Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[MEL_Traveller]

Well that’s a positive development!

 

[LukeO9]

Can the RtW booking have different start and end Australian airports ?

 

[elanshin]

Can the RtW booking have different start and end Australian airports ?

Yes you can have different start and end points. It will count difference in the distance so keep that in mind.

 

[FlyingFiona]

Could someone please help me by pointing out why this fare isn't qualifying for a OW RTW fare please? There are two airlines besides QF, two transits in HEL and the total miles don't exceed the maximum allowed. What am I missing?

 

[DC3]

Could someone please help me by pointing out why this fare isn't qualifying for a OW RTW fare please?

By ‘isn’t qualifying’ do you have more information to share? For example, are you trying to book online and receive an error message? Does the QF website crash when you are about to pay? Or something else?

 

[FlyingFiona]

By ‘isn’t qualifying’ do you have more information to share? For example, are you trying to book online and receive an error message? Does the QF website crash when you are about to pay? Or something else?

It doesn't cap at 318K points.

 

[DJTravels]

Could someone please help me by pointing out why this fare isn't qualifying for a OW RTW fare please? There are two airlines besides QF, two transits in HEL and the total miles don't exceed the maximum allowed. What am I missing?

View attachment 353240

There is a maximum of 1 stop-over in each city. It seems you've stopped over in Paris CDG twice, so that might be what breaks it.

 

[FlyingFiona]

There is a maximum of 1 stop-over in each city. It seems you've stopped over in Paris CDG twice, so that might be what breaks it.

Ah! You're right! Thanks for picking up on that. I had added in the LHR-CDG at a later point after realising I needed to vary airlines and so I didn't pick up on the double stop over.

 

[FlyingFiona]

I see a lot of mention of people adding on legs to a OWA when they become available to build up their OWA. Couple of questions:
1) Is there a change fee for adding on these legs each time? If so how much is it?
2) Have you already achieved OWA with your initial flight booking and then just add on extra legs, or do you start off with regular award bookings and then once you hit all the necessary requirements does it convert to a OWA booking (ie capped points)?

 

[Lynda2475]

I see a lot of mention of people adding on legs to a OWA when they become available to build up their OWA. Couple of questions:
1) Is there a change fee for adding on these legs each time? If so how much is it?

Yes there is a 5000 point change fee per passenger each time a ticket needs to be re-issued.

You very occasionally get lucky and can make two changes for one fee if there is a delay in re-ticketing i.e. ticket from previous change still not issued when you call for another.

Note: by change I mean a request to modify the PNR, it could be adding or removing 1 or more flights.

There can also be a 7000 point assistance fee for international, but this is waived for J and F bookings.

So if you are unable to get all flights on initial online booking you need to budget for the changes.

2) Have you already achieved OWA with your initial flight booking and then just add on extra legs, or do you start off with regular award bookings and then once you hit all the necessary requirements does it convert to a OWA booking (ie capped points)?

Can be either. If you initially book flights under the cap, the cap will apply when you add the extra flights. If cap already in play, you will only be charged the additional taxes.

 

[DC3]

Is there a change fee for adding on these legs each time? If so how much is it?

Any number of flight changes made during the same phone call will cost 5,000, per passenger. So, if you make multiple flight changes during the same call, it’s 5,000 points in total, per passenger

 

[DC3]

once you hit all the necessary requirements does it convert to a OWA booking (ie capped points)?

Just start with making some bookings. While putting your bookings together, if the total points exceeds the cap, once all of the rules are met, the total will automatically adjust back to the cap

 

[FlyingFiona]

Thanks @Lynda2475 and @DC3, it's been about 10 years since I last booked a OWA ticket and things have changed since then so trying to come up to speed.

I was often able to wait until all tickets were released and book everything in one go. Also there wasn't the "not available to other Q members" by other airlines nonsense.

 

[sap1l]

Hey guys, can I please get a sanity check on this OWA itinerary before I attempt to book it?

KUL-SIN | MH (Transit)
SIN-MEL | QF (Stopover 1)
MEL-SYD (Surface)
SYD-SIN | QF (Stopover 2)
SIN-KUL (Surface)
KUL-HND | JL (Stopover 3)
HND-SYD | QF (Stopover 4)
SYD-HND | QF or JL (Transit)
HND-LHR | JL or BA (Stopover 5)
LHR-HKG | CX or BA (Transit)
HKG-KUL | CX or MH (Final destination)

That exact routing comes to 34,997 miles on GCM. I'm not too fussed about how I get to LHR, but I would prefer either JL or CX (SYD-HKG-LHR also comes in under 35k miles).

To summarise my transits and stopovers:

• SIN: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• MEL: 1 stopover
• SYD: 1 stopover
• HND: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• LHR: 1 stopover
• HKG: 1 transit

As surface sectors count as a stopover in the first city, can I confirm that the SIN-KUL surface sector does not end my OWA?

Thank you!

 

[flapper]

Hey guys, can I please get a sanity check on this OWA itinerary before I attempt to book it?

KUL-SIN | MH (Transit)
SIN-MEL | QF (Stopover 1)
MEL-SYD (Surface)
SYD-SIN | QF (Stopover 2)
SIN-KUL (Surface)
KUL-HND | JL (Stopover 3)
HND-SYD | QF (Stopover 4)
SYD-HND | QF or JL (Transit)
HND-LHR | JL or BA (Stopover 5)
LHR-HKG | CX or BA (Transit)
HKG-KUL | CX or MH (Final destination)

That exact routing comes to 34,997 miles on GCM. I'm not too fussed about how I get to LHR, but I would prefer either JL or CX (SYD-HKG-LHR also comes in under 35k miles).

To summarise my transits and stopovers:

• SIN: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• MEL: 1 stopover
• SYD: 1 stopover
• HND: 1 transit, 1 stopover
• LHR: 1 stopover
• HKG: 1 transit

As surface sectors count as a stopover in the first city, can I confirm that the SIN-KUL surface sector does not end my OWA?

Thank you!

Ignoring the highly ambitious 34,997 miles (QF don't use GCM to calculate miles).
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.

 

[flapper]

Thanks @Lynda2475 and @DC3, it's been about 10 years since I last booked a OWA ticket and things have changed since then so trying to come up to speed.

I was often able to wait until all tickets were released and book everything in one go. Also there wasn't the "not available to other Q members" by other airlines nonsense.

And they had Australian call centres back then, the overseas ones are terrible when trying to add a flight or get reticketed.

 

[MelbFlyer]

And they had Australian call centres back then, the overseas ones are terrible when trying to add a flight or get reticketed.

+100 to this unfortunately, especially considering my recent experience.

85%+ of my calls made to Qantas were failed attempts to amend my rewards booking with seats that are showing online but agents were either unable to see it (most common response), or they were unable to add for some unknown reason.

It should be consistent across the board - either you can or you can't amend / change - it shouldn't vary because of the agent you get.

If only Qantas implemented a system where you can amend reward bookings online - that would be a godsend.

 

[sap1l]

Ignoring the highly ambitious 34,997 miles (QF don't use GCM to calculate miles).
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.

Thanks for that.

I guess the “surface sectors count as stopovers from the start” is overridden by this rule.

I suppose with the ambitious mile count, I’d just have to try and see if the system accepts it

 

[Mr H]

I suppose with the ambitious mile count, I’d just have to try and see if the system accepts it

My experience is that if you get within a couple of hundred GC miles of the 35,000, the QF computer says no.

 

[Tonkatough]

Thought I would share my recent experience with adding three flights to a previously ticketed OWA J ticket over the course of two days.

Call 1 (Fiji): Flights confirmed as available and added to itinerary. Unable to calculate taxes. Call back promised.
Call 2 (Fiji): Call back advised having difficulty with calculating taxes.
Call 3 (Fiji): New operator messaged operator from call 1 - and was advised there were difficulties in calculating taxes
Call 4 (Fiji): Operator advised when trying to press the button to ticket the flights, it wouldn't work. Reason: you can't finish the ticket in a different place to the start!
Call 5 (Hobart): Advised that the previous operators really had not done anything. All was tidied up, taxes calculated and ticketed within 30 minutes.

To their credit, the Fiji staff were trying their hardest but just did not seem to understand how to get the job done.