Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[11sjw]

QF, BA and QR don’t help with the carrier charge total. If you click on the breakdown where it gives you this total, you might be able to work out what is what. It’s not toooo bad for a trip like that in J!

Thank you again. I'll keep playing around with it. Little Miss has a research project that will help her choose a stopover city so we could turn the whole thing upside down.

With that level of surcharge I'm tempted to book an F route Emirates PER-JFK (why not huh?) and book the rest as individual segments outside of that. A couple of variations I've tried seem to result in 1.1M Points and surcharges at the $6k level.

Time to churn another credit card me thinks!

 

[11sjw]

Carrier surcharges for your legs are approximately:
QF $349
BA $313
QR $519
CX $145

Now the reason for the high QR flights is that one of your legs is on a QSuite plane and QR charge an additional fee (I think it's around USD100) on top of their fuel fines to redeem points on their most premium product. Whether people think it is worth it or not is in the eye of the beholder I guess, but it sure looks like a mighty good J product! (and one I can't wait to try in the future)

Thanks for the breakdown. This info is proving valuable for our forward planning.

 

[cjd600]

Carrier surcharges for your legs are approximately:
QF $349
BA $313
QR $519
CX $145

Now the reason for the high QR flights is that one of your legs is on a QSuite plane and QR charge an additional fee (I think it's around USD100) on top of their fuel fines to redeem points on their most premium product. Whether people think it is worth it or not is in the eye of the beholder I guess, but it sure looks like a mighty good J product! (and one I can't wait to try in the future)

The USD100 Q Suite 'fee' only applies to revenue bookings per sector, and is applied to the base fare.
No difference in ++ $ between Q Suite J award and A380 J award

 

[rock86]

The USD100 Q Suite 'fee' only applies to revenue bookings per sector, and is applied to the base fare.
No difference in ++ $ between Q Suite J award and A380 J award

Awesome, I didn't realise that and thought it was across the board.

 

[cjd600]

Awesome, I didn't realise that and thought it was across the board.

Nah, QR is just as expensive ++ for both aircraft.... (can do a dummy SYD-DOH J 20/10/19 to check both now)

I was tempted to do Suites x 4J for my current in-flight booking, on the SYD-DOH leg on to BCN.
But ended up changing it to CX SYD-CDG to save about $1k across the 4 of us.
(Kids still think we're in the 'family' Q Suites though....wont crush their excitement by saying I changed it,until later....)

 

[ellen10]

Oh my gosh! I have done it!!!

After many months of planning, watching flight patterns, availability (or lack thereof), reading threads, asking questions and getting amazing help from knowledgeable people on AFF and today after 30 minutes wait on hold I spoke to the lovely Cynthia.
She added all my flights to my original booking and waived the points change fee because I could not book it online. The confirmation email has just come through Woohoo!

Bookings as follows:

SYD - DUB CX stop
DUB - LON BA stop
LON - INNS BA stop
INNS - VCE land sector
VCE - MAD IB stop
MAD - SIN QR stop
SIN - SYD QF this flight is yet to be added because as a lowly silver no J options available to me yet. But I have been looking at flight availability on QF 297 days out and there are many options, if not direct to Sydney via Brisbane or Melbourne.

Total fees for 2 people in J $2542 - 560,000 points.

Cynthia was lovely and so happy for me that it all came together. She said I was very lucky to get the CX flights as her previous 3 calls today were all people trying to get Cathay flights with no luck.

And now for a glass of celebratory wine! Thank you everyone!

 

[cjd600]

Oh my gosh! I have done it!!!

After many months of planning, watching flight patterns, availability (or lack thereof), reading threads, asking questions and getting amazing help from knowledgeable people on AFF and today after 30 minutes wait on hold I spoke to the lovely Cynthia.
She added all my flights to my original booking and waived the points change fee because I could not book it online. The confirmation email has just come through Woohoo!

Bookings as follows:

SYD - DUB CX stop
DUB - LON BA stop
LON - INNS BA stop
INNS - VCE land sector
VCE - MAD IB stop
MAD - SIN QR stop
SIN - SYD QF this flight is yet to be added because as a lowly silver no J options available to me yet. But I have been looking at flight availability on QF 297 days out and there are many options, if not direct to Sydney via Brisbane or Melbourne.

Total fees for 2 people in J $2542 520,000 points.

Cynthia was lovely and so happy for me that it all came together. She said I was very lucky to get the CX flights as her previous 3 calls today were all people trying to get Cathay flights with no luck.

And now for a glass of celebratory wine! Thank you everyone!

Well done!
Worth all the stress, planning and searching

 

[Captain Halliday]

Oh my gosh! I have done it!!!

After many months of planning, watching flight patterns, availability (or lack thereof), reading threads, asking questions and getting amazing help from knowledgeable people on AFF and today after 30 minutes wait on hold I spoke to the lovely Cynthia.
She added all my flights to my original booking and waived the points change fee because I could not book it online. The confirmation email has just come through Woohoo!

Bookings as follows:

SYD - DUB CX stop
DUB - LON BA stop
LON - INNS BA stop
INNS - VCE land sector
VCE - MAD IB stop
MAD - SIN QR stop
SIN - SYD QF this flight is yet to be added because as a lowly silver no J options available to me yet. But I have been looking at flight availability on QF 297 days out and there are many options, if not direct to Sydney via Brisbane or Melbourne.

Total fees for 2 people in J $2542 - 520,000 points.

Cynthia was lovely and so happy for me that it all came together. She said I was very lucky to get the CX flights as her previous 3 calls today were all people trying to get Cathay flights with no luck.

And now for a glass of celebratory wine! Thank you everyone!

And unless it’s a typo due to excitement (understandable) you also appear to have scored a 40,000 point saving.

If you did, great work. If not, great work on getting a terrific itinerary anyway!

 

[Aus ATC]

Great work ellen10- particularly getting the CX sectors in J through to DUB - they seem to be a bit like hen's teeth at the moment. Ref your SIN-SYD legs, I am SG and was not seeing any J availability from SIN back to any port in AUS (without taking a ridiculous diversion, which I did )

 

[cjd600]

Great work ellen10- particularly getting the CX sectors in J through to DUB - they seem to be a bit like hen's teeth at the moment. Ref your SIN-SYD legs, I am SG and was not seeing any J availability from SIN back to any port in AUS (without taking a ridiculous diversion, which I did )

SIN - BNE/MEL seems pretty regular J release @ 297 on QF.
I also got 4 x CX J BNE-HKG-CDG for just before school holidays Sep19, A350 both legs. Had options from ADL for 4 J as well.
They are there if you look, wait and pounce

 

[ellen10]

And unless it’s a typo due to excitement (understandable) you also appear to have scored a 40,000 point saving.

If you did, great work. If not, great work on getting a terrific itinerary anyway!

Oops! yes excitement typo, 560,000 points. But still great value! And I didn't have to pay the 10,000 change

 

[ellen10]

Well done!
Worth all the stress, planning and searching

Thanks cjd600 you have helped in answering many of my questions.

 

[ellen10]

Great work ellen10- particularly getting the CX sectors in J through to DUB - they seem to be a bit like hen's teeth at the moment. Ref your SIN-SYD legs, I am SG and was not seeing any J availability from SIN back to any port in AUS (without taking a ridiculous diversion, which I did )

It was your mentioning of the QR flights to Singapore which locked in that return option for me, thank you, I had not thought of that routing with QR. I will wait until 297 days out to hopefully secure the J return to Aus from Singapore.

 

[flyingchicken]

Hi RTW family,

I've read 99% of this forum at one point or another and am finally at the point where I am ready to book my own journey.

I thought I had everything mapped out perfect. Then I realised using the Oneworld explorer planning tool had given me 6 stopovers instead of 5 and threw my plans out of the water! I need help to fit everything in, and I'm more than happy to pay for some of the cheaper flights if that it the last option. My other issue is that I'm looking for 2 x Business class seats together on a Bronze account...

BTW this is a route that lets us visit all the 7 wonders of the world (inc. Pyramids as we've already been to the Great Wall of China).

Original plan:
(Regional hometown) DBO - xSYD - DEL via CX
DEL - xDOH - FCO ($$ Side trip to Poland for a friends wedding 16th NOV 2019 then back to Rome)
FCO - xAMM - CAI ($$ Side trip to AMMAN)
AMM - DOH - ($$ LAND SEGMENT)
DOH [QR Qsuites hopefully] - xJFK [dinner in New York] - [morning flight] CUN
CUN - LIM ($$ Side trip to Cuzco)
LIM - GIG
GIG - xSCL - xSYD - DBO

Originally I wanted to return home via GIG - xLAX - SYD as there were plenty more options, but that threw my miles over the limit (by 1000 dammit!).

Can anybody help me out with their brilliant and experienced brains? I feel under pressure to find a new workaround before my options close up and I don't know what the best option is. I thought I'd just pay for the LIM-GIG segment but it's incredibly expensive despite its relative distance.

Thank you in advance for your ideas.

 

[ms1]

I have a booking which includes HND-DOH-BCN on QR and I am trying to replace BCN with AMS but am being told that due to it being a married segment they cannot make the change. Does anyone know if there is a way around this?

 

[rock86]

I have a booking which includes HND-DOH-BCN on QR and I am trying to replace BCN with AMS but am being told that due to it being a married segment they cannot make the change. Does anyone know if there is a way around this?

I don't think there's anything you can do unless you can find HND-AMS(xDOH) unfortunately, smarter minds on this issue will be able to confirm though.

 

[jetpack]

Hi RTW family,

I've read 99% of this forum at one point or another and am finally at the point where I am ready to book my own journey.

I thought I had everything mapped out perfect. Then I realised using the Oneworld explorer planning tool had given me 6 stopovers instead of 5 and threw my plans out of the water! I need help to fit everything in, and I'm more than happy to pay for some of the cheaper flights if that it the last option. My other issue is that I'm looking for 2 x Business class seats together on a Bronze account...

BTW this is a route that lets us visit all the 7 wonders of the world (inc. Pyramids as we've already been to the Great Wall of China).

Original plan:
(Regional hometown) DBO - xSYD - DEL via CX
DEL - xDOH - FCO ($$ Side trip to Poland for a friends wedding 16th NOV 2019 then back to Rome)
FCO - xAMM - CAI ($$ Side trip to AMMAN)
AMM - DOH - ($$ LAND SEGMENT)
DOH [QR Qsuites hopefully] - xJFK [dinner in New York] - [morning flight] CUN
CUN - LIM ($$ Side trip to Cuzco)
LIM - GIG
GIG - xSCL - xSYD - DBO

Originally I wanted to return home via GIG - xLAX - SYD as there were plenty more options, but that threw my miles over the limit (by 1000 dammit!).

Can anybody help me out with their brilliant and experienced brains? I feel under pressure to find a new workaround before my options close up and I don't know what the best option is. I thought I'd just pay for the LIM-GIG segment but it's incredibly expensive despite its relative distance.

Thank you in advance for your ideas.

Your itinerary is more than 35,000 miles so you will need to fix that as well as remove a stopover.

 

[flyingchicken]

Your itinerary is more than 35,000 miles so you will need to fix that as well as remove a stopover.

Thanks jetpack I didn't catch those extra few miles. I've crunched it down to 34,878. Now I've got the following:

DBO xSYD xHKG DEL
DEL xDOH WAW ($$ Purchase WAW-KRA-FCO)
FCO - AMM ($$ Purchase rtn CAI)
AMM xDOH xJFK CUN ($$ Purchase CUN-LIM)
LIM - GIG
GIG xSCL xSYD DBO

What do you think?

 

[flychrisfly]

Hi RTW family,

You don't have to go RTW, the OneWorld Award is not a RTW fare though it can be used that way. Accordingly, the OneWorld Explorer tool will show you valid flights for purchase (not available award seats) and can kinda be used as a planning tool but only works for RTW fares. Not sure if the available airlines for a paid RTW fare vs a OneWorld Award are the same (thinking airlines like Aer Lingus, Fiji Airways, et).

 

[leer30]

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!

Just completed my booking, and all up finished at around $2500 for 2 pax in J.

Transit through LHR twice, (no stopovers there) and using CX and JL kept our costs down, the most expensive segment was the BA from ORD to BRU.