Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[vetrade]

Is it so that on a oneworld Classic Flight Reward you do not have to go around the world to get this points deal?
Would this mean reversing the direction ( which seems to break the rule of advancing from zone to zone without going back) or terminating the flights after accumulating at least 5 stops?

The OWA is very different to a RTW ticket. It does not have zones and you don't have to fly round the world.
The basics are a max of 35,000miles, up to 16 sectors, up to 5 stops, no more than 2 transits and 1 stopover in any one city.
No restrictions on flying backwards
There's a lot more you need to know - you've found the right thread so now you just have a bit of reading to do!

 

[smckay]

That's not the problem for me, looks like Qantas stuffed up the payment and processing so still haven't issued an e-ticket. Still chasing them but fingers crossed and no doubt more phone calls!

Yep, call and wait for them to issue them before you hang up. There are different quality operators so be nice but firm. Took me 3 calls to get a ticket issued.

 

[GaryLG]

Yep, call and wait for them to issue them before you hang up. There are different quality operators so be nice but firm. Took me 3 calls to get a ticket issued.

Yes I should have done that. Taken more than 3 calls but hopefully the next one will do the trick fingers crossed!

 

[Spacetravel]

I had an identical issue 3-4 weeks back and it's BS, pure and simple. Nothing to do with married segments or phantom availability. There is plenty of MEL - SYD and SYD - MEL availability but one agent I spoke to let slip that they had been instructed to steer people wanting to book MEL - SYD legs as part of OWAs onto the flights with least demand. In other words they have been told not to put you on flights between 7.30 am and 11.00am or prime time afternoon/evening flights.

In my case I was to be arriving in SYD from HND on JL51 at 6.10am and needed to book a connection to MEL. I saw J availability on every flight after 7am but when I told the agent I wanted the 8.30 or 9am flight she said there was no availability before 11.00 (this was about 345 days out). I said I was sure there was availability earlier and I didn't want a 5hr transit in SYD after a 35hr trip home from Europe. She then admitted she knew there actually was availability which she wasn't supposed to book for OWAs. In view of my 35 hr trip she said she would need to check with a supervisor. She came back a minute later and said I could have my pick of whatever flight I wanted.

The reality is that QF want to hoard those J dom seats for their business customers.

This is what appears to happen to me. I need a flight arriving that departs MEL after 7PM (schedule arrival needs to be after 8:10PM to maintain less than 24 hours in SYD) on a Sunday and they said there is "no availability" for 7PM onwards and I had to book something earlier in the day. I just received a call back after 3 hours then the agent who answered hung up on me. So I've had enough waiting for the phone today and will attempt again tomorrow and be more assertive with my booking request. Thanks heaps for the insight!

So after HUACA finally got through to someone today as wait times are lower, pretty sure they were in Manilla?

What I need is currently I'm booked SYD > YVR 7th March 2022 in J as the first leg on my OWA. I want a flight 6th March 2022 with 19:00 or later departure (to have a less than 24 hour transit in Sydney).

The agent said there is 0 availability on any flight in any class (even with cash) departing 19:00 > 18:00 7th of March, which conveniently is the exact times I need to transfer in Sydney.

After HUACA I finally got Auckland which was significantly more helpful, they actually explained what was going on which is what I started to suspect. Because its the first flight of my itinerary its ticketed as a long haul SYD > YVR, I'd be changing the ticket to MEL > YVR with a transit in SYD which isn't available. They said the only way I could possibly fix it is cancel the whole booking and do it again. Obviously that isn't a risk I want to take for 1 short flight.

TLDR computer says no, I trust Auckland to be telling me the truth and I'll just have to book my own flight. Sucks that the computer plays these games but I can live with it.

 

[DC3]

… There's a lot more you need to know - you've found the right thread so now you just have a bit of reading to do!

Yes. It’s all upthread. So much useful information already provided by AFFers. It takes a bit of time to get your head around, but the answers are there.

 

[Stuie]

Hi everyone,
Apologies if this issue has been covered before but I haven't seen an answer in searching the thread.
Qantas shows a classic reward seat from LAX-SYD (QF12) when searching as a one-way leg only, but not if it was searched as a return flight (e.g. SYD-LAX-SYD). I only want to book the LAX-SYD flight and add it to the end of the rest of my OWA ticket. I'm in-line with all the OWA rules. I've called twice and been told there's nothing available, yet I can pay more points and book it separately, so it's clearly there.
The description they gave was: "It's a yield restriction issue, sorry. Basically our system recognizes when your booking is up that you are coming from outside of LA and due to yield restrictions for people not beginning travel in LAX, it wont allow us to book the flight on the same booking reference."
Has anyone come across this and do you have any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

[Spacetravel]

Hi everyone,
Apologies if this issue has been covered before but I haven't seen an answer in searching the thread.
Qantas shows a classic reward seat from LAX-SYD (QF12) when searching as a one-way leg only, but not if it was searched as a return flight (e.g. SYD-LAX-SYD). I only want to book the LAX-SYD flight and add it to the end of the rest of my OWA ticket. I'm in-line with all the OWA rules. I've called twice and been told there's nothing available, yet I can pay more points and book it separately, so it's clearly there.
The description they gave was: "It's a yield restriction issue, sorry. Basically our system recognizes when your booking is up that you are coming from outside of LA and due to yield restrictions for people not beginning travel in LAX, it wont allow us to book the flight on the same booking reference."
Has anyone come across this and do you have any advice? Thanks in advance.

Are you changing the first segment of the booking? If so see my post directly above, as it appears it might be the same issue.

 

[Stuie]

Are you changing the first segment of the booking? If so see my post directly above, as it appears it might be the same issue.

Thanks for the reply. This is for the last segment of an 11 segment booking. I've even got rid of any connecting flights to it to try to simplify things in case those were causing the problem, but to no avail.
I'm struggling to understand that when an award flight is clearly available as a new booking that I can't change my existing booking to tack on the identical route and flight numbers to the end of the itinerary.

 

[DC3]

Maybe have a look at departing the USA from somewhere else. SFO? It may not be what you want, but worth looking into.

 

[GaryLG]

I am relieved to post that I finally got to speak to a highly compentent and reliable person (Anita from Hobart) who has sorted out all the problems.

I now have e-tickets for myself and my daughter, she no longer is double booked on 2 flights PER-MEL, I have seat allocations for all flights except the BA one which I could do if I paid for it but not sure I can be bothered for a 2 hour flight. Also strange that I cannot access that for my QF flight but thankfully Anita could and did.

 

[Stuie]

I am relieved to post that I finally got to speak to a highly compentent and reliable person (Anita from Hobart) who has sorted out all the problems.

I now have e-tickets for myself and my daughter, she no longer is double booked on 2 flights PER-MEL, I have seat allocations for all flights except the BA one which I could do if I paid for it but not sure I can be bothered for a 2 hour flight. Also strange that I cannot access that for my QF flight but thankfully Anita could and did.

Great result - I'm glad it was able to be sorted!

 

[Stuie]

Maybe have a look at departing the USA from somewhere else. SFO? It may not be what you want, but worth looking into.

SFO would actually have been preferable but there's exactly zero availability as United is the only airline flying the route (directly at least) until Qantas starts back up on the 16/2. I'm looking for something around the 2/2 so LAX is really the only viable option. Will keep hoping something "real" opens up i guess. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[MEL_Traveller]

SFO would actually have been preferable but there's exactly zero availability as United is the only airline flying the route (directly at least) until Qantas starts back up on the 16/2. I'm looking for something around the 2/2 so LAX is really the only viable option. Will keep hoping something "real" opens up i guess. Thanks for the suggestion

Anything via tokyo on JAL?

 

[Mr H]

Anything via tokyo on JAL?

Or HKG on Cathay Specific?

 

[Stuie]

Or HKG on Cathay Specific?

Great suggestions - thank you. The tokyo route looks like it would work. Just need to convince my partner that it's worth it given the extra distance and layover (23 hours vs 15 on a direct flight). Beggars can't be choosers line of argument? Or just part with more points (and taxes/fees) to book the one way flight LAX-SYD direct outside of my existing OWA booking.
Thanks for the help everyone - much appreciated.

 

[DC3]

SFO would actually have been preferable but there's exactly zero availability as United is the only airline flying the route (directly at least) until Qantas starts back up on the 16/2. I'm looking for something around the 2/2 …

An extra 2 weeks in the USA? Now ya talkin.

 

[Stuie]

An extra 2 weeks in the USA? Now ya talkin.

Certainly not the worst problem I've ever faced..... maybe I need to reframe what I'm trying to do here.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Great suggestions - thank you. The tokyo route looks like it would work. Just need to convince my partner that it's worth it given the extra distance and layover (23 hours vs 15 on a direct flight). Beggars can't be choosers line of argument? Or just part with more points (and taxes/fees) to book the one way flight LAX-SYD direct outside of my existing OWA booking.
Thanks for the help everyone - much appreciated.

Well... the way I figure it is that you're likely to be asleep for much of the 8 hour difference anyway And it's 'free' as opposed to more miles and $$ with an additional QF booking.

 

[DC3]

There doesn’t appear to be any AA award availability showing for LAX-SYD, but that may be worth watching. Might be a bit of a long-shot though.

Also, I tend to take whatever flights I can get, in order to complete the itinerary, and continue to monitor for something better.

 

[vetrade]

Hi everyone,
Apologies if this issue has been covered before but I haven't seen an answer in searching the thread.
Qantas shows a classic reward seat from LAX-SYD (QF12) when searching as a one-way leg only, but not if it was searched as a return flight (e.g. SYD-LAX-SYD). I only want to book the LAX-SYD flight and add it to the end of the rest of my OWA ticket. I'm in-line with all the OWA rules. I've called twice and been told there's nothing available, yet I can pay more points and book it separately, so it's clearly there.
The description they gave was: "It's a yield restriction issue, sorry. Basically our system recognizes when your booking is up that you are coming from outside of LA and due to yield restrictions for people not beginning travel in LAX, it wont allow us to book the flight on the same booking reference."
Has anyone come across this and do you have any advice? Thanks in advance.

You don't mention anything else about your itinerary so I don't have the whole picture but I did pick up on the comment about "coming from outside LA". If you are attempting to transit LAX it's possible that the fix could be as simple as having a stopover in LAX (i.e. a >24hr connection time) so that the system "thinks" your travel is originating from LA.