Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Jacques Vert]

It depends where in the booking process you are. If you're up to the payment screen it's definitely locked the seats up by that point. Basically any point after entering passenger details (eg. name) = the engine may have locked up the seats.

The newer engine is a bit smarter about releasing inventory if you navigate away from the booking process but it's not foolproof, so again, it's that risk you take.

OK thanks for that.

I guess in the context of trying to book a complex itinerary, if I can get to the payment screen and/or where I enter the passenger details, then I won't need to call QF unless I have a last minute change of mind and decide to start again with a variation of the itinerary. It's good to know that any missing seats may "reappear" once the search engine releases them which, as you say, may be at/after midnight at the point of origin.

I'll keep that in mind for the future.

 

[Warren Mason]

Thanks to all the advice both direct and from reading all the comments, we have booked our way to Europe. Now to wait 6 weeks or so to find our way home again . Then again not all that bad if we get stuck over there lol. Thanks again for the help!

 

[ellen10]

Thanks to all the advice both direct and from reading all the comments, we have booked our way to Europe. Now to wait 6 weeks or so to find our way home again . Then again not all that bad if we get stuck over there lol. Thanks again for the help!

Well done! And yes there is still some angst to go with getting home. But you're on your way!

 

[Warren Mason]

Well done! And yes there is still some angst to go with getting home. But you're on your way!

The funny thing is, I had it all planned and worked out that the flights would be available on Thurs to book so had this plan to get up at 5am so book. I have this habit of checking every afternoon when I get home and on Wed afternoon they were available at 3:30pm including a J from Syd to Adel so I grabbed them. Lots and lots of checking seems to be the way to go.

 

[rock86]

When do you know if it is a married CX segment? If you get to the confirmation page?

 

[Phoebej]

hi! newbie to AFF here. Im in the last legs of booking a 280k rtw j itinerary and found plenty of LATAM award space SCL - SYD on the British Airways website on our dates in October next year. Not displayed on the Qantas website though, and when I called them up, they could not see any J award space, only Y. Any advice?

 

[exceladdict]

When do you know if it is a married CX segment? If you get to the confirmation page?

In my experience, if it doesn't show up. EG last year could not find MNL-HKG but had avails for MNL-xHKG-SIN.

 

[rock86]

In my experience, if it doesn't show up. EG last year could not find MNL-HKG but had avails for MNL-xHKG-SIN.

Sweet. Thanks for that.

 

[TanBish]

So this is my first post but I am an avid reader and excited OWA planner! Ages away (late May-mid Aug 2020) but I love the research and the planning and want to be ready to book the minute my preferred flights become available. I have 318,000 pts ready to go - will be doing 1 x J, with husband coming too but paying for him in economy any old way - as he says - I just want to get there as quickly as possible - for you the getting there is part of the adventure!

I flew Finnair J Class to UK/Europe last year - paid $ - and with detailed research managed to snag QF new J seat to SIN then AY a350-900’s after that (bar a MXP-HEL leg). Even snuck in a J SIN-DPS-SIN using some about to expire Krisflyer miles before home to MEL (was at Changi early and QF flight was delayed so got to experience Emirates J on the a380 to MEL at their suggestion). Fabulous!

Telling you that because aircraft are important to me. I used to be a really really anxious flyer and have worked hard to overcome it by desensitizing myself and reading about safety and newer metal - also the added attention in BC made me far more comfortable and excited about the flights last year rather than scared sh*tless!

My plan for 2020 is:
MEL-FCO with QR via QF to Sydney to pick up Q Suite then a350-900
VIE-MAD Iberia
MAD - JFK hoping for AA (question to come)
JFK - DPS with QR - a350-900 and then Dreamliner - married segment has me in Doha for 12 hours so will do a city tour out of the airport (also tossing up CX because of lower taxes and opportunity to try HKG Lounges but worried about typhoon season - remember anxiety here)
DPS- MEL with QF if I can find one...can do via SYD or ADL if have to.

So - AA flights - there’s a direct 777-200 MAD-JFK or a 777-300er out of LHR (so I’d have to do a separate MAD-LHR to pick up that one - opportunity to do Lounge at LHR comes with this one)...none of which show up with premium availability on Qantas website - but I can see them on the AA website (I joined AAdvantage and BA).

Firstly should I just try for MAD-JFK on the smaller plane?
For the hell of it go to LHR for the 777-300er? And if I did this would I be up for lots extra $ due to departure tax (remembering I’d do a transfer from MAD to LHR a few hours earlier)
Will Qantas Call Centre find these AA flights for me when the time comes? Assuming I can see them on AA website.
This is because I really don’t like the look of BA Club World seats - but will do them if I have to.

I also understand by potentially using QR I’ll be up for extra $ in taxes. I don’t quite understand the “fines” discussed on this Wiki - I just look at the taxes on the Qantas website.

Sorry for long post - only a little AA question in there somewhere.

 

[Warren Mason]

Hi, Sorry if this is a dumb question but this will be our first time flying J class so don't know a lot. We are flying to Rome via HK on CX. Are we allowed to use the business lounge during our 5 hour wait between connections?

 

[Daver6]

Hi, Sorry if this is a dumb question but this will be our first time flying J class so don't know a lot. We are flying to Rome via HK on CX. Are we allowed to use the business lounge during our 5 hour wait between connections?

You sure are. Enjoy!

 

[WorkingHard4Retirement]

Hi, Sorry if this is a dumb question but this will be our first time flying J class so don't know a lot. We are flying to Rome via HK on CX. Are we allowed to use the business lounge during our 5 hour wait between connections?

Yes, you will be able to use the lounge. Make the most of it.

 

[cjd600]

Hi, Sorry if this is a dumb question but this will be our first time flying J class so don't know a lot. We are flying to Rome via HK on CX. Are we allowed to use the business lounge during our 5 hour wait between connections?

There’ll be more than one to choose from, you can do a lounge crawl over 5 hours!

 

[Warren Mason]

There’ll be more than one to choose from, you can do a lounge crawl over 5 hours!

Great to know. Looking forward to the trip even more now .

 

[VPS]

Great to know. Looking forward to the trip even more now .

You do realise that going back to Y is nigh impossible - Enjoy

 

[Warren Mason]

You do realise that going back to Y is nigh impossible - Enjoy

Going Y is better than not going I will have to find more points otherwise. Had about 700K when I started booking so there should be some left when we finish .

 

[cjd600]

Great to know. Looking forward to the trip even more now .

The business traveller's guide to Cathay Pacific's Hong Kong lounges

 

[Mattg]

I just booked another Oneworld Award for travel next year. 280k points for business class and around $1,750 in taxes. I realise that I could have brought the taxes down a little by using "cheaper" airlines and visiting fewer places, but I was happy with the itinerary overall.

This is the full routing:
FRA-MAD-GRU (stop 1 - São Paulo)
GRU-SCL-SYD-CBR (stop 2 - Canberra)
CBR-SYD-JNB (stop 3 - Johannesburg with surface sector to Windhoek)
WDH-DOH-DEL (stop 4 - Delhi)
DEL-HEL (stop 5 - Helsinki)
HEL-VIE

It took 3 phone calls to get this ticketed but we got there in the end. I was a little annoyed at being charged a 1.2% credit card surcharge when no other payment options were offered. I was also charged a 6,000-point reward booking "assistance fee", even though I was never informed about this charge and, if asked, I would have opted to pay the $70 in cash instead. I wasn't able to book online, so I also think that charging this fee is... questionable.

This trip may well be the "last hoorah" for me and QFF. I now have ~80k points left with them, and I have no plans to earn any more. I love flying Qantas, but their frequent flyer program is totally uncompetitive and, honestly, the United MileagePlus program meets my needs much better these days. Next year, for the first time, I will not bother with earning any more Qantas status credits and will focus on Star Alliance instead. I've also been getting great use out of KrisFlyer (in terms of redemptions). If I return to being loyal to Oneworld, I will seriously consider the British Airways Executive Club program over Qantas Frequent Flyer.

 

[cjd600]

I just booked another Oneworld Award for travel next year. 280k points for business class and around $1,750 in taxes. I realise that I could have brought the taxes down a little by using "cheaper" airlines and visiting fewer places, but I was happy with the itinerary overall.

This is the full routing:
FRA-MAD-GRU (stop 1 - São Paulo)
GRU-SCL-SYD-CBR (stop 2 - Canberra)
CBR-SYD-JNB (stop 3 - Johannesburg with surface sector to Windhoek)
WDH-DOH-DEL (stop 4 - Delhi)
DEL-HEL (stop 5 - Helsinki)
HEL-VIE

It took 3 phone calls to get this ticketed but we got there in the end. I was a little annoyed at being charged a 1.2% credit card surcharge when no other payment options were offered. I was also charged a 6,000-point reward booking "assistance fee", even though I was never informed about this charge and, if asked, I would have opted to pay the $70 in cash instead. I wasn't able to book online, so I also think that charging this fee is... questionable.

This trip may well be the "last hoorah" for me and QFF. I now have ~80k points left with them, and I have no plans to earn any more. I love flying Qantas, but their frequent flyer program is totally uncompetitive and, honestly, the United MileagePlus program meets my needs much better these days. Next year, for the first time, I will not bother with earning any more Qantas status credits and will focus on Star Alliance instead. I've also been getting great use out of KrisFlyer (in terms of redemptions). If I return to being loyal to Oneworld, I will seriously consider the British Airways Executive Club program over Qantas Frequent Flyer.

No assistance charge should be applied on a J award booking?
With about 5 or 6 different chat/phone operators compiling my current 280k, adding or changing flights each time, they have ALL initially tried to apply 8k points pp assistance fee, gets exasperating telling them no, and waiting another 15mins going to confirm that J awards do not get charged this fee....(change fee - yes, assistance fee - no)

 

[Mattg]

No assistance charge should be applied on a J award booking?
With about 5 or 6 different chat/phone operators compiling my current 280k, adding or changing flights each time, they have ALL initially tried to apply 8k points pp assistance fee, gets exasperating telling them no, and waiting another 15mins going to confirm that J awards do not get charged this fee....(change fee - yes, assistance fee - no)

Hmm... should I bother trying to get them to remove the fee? Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.