Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Mr H]

If award seats are available for those flights you can certainly add them to your OWA for the cost of the taxes etc. and cancel your existing booking for them. But be aware you cannot just call QF and ask them to combine the two bookings.

And whatever you do, please don't cancel the European flights and assume they will go back into award availability. Often they don't.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Backtraking is not relevant on a Oneworld Award; not an issue at all (unlike some paid RTW tickets and awards with some other airlines/alliances).

Backtracking within a continental zone is permitted on a OneWorld Explorer (ie. a true RTW paid fare) but not between continental zones (ie. across oceans).

Which just serves to highlight why discussing two vastly different products in one thread leads to confusion - especially for new and inexperienced AFF members.

For the record, I know you are both clear on the difference between the two products and I’m not having a go at either of you.

But the Oneworld Classic Flight Award is complex and hard to put a trip together. Even after almost a decade on AFF I find them challenging to make work.

So anything we can do, collectively, to make the info clear and concise for everyone can only help other AFFers and in turn, everyone to get the most of of their travel.

 

[JohnM]

This thread needs to be programmed to not accept 'RTW' typed into a reply box.

 

[Daver6]

This thread needs to be programmed to not accept 'RTW' typed into a reply box.

Good idea. Then we wouldn't see your post about it

 

[JohnM]

Good idea. Then we wouldn't see your post about it

You may have noticed that I had given up about it and was leaving it to @Captain Halliday who had taken up the cudgels admirably.

 

[Captain Halliday]

You may have noticed that I had given up about it and was leaving it to @Captain Halliday who had taken up the cudgels admirably.

@Captain Halliday is resisting the urge to start a new thread called “Oneworld travel in any direction using Qantas points”

@JohnM no one likes a quitter.

 

[Muppet501st]

If award seats are available for those flights you can certainly add them to your OWA for the cost of the taxes etc. and cancel your existing booking for them. But be aware you cannot just call QF and ask them to combine the two bookings.

After the first call to QF dropped out, a little over an hour later, we have J ( BA club world blocked middle seat ) DUB-LHR-FCO stop FCO-LHR stop included in the award ticket.
Many thanks, still trying to wrap my head around the oneworld 318k reward.
If anyone can come up with some different flights to maximise the remaining stops and mileage , lmk from the US.

 

[Mr H]

After the first call to QF dropped out, a little over an hour later, we have J ( BA club world blocked middle seat ) DUB-LHR-FCO stop FCO-LHR stop included in the award ticket.
Many thanks, still trying to wrap my head around the oneworld 318k reward.
If anyone can come up with some different flights to maximise the remaining stops and mileage , lmk from the US.

Well done you!

You have now potentially used four of your five stops: DUB-FCO-LHR-CVG. If you add a fifth stop in the US, you would not be able to stop in LAX, so you'd have to travel from CVG to your fifth stop - or from your fifth stop to LAX - as a land sector or spend less than 24 hours connecting in LAX. I reckon you're getting pretty fair value from your OWA.

 

[jaseb]

Just got a notification that the second last leg of our journey home has been scheduled a little later in the day, meaning we can no longer make our final flight home.

For reference, DOH-KUL (QR844) has been moved forward meaning we now miss KUL-MEL (MH129) on the same day as we are now scheduled to land in KUL 5 minutes after MH129 departs for MEL.

I've not experienced this before. All other flights on the booking are still in tact. I see a message under QF's MMB page stating "Your flights have changed, please call your local Qantas officeThis will open a new tab or window in your browser. for more details. See flight details."

If I log into MMB via Finnair, looking at the same PNR, I get a message saying our whole final leg (MXP-DOH-KUL-MEL) has been cancelled, although this isn't what I see in the QF MMB screen.

What are my options here? I can't see any reward seats in J out of KUL later that day, or even for any of the following days. I am pretty keen on doing everything I can to retain the MXP-DOH-KUL flights in the hope we get to experience QSuites.

 

[Mr H]

What are my options here? I can't see any reward seats in J out of KUL later that day, or even for any of the following days. I am pretty keen on doing everything I can to retain the MXP-DOH-KUL flights in the hope we get to experience QSuites.

I would be looking at what really matters. Is it getting home from MXP - in which case consider any routing - or is it the Q Suites in which case look for alternative Q Suites routes or look for connections to get home from KUL (via HKG? DPS? PER? SYD?)

 

[jase05]

Just got a notification that the second last leg of our journey home has been scheduled a little later in the day, meaning we can no longer make our final flight home.

For reference, DOH-KUL (QR844) has been moved forward meaning we now miss KUL-MEL (MH129) on the same day as we are now scheduled to land in KUL 5 minutes after MH129 departs for MEL.

I've not experienced this before. All other flights on the booking are still in tact. I see a message under QF's MMB page stating "Your flights have changed, please call your local Qantas officeThis will open a new tab or window in your browser. for more details. See flight details."

If I log into MMB via Finnair, looking at the same PNR, I get a message saying our whole final leg (MXP-DOH-KUL-MEL) has been cancelled, although this isn't what I see in the QF MMB screen.

What are my options here? I can't see any reward seats in J out of KUL later that day, or even for any of the following days. I am pretty keen on doing everything I can to retain the MXP-DOH-KUL flights in the hope we get to experience QSuites.

What dates?

 

[jaseb]

I would be looking at what really matters. Is it getting home from MXP - in which case consider any routing - or is it the Q Suites in which case look for alternative Q Suites routes or look for connections to get home from KUL (via HKG? DPS? PER? SYD?)

It's a good point and one I need to figure out the answer to. Honestly, with the amount of time and effort it's taken to get to this point (~16 hours on hold over the last week or so) I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it at all.

Do you happen to have any context as to why finnair MMB would show the leg as cancelled and re-booked and Qantas MMB would show the flight schedule change? I wonder if that's default finnair behaviour for schedule changes, but have no way to know, and am a little spooked. That said, I'm also not willing to jump on the phone and wait for 3 hours tonight so it'll have to wait til tomorrow!

 

[jaseb]

What dates?

QR124 05.09.2022 - still shows bookable on QR website
QR844 05.09.2022 - still shows bookable on QR website
MH129 06.09.2022 - still shows bookable on MH website

I'm thinking (hoping!) the finnair 'cancelation' message is just the default behaviour when a schedule change occurs

 

[straitman]

And did you get your six J RTW award seats over the Christmas holidays all those years ago?

It wasn't me chasing the 6 J seats.

 

[vetrade]

Just got a notification that the second last leg of our journey home has been scheduled a little later in the day, meaning we can no longer make our final flight home.

For reference, DOH-KUL (QR844) has been moved forward meaning we now miss KUL-MEL (MH129) on the same day as we are now scheduled to land in KUL 5 minutes after MH129 departs for MEL.

I just got the same email from QF and now have the same dilemma as you with the DOH - KUL flight arriving after the KUL -MEL departs, although we are/ were flying BRU - DOH - KUL - MEL on 20 - 21/9/22
A second QF email says they are looking for alternatives for the KUL - MEL leg and will let us know but the very scant J options I found (even via PER/SYD/ADE or BNE) all involve a lousy connections with a long transit in KUL. Even if we depart BRU a day or two earlier or fly to DOH via somewhere else, the sticking point will still be getting from KUL - MEL.
I'm going to sleep on it o'night and re-think it tomorrow but I'm keen to try and leave QF to find a solution as officially our OWA itinerary has already started with a trip to SYD for Easter (although we are back in MEL on a paid ticket ATM) - which means we can't make route changes ourselves.

 

[Formal Hall]

I know this has been discussed upthread in the last 564 pages but does the multi-city tool treat NZ and Australia as one country? Trying to start a OWA in NZ so I can nest two departures from Australia in the one award, but when I do the second departure leg from Australia it says:

I'm meeting all the transit, stopover, 2 airlines and mileage rules. Can this be got around by calling or is there an online workaround?

Yes. Several reports that this is the case.

Calling may get a resolution and will likely require with both a proactive agent and escalation, but still no guarantee.

Is it worthwhile booking what I can can ex-Australia and then ringing to add a NZ-AU flight as the first flight? Understand it will reprice to NZD but would the call centre want to cancel and rebook?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Is it worthwhile booking what I can can ex-Australia and then ringing to add a NZ-AU flight as the first flight? Understand it will reprice to NZD but would the call centre want to cancel and rebook?

Worthwhile IMO.

Generally with these awards you should book what you want as soon as it is available.

The call centre shouldn’t want cancel it, but you can’t rule it out. Be clear that you want to “add a flight to an existing classic flight award”.

If they do want to cancel the PNR, HUACA.

 

[jaseb]

QR124 05.09.2022 - still shows bookable on QR website
QR844 05.09.2022 - still shows bookable on QR website
MH129 06.09.2022 - still shows bookable on MH website

I'm thinking (hoping!) the finnair 'cancelation' message is just the default behaviour when a schedule change occurs

I've spent a good while searching various alternatives using different routes and dates.
I can't find any alternate routes home from MXP or surrounds (ZRH, FCO, AMS, FRA, CDG) +/- 3 days that match up with an ongoing flight from DOH - MEL (via connections in/around Asia).

It seems all of the availability ex Europe - DOH is on the Monday, all arriving in DOH very late Monday night/very early Tuesday night. From there the only very scarce availability I found was DOH-CMB, DOH-BKK and DOH-KUL (also checked SIN, NRT etc). Unfortunately all 3 of these connections don't have any onward connections to MEL in J.

I called QF this morning and spoke to a great agent who confirmed that the flights have definitely not been cancelled even if the finnair site does make mention of a cancelation. The agent suggested given we aren't flying til Sept I keep the booking as is and continue searching for availability over the coming months as more routes and seats (hopefully) open up.

edit: and to your question, @jase05 - I slept on it and our priority is to get those QSuite flights, no matter the route (within reason). We had originally booked QSuites MEL-Europe return for 2020 but got cancelled, then again in 2021; cancelled so we've really been hanging out for it!

 

[ozflier]

Unfortunately travel insurance is useless for wiped itineraries paid for through frequent flyer points. They may repatriate you directly (do not pass Go, do not collect $200) or they may give you a single ticket to recommence your journey, but they won't reinstate forfeited flights on a multi-sector award.

I have never been in a position where remaining award flights are cancelled thru illness and then having to claim thru insurance.
Has anyone had this experience - ie claiming on travel insurance at least to get home after a broken journey on frequent flier points .
I am wondering if the insurer would pay a business class fare if the award was in J or would they just default to economy because the original is not a revenue fare?

 

[Jacques Vert]

I have never been in a position where remaining award flights are cancelled thru illness and then having to claim thru insurance.
Has anyone had this experience - ie claiming on travel insurance at least to get home after a broken journey on frequent flier points .
I am wondering if the insurer would pay a business class fare if the award was in J or would they just default to economy because the original is not a revenue fare?

I've been in this situation when +1 came down with pneumonia in Peru in 2018. After 6 nights in hospital, the decision was made to abandon the rest of the trip and return home. Our travel insurance company arranged flights on a "like for like" basis and as we were on a OWA in J, then the flights back to Aus were to be in J. Unfortunately, most LIM-SCL flights on LA are all-Y birds while those with J seats didn't have acceptable connection times so we were in Y for that leg. However, the rest of the trip was in J and were given restaurant vouchers at LIM (no lounge there).

The travel insurance company arranged for our points to be reinstated on a pro-rata basis and we received points and status credits for the flights as they were revenue fares. The insurance company was excellent and although the paper work on return was a bit tedious, I could not fault them and it all worked out well in the end.

Of course the terms and conditions of your policy are critical and you need to read them carefully and seek clarification, if necessary. The time to check the details is BEFORE you take out the policy, not when you are in a hospital bed on the other side of the world.

You can read more about our experience here: Canyons, Mountains & Vineyards