Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[SNW1406]

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

Hello again,
Just a question for the champions on this site. I am looking at a 280K oneworld fare in Sept 2017 so still have time.
I am looking at ISA-BNE-SYD-SCL-GRU as the first leg and wondered as SYD-SCL will be the hardest to peg, can I search and lock that one in and then book the preceding flights ISA-BNE and the SCL-GRU leg after I get a date for SYD-SCL, and will it recognise it as part of the 280K booking?
Thanks for the great feedback, this is almost fun now
Brendan

 

[travelislife]

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

Hello again,
Just a question for the champions on this site. I am looking at a 280K oneworld fare in Sept 2017 so still have time.
I am looking at ISA-BNE-SYD-SCL-GRU as the first leg and wondered as SYD-SCL will be the hardest to peg, can I search and lock that one in and then book the preceding flights ISA-BNE and the SCL-GRU leg after I get a date for SYD-SCL, and will it recognise it as part of the 280K booking?
Thanks for the great feedback, this is almost fun now
Brendan

Yes you can definitely add legs after and it will eventually reprice to the 280k award when you meet the conditions, so not problem there. The only bit I am not 100% sure is if you can add them before, someone else might eb able to answer that.

 

[vetrade]

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

You can add or change flights whenever you like, subject to award availability, of course. So no problem booking one flight then adding others prior to it.

 

[SNW1406]

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

Thanks for the quick replies.
Onward & upward

 

[aussiel]

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

You can add or change flights whenever you like, subject to award availability, of course. So no problem booking one flight then adding others prior to it.

I believe the going rate for changes is 3500 points per passenger, plus a service fee of 8000 per passenger if not travelling in business or first. No changes are permitted after your first flight, so lock it all in before you go.

Be aware of the stop, segment and distance restrictions, it would be a shame to put all the effort in for it to price at well about 280k because of conditions.

 

[Pablo]

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

Just heard someone from a QF phone agent that I never knew. She's finalizing my 280k and is booking me on United in the US. I said to her "can you use United on this fare" to which she replied, "Yes, United is part of Oneworld - it's just not widely known!"

Well, I thought I'd call QF back again to talk to someone else about the United flights, and was told that the reason no one knows about United being part of OneWorld is because they ARENT part of OneWorld. Apparently I was originally put through to the NZ Call Centre rather than Hobart and they are useless I was told. I'd tend to agree

so United flights cancelled, now all I need is MIA-LAX and I'm done as QF released 2 x J LAX/SYD.

 

[Inuniform]

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

Hi all. Wanted to get some constructive criticism on my upcoming 280k in J RTW booking. I am hoping to weed out any problems, if any, before I book my first leg in about 8 weeks. My current itinerary on paper looks like this:
Day 1: SYD, DOH, ZNZ, JRO flying QR
Day 10: JRO, ZNZ, DOH flying QR
Day 12: DOH, LHR flying QR
Day 40: WAW, DOH, JFK flying QR
Day 50: JFK, HKG, MNL flying CX
Day 60: MNL, HKG, SYD flying CX

I have noticed that many users on here call up QANTAS to arrange their booking, is there anything stopping me from booking each leg of this ticket online as it becomes available? If so, how does this link to the 280k RTW ticket?

Any help, constructive tips would be greatly appreciated1

Thanks.

 

[aussiel]

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

Hi all. Wanted to get some constructive criticism on my upcoming 280k in J RTW booking. I am hoping to weed out any problems, if any, before I book my first leg in about 8 weeks. My current itinerary on paper looks like this:
Day 1: SYD, DOH, ZNZ, JRO flying QR
Day 10: JRO, ZNZ, DOH flying QR
Day 12: DOH, LHR flying QR
Day 40: WAW, DOH, JFK flying QR
Day 50: JFK, HKG, MNL flying CX
Day 60: MNL, HKG, SYD flying CX

I have noticed that many users on here call up QANTAS to arrange their booking, is there anything stopping me from booking each leg of this ticket online as it becomes available? If so, how does this link to the 280k RTW ticket?

Any help, constructive tips would be greatly appreciated1

Thanks.

gcmap.com is showing that as 40,217 miles. I believe the max is 35,000. One option may be to drop the LHR-WAW surface sector (included in total miles), and fly return from LHR > WAW as a side trip, or maybe stop in zanzibar and make the JRO a side trip:

First sugestion:
SYD-DOH-ZNZ-JRO (Stop 1)
JRO-ZNZ-DOH (Stop 2)
DOH-LHR (Stop 3) - separate booking for LHR-WAW-LHR
LHR-JFK (Stop 4)
JFK-HKG-MNL (Stop 5)
MNL-HKG-SYD
Total 33,597 mi

Second sugestion:
SYD-DOH-ZNZ (Stop 1) separate booking for ZNZ-JRO
ZNZ-DOH (Stop 2)
DOH-LHR (Stop 3) - plus surface sector to WAW
WAW-LHR-JFK (Stop 4) - rather than DOH, to minimize miles
JFK-HKG-MNL (Stop 5)
MNL-HKG-SYD
Total 34,944 mi

You can book online when the sectors are available for at least the first booking. Subsequently, you may need to call the service centre and fork out the 3500 points per passenger per ticketed change.

 

[hutch]

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

Hi all. Wanted to get some constructive criticism on my upcoming 280k in J RTW booking. I am hoping to weed out any problems, if any, before I book my first leg in about 8 weeks. My current itinerary on paper looks like this:
Day 1: SYD, DOH, ZNZ, JRO flying QR
Day 10: JRO, ZNZ, DOH flying QR
Day 12: DOH, LHR flying QR
Day 40: WAW, DOH, JFK flying QR
Day 50: JFK, HKG, MNL flying CX
Day 60: MNL, HKG, SYD flying CX

I have noticed that many users on here call up QANTAS to arrange their booking, is there anything stopping me from booking each leg of this ticket online as it becomes available? If so, how does this link to the 280k RTW ticket?

Any help, constructive tips would be greatly appreciated1

Thanks.

You have used about 5000miles too many. So going to have to cull some detours to DOH.
You need to book this under the one PNR (reference). You can't later link them. Hence why you need to ring QF - can't do it online

 

[Inuniform]

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

Thanks aussiel and hutch. This is why I posted my itinerary. I'll do some tinkering and see what I can come up with. I can reference GCMapper now too which will help.

 

[Inuniform]

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

You have used about 5000miles too many. So going to have to cull some detours to DOH.
You need to book this under the one PNR (reference). You can't later link them. Hence why you need to ring QF - can't do it online

I have managed to find a solution too. Instead of going WAW - DOH - JFK, I can travel with BA and fly WAW - LHR - JFK and shave a significant amount off my total miles. I was just trying to avoid BA and the LHR taxes.

 

[hutch]

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

I have managed to find a solution too. Instead of going WAW - DOH - JFK, I can travel with BA and fly WAW - LHR - JFK and shave a significant amount off my total miles. I was just trying to avoid BA and the LHR taxes.

You won't pay the UK APD as you're just transiting... but still paying the BA high fees. When you ring QF try AY out of Helsinki or IB from Madrid... both cheaper than BA.

 

[vetrade]

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

Firstly, pweekes, you definitely have to go through the call centre to make any additions or changes to your itinerary – can only make your initial booking online. Will cost you 3500 points each time you call and make changes with the call centre.
QR flies direct DOH – JRO. Since you aren’t stopping in ZNZ why are you transiting through there?
If you are not travelling alone you might find that some flights only have one J award available – suggest you keep an eye on likely availability before you need to book. Have you been checking the other sectors as well for likely J availability?

QF flies MNL – SYD – if there’s availability with them you could save over 2000 km by not needing to go via HKG.

If you don’t want to fly with BA to JFK you could make a bit of a diversion and go WAW – LHR – MAD – JFK with the final leg with IB. Or you could get to MAD via Berlin. Having flown both IB and BA J across the Atlantic I can say that IB is much better.

It seems that you mainly need some fine tuning to trim your total mileage.

 

[Inuniform]

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

Firstly, pweekes, you definitely have to go through the call centre to make any additions or changes to your itinerary – can only make your initial booking online. Will cost you 3500 points each time you call and make changes with the call centre.
QR flies direct DOH – JRO. Since you aren’t stopping in ZNZ why are you transiting through there?
If you are not travelling alone you might find that some flights only have one J award available – suggest you keep an eye on likely availability before you need to book. Have you been checking the other sectors as well for likely J availability?

QF flies MNL – SYD – if there’s availability with them you could save over 2000 km by not needing to go via HKG.

If you don’t want to fly with BA to JFK you could make a bit of a diversion and go WAW – LHR – MAD – JFK with the final leg with IB. Or you could get to MAD via Berlin. Having flown both IB and BA J across the Atlantic I can say that IB is much better.

It seems that you mainly need some fine tuning to trim your total mileage.

Thanks vetrade. The transit via ZNZ was something I thought was included in all flights from DOH-JRO. I have since had a look and this is not always the case, just sometimes. So I'll definitely be aiming for a direct flight. There has been some consistent availability for 2 tickets in J on the BA website. Am hoping this remains when time to book. I will be looking at booking the first 3 legs of my journey at the same time via call centre as these legs are within around 10 days and seem to have decent availability.

I just had a look at MNL - SYD on the Qantas website but there doesn't seem to be any availability in J. I will definitely check that option out at time of booking though, thanks.

I'll also look into your suggestions flying WAW - JFK. Would it be right to assume that when talking to CSR at Qantas you mention origin and destination, in this case WAW and JFK, and the CSR will let you know the options?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[vetrade]

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

Rather than asking what the options are (for example re WAW - JFK) I prefer to search for availability on the specific flights & airlines I want and then ring to say "I've seen availability for X, Y, Z, can you book it for me?" Or at least narrow it down to a specific route. The more they can see that you're organised and made an effort yourself the more effort they make to work out solutions to any problems, I think.

Will those changes bring you under the 35K mile cap?

 

[aussiel]

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

I just had a look at MNL - SYD on the Qantas website but there doesn't seem to be any availability in J. I will definitely check that option out at time of booking though, thanks.

One benefit of the Qantas flights is the ability to request a J seat to be released if you're Platinum (not sure about other tiers).

 

[EestiTiger]

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

Hi team!

I am reading backwards through the thread and am down to only page 317! It might take me a while to get through the whole thing. I am only planning to read back a year or so in anycase at this stage. I don't want to read back to 2006 if that information is no longer true. I have also purchased and read the AFF Guide on Award Points last year which was a great read.

Can I quickly just ask a couple of questions I haven't found the answer to yet?

280k v 420k - How does it work with mixing business, economy and first flights? If I am aiming for the business 280k, can I still throw in a token first class leg or two? If I book in first can I fly a leg or two in economy and or business, especially considering there aren't that many legs that even offer a first cabin.

Someone mentioned somewhere in the last 40 odd pages setting up a wiki. I think that would be an awesome idea

Thanks in advance.

Matt

 

[travelislife]

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

Hi team!

I am reading backwards through the thread and am down to only page 317! It might take me a while to get through the whole thing. I am only planning to read back a year or so in anycase at this stage. I don't want to read back to 2006 if that information is no longer true. I have also purchased and read the AFF Guide on Award Points last year which was a great read.

Can I quickly just ask a couple of questions I haven't found the answer to yet?

280k v 420k - How does it work with mixing business, economy and first flights? If I am aiming for the business 280k, can I still throw in a token first class leg or two? If I book in first can I fly a leg or two in economy and or business, especially considering there aren't that many legs that even offer a first cabin.

Someone mentioned somewhere in the last 40 odd pages setting up a wiki. I think that would be an awesome idea

Thanks in advance.

Matt

As soon as you have one leg in a higher class of travel the whole award prices at that level. This can be an issue with domestic legs in the US as AA doesn't have many flights with business class. So if you are on a business class award you will often have to take economy seats. If you want first (which is actually like business) the whole award will price at 420k.

 

[Inuniform]

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

Rather than asking what the options are (for example re WAW - JFK) I prefer to search for availability on the specific flights & airlines I want and then ring to say "I've seen availability for X, Y, Z, can you book it for me?" Or at least narrow it down to a specific route. The more they can see that you're organised and made an effort yourself the more effort they make to work out solutions to any problems, I think.

Will those changes bring you under the 35K mile cap?

By changing my WAW to JFK routing through LHR instead of DOH I've managed to shave off a massive chunk of miles and am comfortably under the 35,000 mile mark. I had a look on the world map to put it into perspective and the diversion to Doha was quite a big one as opposed to a much more direct route through London.

 

[Daver6]

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

A couple of questions about the UK departure tax if I may.

1) Roughly, how much is it actually for a J flight (or does it depend on destination/cost of flight?)
2) Can it be avoided by say flying in to LHR and then making ones way to say Paris on the Euro Star and departing from CDG? Or will it just be slugged on the Euro Star ticket price?