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

[jpp42]

It’s up to QF when points are deducted. You have the e-tickets so are good to fly.

Thanks! Yep I expect it will take a few days for the CC charges to finalise, especially over a weekend, no surprises there - didn't realise that would happen with points also. Cheers.

 

[yaksha98]

Thought I'd share my ordeal over the past month with my upcoming OWC booking for June/July 2023 in case anyone was interested (we are bronze & gold - and never once got hobart).

It has thankfully concluded in our favour but goodness knows how it ever got to this point.

25 July - booked the most of our flights online, departing BKK to Europe and some intra Europe flights for June 2023 on QR and IB. No issues with the online booking with points deducted, credit card charged and tickets issued.

Late July - added first leg of flight back to Australia for CDG-HND on JL, surprisingly did not encounter an issue with the call centre, helpful chap in the SA contact centre made the booking and knew about the issues with ticketing and we miraculously had it ticketed in 3 hours from when we made the change with emails and updated etickets in CMT.

30-31 July - this is where the nightmare started. found the last segment of this trip HND-SYD on JL as it became available online. Call to the call center and operator could not add it for some reason, HUACA a few times and same issue. Thinking now it was married segment issues or we were too slow and someone snapped it up. Luckily we however managed to find on another date a single CDG-HND-SYD trip so called again to have that added. As it was ex-BKK, took a while for operator to calculate taxes/points, etc but took all our credit details down and and we saw it pop up on CMT. Failed to get operator to issue ticket on the spot but she said it was in queue for ticketing.

Over the next 3 days, multiple calls yielded different information, including credit card payment issues (had to provided payment details again) and recalculated taxes/points etc - despite us trying to escalate for ticketing expressly telling the operator risk of QR flights dropping off.

As expected, overnight on 3rd day, our first segment departing BKK on QR to Doha and Europe dropped off..... frantic calls to Qantas for reinstatement ensued and in short, over the next 4 weeks we had to make over 20 calls, lodged a customer care complaint online within the first few days and sent 8 emails to Stephanie Tully and the customer care email.

Not sure what the trigger was (email to Stephanie or the customer care complaint online) but at some point we were aware that someone in the Auckland centre had been assigned to resolve the issues.

Over 1-2 weeks we had sporadic contact including a few missed calls from Auckland. Finally managed to have a proper conversation with him last week which resolved our issues - but raised more questions in my mind. Let me explain.

In the morning, he confirmed multiple times on a call that QR had rejected/declined the reinstatement request and so we had proposed some flexibility to fly ex-SIN to Europe and if he could put in a request to convert revenue seats on QF1 to London for us - given this is entirely within QF's control, and gave some options for dates, etc. He had the cheek to ask if we were OK with an economy seat on some legs, or paying additional $ for a commercial fare - which we outright rejected. He said he would go ahead and put together a request for SIN-LHR but could not promise anything.

3-4 hours later, he called back and miraculously had managed to reinstate or find our original ex-BKK flights with QR to Europe and had it rebooked and ticketed all on the same dates as our first booking. As to how, or what changed - he could not explain. And sure enough, the updated e-tickets appeared in my emails immediately and also appeared in CMT.

So whilst relieved the whole thing has been resolved - not knowing what actually happened to get the QR flights back is bizarre, nor knowing what the actual issue was 4 weeks back (taxes not calculated properly? flights not added right by fiji/manila/capetown?) to ensure this doesn't happen next time....

Not looking forward to making any changes to this early next year when we try to add 2024 flights for this as we are positioning from Europe in 2023 to get two trips out of the OWC.

All in all, here are my takeaways if you do need to make changes via the call centre.

- There is some hope in the world to get dropped QR flights even after 4 weeks later.

- Lodge a customer care form online, and do the multiple emails to customer care and Stephanie Tully detailing the terrible customer outcomes on each contact with the offshore centre (even though we never got a formal response back).

- Keep calling and persevering.

- The Auckland agent assigned admitted that he was not very familiar with the oneworld carriers as he was mostly working on QF metal and he had to contact his support team. He did however seem to manage to get ticketing onto the case pretty easily as compared to offshore.

 

[hoochwombat]

Totally new to the One World Multi City Game but planning to book two business flights for August-September 2023 when the windows open. As an ignorant newcomer what does married segments mean?
Also…
should I risk starting a booking online with segments that are available now and adding through call centres once to other dates open or is it safer to wait until my return flight date opens up (September 20, 2023)?
sorry for the basic questions but I am a total newbie

 

[jpp42]

Hi Hooch Wombat, welcome to AFF.

As an ignorant newcomer what does married segments mean?

This should answer it for you: What are Married Segments?

sorry for the basic questions but I am a total newbie

To get acquainted you might want to read some other general articles online. Here are a few from this site:

How to Fly Around the World with a Qantas Oneworld Classic Flight Reward [Mega Guide]

Fly around the world with Qantas and other Oneworld airlines by redeeming points for a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward. Photo: Qantas. Did you know that

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Qantas Oneworld Award Not Just for Round-the-World Trips

The Oneworld Classic Flight Reward is a very popular Qantas Frequent Flyer redemption, and for good reason. For just 132,400 Qantas points in Economy or

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

should I risk starting a booking online with segments that are available now and adding through call centres once to other dates open or is it safer to wait until my return flight date opens up (September 20, 2023)?

Absolutely. You should book your flights exactly 353 days after they become available (as early in the day as possible to try to snag those seats before other AFF-er's do!). This does, as you note, require using the call centre to add additional flights after the first booking via the online multi-city tool. Also see here for the number of days in advance that various partner airlines release their flights: Qantas Oneworld Award Planning (wiki content) - Australian Frequent Flyer

 

[Wolf creek]

Hi,Been off forum for a while have I missed something….tried to plan a Qatar flight to CDG from Sydney 20/5/23.Latest available is May 7th,my status is bronze what’s going on there please.

 

[jeza]

Hi,Been off forum for a while have I missed something….tried to plan a Qatar flight to CDG from Sydney 20/5/23.Latest available is May 7th,my status is bronze what’s going on there please.

QR award availability or lack thereof has been discussed in another thread.

QR withholding award seats from Qantas?

It's been pointed out to me that Qatar Airways seems to be releasing fewer award seats to Qantas Frequent Flyer members than it is for other Oneworld partner airlines. For example, if you search for Qatar Airways business class award availability from PER to LHR anytime in 2022, there are 4 "U"...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

In general it appears availability for award flights is currently very scarce amongst all OW carriers, there was a big release last week by QF but I they were snapped up very quickly.

 

[yourmate]

Are Cathay know to have particularly high carrier charges? Attempting to book flights from MEL-HKG-MAD and being quoted $1400 for 2 tickets.

 

[hoochwombat]

Starting to plan OWA via Asia to UK and Turkey, heaps of economy popping up in Aug 2023 but very few J class yet. I need to wait a while because our return is mid Sept so fingers crossed. Has anyone had serious grief booking part of OWA and then using call centre to add when they become available? Is the change fee per sector or for the whole change?

 

[aikman]

Has anyone had serious grief booking part of OWA and then using call centre to add when they become available?

Plenty of stories abound on this forum. Basically, with every change you make, there is a risk that your new itinerary will not get ticketed and you could lose any or all of your existing or new flights.

 

[hoochwombat]

Plenty of stories abound on this forum. Basically, with every change you make, there is a risk that your new itinerary will not get ticketed and you could lose any or all of your existing or new flights.

Thanks. I suspected as much looking at some past comments. I will wait until I csn book completely.

 

[acinod]

Been trying to get my booking ticketed for some time now. Originally booked the first leg online and then added some flights to complete the OWA but still no ticket. Have called multiple times to get it ticketed and each time they say they have put it in the queue manually and to wait 24-48 hours but still no luck. The taxes were taken from my CC when I made the change and it's been a pending transaction ever since but today I noticed the transaction is no longer on my CC. Any ideas on what's happening here?

 

[yourmate]

Are Cathay know to have particularly high carrier charges? Attempting to book flights from MEL-HKG-MAD and being quoted $1400 for 2 tickets.

I should add that I'm booking the first legs now to lock them in and will add to create the OWA booking later on.

I found alternative flights via Tokyo (MEL-NRT-FRA) and taxes were only $281 for 2 PAX.

I haven't booked a OWA for some time but was referring to the wiki for reference carrier charges and Cathay used to be one of the better options?

 

[Lynda2475]

Despite never receiving an updated e-ticket from QF after AA chnaged a flight number, I have just completed travelling my OWA; and am starting to think about next years but after a couple of close calls dont think i'll plan any connections on same day.

 

[flapper]

Been trying to get my booking ticketed for some time now. Originally booked the first leg online and then added some flights to complete the OWA but still no ticket. Have called multiple times to get it ticketed and each time they say they have put it in the queue manually and to wait 24-48 hours but still no luck. The taxes were taken from my CC when I made the change and it's been a pending transaction ever since but today I noticed the transaction is no longer on my CC. Any ideas on what's happening here?

Are all flights still showing in MMB and CMT? I always keep ringing and ask for it to be reticketed. When they give the 24-48 hours answer I tell them bookings that include partner airlines need to be ticketed straight away. Sometimes that works but mostly not so I HUACA. I find it's best to set aside a day to make a change to OWA booking as it can take many calls..

 

[Mattg]

This thread is somewhat concerning:

Qantas FF now enforcing change rules to FF bookings

Just had an interesting discussion with the call centre regarding an upcoming booking. It appears QF are now enforcing the change provisions set out in 14.7 - and more specifically 14.7.4 - of the QFFF terms and conditions...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

If this turns out to be true, it will make it a lot harder to book a Oneworld Award ~12 months in advance as you'll need to wait until ALL sectors are available to book and then do it in one go.

 

[Phoenix-1]

If that's the case, how can you ever have 16 segments in a OWCA? Online booking caps out at 6 flights.

 

[Mattg]

If that's the case, how can you ever have 16 segments in a OWCA? Online booking caps out at 6 flights.

Well, you could technically still get 16 sectors as each "flight"/segment can have more than one sector when booking online.

For example, if you search for ADL-JFK for the first leg, the website might present ADL-MEL-AKL-JFK as an option. That's one "flight" but 3 "sectors".

You'd be struggling to get 16 sectors though. I'm sure that's part of the point...

 

[Lynda2475]

If that's the case, how can you ever have 16 segments in a OWCA? Online booking caps out at 6 flights.

You can still do the booking over the phone with the fee (but id argue for it to be waived, given not possible online), the limiting factor is more on availability if you wait for the return sectors to be released, the outbound sectors will likely be gone.

Definitely worth AFF reaching out to QF for clarification, as this would seem to be going against the spirit of the OWA.

 

[Phoenix-1]

I've tried booking over the phone and they simply don't see the international flight availability that I can see. This is for new bookings. And then for existing bookings they don't see the domestic availability that I see. It's impossible to book a full itinerary as far as I can tell.

 

[gilldo]

Need some guidance here, and hope someone can help.

I have a OneWorld Classic Business Reward booking commencing on Sep 14 returning on Nov 1, with about 12 flight legs involved.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are a slight chance of having to do one of the following:
- cancel one leg in the middle of the trip (scheduled Oct 3)
- or do the unthinkable, and cancel the entire trip

This raises the following questions:
- when is the cut off time for cancelling the entire trip before the trip is commenced (without losing the points and taxes)?
- can I cancel one leg of the trip (no additions or replacements) near or just after commencement of the trip, but 10-12 days before the specific leg (without losing the rest of the trip)?

The really concerning thing is that if I have to do either of these things, I have to call the Qantas Service Centre and go through the travel equivalent of Russian Roulette!