Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[ozflier]

Hey everyone. I'm in need of some pretty urgent advice. I'm currently mid-way through my outbound trip using OWA to get to Italy, and return home from France.

Due to many muck arounds one of my domestic flights repositioning in Oz ended up being economy, which I later successfully upgraded with a points bid in MMB (only confirmed and took that flight today/last night).

I'm literally sitting in HIA at Doha waiting for my last flight to Italy, finally got some wifi access and see that somehow today following the confirmation of the upgrade and the flight, my ticket has maybe been put in a queue for reticketing or something and 3 of my 5 return flights (all non-qantas) have disappeared leaving me stuck over here. E ticket numbers have disappeared from Check My Trip and all the flights. It wasnt like that when I got on the plane, but now it's gone.

I've tried calling a number of numbers, email, twitter, facebook, and an online form enquiry. I haven't found a number that works from here. The other airlines (understandably) say that I need to talk to Qantas.

Has this ever happened to anyone else, or have a suggestion of how to proceed? Number I can call from Italy when I land there etc? I'm really at a loss now.

Not a nice situation to be in .
Not enough info to know what exactly is going on but the issue of a changed itinerary not being ticketed happens far too often.
This particularly applies to Qatar Airways which apparently only holds a reservation for 24 hours or so before it is cancelled .
I have phoned Qantas successfully from overseas locations in the past - eg Cardiff though the wait time was many hours on hold.
Most of these overseas lines operate 24 hours a day so may have just to get to a preferably toll free line in Italy and be prepared to wait on hold.
It will be worthwhile taking screenshots, copies of docs etc and make a diary to be able to explain your situation to your travel insurer in case you incur extra costs while waiting for your itinerary to be reticketed. In fact, it may not hurt making them aware of the situation you are in .

 

[flyingchicken]

The website gives this as a number to call from Italy: +41 44 511 1237

Is it possible that your upgraded flight was re-ticketed and means you were a no-show on your redemption itinerary? Hopefully your forthcoming flight to Italy has not been cancelled too. You might want to check that right away.

Thanks for checking. I definately have my next boarding pass in hand, and waiting at the gate for the final flight now.

I'll try to buzz them when I get there. I tried the Qatar number whilst I'm here in HIA but it just rings out. Hopefully that number gets us through.

Post automatically merged: Mar 27, 2022

Not a nice situation to be in .
Not enough info to know what exactly is going on but the issue of a changed itinerary not being ticketed happens far too often.
This particularly applies to Qatar Airways which apparently only holds a reservation for 24 hours or so before it is cancelled .
I have phoned Qantas successfully from overseas locations in the past - eg Cardiff though the wait time was many hours on hold.
Most of these overseas lines operate 24 hours a day so may have just to get to a preferably toll free line in Italy and be prepared to wait on hold.
It will be worthwhile taking screenshots, copies of docs etc and make a diary to be able to explain your situation to your travel insurer in case you incur extra costs while waiting for your itinerary to be reticketed. In fact, it may not hurt making them aware of the situation you are in .

Thanks for the advice. I did wonder whether it was worth getting in touch with the travel insurance guys. I'll check that out now.

 

[Mr H]

And check that your boarding pass will still be recognised…

 

[jkcfc]

​

~Positioning flights (waiting to pay taxes/be ticketed) to/from DOH – on hold now after another ‘drop out’:

DOH-BNE-MEL (QR*/QF)​

MEL-DOH (QR*) [edit: this was a mistake by the agent who put us on a revenue fare - was able to adjust to BRI-DOH]​

Backup flights (ticketed):

DOH-DAC-KUL-MEL (QR/MH/MH)​

HND-SYD (JL premium economy) if Japan don’t open up to tourists by October.​

I'm at a loss - every time I call (7 times over 3 days) I get told the same thing regarding my positioning flights - they are all ticketed fine and there is nothing they can do. 1 of these was a proud '18 year veteran on the Premium line (SA)'. He pushed me towards the feedback form via customer care.

One agent was battling with the ticketing team for over 2 hours and put my case forward about the changes being stuck in the automated ticketing queue and that they need a supervisor to push through the ticketing. This agent only helped as I could show that one of my flights had dropped off my booking but not my partners (they split our booking during a previous change) even though 'these had been ticketed fully'.

We now have DOH-BNE-MEL & DOH-SYD-MEL bookings but neither are fully ticketed with a PDF containing the E-ticket, date issued & $ charged.

I booked MEL-ADE, DOH-SYD-MEL online (could not bear another call to have a booking originate from Doha) and did not receive an e-ticket number. I removed the MEL-ADE leg today and have been told it has been re-ticketed but of course no e-ticket pdf.

I'm guessing my only hope is to call again early Mon-Fri and keep hoping to get an Aus/NZ operator?

 

[Pom-DownUnder]

Cheeky side trip is a great idea but if you go business class on BA within Europe or close by , you are looking at economy class seating and slightly better catering vs the back of the plane.
This includes LHR-CAI .
Maybe consider LHR-Amman on Royal Jordanian - most days of the week , the AC is a 787 but all services have real business class seats and decent food and wine!

wow just had a look at the "club europe" somewhat .... underwhelming

 

[Mr H]

wow just had a look at the "club europe" somewhat .... underwhelming

Yes. It's a little unfair to single out BA - this is the standard for most intra-Europe business class.

 

[DC3]

wow just had a look at the "club europe" somewhat .... underwhelming

Yes, the Euro-business can be rather ordinary. Middle (economy-type) seat blocked (with a snap-in tray set-up) in Business and just a rather stale/dry sandwich to eat for lunch on BA LHR-FCO several years ago

 

[Mr H]

Yes, the Euro-business can be rather ordinary. Middle (economy-type) seat blocked (with a snap-in tray set-up) in Business and just a rather stale/dry sandwich to eat for lunch on BA LHR-FCO several years ago

Some airlines (e.g. Lufthansa, Finnair) don't even have the snap in tables.

 

[flyingchicken]

And check that your boarding pass will still be recognised…

So glad it worked. At least I got over here. Now just need to work out how to get back. Zero communication from Qantas yet, unsurprisingly.

 

[cambriamarsh]

Yes, the Euro-business can be rather ordinary. Middle (economy-type) seat blocked (with a snap-in tray set-up) in Business and just a rather stale/dry sandwich to eat for lunch on BA LHR-FCO several years ago

Did NAP-LGW 3 years ago, food was good albeit blocked middle seat. As often YMMV.

 

[bookworm]

Good Day all,

I‘m just wondering if anyone has managed to book internal US flights / Canada to USA as part of the OWA, in business class?
There appears to be no business class offering, only economy and First, however when I select First, I am advised that it would be a business class seat.

In terms of the 318,000 points, it is regarded as a First class ticket and obviously the 318,000 points no longer works.

Thank you

 

[Mr H]

Good Day all,

I‘m just wondering if anyone has managed to book internal US flights / Canada to USA as part of the OWA, in business class?
There appears to be no business class offering, only economy and First, however when I select First, I am advised that it would be a business class seat.

In terms of the 318,000 points, it is regarded as a First class ticket and obviously the 318,000 points no longer works.

Thank you

If it is marketed as F then it will cost F points. The flip side of it is that revenue flights in such seats earn F rates of miles and status.

 

[ozflier]

Yes. It's a little unfair to single out BA - this is the standard for most intra-Europe business class.

That is true but BA has expanded its "eurobusiness" offering beyond Europe eg to North Africa and Asia - sitting in cramped economy class seats for over 4 hours is a bit excessive.

 

[bnr032]

Good Day all,

I‘m just wondering if anyone has managed to book internal US flights / Canada to USA as part of the OWA, in business class?
There appears to be no business class offering, only economy and First, however when I select First, I am advised that it would be a business class seat.

In terms of the 318,000 points, it is regarded as a First class ticket and obviously the 318,000 points no longer works.

Thank you

Correct, For some reason the US consider Domestic Business class as 'First Class' .
Which if selected as part of your OWA, would put you into the 'first class pricing' for the trip.
The Issue i had for my US/Canada part of my trip. Is flights (even in economy) where just not selectable - even if i found real life flights - the Qantas Call Centre staff couldnt see them (so possibly no rewards seats were made available.
My Solution - just book seperate flights seperate to OWA booking.

 

[vetrade]

Good Day all,

I‘m just wondering if anyone has managed to book internal US flights / Canada to USA as part of the OWA, in business class?
There appears to be no business class offering, only economy and First, however when I select First, I am advised that it would be a business class seat.

In terms of the 318,000 points, it is regarded as a First class ticket and obviously the 318,000 points no longer works.

Thank you

Virtually all AA dom flights only have Y & F and it used to be that if booking a J OWA you could only book into Y. If you booked into F the whole trip became an F OWA. But that changed and I think you'll find that for the last several years, for the purposes of a OWA, you can book AA first class and it will be deemed to be a booking into a U class seat i.e. J, and you still only pay 318,000 points.

One anomaly is that even though Alaska Airlines and AA are now tied up, Alaska doesn't categorise First as a J seat for OWAs.

 

[ozflier]

Good Day all,

I‘m just wondering if anyone has managed to book internal US flights / Canada to USA as part of the OWA, in business class?
There appears to be no business class offering, only economy and First, however when I select First, I am advised that it would be a business class seat.

In terms of the 318,000 points, it is regarded as a First class ticket and obviously the 318,000 points no longer works.

Thank you

Hi,
Things have improved from this point of view .
American Airlines had this issue in the past- almost all flights were coach or first except for some longer distance ones connecting to international destinations.
This changed some time ago and now a business class award should get you into the front cabin of a US domestic two class aircraft if they are being offered.
Maybe, the reason that AA award seats are not coming up relates to
AA really have reduced their flight offering plus
many short to medium distances services are done by Regional affiliates with smaller a/c (eg Boston-Orlando on an Embraer 190)
an impression that award seats are being held back by AA not by Qantas ( if what I see on Expertflyer reflects the real situation)

 

[bookworm]

Thank you so much for your quick response. Yes unfortunately that’s what I discovered last night for Alaska. Finally connected to call centre after 5.5 hours and then another 2 hours to sort out tickets!

I managed to changed my initial stopover in Tokyo to a transit.

My flights look like this:


PER-MEL
MEL-NRT
NRT -LAX
LAX- LAS in Economy (STOPOVER)
SFO-ORD
ORD-LRH
LRH - IST (STOPOVER)
IST-DOH (STOPOVER)
DOH-MEL
MEL -PER

For some reason they could not process :
HEL-DOH (stopover)
DOH-IST (stopover)
IST- DOH transit

Hence I’m going to IST via London, on BA.

I was trying to add SEA-SFO but only available on economy, this was an Alaska Airline flight, and I may have bags then. ( I love shopping in the US) So I may bite the bullet and call again once my itinerary of road trips in US/Canada is confirmed.

Right now I’m bleary eyed with the lack of sleep and just can’t face the thought of another 7.5 hour call. ( they had initially advised of a 2 hour wait time).

I did have a lovely and helpful lady attending to me , and that was wonderful. ( As compared to the previous aborted trip for 2020, when most call centre staff did not know what they were doing).
I’m also thankful that the call was not cut off.

Have a great day, all you wonderful; sharing and supportive people.

 

[DC3]

I‘m just wondering if anyone has managed to book internal US flights / Canada to USA as part of the OWA, in business class?
There appears to be no business class offering, only economy and First, however when I select First, I am advised that it would be a business class seat.

In terms of the 318,000 points, it is regarded as a First class ticket and obviously the 318,000 points no longer works.

So, in general, booking AA at the pointy end will price within the oneworld 318,000 point award (other than for 3-cabin aircraft). U Class.

Booking AS at the pointy end will push it into the 455,00 point bracket. The AS flights need to be booked in Economy for the 318,000 point redemptions. T Class.

 

[ozflier]

Hi,

When you said
For some reason they could not process :
HEL-DOH (stopover)
DOH-IST (stopover)
IST- DOH transit

did you mean that no award seats were available for those sectors or was there a problem with the overall booking if those sectors were included?
I am guessing LRH refers to London Heathrow .
Do you have a stopover in SFO?
The total mileage does seem well below the 35K limit .

 

[bookworm]

Hi,

When you said
For some reason they could not process :
HEL-DOH (stopover)
DOH-IST (stopover)
IST- DOH transit

did you mean that no award seats were available for those sectors or was there a problem with the overall booking if those sectors were included?

There was availability of seats in business class.
Call centre told me too many transits through DOH which didn't make sense to me.
Thank you

Post automatically merged: Mar 28, 2022

So, in general, booking AA at the pointy end will price within the oneworld 318,000 point award (other than for 3-cabin aircraft). U Class.

Booking AS at the pointy end will push it into the 455,00 point bracket. The AS flights need to be booked in Economy for the 318,000 point redemptions. T Class.

Thank you.
I'll look into booking on AA, this was something that call centre didn't know about.