Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[kctt]

Obviously your booking doesn't include any airlines that cancel their flights if not ticketed within 24 hours. I know QR and CX do and QF, BA & IB don't. Are you comfortable sharing the airlines on your booking so I will know for future reference? If you are able I would keep calling until you get it ticketed. I just HUACA until someone does it.

My flights are with JAL, BA, Finnair, QF. All the easy airlines and popular routes.
QF flight BKK - Sydney in Y. With my bronze status, there is little hope to get anything better than Y so i just live with Y on that one last leg.
As i replied earlier, phone queue would send to overseas first if you don't have platinum status so HUACA won't help to get Hobart / Aukland unless you are super lucky.
We can only try HUACA and push agent to contact support / ticket to get ticket issued.
Agent in my 6th call was pretty good when trying to resolve my request.
Agent in 7th call simply denied escalating / contacting ticket team. He said he would get in trouble if he tried calling ticket team when flight is not imminent.
I'm gonna try calling every 2 days if ticket is not issued as per their 48 hours promise.

 

[kctt]

Btw one thing i have excelled when calling Qantas for this OWA ticket: multi task
While waiting in queue / on hold, I had done work (IT work), check emails, watch movies, take a shower, have lunch, have dinner, complete a 20 minutes exercise run around the house ... No disturb at all to the call
No issue with HUACA 12/7 everyday but i'm gonna try calling every 2 days if ticket is not issued

 

[CaptainCurtis]

I couldn't book last night as I kept getting error messages online. Called through this morning, but the flight I wanted from Tokyo to Sydney in J was gone. Took Jacques' advice, and have managed to book the following online:

SYD-KUL in J on MH122
KUL-SIN in J on MH627
SIN-HND in Y+ on JL36
NRT-MNL in J on JL741
MNL-SYD in J on QF20

A few additional questions:

1. Is it worth replacing the SIN-HND in Y+ leg with SIN-KUL-NRT in J on MH? The KUL-NRT leg would be on the A350, vs A330 on the SYD-KUL leg. I'm not sure if there's a difference in hard product, but may be worthwhile regardless for the upgrade from Y+ to J.
2. Assuming I am okay to add a MEL-SYD flight in January 2023? This would be a return trip from the tennis, so would just need to book a separate one-way SYD-MEL.
3. Assuming I am okay to add an internal Japan flight from Osaka to Tokyo?
4. Are Qantas charging any change fees for these bookings given they can't be done online?

So it's looking like Japan may not open up in time for the Suzuka GP in early October. I'm starting to think about contingencies, and came up with the following... am I mad for even considering it?


It's capping out at 318k QFF points + $1,200NZD taxes, so I must just be falling within the 19,201 - 35,000 mile range. Any ideas how I could extract some further value?

 

[Mr H]

So it's looking like Japan may not open up in time for the Suzuka GP in early October. I'm starting to think about contingencies, and came up with the following... am I mad for even considering it?

View attachment 282815
It's capping out at 318k QFF points + $1,200NZD taxes, so I must just be falling within the 19,201 - 35,000 mile range. Any ideas how I could extract some further value?

Just in case you are interested, I held that MNL-SYD seat a while back before my Japanese route fell through.

 

[Danger]

Btw one thing i have excelled when calling Qantas for this OWA ticket: multi task
While waiting in queue / on hold, I had done work (IT work), check emails, watch movies, take a shower, have lunch, have dinner, complete a 20 minutes exercise run around the house ... No disturb at all to the call
No issue with HUACA 12/7 everyday but i'm gonna try calling every 2 days if ticket is not issued

So true. One time while on hold, I watched Titantic - the director's cut!

 

[flapper]

My flights are with JAL, BA, Finnair, QF. All the easy airlines and popular routes.
QF flight BKK - Sydney in Y. With my bronze status, there is little hope to get anything better than Y so i just live with Y on that one last leg.
As i replied earlier, phone queue would send to overseas first if you don't have platinum status so HUACA won't help to get Hobart / Aukland unless you are super lucky.
We can only try HUACA and push agent to contact support / ticket to get ticket issued.
Agent in my 6th call was pretty good when trying to resolve my request.
Agent in 7th call simply denied escalating / contacting ticket team. He said he would get in trouble if he tried calling ticket team when flight is not imminent.
I'm gonna try calling every 2 days if ticket is not issued as per their 48 hours promise.

I'm amazed they allowed you to add a Y flight. I had 6 agents claim that all flights have to be the same class despite the rule that says otherwise, they refused to even try, they just said it can't be done and won't ticket etc. I know I'm not the only one who has had that problem. In the end I ended up getting an AS flight SFO to LAX in F as an involuntary change, when QF cancelled my SFO to SYD flight. As a matter of interest AS flights that QF have as F show on BA as J. The QF search even shows as F but has "your flight will be in J" yet they charge F points.

 

[flapper]

Btw one thing i have excelled when calling Qantas for this OWA ticket: multi task
While waiting in queue / on hold, I had done work (IT work), check emails, watch movies, take a shower, have lunch, have dinner, complete a 20 minutes exercise run around the house ... No disturb at all to the call
No issue with HUACA 12/7 everyday but i'm gonna try calling every 2 days if ticket is not issued

Whilst on hold over the past few years I've been in zoom meetings, online training, done a gym workout, watched tv and even did a booty call, luckily on that call they didn't get through to me until I was back in the car.

 

[Sale]

I have just booked the return leg of our OWA from Istanbul. An interesting experience. There may be some of interest /help to others here

The most straightforward route was IST - DOH - ME/SYD or ADL. The leg from IST - DOH opened up several days ago so I first booked that to lock in the future flights that connected with the DOH -AUS flights - that booking was straight forward.

The DOH - AUS ports leg would never show up on the Qantas site as it would not accept Doha as a departure port, so to check I would use the multi-city page and go IST-DOH-MEL/SYD/ADL. Yesterday all three had availability.

Seven calls yesterday morning all to South Africa and Fiji. All said the flights were not there / not available /sold. I nearly bought a ticket IST-DOH-COL-KUL-MEL but she hung up on me.

Anyway - last evening tried again - by this time I could only find availability to Adelaide which was fine. Spoke with Chris in Hobart - she could find availability on on screen but not another. She followed through with her supervisor and the problem was my IST - DOH leg. I could not keep that and add another leg from DOH because of the funny Doha departure thing.

What she did whilst we crossed all fingers and toes was cancelled IST-DOH hoping the flight would go straight back into the inventory (which it did). Then booked IST - ADL (via DOH). She then offered to, and ticketed it whilst I was still on the line. (She also volunteered that she always tickets Qatar immediately as they get lost.)

Thank you Chris!

PS: the cost effectiveness of it all though - Three hours of OS calls and seven operators vs half an hour with one knowledgeable lovely agent up the road who got it all done?? Can it be saving money?

 

[Lynda2475]

Spoke with Chris in Hobart

Are you Platinum?

 

[sqrt()]

I have just booked the return leg of our OWA from Istanbul. An interesting experience. There may be some of interest /help to others here

The most straightforward route was IST - DOH - ME/SYD or ADL. The leg from IST - DOH opened up several days ago so I first booked that to lock in the future flights that connected with the DOH -AUS flights - that booking was straight forward.

The DOH - AUS ports leg would never show up on the Qantas site as it would not accept Doha as a departure port, so to check I would use the multi-city page and go IST-DOH-MEL/SYD/ADL. Yesterday all three had availability.

Seven calls yesterday morning all to South Africa and Fiji. All said the flights were not there / not available /sold. I nearly bought a ticket IST-DOH-COL-KUL-MEL but she hung up on me.

Anyway - last evening tried again - by this time I could only find availability to Adelaide which was fine. Spoke with Chris in Hobart - she could find availability on on screen but not another. She followed through with her supervisor and the problem was my IST - DOH leg. I could not keep that and add another leg from DOH because of the funny Doha departure thing.

What she did whilst we crossed all fingers and toes was cancelled IST-DOH hoping the flight would go straight back into the inventory (which it did). Then booked IST - ADL (via DOH). She then offered to, and ticketed it whilst I was still on the line. (She also volunteered that she always tickets Qatar immediately as they get lost.)

Thank you Chris!

PS: the cost effectiveness of it all though - Three hours of OS calls and seven operators vs half an hour with one knowledgeable lovely agent up the road who got it all done?? Can it be saving money?

Re: saving money, the proportion of calls regarding complex award itineraries (OWA) is surely rather small. Wouldn't most calls be about refunds or cancellations/delays - rebooking PAX from these flights should be fairly simple (even for poorly trained agents?). Managing refund calls is easy as it's just fobbing off the caller by telling them they are in the queue.

I think we overestimate how rubbish the support is in this thread because everyone here is trying to get 10 segments on different partners ticketed, rather than trying to rebook their SYD-MEL because it was canceled.

Not saying it's not adding up for QF, but good to remember we are in the (small) minority.

 

[flapper]

I have just booked the return leg of our OWA from Istanbul. An interesting experience. There may be some of interest /help to others here

The most straightforward route was IST - DOH - ME/SYD or ADL. The leg from IST - DOH opened up several days ago so I first booked that to lock in the future flights that connected with the DOH -AUS flights - that booking was straight forward.

The DOH - AUS ports leg would never show up on the Qantas site as it would not accept Doha as a departure port, so to check I would use the multi-city page and go IST-DOH-MEL/SYD/ADL. Yesterday all three had availability.

Seven calls yesterday morning all to South Africa and Fiji. All said the flights were not there / not available /sold. I nearly bought a ticket IST-DOH-COL-KUL-MEL but she hung up on me.

Anyway - last evening tried again - by this time I could only find availability to Adelaide which was fine. Spoke with Chris in Hobart - she could find availability on on screen but not another. She followed through with her supervisor and the problem was my IST - DOH leg. I could not keep that and add another leg from DOH because of the funny Doha departure thing.

What she did whilst we crossed all fingers and toes was cancelled IST-DOH hoping the flight would go straight back into the inventory (which it did). Then booked IST - ADL (via DOH). She then offered to, and ticketed it whilst I was still on the line. (She also volunteered that she always tickets Qatar immediately as they get lost.)

Thank you Chris!

PS: the cost effectiveness of it all though - Three hours of OS calls and seven operators vs half an hour with one knowledgeable lovely agent up the road who got it all done?? Can it be saving money?

To and from Aus QR only allow married segments to transit at DOH, the other option is to make DOH a stopover.

 

[Mr H]

Re: saving money, the proportion of calls regarding complex award itineraries (OWA) is surely rather small. Wouldn't most calls be about refunds or cancellations/delays - rebooking PAX from these flights should be fairly simple (even for poorly trained agents?). Managing refund calls is easy as it's just fobbing off the caller by telling them they are in the queue.

I think we overestimate how rubbish the support is in this thread because everyone here is trying to get 10 segments on different partners ticketed, rather than trying to rebook their SYD-MEL because it was canceled.

Not saying it's not adding up for QF, but good to remember we are in the (small) minority.

100%

Master H's revenue flight BNE-MEL was cancelled and we wanted to take the opportunity to rebook for the next day rather than the offered alternative. Fiji was able to do this no dramas and the ticket was issued immediately. I presume this is how most of the calls go. With the complicated OWA calls I imagine a new agent would struggle whether they were in Fiji or Hobart. I hope that with time they will get better at it or at least have experienced colleagues they can draw on for advice.

 

[flapper]

Re: saving money, the proportion of calls regarding complex award itineraries (OWA) is surely rather small. Wouldn't most calls be about refunds or cancellations/delays - rebooking PAX from these flights should be fairly simple (even for poorly trained agents?). Managing refund calls is easy as it's just fobbing off the caller by telling them they are in the queue.

I think we overestimate how rubbish the support is in this thread because everyone here is trying to get 10 segments on different partners ticketed, rather than trying to rebook their SYD-MEL because it was canceled.

Not saying it's not adding up for QF, but good to remember we are in the (small) minority.

QF should allow people with complex award itineraries to be transferred to HBA and AKL. Up until a few years ago I used to ask the OS call centres to transfer me to the premium call centre and they would. No they either say they can't or when the do the call drops out, so I've given up. I don't think you can under estimate how bad the OS call centres are. They don't know the basics, they mustn't have procedures to follow, and some lie just to get you off the phone. They are supposed to put a note on the booking after every call. I had 15 calls in a row and not one note, despite some telling me they had put a note as I had asked them too. It's not only people with OWA having problems either people with paid tickets are getting the same poor service and told to cancel their whole booking because one leg has been cancelled while others get offered alernatives.

 

[Mr H]

QF should allow people with complex award itineraries to be transferred to HBA and AKL.

But from the QF perspective, how will they ever get better if they aren't allowed to deal with these calls? And we are not the most loyal customers who they need to retain - those are the Plats who do get access to the better trained, better equipped agents.

 

[Lynda2475]

Firstly have a IVR menu option specifically for OWAs which either goes to Hobart/NZ or to a more highly trained specialist team in Fiji (imo Cape Town are completely incapable of anything other than being rude). To ensure this isnt abused, have the customer advise their PNR if this isnt a OWA redirect to the general queue; or have the agent qualify at start of call and authority to hang up if not an OWA.

Amazon have a great tool for prime members where if your package doesnt arrive in guaranteed timeframe, upon opening your order you qualify for a special button whereby an agent calls you immediately to resolve (or you can scheduel a call). If QF would invest in their IT a little, they could have this specifically for OWA bookings and would stop someone doing a simple point to point booking which can be online abusing the service.

But from the QF perspective, how will they ever get better if they aren't allowed to deal with these calls?

Firstly train them properly first and give them the ability to receive email so we can prove what has been received or teams so we can share screen to prove avialability or in my case that they have resent an old eticket, instead of calling us liars and being rude.

 

[Mr H]

So I needed a one way journey from Asmara to Melbourne in June 2023. I explored One World possibilities and found ADD-DOH-DAC-KUL-MEL (QR, QR, MH, MH all in J). I can spring for a revenue Y ticket ASM-ADD. Then it occurred to me that this could be the beginning of a One World Award. I can use a stopover in DAC, the itinerary is 9,400 miles (but need to double it to get back to the origin) and I can use my second stopover in MEL. I am thinking that my next holiday of a lifetime after this one is likely to be North and West Africa, so I could add flights on to the ticket at a later date to get me back to Africa - and that would minimise the mileage issue created by an open jaw booking.

So all booked (but not yet ticketed) thanks to Maria in Fiji. Total cost is 165,000 points and $1,170 taxes. I am slightly puzzled by the taxes, TBH, as if I did a dummy booking with the same flights online, but with an additional MEL-SYD at the beginning to allow the computer to work, I get total taxes of $870. I am surprised that deleting MEL-SYD adds $300 to the price, but hey ho. I guess I will be adding flights in due course which will cause the ticket to be re-priced anyway so not worth puzzling too much over it.

I have just had 7,700 points deducted as an Assistance Fee for this award booking. I did explain to the agent that it was impossible to book awards originating from Ethiopia online so the fee should be waived. The agent clearly did not agree. Any thoughts about who to approach (and how) for getting my 7,700 points back?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have just had 7,700 points deducted as an Assistance Fee for this award booking. I did explain to the agent that it was impossible to book awards originating from Ethiopia online so the fee should be waived. The agent clearly did not agree. Any thoughts about who to approach (and how) for getting my 7,700 points back?

Email to QFFF.

 

[Sale]

To and from Aus QR only allow married segments to transit at DOH, the other option is to make DOH a stopover.

That was my problem - i didn't realise that (and now i finally understand what a married segment actually means - thank you!).

Anyway, flukeing a Hobart agent who knew it saved me giving up and booking a Doha stopover, because I would never otherwise have thought of cancelling the IST-DOH leg. None of the seven morning OS agents realised it or even looked to see what the problem was - just kept telling me that the flights were sold etc.

 

[Danger]

Re: saving money, the proportion of calls regarding complex award itineraries (OWA) is surely rather small. Wouldn't most calls be about refunds or cancellations/delays - rebooking PAX from these flights should be fairly simple (even for poorly trained agents?). Managing refund calls is easy as it's just fobbing off the caller by telling them they are in the queue.

I think we overestimate how rubbish the support is in this thread because everyone here is trying to get 10 segments on different partners ticketed, rather than trying to rebook their SYD-MEL because it was canceled.

Not saying it's not adding up for QF, but good to remember we are in the (small) minority.

I don't recall reports of these issues pre-covid, however. Without giving it too much though, my thinking is the onshore agents are gone and Qantas is now playing catch-up with poorly or simply incompetent offshore staff.

In my last 9 calls to Qantas as a platinum, only 1 was answered onshore. In my recent call, Dolly in Cape Town told me my flex Y ticket was 100% refundable, yet when I click on the fare conditions of the ticket in my booking, it says, "Refund permitted. A cancellation fee of AUD $99 per person applies for bookings." In the call immediately prior to that, Ilana in Suva told me that if I wanted to cancel the reservation and keep it in credit with Qantas, I would need to rebook in at least the flex category or higher. That's not the rule, of course; you simply need to book a fare of equal or higher value.

Call my crazy but understanding how to read fare rules is probably something that should be taught before graduating to real customers.

But from the QF perspective, how will they ever get better if they aren't allowed to deal with these calls? And we are not the most loyal customers who they need to retain - those are the Plats who do get access to the better trained, better equipped agents.

As Lynda2475 said, train them properly in the first place. When frequent flyer seats can be as rare as hens' teeth, there's simply too much to lose.

Email to QFFF.

And good luck with a response. My most recent email is now at the 14-week mark and not a whisper other than the automated reference.

 

[cathalm8]

Hi Guys, I have an economy rewards booking as per the below screenshot. This was the one of the only rewards flights I could find at short notice after my Business reward flight was cancelled recently (another story).

I have checked the first flight number QF489 Syd-Melb on flightradar24 - Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24 and here on planemapper - QF489 Flight Tracker-Sydney to Melbourne (Qantas Airways QF 489)-PlaneMapper.

Unfortunately this domestic Qantas flight has been cancelled 5 out of the last 8 times it was scheduled. This worries me a lot. If QF489 is cancelled then I may/will miss the Qatar international flight.

I am now wondering the following:

If this flight is cancelled are Qantas obligated to get me on another flight so I can make the Qatar international flight from Melbourne?

If they cancel it will the remaining Qatar flights still remain intact and I can make my own way to Melbourne?

If they cancel the QF489 flight last minute while at the airport then there will be little chance I will get to Melbourne in time anyway. I am just wondering what are Qantas's obligations if they cancel the QF489 domestic flight from Syd to Melbourne?

There is such high demand and low supply for flights going in this direction at the start of July. Its almost unprecedented which makes me even more nervous.

Thanks for any advice, itinerary below: