Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[cjd600]

A question for the wise.
If I book a multi flight from Barcelona to Doha (QR) and it arrives at 4pm. And then the next flight departs the next day from Doha to Hong Kong (QR) at 7.55am and then a through flight on CX to Sydney, is this permitted or does it have to be a stop over of more than 24 hours?

QR to QR you'll need availability searching BCN-HKG, otherwise you need the +24hr stopover to connect the segments

 

[ellen10]

QR to QR you'll need availability searching BCN-HKG, otherwise you need the +24hr stopover to connect the segments

Ok thanks for the advice. When I search BCN-HKG I can't get anything for the dates, but when I break it up there are flights but with a less than 24h stopover. Maybe a 2 night stopover in Doha may be in the plans.
I'm almost tempted to be like @Aus ATC and book halfway home and try to add the final leg later.

 

[cjd600]

Yeah, its a tough one....I'm debating keeping a stopover up my sleeve in case in I need it for that final leg home vs book half way home and hope for the rest later.
The rollercoaster of locking in a 280k award!

 

[Aus ATC]

I could not get CDG-HKG on the dates I was interested in, but could get either CDG-BKK or CDG-SIN (which I chose). I didn't really mind where in Asia I stopped on the way back.

 

[jetpack]

I do find it annoying that Qantas will not provide a breakdown of the taxes and charges. We were stung pretty hard ($1700ish) for IB and QR legs and I would like to see the breakdown there but they will not make it available - the other legs were not too bad (in the scheme of things these days).

If you're interested, your two IB sectors cost you $189 in taxes per person. I expect that the short 75 minute Easyjet direct flight from VCE to GVA would cost less than that.

 

[Aus ATC]

If you're interested, your two IB sectors cost you $189 in taxes per person. I expect that the short 75 minute Easyjet direct flight from VCE to GVA would cost less than that.

Sounds high - when I was researching (just looking at one-way VCE-GVA via the QF search function) the ++ was coming in at around EUR113 for the IB flights and around EUR90 for BA - these figures for 2 adults in J.

 

[11sjw]

Just out of interest for those who have recently booked OWJ awards. Roughly how much are you having to spend in QF surcharges? Are there any solid strategies to minimising these (eg I assume avoiding Heathrow is a good one)? Is trial/dummy bookings the best way to go to estimate what you're up for?

Points balance nudging the 1M mark so I'm looking at options!

 

[yld200]

Just out of interest for those who have recently booked OWJ awards. Roughly how much are you having to spend in QF surcharges? Are there any solid strategies to minimising these (eg I assume avoiding Heathrow is a good one)? Is trial/dummy bookings the best way to go to estimate what you're up for?

Points balance nudging the 1M mark so I'm looking at options!

The wiki at at top of this thread is a good resource to get an indication of taxes for certain airlines / routes.

Avoiding Heathrow is a good one, or if use LHR as a transit to connect to your desired flight from another city will reduce taxes. For example last year I wanted to travel LHR > JFK on AA and ended up being a bit flexible in my arrangements to position myself in Rome to fly FCO>LHR>JFK and saved a few hundred in taxes.

 

[jetpack]

Sounds high - when I was researching (just looking at one-way VCE-GVA via the QF search function) the ++ was coming in at around EUR113 for the IB flights and around EUR90 for BA - these figures for 2 adults in J.

I recreated your itinerary sector by sector, same airlines, and this is what the system quoted me, which by the looks of it matches what you had paid

BNE-HKG $188
HKG-LHR +$208
LGW-GOA +$120
VCE-MAD-GVA +$189
CDG-DOH-SIN +$683
SIN-HKG-PER +$152
PER-BNE +$38
Total $1,578 (1 person)

 

[Aus ATC]

I recreated your itinerary sector by sector, same airlines, and this is what the system quoted me, which by the looks of it matches what you had paid

jetpack - Thanks - interesting. Maybe you can help clarify further. It seems that the carrier surcharges applied in the OWA are different from when a quote is obtained via a "one way" redemption query on the Qantas website. The above IB flights being an example - you indicate $189, the one way VCE-MAD-GVA quotes at around EUR 56 (say $95) per person. The QR legs were quoting at around EUR 300-320 (say $500) each vs the $683 - I can't remember exactly, and can't search anymore as I don't have enough points left .

The YQ for the QR legs quotes at EUR 190 each, but I appear to have paid quite a lot more than that.....

Would it be fair to say the surcharges on the OWA are greater than the constituent flights - maybe "offsetting" the comparative points discount vs booking individual segments with points??

 

[cjd600]

jetpack - Thanks - interesting. Maybe you can help clarify further. It seems that the carrier surcharges applied in the OWA are different from when a quote is obtained via a "one way" redemption query on the Qantas website. The above IB flights being an example - you indicate $189, the one way VCE-MAD-GVA quotes at around EUR 56 (say $95) per person. The QR legs were quoting at around EUR 300-320 (say $500) each vs the $683 - I can't remember exactly, and can't search anymore as I don't have enough points left .

The YQ for the QR legs quotes at EUR 190 each, but I appear to have paid quite a lot more than that.....

Would it be fair to say the surcharges on the OWA are greater than the constituent flights - maybe "offsetting" the comparative points discount vs booking individual segments with points??

I'm not sure if you can just 'cobble together' individual segments to get an accurate overall ++ figure?
As the point of origin of the fare will have varying impacts on the subsequent surcharges?
So needs to be viewed in totality rather than piece by piece?

 

[rock86]

jetpack - Thanks - interesting. Maybe you can help clarify further. It seems that the carrier surcharges applied in the OWA are different from when a quote is obtained via a "one way" redemption query on the Qantas website. The above IB flights being an example - you indicate $189, the one way VCE-MAD-GVA quotes at around EUR 56 (say $95) per person. The QR legs were quoting at around EUR 300-320 (say $500) each vs the $683 - I can't remember exactly, and can't search anymore as I don't have enough points left .

The YQ for the QR legs quotes at EUR 190 each, but I appear to have paid quite a lot more than that.....

Would it be fair to say the surcharges on the OWA are greater than the constituent flights - maybe "offsetting" the comparative points discount vs booking individual segments with points??

If you are on a QSuite aircraft (considering your routes you may be), you also get slugged an additional redemption fee per sector for the 'privilege' of flying their great (by all reports) new product.

 

[Aus ATC]

I'm not sure if you can just 'cobble together' individual segments to get an accurate overall ++ figure?
As the point of origin of the fare will have varying impacts on the subsequent surcharges?
So needs to be viewed in totality rather than piece by piece?

Fair enough - but makes it difficult to be an informed customer. Maybe that is the intent....

 

[cjd600]

Fair enough - but makes it difficult to be an informed customer. Maybe that is the intent....

It’s definitely difficult.
I get all sorts of unexpected results with dummy bookings...can never be sure what’s actually correct, or a QF website miscalc or otherwise...

 

[exceladdict]

Also consider that if you're doing it piecemeal, it's priced according to where you depart - in the above example, some European cities rather than your Australian origin for the full itinerary. POS Australia in my experience is one of the priciest.

 

[ellen10]

Its only days off to my adding the European flights and booking of my flights home, departing Barcelona.

When I do a points dummy booking, I cannot get a direct option so with choosing a multi flight e.g. BCN - DOHA (QR) and then DOHA -ADL (QR to HKG, CX to ADL) it goes right through to the booking page. But I thought this was not allowed - 2 QR flights less than 24 hours so I am a little confused.
Another option is BCN - HKG via HEL (AY) and then CX - SYD (this connection has a 16 hour stopover in HKG, not sure whether this is good or bad).

If I take the AY option from BCN I may have to book it first as the CX flights show up a day later and I would have to ring again to add the CX flight.

Any thoughts?

 

[rock86]

Its only days off to my adding the European flights and booking of my flights home, departing Barcelona.

When I do a points dummy booking, I cannot get a direct option so with choosing a multi flight e.g. BCN - DOHA (QR) and then DOHA -ADL (QR to HKG, CX to ADL) it goes right through to the booking page. But I thought this was not allowed - 2 QR flights less than 24 hours so I am a little confused.
Another option is BCN - HKG via HEL (AY) and then CX - SYD (this connection has a 16 hour stopover in HKG, not sure whether this is good or bad).

If I take the AY option from BCN I may have to book it first as the CX flights show up a day later and I would have to ring again to add the CX flight.

Any thoughts?

From what I thought is that it's only specific QR routes that use married segments, similar with other airlines. So those routes may not be married?

 

[ellen10]

From what I thought is that it's only specific QR routes that use married segments, similar with other airlines. So those routes may not be married?

Well that would be nice. I guess the only way to find out would be to phone Qantas?

 

[11sjw]

QFF Call centre has told me I can book one of these online. Am I missing something in that when I use the "Round the World" tool it won't let me choose points/rewards? Or is there a misunderstanding and she's talking multi-city and I said (more than once) Round the World Award flights?

 

[cjd600]

Well that would be nice. I guess the only way to find out would be to phone Qantas?

Good luck.
Take a look at Posts 5009/5010 in this thread.
I'd probably call and ask QF to add them in if you aren't convinced on the advice
But I'd lock in the AY flights (they disappear pretty quickly. One in the hand and all that.​