Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[PLANT]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all,

Just attempted dummy booking using reward points....to familiarise with using QFF in 2015 using a points booking for business class flight.
So knowing that to search for 356 days out I clicked on "Classic award" and to was presented with flights and available for a one way flight to LAX.
The Total Points Cost at the bottom of the screen came up and I stopped there.

So is it easier to get a one way than a return ticket or no different?
Is this "Classic reward" the only way to book a flight using frequent flyer points now or is there a way to use less points for the same seat and flight?

Why do they "list" a destination(click on it) and variable dates but then say on the next screen: unable to get to destination?
Ie. destination OMAHA

Sorry if questions are in the wrong thread as looking for wiki and return trip is 192K in points so thought it might help others aswell as help a NOOB on booking QFF rewards flight.

 

[sergeyvzn]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all,

Just attempted dummy booking using reward points....to familiarise with using QFF in 2015 using a points booking for business class flight.
So knowing that to search for 356 days out I clicked on "Classic award" and to was presented with flights and available for a one way flight to LAX.
The Total Points Cost at the bottom of the screen came up and I stopped there.

So is it easier to get a one way than a return ticket or no different?
I assume the next screen will have the taxes and costs payable in $$$?
Final screen would have a confirmation?
Is this "Classic reward" the only way to book a flight using frequent flyer points now or is there a way to use less points for the same seat and flight?

not quite sure about what you are asking

this thread is about a capped (140/280/420K) classic award flights which are normally neither one way nor round trip flights, it's a serious of flights that take you around the world - also normally but this award does not have to be around the world, you can zig zag whatever way takes your fancy as long as it follows the rules of no more than 35K miles, nor more than 5 stops and 16 sectors, not stopping at the same port more than twice etc

so, my answers to your questions would be

- this questions makes little sense to me as per what I've written above
- yes, the next screen will give your the taxes payable on top of the 140/280/420K points in dollars
- yes, the final screen will be a confirmation
- no, there are other ways like points+ pay but this is irrelevant for this thread

 

[zackary]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Long time lurker first time poster, this thread has been a wealth of information.

Currently i looking to take a trip next year in J class and think the below route is doable. 2 questions, not sure how many flights I can take internally in the US? Also from reading the only negative booking the same route for two passenger on different PNRs is one person could get bumped. I will be booking my SYD-->LAX route online then calling up to make the adjustments make it a RTW ticket at a later date.

SYD-->LAX
LAX-->LAS -- Separate ticket?
LAS-->JFK -- Separate ticket?
JKF-->MCO --Separate ticket?
MIA-->BGI
BGI->LGW
LGW-->MRU
MRU-->JNB
JNB-->SYD

 

[adelee]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all

I've taken in approx. 150 pages of this thread over the last week or so, and have been busy trying to book 'dummy' itineraries in J via the multi city tool on the Qantas website. Unfortunately, it seems to be riddled with bugs. Almost every time I try to search, I get an error message pop up. Either it is "Up to DATA(LIMIT) flight interruptions (ground transportation between one arriving city and the next departing city) can be defined in your itinerary. Please modify and resubmit your request.(#7122)" (that one usually comes up if I want to catch a flight from a surface sector city) or else I get 10 lines of error messages and the thing just crashes entirely once I've input 80% of the flights I want!

I've basically given up booking this thing online - any tips on avoiding the bugs? If not, I'd really appreciate some feedback regarding the itinerary I've tentatively put together after reading through on this thread, before calling up QF. I have checked the mileage and it is under 35,000. Many thanks for your assistance.

ADL - HKG (CX) (STOPOVER)
HKG - LHR (CX) (STOPOVER)
MAD - JFK (IB) (STOPOVER)
LAX - BNE (QF)
BNE - ADL (qf) (STOPOVER)
ADL - MEL (QF)
MEL - AKL (QF) (STOPOVER)
AKL - SYD (LAN)

Note that I'm planning on travelling between early December and late January for the first part of the trip (and appreciate that award flights from US to AUS during this time will be thin on the ground), and then heading to AKL mid year. Not so fussed about individual dates as yet - more just looking for confirmation that this is do-able. I plan to be very flexible on dates based on what is available. If the US is a no go, we will look at adding in Johannesburg / capetown into the mix instead.

I suspect that this will need to be an 'over the phone' effort, with a change needed later in the piece in order to move our Auckland trip later in the year, once flights become available. Am resigned to paying change fees, which won't be a problem given we have ~700k points between us.

 

[sergeyvzn]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Long time lurker first time poster, this thread has been a wealth of information.

Currently i looking to take a trip next year in J class and think the below route is doable. 2 questions, not sure how many flights I can take internally in the US? Also from reading the only negative booking the same route for two passenger on different PNRs is one person could get bumped. I will be booking my SYD-->LAX route online then calling up to make the adjustments make it a RTW ticket at a later date.

SYD-->LAX
LAX-->LAS -- Separate ticket?
LAS-->JFK -- Separate ticket?
JKF-->MCO --Separate ticket?
MIA-->BGI
BGI->LGW
LGW-->MRU
MRU-->JNB
JNB-->SYD

You can have 5 stopovers and 16 sectors (legs) maximum, with the above separate tickets you will be fine
there is no limit on the number of internal flights within the US other than the above (max 5 stopovers and 16 sectors), at the moment you've got 7 sectors planned including your ground sector LAX-MIA so you can have up to another 9 sectors in your ticket
My partner and I have travelled together on that award (280K) on different PNRs without issues. On top of what you said about bumping the other ones may be that you won't seat together as for example you have pay through the nose for seat selection on BA flights even if you are in J and if you don't pay you may find yourself sitting far apart but then again you can always ask someone to swap seats

 

[sergeyvzn]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all

I've taken in approx. 150 pages of this thread over the last week or so, and have been busy trying to book 'dummy' itineraries in J via the multi city tool on the Qantas website. Unfortunately, it seems to be riddled with bugs. Almost every time I try to search, I get an error message pop up. Either it is "Up to DATA(LIMIT) flight interruptions (ground transportation between one arriving city and the next departing city) can be defined in your itinerary. Please modify and resubmit your request.(#7122)" (that one usually comes up if I want to catch a flight from a surface sector city) or else I get 10 lines of error messages and the thing just crashes entirely once I've input 80% of the flights I want!

I've basically given up booking this thing online - any tips on avoiding the bugs? If not, I'd really appreciate some feedback regarding the itinerary I've tentatively put together after reading through on this thread, before calling up QF. I have checked the mileage and it is under 35,000. Many thanks for your assistance.

ADL - HKG (CX) (STOPOVER)
HKG - LHR (CX) (STOPOVER)
MAD - JFK (IB) (STOPOVER)
LAX - BNE (QF)
BNE - ADL (qf) (STOPOVER)
ADL - MEL (QF)
MEL - AKL (QF) (STOPOVER)
AKL - SYD (LAN)

Note that I'm planning on travelling between early December and late January for the first part of the trip (and appreciate that award flights from US to AUS during this time will be thin on the ground), and then heading to AKL mid year. Not so fussed about individual dates as yet - more just looking for confirmation that this is do-able. I plan to be very flexible on dates based on what is available. If the US is a no go, we will look at adding in Johannesburg / capetown into the mix instead.

I suspect that this will need to be an 'over the phone' effort, with a change needed later in the piece in order to move our Auckland trip later in the year, once flights become available. Am resigned to paying change fees, which won't be a problem given we have ~700k points between us.

the website search engine is riddled with bugs and you will have to ring Qantas to book it. If you tell them you've tried to book online and you couldn't they should waive the phone booking fee as this is not your fault

at the first glance your itinerary looks OK, I haven't checked the mileage calculation but I'm sure you thought about adding all the land sectors into your overall distance including the last bit of SYD to ADL and it's still under 35K?

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all

I've taken in approx. 150 pages of this thread over the last week or so, and have been busy trying to book 'dummy' itineraries in J via the multi city tool on the Qantas website. Unfortunately, it seems to be riddled with bugs. Almost every time I try to search, I get an error message pop up. Either it is "Up to DATA(LIMIT) flight interruptions (ground transportation between one arriving city and the next departing city) can be defined in your itinerary. Please modify and resubmit your request.(#7122)" (that one usually comes up if I want to catch a flight from a surface sector city) or else I get 10 lines of error messages and the thing just crashes entirely once I've input 80% of the flights I want!

I've basically given up booking this thing online - any tips on avoiding the bugs? If not, I'd really appreciate some feedback regarding the itinerary I've tentatively put together after reading through on this thread, before calling up QF. I have checked the mileage and it is under 35,000. Many thanks for your assistance.

ADL - HKG (CX) (STOPOVER)
HKG - LHR (CX) (STOPOVER)
MAD - JFK (IB) (STOPOVER)
LAX - BNE (QF)
BNE - ADL (qf) (STOPOVER)
ADL - MEL (QF)
MEL - AKL (QF) (STOPOVER)
AKL - SYD (LAN)

Note that I'm planning on travelling between early December and late January for the first part of the trip (and appreciate that award flights from US to AUS during this time will be thin on the ground), and then heading to AKL mid year. Not so fussed about individual dates as yet - more just looking for confirmation that this is do-able. I plan to be very flexible on dates based on what is available. If the US is a no go, we will look at adding in Johannesburg / capetown into the mix instead.

I suspect that this will need to be an 'over the phone' effort, with a change needed later in the piece in order to move our Auckland trip later in the year, once flights become available. Am resigned to paying change fees, which won't be a problem given we have ~700k points between us.

From QF's T&C's:
14.3.5 A Classic Award Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

This means that once you return to ADL your itinerary is deemed to be finished and your flights from ADL-MEL-AKL-SYD are therefore not valid and would cause the error messages. You need to re-hash your itin. to either start your trip in SYD or deleting the BNE - ADL flight.

As a general rule I find it's a lot easier to do dummy bookings in sections rather than trying to do the whole itin. in one go.

 

[adelee]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Ah, thanks for that! Will revise in order to ensure I don't transit back through Adelaide. I've calculated the miles (I used MileCalc.com - anyone have any others they prefer?) and it came to under 30,000 miles.

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Ah, thanks for that! Will revise in order to ensure I don't transit back through Adelaide. I've calculated the miles (I used MileCalc.com - anyone have any others they prefer?) and it came to under 30,000 miles.

Great Circle Mapper (gcmap.com) seems to be the favourite mileage calculator among AFFers. If your itin. finishes at a city other than the one you departed from you need to add the distance between them to your mileage calculations.

 

[babsie]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Just wanted to say a big thanks for all the helpful info in this thread.

Just booked my first points oneworld award 280k and an 1,400 in taxes. All 16 segements in business flying on 8 oneworld airlines. Now I need to stock up on Qantas points again

Funnily enough Qantas even opened up an award seat on Mel-Hkg, when their was a cathay flight ( I wanted the cathay flight but for some reason what you can book on the website is different to what the qantas staff over the phone can see go figure...) just hoping for new business class by December

 

[blu]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

... I wanted the cathay flight but for some reason what you can book on the website is different to what the qantas staff over the phone can see go figure...

my problem too HKG-SYD, only seeing QF flights but want CX. If I could find my JL MB card, I'd use the JL site to double check.

 

[grussellt]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

my problem too HKG-SYD, only seeing QF flights but want CX. If I could find my JAL MB card, I'd use the JAL site to double check.

You could join awardnexus and have a free look at JL or CX on there.

 

[blu]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

thanks I had forgotten that

 

[abbijacobson]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi, I wanted to get some feedback on my itinerary.

I'm planning on:

SYD-JNB
JNB-CPT (Surface Segment)
CPT-MCT (Transfer through DOH)
MCT-DOH (Surface Segment)
DOH-OSL
OSL-ARN (Surface Segment)
ARN-JFK (Passing through TXL)
JFK-CUZ (Passing through MIA and LIM)
CUZ-LIM (Surface Segment)
LIM-SYD (Passing through SCL)

The flights have all been released up until the JFK-CUZ section, so I know that with everything before that, the taxes are approximately $1400 for two people in economy. Is there any way to reduce the cost? Would I be eligible for points on the airlines I fly? And would I be able to pay for these taxes with Qantas flight vouchers over the phone, to get 10 points a dollar?

From the BA site, I know they release a bunch of award seats every day on LAN, and most of the dates I need are coming up, so I want to finalise my itinerary.

Would it be risky to book everything now, up until LIM back to SYD? The date I need won't be out for a while.

Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

 

[snabbu]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Just wanted to say a big thanks for all the helpful info in this thread.

Just booked my first points oneworld award 280k and an 1,400 in taxes. All 16 segements in business flying on 8 oneworld airlines. Now I need to stock up on Qantas points again

Funnily enough Qantas even opened up an award seat on Mel-Hkg, when their was a cathay flight ( I wanted the cathay flight but for some reason what you can book on the website is different to what the qantas staff over the phone can see go figure...) just hoping for new business class by December

Welcome to AFF babsie!
Great first post and congratulations on the booking. Care to share the routing you secured?

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Is there any way to reduce the cost? Would I be eligible for points on the airlines I fly? And would I be able to pay for these taxes with Qantas flight vouchers over the phone, to get 10 points a dollar?

Welcome to AFF!

Award bookings are not eligible for points earn. The only way to reduce cost is to re-route. You cannot use vouchers for award flight taxes, and 10 points per dollar was a limited time promo for Xmas only.

Would it be risky to book everything now, up until LIM back to SYD? The date I need won't be out for a while.

Not risky but you will need to pay the change fee and telephone service fee when they become available.

 

[landl]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I have been building a oneworld RTW fare and am almost at the end. From reading other posts, I think that Qantas may have made a mistake with one of my flights eg allowed something through that does not meet their terms and conditions. Has anyone else had this happen and what are the consequences ie will they just cancel the flight and I lose or do they bear some liability for the error and have to fix? Because they allowed the booking, my options now to get other award seats will be limited . All advice gratefully appreciated.

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I have been building a oneworld RTW fare and am almost at the end. From reading other posts, I think that Qantas may have made a mistake with one of my flights eg allowed something through that does not meet their terms and conditions. Has anyone else had this happen and what are the consequences ie will they just cancel the flight and I lose or do they bear some liability for the error and have to fix? Because they allowed the booking, my options now to get other award seats will be limited . All advice gratefully appreciated.

QF don't "have" to fix anything and you can bet it will be your problem if the error is uncovered, which I reckon is a distinct possibility. The later in the booking process that occurs, the more disruption it could be to your travel plans. Care to tell us what you think the error is so we can comment on whether it is, in fact, an error?

 

[vetrade]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

abbijacobson, if 2 or more OW airlines fly a particular route on your itin. then obviously you could reduce costs by flying the one which charges the lowest taxes however I don't see much potential for that with your itinerary. $1400 in taxes for 2 ppl looks quite good to me for a RTW award so if you can get the routes you want I'd be content with that.

There is always some element of risk when trying to coordinate booking various flights into one award booking so I'd suggest you don't wait too long to lock in the majority of your flights, especially the ones which have low or irregular availability. If you leave it too long and you miss a key leg your whole itin. could unravel. With all these awards you need to have a Plan B contingency.

 

[adelee]

re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

Hi all. Thanks so much for your assistance and feedback so far! Further to my last post, I've been playing around a bit with our itinerary.

I've come across a bit of a challenge - we'd either like to fly out from JNB (or CPT) - SYD, else somewhere in the US (JFK, DFW or LAX) to SYD in mid January. South America would also be on the wishlist, but from everything I can see, and what I've read, award flights from SA are pretty much nonexistant.

Probably unsurprisingly, I'm struggling to find anything. I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions about more creative routing we could look at, that might open up some flights? Many thanks for the assistance.

Also, every successful itinerary I've plugged in to the search engine so far comes up at around $2100 in taxes - is this a bit steep, or is this to be expected? I've tried to avoid BA and QF where possible (though these airlines are not entirely avoidable).