Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[p--and--t]

Hmm... should I bother trying to get them to remove the fee? Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Its my experience that no booking fee was charged for me on two counts...

• if can't be booked on line (any glitch that prevents doing it yourself)
• J award booking

I think it depends on the operator, mine didn't even attempt to levy and said outright there will be no booking fee without prompting.

 

[Mattg]

Its my experience that no booking fee was charged for me on two counts...

• if can't be booked on line (any glitch that prevents doing it yourself)
• J award booking

I think it depends on the operator, mine didn't even attempt to levy and said outright there will be no booking fee without prompting.

Both of the above apply.

The thing I find more annoying is that I was not once informed they would charge the fee. The price I was quoted was 280,000 points. And if they had insisted on charging it, I would have asked to pay it in cash.

 

[cjd600]

Hmm... should I bother trying to get them to remove the fee? Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Probably not worth your time....just annoying that most of them seem unaware of it....I almost expect to need to have the discussion, then added wait time while they confirm it. I’d do it out of principle via chat if it popped up, rather than wait on hold for an hour to get through

 

[ellen10]

During my J x 2 booking I had to call 3 times to add and amend. The first time the operator said she would not even charge the 10000 change fee. The other two times they told me of the change fee but never once did anyone mention the assist fee.
I agree its annoying with mixed messages.

 

[Warren Mason]

During my J x 2 booking I had to call 3 times to add and amend. The first time the operator said she would not even charge the 10000 change fee. The other two times they told me of the change fee but never once did anyone mention the assist fee.
I agree its annoying with mixed messages.

I am very new to this and have started booking my first 280K filght and didn't know about the assist fee. I did a web chat with Qantas on the site and I have to say that didn't help me at all. lol He tried to direct me to the One World site and so I corrected him and sent him the URL for the info on the Qantas site. I got the feeling he knew nothing about the whole oneworld filghts.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated. I have so far booked SYD-ADL-FCO and hope to book our return in Feb LHR-LIS-MAD-DOH-ADL-SYD. All in J class. What fees can I expect to have to hand over to Qantas for doing the additions? Is it better to pay in cash or points?

 

[Captain Halliday]

I am very new to this and have started booking my first 280K filght and didn't know about the assist fee. I did a web chat with Qantas on the site and I have to say that didn't help me at all. lol He tried to direct me to the One World site and so I corrected him and sent him the URL for the info on the Qantas site. I got the feeling he knew nothing about the whole oneworld filghts.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated. I have so far booked SYD-ADL-FCO and hope to book our return in Feb LHR-LIS-MAD-DOH-ADL-SYD. All in J class. What fees can I expect to have to hand over to Qantas for doing the additions? Is it better to pay in cash or points?

If you’re booking in J (business) you should only have to pay two things when adding the extra sectors:
1. The change fee. It’s 5,000 points per person. IIRC
2. Any additional taxes that apply for the sectors you add. This is paid in cash.

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

Edited to correct number of points required for change. Thanks @cjd600

 

[cjd600]

If you’re booking in J (business) you should only have to pay two things when adding the extra sectors:
1. The change fee. It’s 6,000 points per person. IIRC
2. Any additional taxes that apply for the sectors you add. This is paid in cash.

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

1.Change fee is 5k points pp (6k is to cancel).

I am very new to this and have started booking my first 280K filght and didn't know about the assist fee. I did a web chat with Qantas on the site and I have to say that didn't help me at all. lol He tried to direct me to the One World site and so I corrected him and sent him the URL for the info on the Qantas site. I got the feeling he knew nothing about the whole oneworld filghts.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated. I have so far booked SYD-ADL-FCO and hope to book our return in Feb LHR-LIS-MAD-DOH-ADL-SYD. All in J class. What fees can I expect to have to hand over to Qantas for doing the additions? Is it better to pay in cash or points?

When calling just say you want to 'make changes to an existing award booking' and reel off your flights you want to add. Don't mention Oneworld Award etc, Round the World (definitely don't), or you'll likely trigger much confusion. They don't need to know what sort of award it is, as long as you keep within the rules it'll max out at 280k

 

[Warren Mason]

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

Do you have a link to the terms? I had a look and can't find them. Would be nice to be able to give tham a URL to save time while they confirm.

 

[p--and--t]

If you’re booking in J (business) you should only have to pay two things when adding the extra sectors:
1. The change fee. It’s 6,000 points per person. IIRC
2. Any additional taxes that apply for the sectors you add. This is paid in cash.

If they try to charge you the telephone booking fee, you can point them to their own terms which say this doesn’t apply for awards in J.

I wasn't charged nor asked for a change fee when I made a change that couldn't be achieved online (i.e. the sector/flights didn't appear in the engine).

 

[Warren Mason]

I wasn't charged nor asked for a change fee when I made a change that couldn't be achieved online (i.e. the sector/flights didn't appear in the engine).

All my flights are available just not bookable at present so I guess I have to pay. Not a problem though as I just about earned enough points from Red Energy and Woolworths this week to cover them .

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Do you have a link to the terms? I had a look and can't find them. Would be nice to be able to give tham a URL to save time while they confirm.

Here you go:
Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

Particularly section 14.5

 

[Captain Halliday]

Do you have a link to the terms? I had a look and can't find them. Would be nice to be able to give tham a URL to save time while they confirm.

Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas
It's the fourth sentence under the sub-heading "service fees":
"Service Fees will not be applied when changing Classic Flight Rewards booked for travel in Business or First class."

 

[Familyman1]

Warren, One other trick you should consider. I noticed that your trip is just to Europe. You could consider having 2 holidays in Europe instead of just one. We have done this before and will be doing it next year as well (one trip in summer and one over Christmas). You just need to stop the first trip in Asia and start the second trip from Asia. In our case, Singapore is our "6 month stopover" and we will just pay for the SIN-BNE & BNE-SIN flights (we used Scoot last time for this). Keeping within the 35,000 miles can be a slight problem but it is do-able. Here is the itinerary I am current half way through booking for 2 in J and 1 in Y:
BNE-HKG(S)-LHR(S, surface)-BGO-HEL-SIN(6 month Stop)-HEL(S)-DUS(S, surface)-FRA-HEL-PVG-HKG-BNE (34,849 mi)

So we will have a month in the UK and Norway in Summer and spend Xmas/New Year in Germany and Austria. Hopefully. I've still got to book the flights home from Europe which could be a problem in January.
Including 6 flights on Finnair seems to be another good trick to keep the fees and taxes down. It requires a stopover in Helsinki and 2 transits. I have been booking these Finnair flights exactly 361 days before I want to fly, soon after they appear at 10am Brisbane time.

 

[p--and--t]

Warren, One other trick you should consider. I noticed that your trip is just to Europe. You could consider having 2 holidays in Europe instead of just one. We have done this before and will be doing it next year as well (one trip in summer and one over Christmas). You just need to stop the first trip in Asia and start the second trip from Asia. In our case, Singapore is our "6 month stopover" and we will just pay for the SIN-BNE & BNE-SIN flights (we used Scoot last time for this). Keeping within the 35,000 miles can be a slight problem but it is do-able. Here is the itinerary I am current half way through booking for 2 in J and 1 in Y:
BNE-HKG(S)-LHR(S, surface)-BGO-HEL-SIN(6 month Stop)-HEL(S)-DUS(S, surface)-FRA-HEL-PVG-HKG-BNE (34,849 mi)

So we will have a month in the UK and Norway in Summer and spend Xmas/New Year in Germany and Austria. Hopefully. I've still got to book the flights home from Europe which could be a problem in January.
Including 6 flights on Finnair seems to be another good trick to keep the fees and taxes down. It requires a stopover in Helsinki and 2 transits. I have been booking these Finnair flights exactly 361 days before I want to fly, soon after they appear at 10am Brisbane time.

Familyman1

Just wondering if there is any reason why you chose the "stopover" as Asia. Why not somewhere in Australia & just pay return fares say Syd-Mel or Bne-Syd in your case.

 

[cjd600]

Familyman1

Just wondering if there is any reason why you chose the "stopover" as Asia. Why not somewhere in Australia & just pay return fares say Syd-Mel or Bne-Syd in your case.

The T and C's...
14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

 

[Familyman1]

Familyman1

Just wondering if there is any reason why you chose the "stopover" as Asia. Why not somewhere in Australia & just pay return fares say Syd-Mel or Bne-Syd in your case.

As soon as you return to the country you started from, the trip is over.

 

[wingtip626]

Are Qantas call centre operators able to book CX flights 360 days in advance? Or are they limited by QF’s award release of 353 days?

 

[Familyman1]

They should be available 360 days in advance - on-line and at call centres.

 

[Familyman1]

I just checked on-line and it seems like not all CX flights are showing. For example BNE to HKG is not showing for 360 days in advance. However, if you search for BNE to PVG, CX flights from BNE to HKG do show 360 days in advance.

A few months ago, I booked BNE to PVG via HKG online and just cancelled the HKG to PVG later when I was making some other changes. That worked fine.

Alternatively, you could just use the call centre which may have all CX flight availability up to 360 days in advance.

 

[p--and--t]

As soon as you return to the country you started from, the trip is over.

The T and C's...
14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

Thank-you for that. I was mistakenly under the impression it was related to city only and didn't pick up country as well. Not tried a two holiday itinerary as yet. Goals!!