Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Cynicor]

Thanks. I’m going to pour myself a drink and call the incompetent agents tonight. I expect it will be a 2 hour process.

2 hours of drinking to work up the strength or 2 hours calling and hanging up?

 

[algae]

2 hours of drinking to work up the strength or 2 hours calling and hanging up?

Best bet is to do both

 

[PaulyB]

Hello. I have a new question which I am sure will have been answered somewhere. Could you point me to where the info might be?
Despite some of the horror stories, I am planning to book a Qantas Oneworld Classic Flight Reward which will take me outside the period tickets are available. (6 months from May - end of October 2023).

If I start booking the multi-stop tickets, will the system calculate the total points needed as if it is a standard booking? I think I have read this is what happens but boy!! - that could be a lot of points I will need to have access to, even though they won't actually be needed for the total booking.

I suppose a workaround would be to book the flights and change the bookings when the right date becomes available and pay the fee but it seems a clunky way to do things.

Any thread or article that covers this aspect of it will be appreciated. Or even your experiences! .
Many thanks!
Paul

​

 

[fastferret]

Hi Paul.

Yes, points will be calculated as standard rewards flights.

However, once you satisfy the OWA requirement for two One Wold airlines other than Qantas, your points required will cap out at 318k for business flights.

This cap will continue as long as you meet the OWA Rules for total miles, no. of segments and stopovers etc.

Good luck with the booking!

 

[QF029]

I tweaked my trip over the weekend. Nothing fancy but I'm keen to visit South America.

MEL-LAX-SFO-LAS (QF J and AS Y). I need the AS sector(s) for the extra carrier.
LAS-DFW-MDE (AA Y and AA J)
BOG-MIA-JFK (AA J & AA Y)
JFK-AKL-SYD-MEL (QF J)

An earlier iteration of this trip had me visiting the Carribean after Colombia. I happened upon a BA flgith from SKB-ANU which would have added the extra carrier which I thought was super cool. Until they were charging ~$400 in fees/taxes for a 30 minute flight! I ditched that for more time in Colombia.

I've got Y more flights that I'd like which I'll keep checking. From previous experience I think I'll be on the upgrade list at the gate with AA as effectively I've bought a J ticket? If that's the case I should be a chance for an upgrade with OWE.

The AS segments in Y recognised my OWE status but would not let me select Premium class. I was able to get the seats through their online chat function which was very helpful.

Thanks again for the invaluable advice in this thread.

 

[djkelly69]

From previous experience I think I'll be on the upgrade list at the gate with AA as effectively I've bought a J ticket?

I am keen to hear about this? We have a ~5hr Y flight on AA in our J OWA and wife is QF Gold, so interested in how this works or experiences.

 

[QF029]

I am keen to hear about this? We have a ~5hr Y flight on AA in our J OWA and wife is QF Gold, so interested in how this works or experiences.

My recollection is I had a QF F award in 2014 or 2015 MEL-LAX-JFK with the second leg on AA metal. I had a confirmed seat in J and wasn't thinking about F but I appeared on the F upgrade list (3 class transcon). I assume it still works the same way but happy to be corrected by someone with recent experience.

 

[sb944]

Can I ask of a Silver or Gold member (I'm lowly Bronze for now)? Do you silver see many flights SYD-LAX or MEL-LAX, premium economy seats July-August 6 2023, and do Gold see them August to last booking day? Can fairly easily get myself to Silver by December when I need to start booking, but Gold not so easy, so I'm hoping there are a few options up until early August showing for Silver members.

 

[Walky]

Hey, I finally booked a RTW rewards booking for 4 in business class. I was planning on travelling in Dec 2023, but we changed our minds last week and I ended up booking flights for JUN/JUL 2023 on Friday.
Using my Qantas points
KUL-DEL-HEL-JFK
I have 3 segments in US booked
LAX-HND
HND-SIN
I used velocity points for PER-SIN/SIN-PER in business to start the trip.
I know its not the best use of a RTW ticket, but I only churned through credit cards for 2 years to get the points for this trip.
I could only book 6 flights using the multi city tool, and ringing up to book they couldn't see availability on one of my segments, but I managed to book it online.
I still need to book a SIN-KUL to start my itinerary and a couple of segments in the US in economy unless business availability comes up.
Does this need to be done over the phone as there is no way to manage my booking on the Qantas website?
Thanks

 

[Danger]

A number of members have reported trying to add a FF seat to an existing reservation when they can see a seat available on Qantas but the call centre agents can't. I ran into this today, not on a oneworld classic award but a regular frequent flyer booking on oneworld carriers and I think I may have some insight.

I was trying to change an existing, 3-leg itinerary ex-Paris. The already booked reservation included a LHR-HEL and that's what I wanted to change to a few hours earlier. I could see the seat on Qantas and ExpertFlyer showed one seat left. The agent couldn't see any seats in either class. While we were on the phone, I booked online the seat she couldn't see and expressed my aggravation at having to do it this way as I was now unprotected on an onward long-haul leg.

The agent looked into it and her conclusion was when I asked her to make the change, she was looking at availability priced in euros, not British pounds. I asked if this was a point of sale thing and she said no, just the system or screen they use. When she later looked for seats priced in pounds, she also couldn't see any but that's likely because I took the final seat.

I think the takeaway here is that if you're trying to add a flight that's priced in a different currency to what the existing itinerary is priced in, you may get an error over the phone. I don't know if asking the agent to search for availability on the 'screen' that shows availability priced in the original currency would help (or even be possible), but it might be worth a shot.

 

[Fil-Ski]

Hey, I finally booked a RTW rewards booking for 4 in business class. I was planning on travelling in Dec 2023, but we changed our minds last week and I ended up booking flights for JUN/JUL 2023 on Friday.
Using my Qantas points
KUL-DEL-HEL-JFK
I have 3 segments in US booked
LAX-HND
HND-SIN
I used velocity points for PER-SIN/SIN-PER in business to start the trip.
I know its not the best use of a RTW ticket, but I only churned through credit cards for 2 years to get the points for this trip.
I could only book 6 flights using the multi city tool, and ringing up to book they couldn't see availability on one of my segments, but I managed to book it online.
I still need to book a SIN-KUL to start my itinerary and a couple of segments in the US in economy unless business availability comes up.
Does this need to be done over the phone as there is no way to manage my booking on the Qantas website?
Thanks

Are you just transiting via DEL or leaving the airport?

 

[BriarFlyer]

I still need to book a SIN-KUL to start my itinerary and a couple of segments in the US in economy unless business availability comes up.
Does this need to be done over the phone as there is no way to manage my booking on the Qantas website?

Any changes/additions to an existing PNR have to be made by phoning the call centre, unfortunately. You do risk losing existing flights if the new itinerary isn't re-ticketed so you need to keep on it to ensure ticketing happens promptly ... and that the new itinerary does include all your sectors.

 

[Walky]

Are you just transiting via DEL or leaving the airport?

Just transiting.

 

[Walky]

Any changes/additions to an existing PNR have to be made by phoning the call centre, unfortunately. You do risk losing existing flights if the new itinerary isn't re-ticketed so you need to keep on it to ensure ticketing happens promptly ... and that the new itinerary does include all your sectors.

So do they essentially cancel your flight itinerary and then rebook it all together with the extra flights and hopefully those reward flights aren't booked by someone else during the reticketing process?
The fact they couldn't see 2 flights that I could book, will be a worry as well, 1 flight I swapped to a different day that they could see, but 1 leg they didn't see it at all.

 

[Fil-Ski]

Just transiting.

I urge you to reconsider this option

Check my DEL transit experience

DEL Transit Experinces - Poor in 2022

On another note - I have a 5 hour layover in Delhi with different tickets. Assuming I have to pick up my bags and re-check onto Lufthansa however wondering if this involves entering India and if I need to do anything before arriving there? A bit late for you, but for others in a similar...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Mr H]

So do they essentially cancel your flight itinerary and then rebook it all together with the extra flights and hopefully those reward flights aren't booked by someone else during the reticketing process?

No, they go from being ticketed back to being reserved/confirmed until they are either ticketed with a new ticket number or cancelled because they were not ticketed in time.

 

[Fil-Ski]

Thanks. I’m going to pour myself a drink and call the incompetent agents tonight. I expect it will be a 2 hour process.

2 hours of drinking to work up the strength or 2 hours calling and hanging up?

As expected the incompetence at Qantas continues. 1 1/2 hours wasted only for them to be unable to price up the flight! Then disconnected

I could do it in 10 minutes if the website wasn't such rabble

 

[Rach1616]

I made the call to add return sectors to my existing OWA booking today and as expected things went a bit haywire. The first staff member sounded like she knew what she was doing and all seemed to be going well with all the flights I had planned available. Then she said there was an issue with a "duplicate sector" and I couldn't fly out of Helsinki twice. I questioned this as I'm flying out of Tokyo 3 times on the same trip and after speaking with a supervisor she came back and read the me the Flight Conditions (which don't prohibit flying out of the same place twice). Then she said it was not possible and fobbed me off to the frequent flyer centre to explain the rule who promptly transferred me back to reservations. I then spoke to Eli in Fiji who was very helpful but came up against the same error which he couldn't explain or work out a way around but said if I want the trip for 318,000 points it will work if I remove the one (existing) flight HEL-AGP (which I was happy to lose). So he updated this, took the extra taxes and correct points (adding up to 318,000 each) and also agreed to send the request to manual ticketing rather than put me in the ticketing queue (but wouldn't let me wait on the call) and said he'd ring me back if there were any issues. I'm going to a call again re ticketing to make sure it happens but wondering if anyone has heard of the issue around not being able to fly out of the same airport twice? I remember a mention of a system issue with transiting twice in the same city but not sure why this would be an issue for one city (Helsinki) but not another (Tokyo) on the same OWA trip.
Thank you

 

[DC3]

… wondering if anyone has heard of the issue around not being able to fly out of the same airport twice? …

I guess that got you off the line, so they could spread some more rubbish to someone else.

HUACA, HUACA, HUACA ……….

 

[FenderQF]

Just sorted out a canceled leg by AY after a combined 15+ hrs on the line to incompetent agents mainly in Fiji and Phillipines. These are some things I was told by them
- to cancel ticket
- can’t mix classes ie downgrade segment
- no available options (there clearly was)
- pay for a revenue ticket on non OW airline!
- call back in a few weeks
I found Fiji far more incompetent and unwilling to try to solve the issue. I somehow managed to maintain my cool the whole time but gave up trying the HUACA method so I wrote a nice email to Qantas chief customer officer and within an hour I had a someone call me with three options available, I chose one and had the new e-tickets 5 minutes later.