Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Scarlett]

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

Personally I've never had any luck getting a transit through HKG with 2 CX flights (but admittedly the combos I've tried for have been on major routes from Europe or Nth America). Other AFFers (as they have stated in this thread) have apparently been successful though. From memory the second leg of one such combo was a direct flight from HKG - ADL; so it appears that not all CX combos through HKG with a <24hr transit time are blocked.

To add a data point: in 2013 I was able to connect through HKG on two CX flights. The routing was NRT-HKG-JNB and the four hour transit was put to good use in the CX lounge. (mmmm... noodle bar)

 

[vetrade]

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

from reading this thread for a few years and booking my own 2 280k awards - I doubt that a 210K W class award exists
the above table is technically the upper limit, it doesn't necessarily apply to the OneWorld award
from memory - a few years ago when the website looked different and rules were easier to find, the rules specifically referred to only 3 classes, economy, business and first even though PE already existed on BA and QF itself
I don't thinks W class Classic OneWorld award exists and that's why call centre staff can't book it

Actually the table I posted above is specifically QF's Oneworld award table so a PE option definitely does exist. Many people don't realise this and virtually no one tries to book one because so few sectors actually have a PE class.

It's good to know that blacknwhite has actually booked SCL - SYD in PE - not as good as J but way way better than Y. Always good to have more options.

 

[blacknwhite]

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

Actually the table I posted above is specifically QF's Oneworld award table so a PE option definitely does exist. Many people don't realise this and virtually no one tries to book one because so few sectors actually have a PE class.

It's good to know that blacknwhite has actually booked SCL - SYD in PE - not as good as J but way way better than Y. Always good to have more options.

Yes VETRADE PE is way better than Y,especially on a 14 hour flight!
I looked to see if Qantas offered any J seats on this sector and couldnt find any.I also looked at flying with LAN J class but no avaibilty on the dates I required.
As I said,hoping that J seats will be released at some stage.I will be watching!
By the way,as I was putting my ticket together,I found PE seats avaible on CX,BA and QF flights(lots).

 

[Familyman1]

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

I'm planning a 140K Oneworld trip for my family and I have a question about calculating the mileage (trying to keep it within 35,000 miles). Do I need to include the milage of each sector? For example, if I want to fly from Frankfurt to Hong Kong but can only secure award flights with a transit in Helsinki, is the mileage calculated based on a FRA-HKG direct flight or does it use FRA-HEL + HEL-HKG mileage?

 

[Danger]

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

I'm planning a 140K Oneworld trip for my family and I have a question about calculating the mileage (trying to keep it within 35,000 miles). Do I need to include the milage of each sector? For example, if I want to fly from Frankfurt to Hong Kong but can only secure award flights with a transit in Helsinki, is the mileage calculated based on a FRA-HKG direct flight or does it use FRA-HEL + HEL-HKG mileage?

Yes, you need to include the distance between all points.

 

[teaHSRn]

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

Ok, so this thread is 271 pages. Most of the information posted back in the first 100 pages is now fairly dated and not relevant, but some of it is, so trying to catch-up means reading the whole thing from top to bottom.

I am willing to earn my stripes by reading through all it... but before I embark on this journey (I might do a TR) is there a concise or shorter summary somewhere already? If not, I might write one as I go.

OzE

I think creating a wiki/FAQ or summary would be super useful. I've started reading this thread in long term preparation for a RTW journey and it's complicated to get the basic, assumed knowledge in the first place.

So best of luck to you OzEire

 

[teaHSRn]

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

Actually the table I posted above is specifically QF's Oneworld award table so a PE option definitely does exist. Many people don't realise this and virtually no one tries to book one because so few sectors actually have a PE class.

It's good to know that blacknwhite has actually booked SCL - SYD in PE - not as good as J but way way better than Y. Always good to have more options.

Does this mean if you were doing a 420k F RTW trip, and say one leg only had J (i.e Santiago - Sydney) that you would be able to book J for this leg?

 

[vetrade]

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

Does this mean if you were doing a 420k F RTW trip, and say one leg only had J (i.e Santiago - Sydney) that you would be able to book J for this leg?

Yes - or even Y (which happens a lot on US domestic routes, many of which only have F and Y cabins and no J). With F not available on a lot of routes people on 420K awards often have to settle for J on some sectors. Others structure their itinerary to keep to the routes that do have F so they get the best value out of their ticket.

 

[vetrade]

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

. By the way,as I was putting my ticket together,I found PE seats avaible on CX,BA and QF flights(lots).

Yes, because the web search doesn't differentiate between standard classic awards and OW awards (i.e. because OW awards are a particular type of classic award with their own extra rules) it's always been the case that PE seat availability will show up when you're searching. That doesn't mean that those PE seats are really "available" to book as part of a OW award ticket - otherwise we would have all been doing it for years! It has been the (usual) case that if you asked to book a PE seat you got told by QF you couldn't do it - with the result that people gave up asking. It will be interesting to see how much PE availability really exists - in the absence of any specific written detail from QF, in time we may find that they allow them only on certain routes or that they have some other criteria for allowing them. The more we find out about people's successful experiences the better informed we will all be.

 

[vetrade]

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

I agree. Does this forum software allow for Wikis? This would be the perfect thread for it.

Updating with new info would be beneficial but I would worry that Wikis might "contaminate" the thread if anyone could edit it with their theories that might later prove to be inaccurate or not verifiable. The thread has been operating for quite a while so it is laborious for anyone to get a handle on the main info quickly which means there is plenty of merit in an up-to-date summary. Personally I think it would be best if one person (OzEire?) took ownership of that summary and any new info people wanted to add could be done through the usual process of posts to this thread rather than tampering with the core info in the summary.

 

[madrooster]

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

That doesn't mean that those PE seats are really "available" to book as part of a OW award ticket - otherwise we would have all been doing it for years!

If they are available, and not phantom space (eg. typical CX phantom availability issues), then they can be booked in a OW award. If you get an agent that says otherwise, HUACA. The best part about W seats is that those using AAdvantage, cannot book them, which helps with their scarce availability (compared to J).

 

[vetrade]

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

If they are available, and not phantom space (eg. typical CX phantom availability issues), then they can be booked in a OW award. If you get an agent that says otherwise, HUACA. The best part about W seats is that those using AAdvantage, cannot book them, which helps with their scarce availability (compared to J).

I hear what you're saying, madrooster, but when trying to put together a RTW award up to 12 months in advance I'd be more confident if there was more certainty about whether PE would definitely be bookable. After any more than 2 - 2.5 hrs in Y I am ready to start climbing the walls. I can last a lot longer in PE because my knees aren't shoved up my nostrils and I know you have to be flexible with dates and routes etc. but from a planning point of view I would not want to just hope that I could get PE if it was unlikely J would be available on a particular flight. So far we know there's no written confirmation from QF about PE "bookability" and we only have scant isolated reports of people actually booking into PE on a J award. More confirmed examples would be more reassuring.

 

[madrooster]

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

I hear what you're saying, madrooster, but when trying to put together a RTW award up to 12 months in advance I'd be more confident if there was more certainty about whether PE would definitely be bookable. After any more than 2 - 2.5 hrs in Y I am ready to start climbing the walls. I can last a lot longer in PE because my knees aren't shoved up my nostrils and I know you have to be flexible with dates and routes etc. but from a planning point of view I would not want to just hope that I could get PE if it was unlikely J would be available on a particular flight. So far we know there's no written confirmation from QF about PE "bookability" and we only have scant isolated reports of people actually booking into PE on a J award. More confirmed examples would be more reassuring.

It's possible to get a points + taxes calculation from QF over the phone with dummy GK segments in a PNR for the flights that you want as proof it will quote up at the right price. Dates don't need to be the dates you want, just the appropriate transits and stopovers.

Other than the above, you are just subject to availability. If you're booking at 12 months out, J availability isn't too hard to find either on the exact preferred route, or a similar alternate and needing to fall back to W isn't that likely. But as soon as those on AAdvantage can get their hands on the availability... it dries up quickly. That's when the W card might need to be pulled out. That's my general experience having ticketed these for 3 years in a row now.

 

[Battymum]

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

Hi all - another first time poster here
I have read through all 274 pages over the last few months -

I am contemplating a oneworld award - not until 2017 but have been checking availability for 2016 - I am not seeing any award availability from Europe to USA on American - when can I see these. I am looking at a road trip through Europe - September October - starting in Rome and ending in London - although will fly from CDG or elsewhere if it avoids huge LHR taxes - we would like to head to Disney in Florida - the week before thanksgiving week - and then head to NYC for thanksgiving before heading home via HKG.

So far its a simple SYD - HKG (CX) Stop
HKG - FCO (CX) Stop
FCO - London - surface
(somewhere in western Europe to east coast USA)
MCO - JFK (Stop)
NYC - HKG (Stop)
HKG - SYD

So can anyone suggest the best option for our transatlantic leg

much appreciated.

 

[Danger]

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

Hi all - another first time poster here
I have read through all 274 pages over the last few months -

I am contemplating a oneworld award - not until 2017 but have been checking availability for 2016 - I am not seeing any award availability from Europe to USA on American - when can I see these. I am looking at a road trip through Europe - September October - starting in Rome and ending in London - although will fly from CDG or elsewhere if it avoids huge LHR taxes - we would like to head to Disney in Florida - the week before thanksgiving week - and then head to NYC for thanksgiving before heading home via HKG.

So far its a simple SYD - HKG (CX) Stop
HKG - FCO (CX) Stop
FCO - London - surface
(somewhere in western Europe to east coast USA)
MCO - JFK (Stop)
NYC - HKG (Stop)
HKG - SYD

So can anyone suggest the best option for our transatlantic leg

much appreciated.

Welcome, Battymum.

If you go from London to Barcelona, Dublin or Manchester you can fly direct (although possibly with a technical stop) to Orlando.

The oneworld interactive map is a good tool to have a play with.

 

[grussellt]

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

Try CDG-MIA (AA) or MAD-MIA (AA or IB). Also MAD-BOS or CLT and flights out of BCN-MIA. Plenty of availability in Y or J in September 2016. MIA can be quite a nice stopover.

 

[vetrade]

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

Hi all - another first time poster here
I have read through all 274 pages over the last few months -

I am contemplating a oneworld award - not until 2017 but have been checking availability for 2016 - I am not seeing any award availability from Europe to USA on American - when can I see these. I am looking at a road trip through Europe - September October - starting in Rome and ending in London - although will fly from CDG or elsewhere if it avoids huge LHR taxes - we would like to head to Disney in Florida - the week before thanksgiving week - and then head to NYC for thanksgiving before heading home via HKG.

So far its a simple SYD - HKG (CX) Stop
HKG - FCO (CX) Stop
FCO - London - surface
(somewhere in western Europe to east coast USA)
MCO - JFK (Stop)
NYC - HKG (Stop)
HKG - SYD

So can anyone suggest the best option for our transatlantic leg

much appreciated.

That's a marathon effort to read all 274 pages, Battymum - well done!

Now regarding your trip...........officially AA awards are supposed to be released at 330 days in advance but (unhelpfully) that's variable. Sometimes you will find them released at around 300 days and sometimes they just don't seem to appear at all. Also be aware that AA sometimes only releases award seats on a particular route on certain days of the week - one that comes to mind is that they NEVER release awards on the LAS - LAX flights on either a Sunday or a Monday because that's when many fare paying customers are heading home after a weekend away.

Are you travelling alone or will there be 2 of you and which award are you aiming for - Y, J or F? The reason I ask is that AA has reduced its availability over the last 12 - 18 months; often you can find a single J seat on a flight but it can be near impossible to find 2 x J seats which makes it difficult for couples.

I routinely look for seats on IB when flying across the Atlantic rather than AA or BA, both of which have had poor availability in recent times especially to JFK. IB usually has good availability provided you don't try to book too close to departure date. If booking on IB you would fly from MAD to the US - we have done that twice and if you're somewhere further north in Europe you can easily connect from, say CDG or MUC to MAD on an IB flight too. Just make sure you don't have too short a connection time because those intra-Europe IB flights seem to run late just when you need them to be on time because of a short transit.

The London airport departure taxes are worth avoiding if you can - even if you intend to have a stop in London it can be well worthwhile to depart from somewhere else - it would save you $300 - 400 - you could get the train from London to Paris and fly to the US from there.

IB flies to MIA from MAD so you could fly or travel by car to Orlando from there - I'm guessing it's about 200 miles. Don't know if there's a direct OW flight from Europe to MCO. If you were happy to fly to NY from Europe and go to Orlando after that, IB have flights to both JFK and BOS. (AA availability from BOS to NY is usually good - to either JFK or LGA)

I see you have 2 stops listed in HKG but only one stop is allowed in any single city - was that a typo? If not you'll need to re-jig that.

 

[blacknwhite]

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

Hi Guys,need your thoughts on a situation that has come up.We booked 2x J 280,000 OW RTW that has been ticketed 2 weeks ago and the first stop was
MEL/HKG/DOH/LHR with cx to DOH and then ba to LHR.
Got an email last nite advising that the HKG to DOH was now with QR but the problem was that this flight arrived half hour after BA left.So I rang Qantas and they came back saying could fix it but it meant a very long transit in HKG-something we definitely dont want.I told them they could change the flights as long no long transit times.
She said she would get the team to look at it and ring me back tonite.
Well Qantas sent me a new e-ticket today with now MELB/HKG/DEL with cx and a 4 and a half hour transit in DEL.Not happy as I was promised a call back and definitely dont want the stop in DEL. DEl to LHR with BA.
I am angry that they didnt call me with options,especially since a J class ticket that was confirmed.What options do I have?

 

[Princess Fiona]

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

Hi Guys,need your thoughts on a situation that has come up.We booked 2x J 280,000 OW RTW that has been ticketed 2 weeks ago and the first stop was
MEL/HKG/DOH/LHR with cx to DOH and then ba to LHR.
Got an email last nite advising that the HKG to DOH was now with QR but the problem was that this flight arrived half hour after BA left.So I rang Qantas and they came back saying could fix it but it meant a very long transit in HKG-something we definitely dont want.I told them they could change the flights as long no long transit times.
She said she would get the team to look at it and ring me back tonite.
Well Qantas sent me a new e-ticket today with now MELB/HKG/DEL with cx and a 4 and a half hour transit in DEL.Not happy as I was promised a call back and definitely dont want the stop in DEL. DEl to LHR with BA.
I am angry that they didnt call me with options,especially since a J class ticket that was confirmed.What options do I have?

I'd call them up and advise that you don't want to transit DEL.
In a situation like this it's very good to have researched the options yourself and feed the flights you do want to take to the agent.
The QF booking engine is a bit limited with these things but you can check more reliably with a BA account or Asia Miles for free.

Just my opinion but if the choice is between DEL or a long transit in HKG I'd definitely take the latter option. There's no better place to have a long transit IMHO.
Good luck with it all.

 

[vetrade]

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

Hi Guys,need your thoughts on a situation that has come up.We booked 2x J 280,000 OW RTW that has been ticketed 2 weeks ago and the first stop was
MEL/HKG/DOH/LHR with cx to DOH and then ba to LHR.
Got an email last nite advising that the HKG to DOH was now with QR but the problem was that this flight arrived half hour after BA left.So I rang Qantas and they came back saying could fix it but it meant a very long transit in HKG-something we definitely dont want.I told them they could change the flights as long no long transit times.
She said she would get the team to look at it and ring me back tonite.
Well Qantas sent me a new e-ticket today with now MELB/HKG/DEL with cx and a 4 and a half hour transit in DEL.Not happy as I was promised a call back and definitely dont want the stop in DEL. DEl to LHR with BA.
I am angry that they didnt call me with options,especially since a J class ticket that was confirmed.What options do I have?

Why not fly direct from HKG - LHR? I just had a look at a couple of random dates in July next year (that's when your trip starts isn't it?) and there are several flights with J awards available on that route. Was there a particular reason you had originally intended to transit through DOH (apart from their very excellent lounge that is ).
CX and BA both have J award seats open for HKG - LHR - the possibility of a bit longer transit in HKG wouldn't put me off - not a bad trade-off if you eliminate the need for one extra sector.