Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[levelnine]

Was there any significant change to Finnair routes?

Yes, huge changes:

FINNAIR Schedule change 2022/2023 - impact on Rewards Bookings

If , like me , you have a trip to Europe booked via Tokyo and Helsinki next year note below. Particularly worrying given QFs seeming inability to re-ticket reward seats in a timely manner. Note change to Haneda. If flying into Narita - unable to transfer to Haneda based on current restrictions...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You probably won't find an alternative, sorry. Now that Qantas has lost Qatar availability, the OWA is quickly becoming less and less viable because it is getting so hard to get to/from Europe on a oneworld carrier with Cathay largely out of action, Qatar gone, Finnair cancelling routes, Qantas rarely releasing seats etc.

 

[melbkate]

Hello all - I have J trip for June 2023 booked MEL-DOH-FCO on Qatar coming home CDG-HEL AY1574 (3 days there) then HEL-NRT AY73 connecting though NRT-MEL on JAL773

From: Helsinki departs at 17.45
To: Tokyo (Narita) (terminal 2) arrives at 09.10
Flight: AY73

connecting with

From: Tokyo (Narita) (terminal 2) departs at 10.30
To: Melbourne (terminal 2) arrives at 21.55
Flight: JL773

Just got sent a flight change for the AY flights - CDG-HEL AY1574 to AY1572 2 hours earlier no big deal as staying in Helsinki for 3 days however the new HEL-NRT is now changed to 2 hours later AY61 and flying into HAN

Obviously we are now 4 hours late for our JAL773 and also in wrong terminal. So what do I do? I am afraid of losing the Qatar flights. Do I just wait for Qantas to hopefully put us on JL051 19.20 HAN-SYD-MEL best option I can see? Or do I try and orchestrate it myself?

Also if I do nothing does it need to be reticketed anyway and could possibly lose the Qatar flights?

I have a bad feeling about this booking! Advice welcome.. Kate

 

[kctt]

If i have a flight booked with transit, for example Paris to Copenhagen via Helsinki (CDG-HEL-CPH), is it possible to request cancel just one leg Helsinki-Copenhagen and keep Paris-Helsinki? This is part of OWA trip.
If it is a standalone booking only 1 flight, i think it's not allowed but probably ok in OWA multi flights?

 

[SimonR32]

Hi everyone. Was there any significant change to Finnair routes?
I have an Osaka-Helsinki flight with Finnair next year which was quietly cancelled without notice.
I only find out about it when I receive email from CMT and Qantas today about another change flight Copenhagen to Bangkok (via Helsinki) with Helsinki to Bangkok leg departed before I would arrive in Helsinki from Copenhagen.
What should i do? Qantas website shows no suggested option for the cancelled flight Osaka-Helsinki. Is it common to be cancelled just like that? I cannot find any business reward seat around the cancelled flight date. I reckon tough luck to find one
Thank you.

I have 2 tickets from Tokyo to Helsinki on Japan Airways J class next year so maybe look at that as an option? Getting from Osaka to Haneda is fairly easy and quick with the Shinkansen.

Otherwise maybe look into stuff out of Kansai, assuming you were booked from Itami

 

[kctt]

Yes, huge changes:

FINNAIR Schedule change 2022/2023 - impact on Rewards Bookings

If , like me , you have a trip to Europe booked via Tokyo and Helsinki next year note below. Particularly worrying given QFs seeming inability to re-ticket reward seats in a timely manner. Note change to Haneda. If flying into Narita - unable to transfer to Haneda based on current restrictions...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You probably won't find an alternative, sorry. Now that Qantas has lost Qatar availability, the OWA is quickly becoming less and less viable because it is getting so hard to get to/from Europe on a oneworld carrier with Cathay largely out of action, Qatar gone, Finnair cancelling routes, Qantas rarely releasing seats etc.

What is the chance when I ask Qantas to request Finnair to release reward seat Tokyo-Helsinki to replace my cancelled flight Osaka-Helsinki?

 

[kctt]

I have 2 tickets from Tokyo to Helsinki on Japan Airways J class next year so maybe look at that as an option? Getting from Osaka to Haneda is fairly easy and quick with the Shinkansen.

Otherwise maybe look into stuff out of Kansai, assuming you were booked from Itami

I'm happy with any route from either Osaka/Tokyo to anywhere in Europe but cannot find any business reward seats in end April & early May. I tried searching Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, Paris, Rome

 

[levelnine]

What is the chance when I ask Qantas to request Finnair to release reward seat Tokyo-Helsinki to replace my cancelled flight Osaka-Helsinki?

About 5%. A lot of people in this thread have attempted similar things, I've barely seen anyone who has been successful. Often the requests are never made. And when they are made, the other airlines often ignore them.

 

[SimonR32]

I'm happy with any route from either Osaka/Tokyo to anywhere in Europe but cannot find any business reward seats in end April & early May. I tried searching Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, Paris, Rome

For direct flights on one world airlines from Japan to Europe I believe your options are Helsinki, Frankfurt, Paris and London

 

[acinod]

East coast flights to LHR via PER usually have a short transit time (1-2 hours). If the flight to PER is delayed and we miss the connection, how will Qantas get us to LHR? Will we still be flying business?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

East coast flights to LHR via PER usually have a short transit time (1-2 hours). If the flight to PER is delayed and we miss the connection, how will Qantas get us to LHR? Will we still be flying business?

There will probably be many pax in the same situation, so you’d hope QF has plans in place. Either a slight delay to the onward service to LHR, or, of the delay was serious you should be accommodated out of the port of origin rather than making you fly to PER for a connection they know you can’t make.

The qantas terms and conditions of carriage provide they will get you on the next available service, but if that’s full, or they don’t have seats in business, you can elect to fly on a later flight that does have business class.

 

[Ponky]

So my all-J OWA was thrown into temporary disarray yesterday when my mid-November JAL flight JL003 from JFK-HND was cancelled, and reinstated as JL005, which departs 12 hours later, and arrives in Tokyo 6 hours after my original onward flight NRT-MEL was due to leave.

Of course, with every cloud there is a silver lining, as it forced a reckoning with my HND-NRT transfer quandary.

I had originally booked an alternative route HND-BKK-KUL-PER on a separate ticket as insurance against the changing airports issue not being resolved, but that was also made untenable by the changed JFK flight arriving 40 minutes after scheduled departure.

Had a look on the multi-city booking page and to my great surprise and delight discovered two business classic rewards HND-SYD on Qantas with a 5 hour connection time, so I decided I needed to bite the bullet and get onto it, rather than accept the change on MMB and wait for Qantas to fill in the blanks.

Called Qantas, got onto the South African call centre within minutes,. Overall, it was a pretty positive experience, resolved within about 40 minutes. We nabbed those HND-SYD seats straight away. We were unable to get anything in J from SYD-PER on day of arrival, so needed to add an extra day in Sydney to get it done, but there were no extra points required and no additional taxes & fees, because we were responding to their schedule changes and not ours. The changes were immediate and the person in the SA call centre said those magic words "let me ticket that for you right now". New ticket numbers appeared about 90 minutes later.

So all in all, what could have been a disaster has turned out pretty well, with a bonus extra 12 hours in NYC!

Happy days until the next flight change!

 

[kctt]

Had a look on the multi-city booking page and to my great surprise and delight discovered two business classic rewards HND-SYD on Qantas with a 5 hour connection time, so I decided I needed to bite the bullet and get onto it, rather than accept the change on MMB and wait for Qantas to fill in the blanks.

You are very lucky to have business reward seats available on exact same date that you need and it's only 2 months away.
It looks like Qantas call centres have been improved

 

[kctt]

Hi everyone. Was there any significant change to Finnair routes?
I have an Osaka-Helsinki flight with Finnair next year which was quietly cancelled without notice.
I only find out about it when I receive email from CMT and Qantas today about another change flight Copenhagen to Bangkok (via Helsinki) with Helsinki to Bangkok leg departed before I would arrive in Helsinki from Copenhagen.
What should i do? Qantas website shows no suggested option for the cancelled flight Osaka-Helsinki. Is it common to be cancelled just like that? I cannot find any business reward seat around the cancelled flight date. I reckon tough luck to find one
Thank you.

I just called Qantas and had an unhelpful operator in Fiji call centre.
She said for cancelled flight, she can only look at availability with same carrier and same class. There is obvious no availability because Finnair cancelled a whole route. She asked if I want to check availability in next month. I told her previous flight and next flight is within a few days of the cancelled flight. There is no use to check availability in next month.
She also suggested I can cancel trip and get refund when there is no availability. She is quite keen on this option asking me a few times :-I

 

[algae]

I have an Osaka-Helsinki flight with Finnair next year which was quietly cancelled without notice.

Same here. Got an email from Qantas and Finnair on Wednesday.
Fortunately looked online and saw hel to Tokyo was avaliable for 2 people on the exact same day with JL in business (miracle I know).

Called Qantas on Wednesday (got SA). They were helpful and added the flights to MMB. Their supervisor refused to ticket it and they said they'd call back tomorrow.

Obviously that didn't happen.

So I called back on Friday. First person (SA) after 1h said they've put it in the queue for ticketing and it'll be done by the end of the day.

Couple hours later called again. This time (Asia?) was on the phone with her for over 2h and she was very helpful and worked out the $$ difference and processed that. Ended up being a $440 refund per person. But she couldn't ticket it. Said it was in the queue. All ticket numbers vanished from CMT shortly after.

Couple hours later, called back (Asia?) and after 1.5h she finally ticketed it. Accidentally hung up on me too but she called right back.

What an ordeal.
South Africa - 0/10
Asia - Slow but actually get it done 7/10

 

[algae]

I just called Qantas and had an unhelpful operator in Fiji call centre.
She said for cancelled flight, she can only look at availability with same carrier and same class. There is obvious no availability because Finnair cancelled a whole route. She asked if I want to check availability in next month. I told her previous flight and next flight is within a few days of the cancelled flight. There is no use to check availability in next month.
She also suggested I can cancel trip and get refund when there is no availability. She is quite keen on this option asking me a few times :-I

As per my example above, the only option is for you to check online for avaliability and call to have your booking updated unfortunately.

 

[melbkate]

Hello all - I have had changes made on 2 Finnair flights on my OWA. 2 cancelled and rescheduled with new flight numbers.

Does this mean it needs to be reticketed?

I have QR flights to Europe and don't want to risk losing them.

Also we now arrive in Tokyo Handa missing our JL NRT-MEL fligt by 4 hours. Do I just wait for Qantas / JL to hopefully put us on JL051 19.20 HAN-SYD-MEL best option I can see? Or do I try and orchestrate it myself?

Advice welcome.. Kate

 

[VPS]

Does anyone know the MCT in DOHA - two Qatar flights

 

[DC3]

… Does this mean it needs to be reticketed? ….

Yes. I would expect it to be re-ticketed.

…. Do I just wait for Qantas / JL to hopefully put us on JL051 19.20 HAN-SYD-MEL best option I can see? Or do I try and orchestrate it myself

I would not expect the airlines to find new flights. I had a JL flight cancellation a few months ago and the airlines did nothing, despite an email from QF advising that an alternative would be rebooked within 72 hours.

 

[kctt]

Does anyone have experience with cancel a leg in a flight with transit?
For example, Sydney-Tokyo-Osaka. Can I cancel Tokyo-Osaka leg and keep Sydney-Tokyo only?

 

[gfraser]

I have been waiting for awhile to begin a OWA for next year.
Today is the day I can start and entered all the details and finally get to
” problem with the central database” and unable to finalise.
Tried iPhone, iPad and laptop and all the same.
I don’t want to lose the flights and any suggestions other than calling would be appreciated.