Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[yourmate]

Are Cathay know to have particularly high carrier charges? Attempting to book flights from MEL-HKG-MAD and being quoted $1400 for 2 tickets.

 

[hoochwombat]

Starting to plan OWA via Asia to UK and Turkey, heaps of economy popping up in Aug 2023 but very few J class yet. I need to wait a while because our return is mid Sept so fingers crossed. Has anyone had serious grief booking part of OWA and then using call centre to add when they become available? Is the change fee per sector or for the whole change?

 

[aikman]

Has anyone had serious grief booking part of OWA and then using call centre to add when they become available?

Plenty of stories abound on this forum. Basically, with every change you make, there is a risk that your new itinerary will not get ticketed and you could lose any or all of your existing or new flights.

 

[hoochwombat]

Plenty of stories abound on this forum. Basically, with every change you make, there is a risk that your new itinerary will not get ticketed and you could lose any or all of your existing or new flights.

Thanks. I suspected as much looking at some past comments. I will wait until I csn book completely.

 

[acinod]

Been trying to get my booking ticketed for some time now. Originally booked the first leg online and then added some flights to complete the OWA but still no ticket. Have called multiple times to get it ticketed and each time they say they have put it in the queue manually and to wait 24-48 hours but still no luck. The taxes were taken from my CC when I made the change and it's been a pending transaction ever since but today I noticed the transaction is no longer on my CC. Any ideas on what's happening here?

 

[yourmate]

Are Cathay know to have particularly high carrier charges? Attempting to book flights from MEL-HKG-MAD and being quoted $1400 for 2 tickets.

I should add that I'm booking the first legs now to lock them in and will add to create the OWA booking later on.

I found alternative flights via Tokyo (MEL-NRT-FRA) and taxes were only $281 for 2 PAX.

I haven't booked a OWA for some time but was referring to the wiki for reference carrier charges and Cathay used to be one of the better options?

 

[Lynda2475]

Despite never receiving an updated e-ticket from QF after AA chnaged a flight number, I have just completed travelling my OWA; and am starting to think about next years but after a couple of close calls dont think i'll plan any connections on same day.

 

[flapper]

Been trying to get my booking ticketed for some time now. Originally booked the first leg online and then added some flights to complete the OWA but still no ticket. Have called multiple times to get it ticketed and each time they say they have put it in the queue manually and to wait 24-48 hours but still no luck. The taxes were taken from my CC when I made the change and it's been a pending transaction ever since but today I noticed the transaction is no longer on my CC. Any ideas on what's happening here?

Are all flights still showing in MMB and CMT? I always keep ringing and ask for it to be reticketed. When they give the 24-48 hours answer I tell them bookings that include partner airlines need to be ticketed straight away. Sometimes that works but mostly not so I HUACA. I find it's best to set aside a day to make a change to OWA booking as it can take many calls..

 

[Mattg]

This thread is somewhat concerning:

Qantas FF now enforcing change rules to FF bookings

Just had an interesting discussion with the call centre regarding an upcoming booking. It appears QF are now enforcing the change provisions set out in 14.7 - and more specifically 14.7.4 - of the QFFF terms and conditions...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

If this turns out to be true, it will make it a lot harder to book a Oneworld Award ~12 months in advance as you'll need to wait until ALL sectors are available to book and then do it in one go.

 

[Phoenix-1]

If that's the case, how can you ever have 16 segments in a OWCA? Online booking caps out at 6 flights.

 

[Mattg]

If that's the case, how can you ever have 16 segments in a OWCA? Online booking caps out at 6 flights.

Well, you could technically still get 16 sectors as each "flight"/segment can have more than one sector when booking online.

For example, if you search for ADL-JFK for the first leg, the website might present ADL-MEL-AKL-JFK as an option. That's one "flight" but 3 "sectors".

You'd be struggling to get 16 sectors though. I'm sure that's part of the point...

 

[Lynda2475]

If that's the case, how can you ever have 16 segments in a OWCA? Online booking caps out at 6 flights.

You can still do the booking over the phone with the fee (but id argue for it to be waived, given not possible online), the limiting factor is more on availability if you wait for the return sectors to be released, the outbound sectors will likely be gone.

Definitely worth AFF reaching out to QF for clarification, as this would seem to be going against the spirit of the OWA.

 

[Phoenix-1]

I've tried booking over the phone and they simply don't see the international flight availability that I can see. This is for new bookings. And then for existing bookings they don't see the domestic availability that I see. It's impossible to book a full itinerary as far as I can tell.

 

[gilldo]

Need some guidance here, and hope someone can help.

I have a OneWorld Classic Business Reward booking commencing on Sep 14 returning on Nov 1, with about 12 flight legs involved.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are a slight chance of having to do one of the following:
- cancel one leg in the middle of the trip (scheduled Oct 3)
- or do the unthinkable, and cancel the entire trip

This raises the following questions:
- when is the cut off time for cancelling the entire trip before the trip is commenced (without losing the points and taxes)?
- can I cancel one leg of the trip (no additions or replacements) near or just after commencement of the trip, but 10-12 days before the specific leg (without losing the rest of the trip)?

The really concerning thing is that if I have to do either of these things, I have to call the Qantas Service Centre and go through the travel equivalent of Russian Roulette!

 

[yaksha98]

Need some guidance here, and hope someone can help.

I have a OneWorld Classic Business Reward booking commencing on Sep 14 returning on Nov 1, with about 12 flight legs involved.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are a slight chance of having to do one of the following:
- cancel one leg in the middle of the trip (scheduled Oct 3)
- or do the unthinkable, and cancel the entire trip

This raises the following questions:
- when is the cut off time for cancelling the entire trip before the trip is commenced (without losing the points and taxes)?
- can I cancel one leg of the trip (no additions or replacements) near or just after commencement of the trip, but 10-12 days before the specific leg (without losing the rest of the trip)?

The really concerning thing is that if I have to do either of these things, I have to call the Qantas Service Centre and go through the travel equivalent of Russian Roulette!

This reads like it's up to 24hrs before your first segment begins you can cancel and get a full refund back: https://help.qantas.com/support/s/article/Refunding-cancelling-or-changing-a-Reward-flight-booking

It does not sound like you can cancel one segment of the trip once you've commenced the trip however: https://www.qantas.com/au/en/freque...ms-and-conditions.html#classic-flight-rewards

So you'd likely have to make a decision before the trip to remove that segment of the trip, which will necessitate a call to the contact centre and run the risk of the various issues detailed in the forums.

 

[jeza]

Cross posting this here in case it may suit someone.

On the off chance someone is looking for a Classic Reward seat back from Europe next month

Just cancelled a MAD-DOH-SYD QR J flight for the 22nd of Oct & it does appear to be available on the QF site.

 

[PointsTraveller!]

Absolutely. You should book your flights exactly 353 days after they become available (as early in the day as possible to try to snag those seats before other AFF-er's do!). This does, as you note, require using the call centre to add additional flights after the first booking via the online multi-city tool. Also see here for the number of days in advance that various partner airlines release their flights: Qantas Oneworld Award Planning (wiki content) - Australian Frequent Flyer

So each time I call up to add another flight to my initial flight on the same booking will cost 5,000 points, unless after the initial flight booking I add multiple flights on this call then this will be one single 5,000 points fee?
Assuming this is also the same if booking for 2 people, needing to pay 5,000 points each irrespective of the flights added being the same?

 

[ChrisMars]

Absolutely. You should book your flights exactly 353 days after they become available (as early in the day as possible to try to snag those seats before other AFF-er's do!).

I personally try and book them 0 days after they are available, but if other members prefer to wait 353 days that's fine for me

 

[am0985]

QFF Silver, called late afternoon today and got straight through with no wait to the call centre to add on a booking to my itinerary (JL6 HND - JFK 24/8/23).

I had to wait about 30 mins on the phone whilst he sorted everything out but that was fine. Very easy!

 

[Thetravelbyte]

QFF Silver, called late afternoon today and got straight through with no wait to the call centre to add on a booking to my itinerary (JL6 HND - JFK 24/8/23).

I had to wait about 30 mins on the phone whilst he sorted everything out but that was fine. Very easy!

Do you mean add on a segment to your pre-existing OWA itinerary? That's good news, there was a fright earlier this week that this was no longer going to be allowed.