Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[rock86]

Have read lots about the different fuel surcharges and have been doing dummy bookings to check out the fees and charges for the first part of a RTW trip BNE-LHR. However, total charges are not showing a lot of variation. I did BNE-HKG-LHR with CX ($305 with "other carrier charges" - which I'm thinking are the fuel surcharges - of $176). BNE-SYD-LHR with QF ($313 with "other carrier charges" of $194) and BNE-SIN-LHR with QF/BA ($337 and other carrier charges of $240). This is based on 1 x Y fare (although I'm actually planning to book J). Just on this leg alone in Y for 2 people would cost $600 odd. However, I did a J RTW in December/January using all of the 35K miles and it only cost $1200 for 2 people. I've done some googling but can't find anything that explains how it works. Can someone help? Thanks in advance

BA & QF surcharges differ by what class you're travelling, so those same legs in J will cost you even more.

One thing to remember as well, in your last OWE it may have only cost you $1,200 for 2 people but it totally depends on the airline's you're travelling on and the airports you're travelling through. From what I understand (and someone with more knowledge can please correct me), SIN taxes and airport charges are a bit higher then most..?..

 

[hanrahs]

SIN taxes and airport charges are a bit higher then most..?..

Speaking of SIN, I know starting the trip in Hong Kong or Manila significantly reduces the overall fees and charges, Is this also the case with Singapore?

 

[rock86]

Speaking of SIN, I know starting the trip in Hong Kong or Manila significantly reduces the overall fees and charges, Is this also the case with Singapore?

No.

 

[ellen10]

Now trying to get my head around booking flights.

If I book the first J leg on line when flights first become available, when I want to add the next flights I phone to get them added to my original booking and they charge 6000 points per person. Do they also charge a booking fee?

If I add several flights at once after the initial flight I booked online, is it still just 6000 points per person?

 

[Jacques Vert]

The change fee is 5,000 points per person (NOT 6,000 - that's for cancellations).

Booking fee should not be charged for J, but is charged for Y. (Although that doesn't mean they wont try it on.)

You can make as many changes as you like at the same time for the one change fee; think of it as 5,000 points per person, per phone call (assuming you actually go ahead and make some changes).

 

[ellen10]

The change fee is 5,000 points per person (NOT 6,000 - that's for cancellations).

Booking fee should not be charged for J, but is charged for Y. (Although that doesn't mean they wont try it on.)

You can make as many changes as you like at the same time for the one change fee; think of it as 5,000 points per person, per phone call (assuming you actually go ahead and make some changes).

Thanks Jacques Vert.

Another question, if I may. We keep adding flights and the points get deducted until it reaches the 280K mark? And then subsequent flights added does not cost any more points?

 

[Jacques Vert]

Thanks Jacques Vert.

Another question, if I may. We keep adding flights and the points get deducted until it reaches the 280K mark? And then subsequent flights added does not cost any more points?

You may have to "close out" the route by including a "dummy" return leg to your country of origin. Maybe not. I've seen it work both ways.

To put it another way, add the flights you want and, assuming your itinerary meets all the rules, it should max out at 280k per person. If it doesn't, add a flight that returns you to "home" and it should recalculate to 280k. You can always change this dummy flight later when the flights you want open up. If you have completed your itinerary and it doesn't top out at 280k, then it means you are in breach of one of the rules (usually because you are over the 35,000 miles, have included a flight with a non-OneWorld airline such as Emirates, too many stopovers, etc.).

 

[ellen10]

Thanks for your reply Jacques and explanations. I will be starting this process in a couple of months for next years flying. Having never done an award this way I am just trying to get my head around all the ins and outs before I start the booking process.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Why not try a test run or two using your preferred route(s) but on dates that are curently available; you will learn a lot by doing this and gain confidence. Make sure you are aware of the different times that various airlines open their award bookings (as per the wiki at the top of the page). Above all, try to be flexible with dates and routings. Good luck.

 

[rock86]

Why not try a test run or two using your preferred route(s) but on dates that are curently available; you will learn a lot by doing this and gain confidence. Make sure you are aware of the different times that various airlines open their award bookings (as per the wiki at the top of the page). Above all, try to be flexible with dates and routings. Good luck.

I'd back this suggestion as well.

I haven't actually booked my OWE as yet, but have many many hours doing dummy bookings on the multi-city, investigating routes etc. going right to the payment/confirmation page and then cancelling.

The tool and whole OWE online booking 'experience' becomes much less daunting with time.

 

[ellen10]

Thanks Jacques and rock86 for the suggestion. I will have a play and try and piece the jigsaw together.

 

[SelfFundedWP]

So thanks to this site I now have about %80 of a 420K First class RTW booked and ticketed!

But I need some advice-
Today I got an email from Qantas saying that my LHR-YYZ First class flight with BA on a 777 has had a plane change to a 788. Looking at various seat maps it looks like there is no first class cabin, just business class. As I'm paying for a first class RTW fare I naturally want every flight to be first class.
What are peoples thoughts on this? If I ring Qantas do I have any leg to stand on as far as I paid for a first class seat on that plane and have now been downgraded to business?

 

[cjd600]

If you find F availability on a surrounding flight/day you might be able to get them to waive the 5k points pp change fee, but that's about it

 

[geoffshaw]

So thanks to this site I now have about %80 of a 420K First class RTW booked and ticketed!

But I need some advice-
Today I got an email from Qantas saying that my LHR-YYZ First class flight with BA on a 777 has had a plane change to a 788. Looking at various seat maps it looks like there is no first class cabin, just business class. As I'm paying for a first class RTW fare I naturally want every flight to be first class.
What are peoples thoughts on this? If I ring Qantas do I have any leg to stand on as far as I paid for a first class seat on that plane and have now been downgraded to business?

I had a flight booked in J and the plane was changed to one with only Y. I called and was rebooked into business on another flight even though there was no award availability. Call them and see what they will do. If you can get the Australian call centre that will make it a lot easier...

 

[SelfFundedWP]

I had a flight booked in J and the plane was changed to one with only Y. I called and was rebooked into business on another flight even though there was no award availability. Call them and see what they will do. If you can get the Australian call centre that will make it a lot easier...

Great info thanks mate!

 

[SelfFundedWP]

So thanks to this site I now have about %80 of a 420K First class RTW booked and ticketed!

But I need some advice-
Today I got an email from Qantas saying that my LHR-YYZ First class flight with BA on a 777 has had a plane change to a 788. Looking at various seat maps it looks like there is no first class cabin, just business class. As I'm paying for a first class RTW fare I naturally want every flight to be first class.
What are peoples thoughts on this? If I ring Qantas do I have any leg to stand on as far as I paid for a first class seat on that plane and have now been downgraded to business?

**Update**

Got Hobart call centre last night, pleaded my case and managed to get on the same flight the day before on a 789-9 that has a small first class cabin. He agreed to waive the 6000 point change fee as it was not my fault. I cheekily asked to add some more flights to the booking to make the most of the point fee being waived.
I requested a seat in F on QF1 SYD-LHR on 3 separate days all came back with yes.
Requested another in J on QF62 NRT-BNE on 3 separate days, 2 came back with yes.

So after a long but satisfying process my RTW trip is complete!

SYD-LHR. QF
LHR-YYZ. BA
JFK-YVR. CX
LAX-HKG. CX
HKG-NRT. CX
NRT-BNE. QF

Would not of happened without this site so thank you all!

 

[Mr_Tee]

So after a long but satisfying process my RTW trip is complete!

SYD-LHR. QF
LHR-YYZ. BA
JFK-YVR. CX
LAX-HKG. CX
HKG-NRT. CX
NRT-BNE. QF

Would not of happened without this site so thank you all!

Thats a really good itinerary. I like it.
Congratulations and enjoy the travels!!

 

[SelfFundedWP]

Thats a really good itinerary. I like it.
Congratulations and enjoy the travels!!

Thanks mate, can hardly keep the lid on my excitement!

 

[Kiwifruit]

I have been lurking on this thread for quite some time in the hope that once I had the opportunity to take some long service leave then I could put some of your tips to good use in constructing my trip. This proved to be a great source of information and I just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed. I also thought I should add my experience in the hope it benefits someone else.

I finally got a window of opportunity to get away from mid-December through March but wasn't too hopeful in finding availability for two J class seats. However armed with the tips and tools picked up off this thread I set about researching availability on the individual sectors that I wanted. In my case I think the key was flexibility as we didn't need to be in a particular place at a particular time but had a few years places that we wanted to visit though in no particular order. We had also decided that in order to maximise the value we should try and visit those places that interested us but were a bit out of the way and also try and use as many different carriers as possible.

The first road block that we faced was that not surprisingly it was impossible to find two J seats on any of the routes that we wanted out of Australia in the week leading up to Christmas. Thinking outside the box I thought why not start from outside Australia and armed with the knowledge from this thread that taxes are lowest out of Hong Kong (which can easily be accessed on a cheap commercial fare) this seemed a good place to commence the trip. I started checking availability of the individual sectors online where this was possible and checked that our proposed trip fell within the allowable mileage.

Once I had done as much as I could online I then called Qantas and the lady at the premium desk was absolutey brilliant. First I asked her to book in the sectors that I knew were available then we set about filling in the gaps and she was even able to come up with some creative solutions to find availability. Bottom line was that in the course of one telephone call lasting just over an hour it was all booked in and ticketed.

For reference the itinerary we ultimately booked was:

Leg 1: HKG-AMM (RJ)
Leg 2: AMM-DOH-NBO (RJ/QR)
Leg 3: ZNZ-DOH-MAD (QR)
Leg 4: MAD-EZE (IB)
Leg 5: EZE-LIM-MIA (LA/AA)
Leg 6: JFK-NRT-TPE-HKG (JL/CX)

As you can see we were able to include stopovers in five different continents with a a couple of sneaky 23 hour transfers along the way all for 280K points and $940 in tax per person.

In our case we were lucky we had flexibility with dates which made things easier but you also need to think outside the box some times. An example of this was getting from EZE to MIA as there was absolutely no availability coming up when you searched the city pairs but by looking at EZE-LIM and LIM-MIA individually the availability was there and you could piece them together.

Thanks again for everyone contributing to this thread as without the knowledge I gleaned whilst lurking I wouldn't have known where to start in constructing an itinerary.

 

[sjk]

Indirectly related to this thread, but not irrelevant:

If I book the first leg of a multi-leg trip as soon as it becomes available, and then call to book the next leg (say two weeks later when that becomes available), are QFF operators generally familiar with doing that for a 5,000-point change fee and getting the tax calculations correct? I'm assuming that's far better than waiting for the second leg to become available and risk the first disappearing in the meantime.