Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[snabbu]

Sooo... I'm close to making a booking for late April next year.
I'll have to ring as I'll need to request an opening on LAX-MEL so how quickly does that happen? Can the award be released and ticket all organised on the same phone call?

My experience is similar to JV above, dealt with there and then. Each time I've made the request it needed to get approved by someone higher than the original phone agent. Process from request to release hasn't been more than 10 minutes.

 

[blu]

And the change fee is now 5,000 points per change, per passenger; so try to make all your changes in one call.

Hoping that's the only cost to cancel three flights.

 

[fairbasa]

Hoping that's the only cost to cancel three flights.

You're just talking about removing some flights from the booking aren't you? Not cancelling the whole booking altogether? If you're just removing some flights from the booking, it will cost you the 5k points per passenger. You can remove/add/change as many flights as you like in the one call for the one fee so do it all at once where possible.

 

[blu]

Thanks, QF's various flight cancellation T&C's confused the issue for me.
Now need to move some points and hope I get a knowledgable CSA (uncharacteristically, the last one was very sarcastic).

 

[PaulST]

I just tried to book:
SYD-HKG-HEL-LHR-ATH-LHR-BDI- purchased flight - LAX-MEL-SYD starting April 21 2018 but the lady said that they couldn't request any releases on the SYD-HKG flight as it was too far out (apparently the requests are made to flex J?), and she suggested I call back in a week. Does this seem right?

I was going to just book on CX and change it to QF when there was availability, but then CX wouldn't let me fly J to HEL so I gave up. I guess I call them in a week and see if I have any luck.

 

[madrooster]

I just tried to book:
SYD-HKG-HEL-LHR-ATH-LHR-BDI- purchased flight - LAX-MEL-SYD starting April 21 2018 but the lady said that they couldn't request any releases on the SYD-HKG flight as it was too far out (apparently the requests are made to flex J?), and she suggested I call back in a week. Does this seem right?

I was going to just book on CX and change it to QF when there was availability, but then CX wouldn't let me fly J to HEL so I gave up. I guess I call them in a week and see if I have any luck.

Definitely incorrect. You can request up to 10 MAY 2018 as of today.

With CX and AY you may need to try asking for the CX flight to be added first, then the AY flight. If that doesn't work, try it the other way around, AY flight first then CX.

 

[PaulST]

Definitely incorrect. You can request up to 10 MAY 2018 as of today.

With CX and AY you may need to try asking for the CX flight to be added first, then the AY flight. If that doesn't work, try it the other way around, AY flight first then CX.

I think the issue was that there were no awards available (CX was available, but not QF), and she couldn't yet request an award be released because there were none in the right fare bucket.

 

[wingtip626]

I am currently planning my RTW trip from SYD travelling to Asia, Europe and then the USA. Returning home from the USA I wish to fly SFO-xHKG-SYD on CX (A350) and QF (A333).

However, when testing this routing in ITA Matrix or via the Qantas' multi-city tool only CX flights are available. I suspect this is due to CX's married segment rules. Any tricks to book the QF flight?

 

[madrooster]

Any tricks to book the QF flight?

Is there a reason that you want to pay $50 more in fuel fines to do the QF flight?

If you are keen on the QF flight, is there availability on the QF flight on its own?

 

[wingtip626]

Is there a reason that you want to pay $50 more in fuel fines to do the QF flight?

If you are keen on the QF flight, is there availability on the QF flight on its own?

I am keen to have a QF sector in my itinerary.
There are a few dates with availability on the QF flight.

 

[snabbu]

I am keen to have a QF sector in my itinerary.
There are a few dates with availability on the QF flight.

Can I ask why this is?

Personally I'm the opposite, I prefer not to have QF in my international itins if at all possible as there are many other superior options (IMO ofc).

 

[wingtip626]

Can I ask why this is?

Personally I'm the opposite, I prefer not to have QF in my international itins if at all possible as there are many other superior options (IMO ofc).

My main motivation is to travel on a wide range of OW carriers, including Qantas. My current plan has me travelling with CX, JAL, QR, AY and AA. I would like to include QF in the itinerary if possible.

 

[Battymum]

So for curiosities sake - I was checking on expedia.com.au the prices of award flights I am hoping to book.
I notice they give a breakdown of the fare including the taxes and this pretty much equated to what the QF site was giving me.

I have a couple of JAL flights I hope to take, I am wondering if its a fair assumption to use expedia to estimate the taxes. ??

Interestingly, the flights I hope to book come in at $63077.66 retail (2 pax in J) and taxes are $1718.00 - I hope I can pull this off!!

Just waiting patiently for my dates to roll around - curiosity is getting the better of me.

 

[madrooster]

I have a couple of JAL flights I hope to take, I am wondering if its a fair assumption to use expedia to estimate the taxes. ??

Use Matrix ITA to estimate taxes as you will need to deduct whatever fuel surcharge shows up on ITA as they don't necessarily apply to awards. See the wiki in this thread for calculating the fuel fines for awards.

 

[Cynicor]

So for curiosities sake - I was checking on expedia.com.au the prices of award flights I am hoping to book.
I notice they give a breakdown of the fare including the taxes and this pretty much equated to what the QF site was giving me.

I have a couple of JAL flights I hope to take, I am wondering if its a fair assumption to use expedia to estimate the taxes. ??

Interestingly, the flights I hope to book come in at $63077.66 retail (2 pax in J) and taxes are $1718.00 - I hope I can pull this off!!

Just waiting patiently for my dates to roll around - curiosity is getting the better of me.

The max price they could come in at is the price of 2x DONE5s tbh. Still a good saving though.
Edit as soon as I posted: Actually, i guess this isn't true if there is backtracking, as that's not allowed on DONEX

 

[blu]

Does CX cancel reservations due to delayed ticketing by QF?
If so, would QF charge another 5000 points to make a replacement J booking?

I would have preferred JL's schedule, but NZ CSA couldn't see the availability shown on JL website.

 

[fairbasa]

Does CX cancel reservations due to delayed ticketing by QF?
If so, would QF charge another 5000 points to make a replacement J booking?

I would have preferred JL's schedule, but NZ CSA couldn't see the availability shown on JL website.

Yes. QR and CX are the worst for it. As it's their fault, QF couldn't charge you the 5k points if they haven't ticketed in time (although they might try ). You're not making a change, they're just reinstating your original booking.

However, make sure you stress you would like any changes sent to the priority queue for ticketing to try and avoid losing seats in the first place.

Side note: I received an itinerary change notification in my QF app yesterday for my Oneworld Award. I accepted the change (AA moved a flight by 15mins). Last night I noticed my points balance had gone down 10k. Turns out QF charged me a 2x pax 5k change fees for an involuntary schedule change! I rang up QF to get the charge refunded. Something to keep an eye on!

 

[madrooster]

Does CX cancel reservations due to delayed ticketing by QF?

Short answer no, unless there's not much time left before departure.

 

[yld200]

Just got off the phone with QF after making some changes to my booking and feeling a little frustrated. The changes made gave me a refund (no idea how) which had to go back to the original card. I advised them that the card had been cancelled and account closed. So on hold I went for at least 30 minutes while the rep sought advice, she came back every 5-10 minutes saying they're still looking at it and at the end she just said the refunds been processed to the original card and you'll have to follow up with the financial institution to get it re-reimbursed.

What the hell, are they serious?

The card is long gone and I'm pretty sure I know which one it is and now I have to follow up with Amex to sort this out? Surely this is BS from QF. Anyone else had any experience like this?

 

[Kangol]

Just got off the phone with QF after making some changes to my booking and feeling a little frustrated. The changes made gave me a refund (no idea how) which had to go back to the original card. I advised them that the card had been cancelled and account closed. So on hold I went for at least 30 minutes while the rep sought advice, she came back every 5-10 minutes saying they're still looking at it and at the end she just said the refunds been processed to the original card and you'll have to follow up with the financial institution to get it re-reimbursed.

What the hell, are they serious?

The card is long gone and I'm pretty sure I know which one it is and now I have to follow up with Amex to sort this out? Surely this is BS from QF. Anyone else had any experience like this?

Some cards can accept the credit, others cannot. If the latter, you need a stat dec saying that the card is closed and you want the refund sent to another one. I have been in both positions.