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

[exceladdict]

I'm in the same situation as Kyah Hester - I've only booked my first two flights of a 9-10 months and I'd much rather be able to make the changes via SMS than wait 2 hours on line for a Qantas rep who might not know what they're doing..

Beware though, I've encountered SMS agents who couldn't add flights to existing bookings too.
Lack of clarity on fare rules extends across platforms it seems

 

[flapper]

Can I ask how you phrased your changes via the text? I'm thinking of using this option twice following my original booking. Did it take long? I'm trying to time it to ensure I get some of the rarer flights that sell out quick. Hoping its faster than calling for a change.

You tell them your name and booking number and the date, Flight numbers, and origin and destinations involved.
It takes on average an hour to get the first reply and then an hour to finalise the change.
Make sure they don’t charge the 8,000 pts service fee if it is a premium class booking only the 5,000 pts change fee as the all try to charge that.
I find generally they are more knowledgeable than the CC but they do make mistakes. I’ve had them book the wrong flight despite confirming the correct one and don’t know about married segments etc.
Good luck.

 

[jeza]

Start my first OWA tonight from Singapore, little bit excited!

Huge thanks to all those who contribute to this thread by answering questions, both simple & complex, offer route suggestions & make it so much easier to navigate the many pitfalls that are encountered

To those who have hit those pitfalls or spent hours waiting on the phone, I feel your pain!

Mine is a reasonably simple itinerary broken into 2 trips to Europe. When I land in PER is the end of the first part & I fly out of PER in May 2020.

SIN-HEL AY
HEL-TXL AY
AMS-DOH-PER QR
PER-HKG CX
HKG-BCN CX
CDG-DOH-SIN QR

 

[ellen10]

Sounds great and you are certainly entitled to feel excited!
I start mine in 1 months time and I am already excited!
Have a great trip.

 

[barry richardson]

Just joined. Useful info above but one big question remains for us. Can we still hope to get from somewhere in the UK or Nothern Europe back to MEL business class between 10 and 14 DEC 2019? We have ff to Paris booked on Emirates 19 Nov (256,000 pts) but can't find and way home (Business/PremEco) except LHR Tokyo Singapore and then $7000 ($3,500 each) back to MEL. We have about 400,000 pt left. We've tried all English Airports and Several Continentals. Big question:
I there a reasonable chance of something coming up between now and October? I fear dimimishing chances. Today is the last day for a Singapore Airlines MEL-LHR business return for $7000 each and we're thinking of buying those and and cancelling the MEL - Paris trip (and use ff pts next year). Any advice very welcome.

 

[11sjw]

Just joined. Useful info above but one big question remains for us. Can we still hope to get from somewhere in the UK or Nothern Europe back to MEL business class between 10 and 14 DEC 2019? We have ff to Paris booked on Emirates 19 Nov (256,000 pts) but can't find and way home (Business/PremEco) except LHR Tokyo Singapore and then $7000 ($3,500 each) back to MEL. We have about 400,000 pt left. We've tried all English Airports and Several Continentals. Big question:
I there a reasonable chance of something coming up between now and October? I fear dimimishing chances. Today is the last day for a Singapore Airlines MEL-LHR business return for $7000 each and we're thinking of buying those and and cancelling the MEL - Paris trip (and use ff pts next year). Any advice very welcome.

Welcome BR.

Good luck with looking this close in such a tight window. I can see CDG-MEL with China Eastern on the 10th but this will take you outside of the Oneworld Award. I may have misinterpreted what you've written but it read like you're just trying to book two one way J flights. Is that the case or are you trying to get them as Oneworld Awards?

Edit: I can see two J for Helsinki-Mel on the 16th with JAL.
Edit2: Struck out per my oversight highlighted below!!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Welcome BR.

Good luck with looking this close in such a tight window. I can see CDG-MEL with China Eastern on the 10th but this will take you outside ow the Oneworld Award. I may have misinterpreted what you've written but it read like you're just trying to book two one way J flights. Is that the case or are you trying to get them as Oneworld Awards?

Edit: I can see two J for Helsinki-Mel on the 16th with JAL.

The OP is flying EK so is already outside the Oneworld Award.

 

[11sjw]

The OP is flying EK so is already outside the Oneworld Award.

Thank you. Gives the China Eastern out of CDG some value then!

 

[exceladdict]

That feeling when you get an itinerary right.... and go to book, only to have indescribable generic errors thrown back at you, only to then see one of your trans-pacific legs disappear from availability

 

[Lomandriel]

All, thanks for the help previously - as you might remember we managed to self book our one world award flights. One thing we notice is we are getting constant itinerary changes emails - this is the first time I've had even more than one change on a flight. Sometimes they're just a 5 min change, biggest maybe 20 or 30 mins earlier, but is this normal for various flights through europe and surrounds? I've never had an issue flying through to asia or the USA where flights were constantly being updated? It is good in that Qantas sends through the change summary and a new itinerary, but somewhat concerning given I had always heard Europe and winter/snow caused flight havocs (we're going for Scandinavian winter if you recall - so mid Feb to Mid march 2020).

On another note, when we booked we received a qantas itinerary of all flights in one - do we not get etickets or itineraries from each partner airline to print and bring to the airports? Will the Qantas itinerary get you through all the airports?

When you do choose flights on the award they automatically include stopover cities. For example for Bergen to Copenhagen it is broken into Bergen to Helsinki on AY942 (subsidiary /franchise - perhaps someone can explain? It is a subsidiary of Finnair??) leaving 11:55am to 14:50PM circa 10 March 2020. The second flight is then Helsinki to Copenhagen on AY955 - leaving 15:40pm to 16:15pm local time at Copenhagen.

The issue is the arrival time of the subsidiary is say 14:50pm, with the next onward flight 15:40PM. Normally booking on an airline I would be comfortable that they would account for us being on a connecting flight. But through Qantas, and given it is a subsidiary of Finnair initially - how does connections normally work with the Oneworld award?


Can one transit straight to the next onward flight, and is luggage transferred? 50 minutes between flights my main worry is our luggage wouldn't be offboarded and transferred in time? can anyone comment?

Our other flights generally have two or three hours before our connecting flight, so even if we have to go through the airport check in again rather than transit we'd feel reasonably comfortable.Can someone elaborate on how this works?

On a side note - is there any thread or recommendations on the travel insurance side of things? Given we'll be in snow in Scandinavia i assume alot of bread and butter cheap online options don't cover common tourist things such as dog sledding, snowmobiles, snowboarding etc, so wondering if there is a gold standard for AFFF members?

 

[Jacques Vert]

All, thanks for the help previously - as you might remember we managed to self book our one world award flights. One thing we notice is we are getting constant itinerary changes emails - this is the first time I've had even more than one change on a flight. Sometimes they're just a 5 min change, biggest maybe 20 or 30 mins earlier, but is this normal for various flights through europe and surrounds? I've never had an issue flying through to asia or the USA where flights were constantly being updated? It is good in that Qantas sends through the change summary and a new itinerary, but somewhat concerning given I had always heard Europe and winter/snow caused flight havocs (we're going for Scandinavian winter if you recall - so mid Feb to Mid march 2020).

On another note, when we booked we received a qantas itinerary of all flights in one - do we not get etickets or itineraries from each partner airline to print and bring to the airports? Will the Qantas itinerary get you through all the airports?

When you do choose flights on the award they automatically include stopover cities. For example for Bergen to Copenhagen it is broken into Bergen to Helsinki on AY942 (subsidiary /franchise - perhaps someone can explain? It is a subsidiary of Finnair??) leaving 11:55am to 14:50PM circa 10 March 2020. The second flight is then Helsinki to Copenhagen on AY955 - leaving 15:40pm to 16:15pm local time at Copenhagen.

The issue is the arrival time of the subsidiary is say 14:50pm, with the next onward flight 15:40PM. Normally booking on an airline I would be comfortable that they would account for us being on a connecting flight. But through Qantas, and given it is a subsidiary of Finnair initially - how does connections normally work with the Oneworld award?


Can one transit straight to the next onward flight, and is luggage transferred? 50 minutes between flights my main worry is our luggage wouldn't be offboarded and transferred in time? can anyone comment?

Our other flights generally have two or three hours before our connecting flight, so even if we have to go through the airport check in again rather than transit we'd feel reasonably comfortable.Can someone elaborate on how this works?

On a side note - is there any thread or recommendations on the travel insurance side of things? Given we'll be in snow in Scandinavia i assume alot of bread and butter cheap online options don't cover common tourist things such as dog sledding, snowmobiles, snowboarding etc, so wondering if there is a gold standard for AFFF members?

1. Changes to flight times are not uncommon
2. One eticket from QF; no need for additional pieces of paper
3. Most likely a franchise but it doesn't matter, you have an AY flight number
4. Luggage is normally transferred for you but wise to confirm at the check-in counter (wouldn't be the first time an agent has presumed you want your bags at the intermediate stop - has happened to me occasionally)
5. Your transfer is in Helsinki: they are very efficient (minimum connection time is listed as 35 minutes); I wouldn't worry (anywhere else yes)
6. There are a few threads on Travel Insurance, have you tried doing a search?

 

[11sjw]

On a side note - is there any thread or recommendations on the travel insurance side of things? Given we'll be in snow in Scandinavia i assume alot of bread and butter cheap online options don't cover common tourist things such as dog sledding, snowmobiles, snowboarding etc, so wondering if there is a gold standard for AFFF members?

Did you use a credit card to pay the surcharges? If so that may have activated TI cover for you. Yes, check re skiing etc.

 

[jeza]

@Lomandriel with the itinerary timing changes also check the 081 ticket number. Mine was changing if they added a PDF attachment.

 

[adenda]

Curious to know if there is any tolerance on the 35000 miles limit for Oneworld award bookings. Our itinerary - which currently includes a surface sector - is a tad over at 35,279 according to the Great Circle Mapper but none of the QF booking agents has mentioned it.

Is it possible the surface sector has been ignored (against my understanding of the rules)?

If so, that could be a concern because I'm hoping to add that sector to the award booking when seats become available.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Curious to know if there is any tolerance on the 35000 miles limit for Oneworld award bookings. Our itinerary - which currently includes a surface sector - is a tad over at 35,279 according to the Great Circle Mapper but none of the QF booking agents has mentioned it.

Is it possible the surface sector has been ignored (against my understanding of the rules)?

If so, that could be a concern because I'm hoping to add that sector to the award booking when seats become available.

There won’t be any exceptions, 35,000 is the number.

The miles in the QF system vary slightly from GC Map, but it’s only a fraction of a per cent.

As an example I had an itinerary that was 34,996 and I was concerned it might go over with QF. It came in at 34,986 when booked.

 

[adenda]

There won’t be any exceptions, 35,000 is the number.

The miles in the QF system vary slightly from GC Map, but it’s only a fraction of a per cent.

As an example I had an itinerary that was 34,996 and I was concerned it might go over with QF. It came in at 34,986 when booked.

Right so QF must calculate us as being under 35000 miles - is there any way of checking the QF calculation? I don't see anything on their website.

As mentioned I'm concerned that converting a currently surface sector on our booked and confirmed itinerary to a flight - when seats become available - will be rejected because we're over 35k. My understanding is it shouldn't make a difference as surface and flight sectors are considered equally in determining miles used.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Right so QF must calculate us as being under 35000 miles - is there any way of checking the QF calculation? I don't see anything on their website.

As mentioned I'm concerned that converting a currently surface sector on our booked and confirmed itinerary to a flight - when seats become available - will be rejected because we're over 35k. My understanding is it shouldn't make a difference as surface and flight sectors are considered equally in determining miles used.

You can ask QF to give you the miles so far... with the accompanying possibility that they spot a problem.

Or you can post your itinerary in this thread as there’s a couple of members with GDS access who may be able to give you the total miles.

 

[adenda]

Exactly - don't want to call attention to a possible oversight. Although I expect that the booking system super computer would throw up a big flag if the itinerary was over any limits.

Is this the right thread to post a request for total miles check?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Exactly - don't want to call attention to a possible oversight. Although I expect that the booking system super computer would throw up a big flag if the itinerary was over any limits.

Is this the right thread to post a request for total miles check?

Yes. There’s a separate thread for calculating taxes and fuel fees, but post the itinerary here is your best shot.

 

[adenda]

Thanks Captain, aware of the taxes and fees thread however I want to check miles not taxes