Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[goosewacker]

Hi all,
Have done a bit of googling on this which has failed me so turning to the brains trust;

Looking at booking a Qantas Oneworld Classic Flight Reward for the business RTW, as have many others. Have done it before so understand the booking rules etc etc. One thing I can't find an answer on and is new to this itinerary - if you transit through a city with multiple airports and have to do a self-transfer (ie into Tokyo Haneda and out of Tokyo Narita, or into New York LGA and out of New York JFK) does it count this as a stop and ground sector due to different "ports" or does it treat this as the same "city"?

These are the applicable rules;

14.4.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Classic Flight Rewards:

(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) more than five Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

14.4.5 Surface Segments are permitted as part of oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itineraries, but the distance between the disembarkation point and the next embarkation point will be included in the Reward Point zone calculation for that Itinerary.

From this, I read it that it will be counted as a Transfer under 14.4.4 "any one city", however it will ping me the miles between the two airports?

Any assistance from those who have done this before would be appreciated!

 

[MelbFlyer]

I haven't done this before, but as long as when you select your legs, if it still caps out at 318k pts, it'll be fine.

Best to still arrive / depart at the same airport (if the same day / a connection) if possible, if anything it'll just make your life easier.

 

[FlyingFiona]

It's been 10 years since I last booked a OWA and the playing field nowadays is not at all the same, so I am going to build one in stages which I haven't ever done before. I'm looking for some confirmation from the more experienced out there that I'm on the right track.

My current situation:
QFF points: #350K
Route: MEL-CDG-MEL
Dates: April 2025
Class: J

I've found flights over on MH and AY for 179,500 points. MEL-KUL-SIN-HEL-CDG with 12 hours in SIN. Not perfect, but not horrendous either. (Those 12 hours are during the day local time so I'd probably go and look at the gardens or something I've never done before.)

My thoughts are...
Pros of booking now: flights secured, can add on return legs when they become available in a few weeks, if by some miracle direct flights open up I'd have the points to cover booking both and cancelling the first booking, very low carrier fees, if I can't find return tickets on OW to make it a OWA the points over aren't so terrible as to make it prohibitive and I should be fine booking a return with Velocity
Cons of booking now: trusting QF not to lose my seats by not reticketing in time, not direct, risk there not being return flights in my period of travel, adding extra legs will cost me points

Pros seem to outweight the cons. Would you agree?

Is there anything I'm not considering here? Any red flags?

Basically...would you book now and anticipate building a OWA from this point?

 

[elanshin]

It's been 10 years since I last booked a OWA and the playing field nowadays is not at all the same, so I am going to build one in stages which I haven't ever done before. I'm looking for some confirmation from the more experienced out there that I'm on the right track.

My current situation:
QFF points: #350K
Route: MEL-CDG-MEL
Dates: April 2025

I've found flights over on MH and AY for 179,500 points. MEL-KUL-SIN-HEL-CDG with 12 hours in SIN. Not perfect, but not horrendous either. (Those 12 hours are during the day local time so I'd probably go and look at the gardens or something I've never done before.)

My thoughts are...
Pros of booking now: flights secured, can add on return legs when they become available in a few weeks, if by some miracle direct flights open up I'd have the points to cover booking both and cancelling the first booking, very low carrier fees, if I can't find return tickets on OW to make it a OWA the points over aren't so terrible as to make it prohibitive and I should be fine booking a return with Velocity
Cons of booking now: trusting QF not to lose my seats by not reticketing in time, not direct, risk there not being return flights in my period of travel, adding extra legs will cost me points

Pros seem to outweight the cons. Would you agree?

Is there anything I'm not considering here? Any red flags?

Basically...would you book now and anticipate building a OWA from this point?

Perhaps consider using JL on the way back if you want more certainty and book it all soon. It seems they're still releasing CR like clockwork. Downside is that their carrier fees have gone up so that might sting a bit more.

(Eg lots of flights from say FRA - NRT in early Apr 2025 right now, I can also see J for NRT - MEL on Apr 8 2025). You could even gamble that JL will have their new a35K on LHR route by Apr next year.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

trusting QF not to lose my seats by not reticketing in time

Although I agree with you that the pros outweigh the cons…
As you have MH in your itinerary, be extra vigilant on the reticketing issue when you make any itinerary changes - MH can be dynamite on recalling seats if they’re left in ticketing purgatory for long (said the voice of bitter experience…)

 

[FlyingFiona]

Thanks for the thoughts @elanshin and @There'sOnlyOneJimmy - especially re MH dropping unticketed seats lickety split. I think I'll wait for the return dates to drop and see what my options are then.

One option to avoid MH on my preferred dates is to use CI to get to Tokyo and then take an AY flight. I'm pretty anti-China on a business level, but am I cutting my nose off to spite my face here?

 

[puchu]

You are especially when CI is based in Taipei

 

[ellen10]

We fly out Tuesday to Singapore for an over night stay, to then start our OWE on a separate ticket.
We haven't flown an OWE since 2019, which was wonderful and ran so smoothly. This is our first venture since then and I have been stressed chasing up changes to flights and new etickets being sent etc. It has been all quiet for the last 2 months. I regularly check my Qantas account that flights are still there.

But now I can't even remember about checking in and confirming ongoing flights and connections with other airlines. Our starting reward flights from Singapore are on JAL (never flown them before). To check in for these flights do I just check in on the Qantas app? or JAL website, we will only have our phones (no ipad etc) We are staying overnight at a transit hotel in Changi should I try and use a computer at the hotel to print boarding passes.
I would like to check in as close to 24hours before. The first flights are 3 components until we arrive at our first destination. Can I get printed boarding passes from JAL at the airport when we check our bags? I like to have printed ones.

I know that I sound like a newbie but the angst is keeping me awake at night. I have read too many horror stories!

 

[Captain Halliday]

One option to avoid MH on my preferred dates is to use CI to get to Tokyo and then take an AY flight. I'm pretty anti-China on a business level, but am I cutting my nose off to spite my face here?

CI is not a OneWorld member and is ineligible for inclusion in a Oneworld Classic Flight Award.

 

[DC3]

… now I can't even remember about checking in and confirming ongoing flights and connections with other airlines. Our starting reward flights from Singapore are on JAL (never flown them before). To check in for these flights do I just check in on the Qantas app? or JAL website …

Check-in is done through the Carrier, by app/ website/ or at the airport (e.g., kiosk or desk). If all else fails, just go to a JAL kiosk at the airport and print the boarding passes for that day. Your bookings would all be confirmed already, if you have an e-ticket.

 

[adenda]

Thanks for the thoughts @elanshin and @There'sOnlyOneJimmy - especially re MH dropping unticketed seats lickety split. I think I'll wait for the return dates to drop and see what my options are then.

One option to avoid MH on my preferred dates is to use CI to get to Tokyo and then take an AY flight. I'm pretty anti-China on a business level, but am I cutting my nose off to spite my face here?

From my experience of booking (and cancelling) a OWA over the last few years I would say there is one factor that trumps all others in assessing pros and cons - availability. Definitely book now in my view.
And, as others have suggested, jump onto any changes requiring reticketing. MH is as merciless as everyone says.
Also factor in burning say 20K points on making changes/adding flights from the outset.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Pros of booking now: flights secured, can add on return legs when they become available in a few weeks

In theory this is easy - you search and see your desired award seats online, you then call up to add them to your existing booking. Sounds simple.

In practice however, it is much more difficult if my now done business OWA experience is anything to go by.

I had well over 100+ calls with Qantas for this very thing - adding/modifying flights on an existing rewards booking - most consultants gave me the below reasons:

- "The flights / seats you see online are only for new bookings and can't be used for existing bookings"
- "There are no reward seats showing for the day you have requested" (even despite me looking at them online in the multi city booking at the time of calling)
- "You are unable to change to this seat"

among other BS responses.

On some days I HUACA around 15-20 times, mostly without much success so I gave up a lot of the time trying to amend my booking.

Eventually in the end (talking about up to 6 months of continually searching online for seats and calling Qantas when new ones popped up) I got lucky and got Hobart or Auckland as a lowly Bronze member a handful of times and was finally able to get my desired seats / flights added. It took a lot of hard work, hours and much frustration though.

It honestly shouldn't be that hard - 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.

 

[ellen10]

Check-in is done through the Carrier, by app/ website/ or at the airport (e.g., kiosk or desk). If all else fails, just go to a JAL kiosk at the airport and print the boarding passes for that day. Your bookings would all be confirmed already, if you have an e-ticket.

Thanks @DC3 I just had a look at the JAL website and my bookings and selected seats are there, (I could not previously select the seats on JAL, I did it through royal Jordan, as suggested on this thread), so when I'm in Singapore I will try and checkin early on JAL website.

 

[N860CR]

Damn what a marathon! On the phone from 9pm to 5am just to change the last few sectors!

Three hours with the Philippines who fired off stories like “you can’t have mixed class” and “Royal Air Maroc isn’t in one world” (despite those sectors already being ticketed ) before being disconnected.

Then 5 hours with Fiji. Countless issues trying to calculate taxes, agents who can’t escalate calls (one actually said to me “I’m looking at my manager now and she’s refusing to take the call”) before finally got sorted. Of course, “oh we can’t ticket here. Need to wait for Manila to open”. To their credit, it was done.

Now I’ve got the PDF with ticket numbers, however can’t seem to select seats with AY or AT. Just makes me nervous…. Why wouldn’t there be a selection option?

 

[elanshin]

Damn what a marathon! On the phone from 9pm to 5am just to change the last few sectors!

Three hours with the Philippines who fired off stories like “you can’t have mixed class” and “Royal Air Maroc isn’t in one world” (despite those sectors already being ticketed ) before being disconnected.

Then 5 hours with Fiji. Countless issues trying to calculate taxes, agents who can’t escalate calls (one actually said to me “I’m looking at my manager now and she’s refusing to take the call”) before finally got sorted. Of course, “oh we can’t ticket here. Need to wait for Manila to open”. To their credit, it was done.

Now I’ve got the PDF with ticket numbers, however can’t seem to select seats with AY or AT. Just makes me nervous…. Why wouldn’t there be a selection option?

Punch your 6 digit PNR into Cathay's manage my booking and check that every flight segment is actually ticketed.

If it says confirmes there then you're good. Id it says ticket not issued then there's problems.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Punch your 6 digit PNR into Cathay's manage my booking and check that every flight segment is actually ticketed.

If it says confirmes there then you're good. Id it says ticket not issued then there's problems.

Not always the case - I had confirmed e-ticket numbers on the RJ portal but 1 leg was showing as "Not Ticketed" / "Ticket not issued" on the Cathay Portal.

I think as long as you've got an e-ticket number showing on the RJ portal, you'll be right to go even despite otherwise on the CX MMB portal.

 

[N860CR]

Punch your 6 digit PNR into Cathay's manage my booking and check that every flight segment is actually ticketed.

If it says confirmes there then you're good. Id it says ticket not issued then there's problems.

Thanks. All say “confirmed” there so that’s a good sign. Funnily enough, I was able to allocate seats on the MH website

I think as long as you've got an e-ticket number showing on the RJ portal, you'll be right to go even despite otherwise on the CX MMB portal.

Can’t even get it to load on the RJ site.

Check my trip has a ticket number next to each sector so I’m fairly confident it’s ok. Just can’t figure out how they’ve calculated taxes (or what I’ve even paid). The Qantas e-ticket shows a negative taxes amount and they’ve debited and credited the points to my account so many times I can’t keep count.

 

[FlyingFiona]

From my experience of booking (and cancelling) a OWA over the last few years I would say there is one factor that trumps all others in assessing pros and cons - availability. Definitely book now in my view.
And, as others have suggested, jump onto any changes requiring reticketing. MH is as merciless as everyone says.
Also factor in burning say 20K points on making changes/adding flights from the outset.

Thanks, good to know re points to budget for adding/changing flight, thanks.

To be honest, I'm only doing a there and back trip so a OWA shouldn't be necessary...until you cop a look at some of the JL and CX points being asked for the same. The MH+AY route I've got my eye on comes in at 179,500 which, if I had both ways, would be the same as a OWA + 20k in change fees... another reason to book it now I guess.

Besides which after reading @MelbFlyer and @N860CR 's experiences I probably don't mind dropping the extra points to avoid having to change the ticket! Makes me beyond mad though that QF put us in such a mindset because of their complete ineptitude.

 

[NoobTraveller]

Hello everyone, as my name suggests, I am not very well versed in this but after staying up until 4am, I was finally able to book a RTW trip for my wife and I.

Probably due to sleepiness, I had forgot to add a segment.

I called up and managed to add it and I followed the article's advice to refresh the online portal to make sure the booking is there. Which it is.

Now I've read a lot of the horror stories of bookings getting cancelled after trying to make changes via the call centre so what has me anxious is that they seem to have refunded me 318k points (i.e. one passenger's points)

Should I be concerned?

The new ticket hasn't been reissued yet however, I know it could take up to 24 hours.

Sorry if this is a silly question

 

[adenda]

they seem to have refunded me 318k points (i.e. one passenger's points)

Same thing happened to us prior to our OWA. Everything was ticketed, did the trip without incident only to have the points finally deducted within a day of our return.