Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[wentworthmeister]

You’ll be pleased to know that the landing at “home airport / itinerary commencement point” is NOT counted as a stopover (thankfully ...)

I was fairly sure that was the case. Our issue is that while I'd like to utilise the remaining stopover, we're already right up against the miles limit (~34,000), and adding any further sectors (e.g. even a short hop like EDI-KEF) takes us over the limit.

 

[rock86]

The last time I checked there were plenty of award seats available on QF9 around the dates we were looking. Note that we're only going in Economy, not Business.

Ah fair enough, I thought you were planning J.

 

[wentworthmeister]

Ah fair enough, I thought you were planning J.

I've just ticked over the required 280k points required to do it in Economy, and seeing as we're planning to start the trip in August I think we'll need to go ahead and lock it in sooner rather than later. By August I'll probably have just enough to do it in J, but by that stage it'll be too late to find award seats.

 

[Tonkatough]

Thought I'd share my positive experience with my latest OWA 280k booking - 16 flights, 34,987 miles. The Qantas call centre staff seem to cop some flak here, but not in my recent experience.

After researching and deciding on my flights, I spent 20 minutes on the phone to a particularly helpful and efficient consultant. The booking actually stumbled on my second last leg, seemingly due to an AY married segment issue. All the other flights were saved into their system while I went away and looked at the alternatives, then I phoned back a few hours later and was finalised in 10 minutes.

Apart form the usual advice of knowing the rules, researching flights, etc, on this occasion it seemed to help in efficiently waiving the phone booking fee (with no questions asked) by reporting the 'error code' that the online booking system seems to often throw up at the last stage.

Thanks to all on this site for the tips.

 

[ellen10]

I'm glad it all worked out for you and a very positive experience for you @Tonkatough. It would be good to see the segments you booked. Was this in business or economy?

 

[soh]

I am part way through my 280k booking and looking at adding an INV-LHR-HEL-NRT. Using my BA account there are 2J and 0Y available on the days/times I need for the INV-LHR sector. When calling/live chat/SMS with QF they have no visibility of J on any day for INV-LHR and this matches the QF website. I really need to depart from INV to avoid the APD and don't really care if in Y or J but with only J available from BA and QF having no visibility it is causing some issues. Has anyone else had a similar experience and a potential fix?

 

[Tonkatough]

I'm glad it all worked out for you and a very positive experience for you @Tonkatough. It would be good to see the segments you booked. Was this in business or economy?

Business for me, included two QR flights so I was mindful of the experiences of others on this site with sudden unexplained losses of QR flights before being ticketed. Fortunately for me, was ticketed within the hour - Hobart call centre I think.

 

[wentworthmeister]

Question: Are the US domestic operators able to be used as part of the OWA? E.g. JFK-YYZ (AA operated by Envoy Air).

It's listed on the OW search engine here: oneworld Online Timetable

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Question: Are the US domestic operators able to be used as part of the OWA? E.g. JFK-YYZ (AA operated by Envoy Air).

It's listed on the OW search engine here: oneworld Online Timetable

According to the book of rules:
14.5.1 A oneworld Classic Flight Reward is a Classic Flight Reward Itinerary that includes travel on at least two oneworld Alliance Airlines other than Qantas and does not include any travel on any airline that is not a oneworld Alliance Airline.

My understanding is that the definition includes OneWorld Affiliate Airlines - refer to this link for a list: Giving You Access to More Destinations Around the World

American Eagle is on this list, and is defined (in note 1) as including Envoy Air. So I think that the short answer to your question is ‘yes’.

 

[Aussiejosh]

So due to my last flight getting cancelled on my itinerary due to schedule changes I have managed to push that transit out for another 24 hours therefore giving me a 6th stopover. Took over 2 weeks with multiple phones calls to get it sorted, but it's finally come through! Did try to get QF30 to MEL and then QF9 to Perth but they had to wait to see if Cathay approved the rescheduled flight.

Final itinerary is:
PER-HKG-KIX (CX)
NRT-YVR (JAL)
YVR-JFK (CX)
LGA-MIA-GYE (AA)
GRU-MAD (LATAM)
PSA-LHR-HKG (BA)
HKG-PER (CX)

 

[cjd600]

So due to my last flight getting cancelled on my itinerary due to schedule changes I have managed to push that transit out for another 24 hours therefore giving me a 6th stopover. Took over 2 weeks with multiple phones calls to get it sorted, but it's finally come through! Did try to get QF30 to MEL and then QF9 to Perth but they had to wait to see if Cathay approved the rescheduled flight.

Final itinerary is:
PER-HKG-KIX (CX)
NRT-YVR (JAL)
YVR-JFK (CX)
LGA-MIA-GYE (AA)
GRU-MAD (LATAM)
PSA-LHR-HKG (BA)
HKG-PER (CX)

Nice one!
Do you mind sharing the $++?

 

[Aussiejosh]

Nice one!
Do you mind sharing the $++?

Under $600 Don't ask me how but she double checked it twice.

 

[cjd600]

Under $600 Don't ask me how but she double checked it twice.

Wow.

 

[Danger]

I am part way through my 280k booking and looking at adding an INV-LHR-HEL-NRT. Using my BA account there are 2J and 0Y available on the days/times I need for the INV-LHR sector. When calling/live chat/SMS with QF they have no visibility of J on any day for INV-LHR and this matches the QF website. I really need to depart from INV to avoid the APD and don't really care if in Y or J but with only J available from BA and QF having no visibility it is causing some issues. Has anyone else had a similar experience and a potential fix?

It is likely that BA hasn't released J seats to QF to use, unfortunately.

 

[Warren Mason]

It is likely that BA hasn't released J seats to QF to use, unfortunately.

I have wondered if it is QF not making them available to the search engine.

 

[Isochronous]

It's been a few years since I booked one of these so can someone remind me - do surface sectors count towards the 35k distance limit?

 

[Phoebej]

Thanks to all the advice and tips on the forum, we have managed to have booked our first OneWorld Award in J for 2 people

Generally managed to get all the stops and routing we wanted.

SYD-HKG-CTU (Cathay)
CKG-HEL (Finnair)
VIE-MAD-JFK (Iberia)
LGA-MIA-UIO (American Airlines)
UIO-LIM-SCL (Latam)
SCL-SYD( QF)

Total surcharges + taxes ~$1200 per person. The last QF leg makes up most of it unfortunately so will keep an eye out any Latam seats that pop up.

 

[Phoebej]

It's been a few years since I booked one of these so can someone remind me - do surface sectors count towards the 35k distance limit?

Yes they do

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

It's been a few years since I booked one of these so can someone remind me - do surface sectors count towards the 35k distance limit?

Yes they do

And they also count towards the 16 sector limit

 

[rock86]

Thanks to all the advice and tips on the forum, we have managed to have booked our first OneWorld Award in J for 2 people

Generally managed to get all the stops and routing we wanted.

SYD-HKG-CTU (Cathay)
CKG-HEL (Finnair)
VIE-MAD-JFK (Iberia)
LGA-MIA-UIO (American Airlines)
UIO-LIM-SCL (Latam)
SCL-SYD( QF)

Total surcharges + taxes ~$1200 per person. The last QF leg makes up most of it unfortunately so will keep an eye out any Latam seats that pop up.

Nice destinations, well done!