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

[Mr H]

Thanks. Helps knowing what you're doing well in advance (and being happy to pay 20k in change fees to add every leg individually)

I have done a picture of it for you

 

[Jacques Vert]

I'm wanting to change the FCO-MAD leg to be a CTA-MAD, taking it to 34,282mi. I've had a couple of agents be able to identify the availability but unable to price the subsequent itinerary. Is it possible that 34,282 is too far on QF's system or should I try again with more agents?

Is CTA-MAD on IB? One way flights on IB often have to be priced manually. Try again with another agent.

 

[funnybrus]

Is CTA-MAD on IB? One way flights on IB often have to be priced manually. Try again with another agent.

Correct - thanks for the input.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Correct - thanks for the input.

Good luck, keep calling until you get an agent who can do it for you.

 

[Cardinal]

After some experimenting and several long calls, I've learned a few things that may or not be common knowledge. I'm going to write them all down here in case it helps someone in the future:

1. Sometimes (as I posted on the previous page) the flights don't actually cap out to 318k. However, it seems like if you keep adding flights they will cap out to 318k at some stage. I managed to get MEL-LAX, SFO-JFK, JFK-HEL, BRU-HEL-KIX, KIX-KUL and KUL-ADL to cap out at 318k (however I didn't book this).

2. Some J award seats (definitely was the case for AY16 JFK-HEL and AY8 MIA-HEL) that don't appear if searched separately, DO appear if you book an AU origin flight prior. For example, ADL-MEL, JFK-HEL shows a JFK-HEL J award on 19/3. This doesn't appear on a search on AA's site either. If you search JFK-HEL alone and you'll only see a Y seat. If you search SFO-JFK-HEL, you also won't see it. I thought this was phantom availability, but I was able to book this seat (and get it ticketed!).

3. Airports not searchable on the Qantas website can be booked over the phone. Surprisingly wasn't that painful and I managed to book flights from HEL-TOS in J easily.

4. Ticketing a flight that starts in the USA seems to be troublesome as they require you to fill in a form to satisfy their "Secure Flight Passenger Data Requirements" prior to being ticketed. I booked my flights over the phone and they appeared in My Booking but then disappeared the next day. I contacted the reward ticketing escalations team (no reply, but they might have done something) and also called up to get them ticketed again. In the end, I received an email in my inbox requesting me to fill in the aforementioned information and then had my e-ticket a short while later. Booking the same flight for my sibling was worse - they never appeared in My Bookings and despite every agent telling me they were in the ticketing queue with nothing else to be done (and a couple even taking down the information required in the Secure Flight Passenger Detail form) nothing happened. After emailing the reward ticketing team however, they very promptly replied with instructions to go into the manage booking page and add the information directly (not My Bookings > Manage booking, but manage booking from the main Qantas page). After that, the e-ticket was finally issued shortly after.

My flights finally ended up being a mix of QF redemptions and VA redemptions as I was unable to find a good way back:

My final QF booking looked like this:

ADL-MEL, SFO-JFK, JFK-HEL-TOS, TOS-HEL-LHR with taxes at just under A$100.

I decided to give up on the OWCA due to being unable to find a way back that worked out well. I booked separate VA flights (UA, QR) to get to the USA and back home from Europe.

Overall very happy with these flights.

Thanks for the info- about to jump head on into my first OWA since COVID and maybe you might save me a few new injuries.

Although the idea of phoning to find seats already fills me with dread

Post automatically merged: Dec 3, 2023

I have done a picture of it for you

View attachment 355464

Nice job getting in and out if Australia via North and South America.

 

[icecream]

Trying to add SFO-HND-SYD which used to come up directly if searching SFO-SYD, now it no longer comes up and you can only search SFO-HND and HND-SYD separately. When calling to add both, agents will be able to find one of the flights and add it, but then not the other. Is this a married segment issue? Is there a way to see this online beforehand and know it's not possible to put together (and save wasting time calling)? If I add those two flights to my cart as a test it does let me go ahead, so it's seemingly available for new bookings :/

 

[ellen10]

I just received a notification from Finnair about a flight change by 5 mins.
We are flying JL from Singapore to Tokyo and then flying Tokyo to Helsinki then connecting Helsinki to Budapest. The 5 min change is on on the Helsinki to Budapest flight.

The email says to accept the change in Finnair Manage my booking. I have not received anything from Qantas. Do I just accept the change as per directed in the Finnair manage my booking?
Will I receive a new eticket?

I don't want to mess up my other bookings.

So I posted a week ago about a Finnair notification about accepting a flight change of 5 minutes (I have not accepted it yet).

It was suggested that I wait until receiving notification from Qantas. No email notification as yet, but when I go into manage my booking there is an alert about looking at the change. But no where to accept the change, just informing me.

Should I just accept the change that Finnair sent through? I don't want to do nothing and have all the flights cancelled.

 

[flapper]

So I posted a week ago about a Finnair notification about accepting a flight change of 5 minutes (I have not accepted it yet).

It was suggested that I wait until receiving notification from Qantas. No email notification as yet, but when I go into manage my booking there is an alert about looking at the change. But no where to accept the change, just informing me.

Should I just accept the change that Finnair sent through? I don't want to do nothing and have all the flights cancelled.

Definitely don't ignore it. I would call QF and accept the change and ask if it needs to be reticketed. Also check on the RJ website after you accept the the change that it still has a ticket number. As there is a time limit for QF to reticket a booking; there is a time limit for a change to be accepted. I learned the hard way by not accepting a time change and then had a flight drop off a booking.

 

[ellen10]

So I took your advice @flapper and phoned, only waited 15 mins until I spoke to someone. She managed to accept the changes and a new ticket was emailed within a couple of minutes. So very happy with the service.

 

[Hamole]

Trying to add SFO-HND-SYD which used to come up directly if searching SFO-SYD, now it no longer comes up and you can only search SFO-HND and HND-SYD separately. When calling to add both, agents will be able to find one of the flights and add it, but then not the other. Is this a married segment issue? Is there a way to see this online beforehand and know it's not possible to put together (and save wasting time calling)? If I add those two flights to my cart as a test it does let me go ahead, so it's seemingly available for new bookings :/

I have run into this exact issue - I think if you actually trying to go through with the booking online you will get an error.

I booked online with the second flight on the day after to avoid the married segment. Then called and got it changed to the day prior to make it a connecting flight without any issue.

 

[Phoenix-1]

I have run into this exact issue - I think if you actually trying to go through with the booking online you will get an error.

I booked online with the second flight on the day after to avoid the married segment. Then called and got it changed to the day prior to make it a connecting flight without any issue.

That's really clever. Well done. Was this part of an OWCA?

 

[Mr H]

I have run into this exact issue - I think if you actually trying to go through with the booking online you will get an error.

I booked online with the second flight on the day after to avoid the married segment. Then called and got it changed to the day prior to make it a connecting flight without any issue.

Wouldn’t you have saved a change fee to just book the whole thing over the phone rather than doing the online booking first?

 

[Phoenix-1]

Wouldn’t you have saved a change fee to just book the whole thing over the phone rather than doing the online booking first?

Not if the agents tell you they "can't see the seat"

 

[Mr H]

Not if the agents tell you they "can't see the seat"

If the agents couldn't see the seat from the off, then not sure why they would see it when it is a change request.

 

[Hamole]

That's really clever. Well done. Was this part of an OWCA?

Yes was part of a OWCA.

Wouldn’t you have saved a change fee to just book the whole thing over the phone rather than doing the online booking first?

Ideally yes but while the phone agents could always see the Japan Airlines flights, there were other segments they couldn't see that I could when booking online. Hence booking online first then calling to change. Annoying but was better then more hours on the phone trying to convince people the other seats existed.

 

[icecream]

I have run into this exact issue - I think if you actually trying to go through with the booking online you will get an error.

I booked online with the second flight on the day after to avoid the married segment. Then called and got it changed to the day prior to make it a connecting flight without any issue.

I’m unable to do this as I would have already stopped over at HND, so adding the flight a day later would break the OWA rules

 

[elanshin]

Transit time is 24hours so as long as you book both segments at the same time within a 24h transit window, it should be fine.

 

[icecream]

Trying an alternate route and over 30 calls later agents continually tell me there are no business classic rewards on the flight despite online showing availability. Am wondering at what point I have to accept it’s phantom availability? Except when I don’t provide my PNR surprise, they can see business…

On another note how do people force agents to search by flight number? They always ask for departure and arrival locations even when I provide flight number only (insisting they can’t search this way)

Thanks in advance

 

[djkelly69]

Am wondering at what point I have to accept it’s phantom availability? Except when I don’t provide my PNR surprise, they can see business…

It doesn't sound like phantom availability, it just sounds like married/divorced sector logic that the phone agent is unaware of and therefore unable to explain (hence the frequent use of the 'only for new bookings' line).

 

[icecream]

It doesn't sound like phantom availability, it just sounds like married/divorced sector logic that the phone agent is unaware of and therefore unable to explain (hence the frequent use of the 'only for new bookings' line).

Can married/divorced sector logic affect business class only? Some agents cannot see the flight at all, some say there is only economy available, or PE too but never business