cannot be ticketed because there are outstanding reinstatement requests. This will cause the sectors that are available now to be lost. The agent says that she can only email the support team and the support team would need to deal with the ticketing team. This means every piece of communication will take 48 hours. Surely there is a better way...