Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Aussiejosh]

Hi all,

Sorry if these questions have been asked before but I couldn't find any answers in my planning to book the 280k-point business class oneworld classic rewards:

1. Could I call Qantas to add segments to a simple 'one-way' ticket, so that this ticket will become one-world classic rewards? The reason I want to do this because I want to make a booking as soon as the availability of the first segment appears before it quickly disappear. I don't mind paying the change fee of 5,000 points.
2. What changes could I made after I fly my first segments? Can I change the class of travel from Y to J? For instance, the first segment and last segment is 11 month apart. When I fly my first segment, only Y is available; however, sometimes closer to the departure of the last segment, more J seats are available, could I change from Y to J in that case?

1 - Yes you can. Sometimes a safe way to do it if you have a long wait before you can book your next flight.

2 - You can only change the date of previous flights booked. Flight number and class has to remain the same. This is also subject to award availability. So best bet is to have it all booked before the trip

 

[cjd600]

Always a safe way to do it as soon as released if its a popular route, or with little availability

 

[nickfromeastryde]

1. Yes, definitely.
Just say you want to make a change to an existing award and add a flight.
Don't say something like you want to change a one-way award into a OneWorld Award, this will confuse the hell out of them.
No choice but to pay the 5k change fee.
Don't let them try entertain the 8k assistance fee that doesnt apply to J awards though

Actually the assistance fee would apply if the original booking is in Y which may be the plan here. Depends at the time if any J flights included in the booking

 

[cjd600]

Actually the assistance fee would apply if the original booking is in Y which may be the plan here. Depends at the time if any J flights included in the booking

Not sure 1 and 2 are related directly.

Anyway, my response was in the context of " I couldn't find any answers in my planning to book the 280k-point business class oneworld classic rewards", and adding a flight after one leg was booked, nothing to do with making changes after the entire trip booked, and commenced.

 

[benjy]

Hi all,

2. What changes could I made after I fly my first segments? Can I change the class of travel from Y to J? For instance, the first segment and last segment is 11 month apart. When I fly my first segment, only Y is available; however, sometimes closer to the departure of the last segment, more J seats are available, could I change from Y to J in that case?

2 - You can only change the date of previous flights booked. Flight number and class has to remain the same. This is also subject to award availability. So best bet is to have it all booked before the trip

You can change the dates and flight number after you have commenced your award ticket. Cannot change anything else

14.7.6 Subject to this clause 14.7, the following changes are permitted to a Classic Flight Reward flight before departure of that flight, provided the booking contains one or more Flight Segments that are not within Australia, and the Flight Segment(s) being changed do not include a partner airline that requires a ticket to be reissued for the change. Any such change will incur a Change Fee (see the Fee Schedule) per passenger:

(a) change to flight number; and
(b) change to date of travel.

 

[Janusjiang]

Thanks all for your response. Yes I’m planning an all J itinerary but I may not be able to book all segments in J before I commence my trip because QF only release award seats in its own metal about 290 days out for no-status.

Regarding change in flight number after trip commence, if that segment contains mixed carrier (e.g. CX and JL), does it mean the new flight number needs to be CX and JL as well, can’t it be all CX or all JL?

Another interesting fact on QF website is although T&C states that we cannot have more than 1 departure from the coutry where the trip starts, I did play around with QF website and the following itinerary does work and shows only 280k points needed.

BNE-NRT-HKG-DOH-ZRH-AMS-DOH-SYD-SIN-MEL (HKG and DOH only transit and ZRH-AMS is surface segment).

Anyone knows whether it’s safe to book? Or will it show error when I try to ticket it?

 

[cjd600]

Thanks all for your response. Yes I’m planning an all J itinerary but I may not be able to book all segments in J before I commence my trip because QF only release award seats in its own metal about 290 days out for no-status.

Regarding change in flight number after trip commence, if that segment contains mixed carrier (e.g. CX and JL), does it mean the new flight number needs to be CX and JL as well, can’t it be all CX or all JL?

Another interesting fact on QF website is although T&C states that we cannot have more than 1 departure from the coutry where the trip starts, I did play around with QF website and the following itinerary does work and shows only 280k points needed.

BNE-NRT-HKG-DOH-ZRH-AMS-DOH-SYD-SIN-MEL (HKG and DOH only transit and ZRH-AMS is surface segment).

Anyone knows whether it’s safe to book? Or will it show error when I try to ticket it?

Is SYD stopover or transit?

 

[Janusjiang]

It’s a 6 month stopover in SYD.

 

[cjd600]

It’s a 6 month stopover in SYD.

I’m surprised it has capped out at 280k then. If you ‘break’ the award rules, but routing is otherwise valid, it should just keep pricing it sector by sector and continue above 280k.

 

[Janusjiang]

This particular trip reaches the 280k points since arriving in SYD, so basically the SYD-SIN-MEL are basically free (just pay the taxes and surcharges), perhaps I should have no problem in ticketing it but any changes later on might be a nightmare?

 

[rock86]

This particular trip reaches the 280k points since arriving in SYD, so basically the SYD-SIN-MEL are basically free (just pay the taxes and surcharges), perhaps I should have no problem in ticketing it but any changes later on might be a nightmare?

I would suggest you'll get to the page before payment and then once you proceed it'll throw up an error (this is very common), could be wrong though.

 

[Aus ATC]

The stopover in SYD is within the rules:

14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Classic Flight Rewards:

(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

There is a limitation in the xONE itinerary (which is quite different to the topic at hand) that:
"Only one international departure and one international arrival from/to the country of origin permitted."

nother interesting fact on QF website is although T&C states that we cannot have more than 1 departure from the coutry where the trip starts,

I think you may be referring to the xONE conditions in the above statement.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

The stopover in SYD is within the rules:

14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Classic Flight Rewards:

(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

There is a limitation in the xONE itinerary (which is quite different to the topic at hand) that:
"Only one international departure and one international arrival from/to the country of origin permitted."


I think you may be referring to the xONE conditions in the above statement.

Unfortunately there’s another overarching rule...
14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

 

[Janusjiang]

Unfortunately there’s another overarching rule...
14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

This particular section is a bit unclear I guess. What is the definition of ‘departure’? Does it include ‘transit’ and ‘stopover’? Does it mean that we can’t even ‘transit’ domestically? Like MEL-BNE-HKG is not allowed? Since we depart from MEL and BNE, both are in Australia?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

This particular section is a bit unclear I guess. What is the definition of ‘departure’? Does it include ‘transit’ and ‘stopover’? Does it mean that we can’t even ‘transit’ domestically? Like MEL-BNE-HKG is not allowed? Since we depart from MEL and BNE, both are in Australia?

MEL-BNE-HKG is OK.
There has only been one departure from the city of first departure (MEL), and one from the country of first departure (AUS).

 

[Janusjiang]

MEL-BNE-HKG is OK.
There has only been one departure from the city of first departure (MEL), and one from the country of first departure (AUS).

I think in T&Cs, it says ‘or’ not ‘and’. So we basically depart twice from Australia.

 

[geoffb78]

I think in T&Cs, it says ‘or’ not ‘and’. So we basically depart twice from Australia.

And in departing Australia twice under your planned itinerary, you'd breach that rule - whether it's an 'and' or an 'or' rule. You can't depart from Australia or Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane or any other Australian port more than once.

 

[madrooster]

You can't depart from Australia or Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane or any other Australian port more than once.

That's not true. You can do something like BNE-SYD-HBA, HBA-SYD-HKG. You just can't go back to BNE again, and you can't depart internationally from the country of origin (ie. AU) again.

Examples:

BNE-SYD-HBA, HBA-SYD-HKG, HKG-SIN, SIN-SYD, SYD-AKL, AKL-BNE - not allowed (can't depart AU internationally more than once)
BNE-SYD-HBA, HBA-BNE-HKG, HKG-SIN, SIN-MEL-BNE - not allowed (can't go back to point of origin)

 

[geoffb78]

I note the rule reproduced below:

14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Classic Flight Rewards:

(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

Are the transfer and stopover conditions mutually exclusive?

May I, for example, stopover in HKG, then transfer twice subsequently in HKG (e.g. BNE-HKG-xDOH-FRA-overland-MAN-xHKG-DPS-xHKG-NRT-BKK-SYD)?

All advice appreciated.

Thanks

Geoff.

 

[rock86]

May I, for example, stopover in HKG, then transfer twice subsequently in HKG (e.g. BNE-HKG-xDOH-FRA-overland-MAN-xHKG-DPS-xHKG-NRT-BKK-SYD)?

Yes