Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[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.

 

[ozflier]

The OWA award allows for one stopover and 2 transits per city - you don't seem to have exceeded that but your itinerary is not clear.
I know the hassle with contacting the QFF call centre - why not ring first thing in the morning and, with luck, you may be offered a call back .

 

[jkcfc]

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?

And now it feels like i'm living out the definition of insanity - expecting things to change but keep on calling and getting the same response even from Auckland.

This is even after my DOH-BNE flight disappeared again overnight.

I really don't know what to do. It does go through to the section where you can manually change the flight through MMB but in the past it hadn't however comes up with an error saying Qantas can't find any available flight alternatives for the 3 days either side of the booking.

Any advice?

Should I be saying something specific like the tickets haven't been issued or any other ideas?

 

[bnr032]

Another update. so even though on friday i was told 'dont worry it will be ticketed today'
it wasnt
So todays experience
7:39am - called, offered call back (told 30min-1hr wait)
10:27am - called me back. Agent said she would look into why its not ticketed, i said i wanted to be on hold not told it will be done.
12:02pm - agent picked the line up again, explained to me, the points hadnt been paid, to which i explained they were when i initially booked, told her the amount and date. on hold again
12:58pm - agent picked up again, explained no there is a fee difference - now would have to pay the difference to 318k pts, and an extra $450 something in taxes. I tried to explain its an involuntary change, as there was no other business seat options you could offer me to get me from BNE to LAX in the 5 dates i could offer. Explained the agent and I looked at them all, before Doha connection only one available.
I am now on hold again whilst she consults her support/supervisor
but mentioned she maybe able to request a business class retail seat be converted to rewards for me.
I said i dont mind which way, but i shouldnt have to pay extra for a change out of my hands.


At times i really wish i could invoice my time being on hold all of these days.

EDIT - they have officially came back and said no, the route to via doha will not be offered an no extra charge. so they are reverting my booking to a still cancelled flight and sending a 'request to convert retail seat to reward'on the direct QF flight... but she also said its not a garuntee