Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Jacques Vert]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

... there is so much information on this site I have to read things more than once before they stick.:shock:

You are not alone

I don't remember having this problem for the first 60 years of my life...

I wonder if that is because I didn't have the problem or I just don't remember having it

 

[Pablo]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

there is so much information on this site I have to read things more than once before they stick.:shock:

So true. How do we create a Wiki on this thread? I saw it discussed a while back, but no one started it. I tried to work it out but couldn't find how to do it. I think everyone would find it so helpful. I'm happy to make a start on a wiki if I can work out how to do it.

 

[mydogsteelo]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hello there,

Last night i tried to change a booking my wife and i made and was told it was impossible so im just wondering if any of you have any idea's as to what i could do.

Currently i have a ticket for my wife and i from BNE to TPE booked on my FF account and my wife has a ticket for both of us from ICN to SYD booked on her account.

We would like to convert this into a OWE but i was told that firstly i would have to have both bookings in the one account which would require cancelling one of them and in doing this we would loose that booking because CX would not put it back into stock.

Thanks again for this thread, My wife and i took a trip around the world in comfort thanks to you all last year.

 

[travelislife]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hello there,

Last night i tried to change a booking my wife and i made and was told it was impossible so im just wondering if any of you have any idea's as to what i could do.

Currently i have a ticket for my wife and i from BNE to TPE booked on my FF account and my wife has a ticket for both of us from ICN to SYD booked on her account.

We would like to convert this into a OWE but i was told that firstly i would have to have both bookings in the one account which would require cancelling one of them and in doing this we would loose that booking because CX would not put it back into stock.

Thanks again for this thread, My wife and i took a trip around the world in comfort thanks to you all last year.

There is not much you can do. Also it isn't about the 'accounts' that it was booked from, but rather the PNR's the bookings are under. It sounds like you have 2 separate bookings, hence PNR's. For it to be converted to a OWE it would need to be under the one PNR which isn't possible for the agents to do without finding new availability and cancelling the existing.

 

[mydogsteelo]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

There is not much you can do. Also it isn't about the 'accounts' that it was booked from, but rather the PNR's the bookings are under. It sounds like you have 2 separate bookings, hence PNR's. For it to be converted to a OWE it would need to be under the one PNR which isn't possible for the agents to do without finding new availability and cancelling the existing.

Thanks for the clarification! and yes we do have 2 separate bookings (we feel so stupid right now). I thought that the availability would just go straight back into stock once we cancelled it so that as long as we were quick about it we could move them to the one account and go from there.

 

[Gold60]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Is this the thread, or is there another thread, that covers around the world-like trips, that do NOT necessarily involved FF points, award schemes, etc. ??

I am planning to fly around the world, probably paying for most of it, but using up a small amount of FF points I have in ether Qantas and Sing Air, but I do not want to use one of the alliance RTW fares as they are too expensive, and I only want to stop in two or three places.

Any clues please?

Thank you all in advance..................

 

[mydogsteelo]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

There is not much you can do. Also it isn't about the 'accounts' that it was booked from, but rather the PNR's the bookings are under. It sounds like you have 2 separate bookings, hence PNR's. For it to be converted to a OWE it would need to be under the one PNR which isn't possible for the agents to do without finding new availability and cancelling the existing.

Just an update on what we were able to figure out. We rang Qantas again just to make sure there was nothing we could do and it turns out that it was no problem to cancel the tickets on my wifes account which rereleased them to the system and then they were able to resecure the tickets and put them on hold for us while the points were refunded and then transferred to me!

so yesterday we were able to book this trip travel for this Christmas.

BNE -> HKG -> TPE <stop>
TPE -> ICN -> DOH -> VCE <stop>
FCO -> MAD -> RAK <stop>
RAK -> MAD (overnight under 24hrs) -> IAD <stop>
DFW -> ICN <stop>
ICN -> HKG -> SYD -> BNE

We are over the moon about the itinerary especially after thinking we were unable to convert it last weekend

 

[Buck]

Re: "oneworld" award (140K) - We have a winner!

It took me several attempts and serval sessions to decipher all of the advice contained across this topic from the over 300 pages of commentary -- but thanks to this forum I was able to confirm a family trip for 4 under the OneWorld award for this Christmas.

Brisbane > Tokyo > Vancouver > New York > LA > Brisbane. December '16 to January '17.

The Tokyo > Vancouver leg could only be booked via a telephone call to Qantas and thus they waived the normal telephone booking fee.

This award exercise is definitely not for the faint hearted, I spent literally weeks trying every possible permeation of flights, airlines, times and dates .. often getting 95% of the way to what looked like a glorious win only to be heartbroken by a leg that proved impossible to fill.

All up we'll invest 4 x 140k in points (560k) + roughly $500 per person in the associated fees. All factors considered, I'm satisfied with the deal and investment.

If I had some tips to pass on for anyone else looking to undertake this exercise the following is probably the best summary of tips I've picked up through all the threads:

1. Start the exercise early - 12 months out gives you best possible chance of securing seats.
2. Be flexible & creative. Our target destination was Canada, there are however a number of cities in Canada each serviced by different oneworld airlines. In the end we managed to get into Vancouver via Tokyo - but other options I explored included via Honolulu, Dallas, San Francisco, Las Vegas, London into Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Kelowna amongst many others. The more flexible you are, the easier it will be to build something. Be flexible around dates, cities, airlines. Early on I also looked at different exits from Australia - including via Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns & even Auckland at one stage. You will find there is different availability from different cities ... for example there was zero availability for Sydney > Tokyo, yet I could get Brisbane > Tokyo for the first leg.
3. Build as you go. It sucks but you literally need to build leg-by-leg. If I had my time again I would have a big sheet of paper and build serveral itineraries in parallel. The QANTAS website gets very clunky when you try and build multi-city itineraries.
4. Make hand written notes as you go. More than once the QANTAS website bugged out on me and I found it almost impossible to re-recreate where I was at because I'd be running so many different permeations and you tend to loose track. Frustrating as hell. More than once I would find the QANTAS website would return different flight availabilities for the same multi-city searches - keeping a written record helps you immensely in these circumstances - also valuable intel if you ever need to ring QANTAS.
5. Don't accept the QANTAS website as 100% gospel. My missing leg Tokyo - Vancouver I first found via JAL website. Sometimes I found it easier to use other OneWorld carrier websites for single leg searches, then go back to QANTAS to see if I could replicate the leg via the multi-city tool.
6. Know the OneWorld rules. You need 3 different airline partners in the mix. We have Qantas, JAL & Cathay in our trip.
7. Be willing to invest time. If you think you can sit down in one go and smash out an itinerary that works I'd be greatly surprised. I'd hate to think how many people give up, I came close a few times thinking that what we were trying to achieve was impossible. Then one day (after many, many attempts) it just all fell together - an itinerary that got us where we wanted to go and met all of the award rules. They certainly don't make it easy!

Nothing left to do now than wait for the trip to start at years end.

 

[coyote25]

Re: "oneworld" award (140K) - We have a winner!

It took me several attempts and serval sessions to decipher all of the advice contained across this topic from the over 300 pages of commentary -- but thanks to this forum I was able to confirm a family trip for 4 under the OneWorld award for this Christmas.

Brisbane > Tokyo > Vancouver > New York > LA > Brisbane. December '16 to January '17.

Brilliant result. As someone who has booked at least 3 Y OW RTW Awards and 1 J IW RTW Award I find the investment of time in planning to really pay off. Have fun.

 

[travelislife]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Just an update on what we were able to figure out. We rang Qantas again just to make sure there was nothing we could do and it turns out that it was no problem to cancel the tickets on my wifes account which rereleased them to the system and then they were able to resecure the tickets and put them on hold for us while the points were refunded and then transferred to me!

so yesterday we were able to book this trip travel for this Christmas.

BNE -> HKG -> TPE <stop>
TPE -> ICN -> DOH -> VCE <stop>
FCO -> MAD -> RAK <stop>
RAK -> MAD (overnight under 24hrs) -> IAD <stop>
DFW -> ICN <stop>
ICN -> HKG -> SYD -> BNE

We are over the moon about the itinerary especially after thinking we were unable to convert it last weekend

That's a great result! Good work on following it up. I seriously believed you were most likely stuck, so a great outcome!

 

[madrooster]

Re: "oneworld" award (140K) - We have a winner!

Know the OneWorld rules. You need 3 different airline partners in the mix. We have Qantas, JAL & Cathay in our trip.

If you include QF, then you need 3 carriers. If you do NOT include QF, then you only need 2 carriers.

 

[ablecookie]

Re: "oneworld" award (140K) - We have a winner!

Just starting to do some dummy runs for my forthcoming J booking using Qantas site.

My first leg is to LAX. Preference is from SYD or MEL to be able to fly on A380.

I have no luck at all over the last few days on any dates. Only J seats are via HKG.

Even tried via Brisbane, then gave me via Fiji! The round-about routes will blow my miles.

I have no status as most of the points were through CC, etc. I am just thinking is it possible for my son, who has reasonable status with his business trips, to book the seats for me without him being on the flight?

 

[Doctore1003]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Just starting to do some dummy runs for my forthcoming J booking using Qantas site.

My first leg is to LAX. Preference is from SYD or MEL to be able to fly on A380.

I have no luck at all over the last few days on any dates. Only J seats are via HKG.

Even tried via Brisbane, then gave me via Fiji! The round-about routes will blow my miles.

I have no status as most of the points were through CC, etc. I am just thinking is it possible for my son, who has reasonable status with his business trips, to book the seats for me without him being on the flight?

I would've thought your son could make the initial booking. Do you have any other QF legs in mind, eg the flight home? If so, ideally he could include that in the first booking. I don't know for sure but I'd be surprised if you could rely on his elite access after that first booking is made (others may know better!)

 

[madrooster]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I would've thought your son could make the initial booking. Do you have any other QF legs in mind, eg the flight home? If so, ideally he could include that in the first booking. I don't know for sure but I'd be surprised if you could rely on his elite access after that first booking is made (others may know better!)

The frequent flyer member who makes the initial booking is the only one who can also make changes to it.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Re: "oneworld" award (140K) - We have a winner!

I have no status as most of the points were through CC, etc. I am just thinking is it possible for my son, who has reasonable status with his business trips, to book the seats for me without him being on the flight?

I have made a booking for my son including getting seats released over X'mas a few years ago (when I was WP). No problem if you are related.

 

[Sprucegoose]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hello there,

Last night i tried to change a booking my wife and i made and was told it was impossible so im just wondering if any of you have any idea's as to what i could do.

Currently i have a ticket for my wife and i from BNE to TPE booked on my FF account and my wife has a ticket for both of us from ICN to SYD booked on her account.

We would like to convert this into a OWE but i was told that firstly i would have to have both bookings in the one account which would require cancelling one of them and in doing this we would loose that booking because CX would not put it back into stock.

Thanks again for this thread, My wife and i took a trip around the world in comfort thanks to you all last year.

Send me a PM. I may have a solution

 

[yld200]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

This thread is great. Lots of valuable information that I hope to use in a few months to book 2x J OWA for Sept-Oct 2017. Main objective is Europe, North Africa (Egypt and Morrocco) and maybe NY, Vancouver, Torronto but still in the very very early stages. SWMBO is focused on Europe and I'm slowly starting to plant the seed of some other locations

Currently around 100K points short but have 80K coming in the next few months with CC bonus's and should hit 560K by Aug-Sept. Also have 280K velocity points to throw in the mix which I'm thinking of using to get suites to Tokyo

 

[SNW1406]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hello & thanks to all who give their time to educate people like me. I have had a few tries at this and am hopefully getting better
I am planning 2 x J 280K OWE trip in Sept next year so have just made the itinerary as close as I can to keep under 35K miles.
This is what I have
ISA-BNE-SYD-SCL-EZE STOP Then will catch Y flight EZE-IGR/IGU return (Iguazu Falls)
EZE-LIM STOP Then flight LIM-CUZ return in Y (Inca Trail & Macchu Picchu)
LIM-JFK-HEL STOP Then Y flight HEL-IVL return in Y (Northern Lights & look around in HEL)
HEL-LON-DXB STOP (To have a look in DXB & maybe DOH)
DXB-HKG-BNE-ISA STOP

It comes in at 32423 miles. If anyone would like to suggest better routing/ways to travel, I am open to all your experience. I would like to keep the taxes down as much as possible & try and sneak the normal just under 24 hr break when possible

Thank you
Brendan

 

[ejd711]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

ISA-BNE-SYD-SCL-EZE STOP Then will catch Y flight EZE-IGR/IGU return (Iguazu Falls)
EZE-LIM STOP Then flight LIM-CUZ return in Y (Inca Trail & Macchu Picchu)
LIM-JFK-HEL STOP Then Y flight HEL-IVL return in Y (Northern Lights & look around in HEL)
HEL-LON-DXB STOP (To have a look in DXB & maybe DOH)
DXB-HKG-BNE-ISA STOP

It comes in at 32423 miles.

I assume all those Y legs are revenue/paid tickets. The last leg doesn't finish with a stopover - so as far as I can see you have only used four stops and still have one stopover left so could use it for one of the side trips, so long as you have the miles and you're happy to transfer on the return leg (I'd suggest you don't need a huge amount of time in Lima personally - and MAKE SURE you have a booked taxi/transfer from the airport, particularly if you're arriving at 2am - that airport can be crazy).

To get tickets to South America you'll have to be pretty sharp when bookings open! It looks like a great trip - good luck with it!

 

[Ultan Lankford]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Huge and interesting thread. Interested in using this award. Is there anyway at the moment to book a JNB to RIO flight? I hear TAM are beginning one in October of this year. Plan to travel next year but not sure if seats are available yet. Any ideas or info?