Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Captain Halliday]

Hi,

I will be doing a fair bit of travel over the next 2 years - including 3 RTWs in business.

I want to decide which global airline alliance to fly with.

I am 1K with United ( Star ) and am happy apart from not being able to fly to the USA non stop out of Brisbane. The advantages of being an Star Elite are substantial even though I would not count UA up there with the world's greatest onboard soft product .

I could easily do the flights on Oneworld and, from my calculations , end up with at least Gold Status for at least 2 years.

My question relates to business class award seat access - pretty bad for my base QFF level at the moment.

I have accumulated a lot of points and find it difficult to use them for my wife unless we are very flexible with dates and itineraries and never expect to get a business award from Australia-LAX aorvv.

So, your advice please , do Gold QFFliers get a noticeably improved access to business award seating ?

There’s a fair bit to your question those with more experience can comment on.

My contribution is a data point. I’m SG and managed to get 3xJ BNE-LAX seats with QF for mid December (trip just taken) and did so around 8 months out.

I deliberately selected a Wednesday as a less popular travel day, but my point is that it can be done.

I only required the outbound sector, so I can’t comment on the inbound availability.

Good luck with the decision.

 

[ozflier]

Can someone update me - can Aer Lingus be used for OW award flights?

 

[benjy]

Hi everyone,
I currently have a OWA half booked, which was mixed class J and F until the F segment was downgraded to J. I'm disappointed but not too fussed about being downgraded as I was probably a little advantageous in anticipating having enough points to book the entire OWA in F.
What I currently have booked is:
MEL (J) > xPER (J) > KUL
KUL (J) > xHKG (J) (was F) > NRT
NRT (J) > HNL
Should I be entitled to automatic points refund for the HKG > NRT segment or should I just wait it out until I book my final segment in 9 or so months time and make sure I'm only charged 280k + phone fees?

Also, just checking, do I need to book my final segment before I start the first flight of the booking, and I can't make any changes after that?

 

[rock86]

Also, just checking, do I need to book my final segment before I start the first flight of the booking, and I can't make any changes after that?

Yes, you do.

 

[flapper]

Can someone update me - can Aer Lingus be used for OW award flights?

Computer says No!
Apparently they are not joining OW.
Aer Lingus now has "no plans" to join Oneworld

 

[DjSap]

Strange question, has anybody else been charged with fraudulent credit card transactions after paying taxes for award flights over the phone? I had two different cards affected at the end of November 2017, a common denominator being that both had been used to pay for award flight taxes over the phone with Qantas. No other manual processing overlap for these two cards besides Qantas.

 

[muppet]

Hi all

Quick question, I think I can but I would like to be sure so I only pay one change fee if I get resistance from an agent.

Subject to the obvious rules, 35k miles, 5 stopovers, 15 segments etc.

Can I go on a trip and come back to Australia, then tack on another little trip to Asia to get to the 35k miles?

For example:

MEL-LAX(stop)JFK-(stop)HKG(stop)-SYD

(Seperate paid fare home to Mel)

6 month break

SYD-BKK-SYD-MEL

Does the last trip have to be within a certain amount of time of first flight or when the booking was first ticketed?

Thanks
m

 

[Jacques Vert]

Hi all

Quick question, I think I can but I would like to be sure so I only pay one change fee if I get resistance from an agent.

Subject to the obvious rules, 35k miles, 5 stopovers, 15 segments etc.

Can I go on a trip and come back to Australia, then tack on another little trip to Asia to get to the 35k miles?

For example:

MEL-LAX(stop)JFK-(stop)HKG(stop)-SYD

(Seperate paid fare home to Mel)

6 month break

SYD-BKK-SYD-MEL

Does the last trip have to be within a certain amount of time of first flight or when the booking was first ticketed?

Thanks
m

No; you can't return to your city, OR COUNTRY, of origin; if you do the ticket ends. But you could get a cheap return from somewhere nearby, e.g., HKG, SIN, DPS, AKL, etc.

The full itinerary has to be booked before you take your first flight so effectively your last trip/flight has to be within about 11 months (depending on which airline you are on as they open seats at various times, at listed in the Wiki). And you need to be able to find seats.

As I understand it, once you take your first flight, you can change the date/time of some of the legs but not the route; but I have never tried to do this.

 

[muppet]

No; you can't return to your city, OR COUNTRY, of origin; if you do the ticket ends. But you could get a cheap return from somewhere nearby, e.g., HKG, SIN, DPS, AKL, etc.

The full itinerary has to be booked before you take your first flight so effectively your last trip/flight has to be within about 11 months (depending on which airline you are on as they open seats at various times, at listed in the Wiki). And you need to be able to find seats.

As I understand it, once you take your first flight, you can change the date/time of some of the legs but not the route; but I have never tried to do this.

Ahhhh what a tragedy
gotta love the unwritten rules

 

[rock86]

Ahhhh what a tragedy
gotta love the unwritten rules

Not an unwritten rule, 14.3.5

 

[blu]

No need to get a return fare to overseas starting country, just a oneway fare or award redemption to the start country. But the notional miles to return to the start are calculated & included from your final destination.

 

[muppet]

No need to get a return fare to overseas starting country, just a oneway fare or award redemption to the start country. But the notional miles to return to the start are calculated & included from your final destination.

Thanks everyone for your advice, i suspect it's probaby not worth the effort - given BKK return is 120,000 and I'd probably end up spending half that and a bunch of cash to fly somewhere I don't want to be.

Not an unwritten rule, 14.3.5

View attachment 115044

Ahhh. I was reading the OneWorld Award T&Cs.

 

[Anna Lewis]

Dear All,
I have just joined this thread and wondered if you can advise where is the best place to look for a one world redemption for around the world, is it on the Qantas site? I am looking to try and go to LHR, then on to somewhere in Scandinavia to view the northern lights, over to USA for a ski, touch base in somewhere warm on the way home ?Hawaii then back to Sydney. Can anyone suggest where the best place is to look for this airfare? I have more AA than QF points. Thanks for any suggestions. Kind regards, Anna

 

[exceladdict]

Dear All,
I have just joined this thread and wondered if you can advise where is the best place to look for a one world redemption for around the world, is it on the Qantas site? I am looking to try and go to LHR, then on to somewhere in Scandinavia to view the northern lights, over to USA for a ski, touch base in somewhere warm on the way home ?Hawaii then back to Sydney. Can anyone suggest where the best place is to look for this airfare? I have more AA than QF points. Thanks for any suggestions. Kind regards, Anna

You'll need to have 140k (Y) or 280k (J) Qantas points to benefit from the style of booking in this thread, I'm not sure if AA have a similar offer.

But to answer your question, I'd do a rough itinerary based on the airports you want to visit (i.e. SYD-DOH-LHR-HEL-JFK-DFW-ABQ-LAX-HNL-SYD) and then check it in a mile calculator to make sure it's less than 35k, and then start looking for availability, being willing to change things around based on what's there.

I like the British Airways site for checking availability, though recently they have been reported to be showing phantom QR availability. Then you search on the QF website to make sure it's also available there (QR and CX also have issues with married segment control).

 

[ozflier]

To be more specific,do Aer Lingus fights which are BA codeshares count for a OWA - ie BA flight number but Aer Lingus metal?

 

[Kangol]

...

So wondering if anyone can advise how to find and book valid LAN reward tickets or is this not possible???

I'm finding a similar issue with QF322, AKL-SYD. Nothing that I can find and I'm looking pretty far out.
Has anyone booked this flight recently (in any cabin)?

 

[boyd852]

I'm trying to book a segment in business class from LHR to HEL on Finnair. The Qantas website shows availability, but when I call to book it, (which I've tried a couple of times) they can't see any available seats. Does anyone know why? Would greatly appreciate any help!

 

[infinity]

Currently doing a Oneworld F points itinerary

CBR/SYD/DFW/MIA/IAD/LHR/CDG/DOH/BKK/HKG/HND/CTS/HND/SYD/PER/CBR

Had to start in CBR (we flew down from SYD), so I could through the PER/CBR trip in later within the 12 months

Currently in Bahamas having done side trips to Cuba

A few paid short trips as well in Europe.

J from BKK/HKG, HND/CTS/HND and DFW/MIA otherwise all F

Lots of work to build this.

Have started the next one for 2018/19 in J through South America

 

[ozflier]

I also cannot find J award seats Aus/NZ to Santiago in november 2018.
I don't know if it is related, but i have been unable to book a 9 sector OWA online - ? a fault .
I successfully get to sector 5 and then I keep getting a 'bad gateway' error.
I've delayed calling QFF because I get sick of arguing with them about the extra 5000 point fee they insist on imposing despite doing my best to complete the booking online.

 

[exceladdict]

I also cannot find J award seats Aus/NZ to Santiago in november 2018.
I don't know if it is related, but i have been unable to book a 9 sector OWA online - ? a fault .
I successfully get to sector 5 and then I keep getting a 'bad gateway' error.
I've delayed calling QFF because I get sick of arguing with them about the extra 5000 point fee they insist on imposing despite doing my best to complete the booking online.

Silly question but definitely within all other rules? And are you breaking any married segments? i.e. if you're booking PER-HKG-NRT does the flight combo show up if you search for PER-NRT as well as the individual legs?