Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Mr H]

I have never flown with Sri Lankan Airways or Royal Air Maroc but I have just had a J OW classic rewards itinerary ticketed for my wife and me commencing in Aug 2025 (with a shout out to the great work and timely assistance of the QF escalations team in Hobart). This trip consists entirely of UL and AT flights, something that just eventuated without much conscious effort on my part and finding availability was far less time consuming compared to the multiple OW CR bookings I've done in the past. It appears that quite a few RAM flights have 2 J rewards available.

For anyone interested, our itinerary is this:
MEL - CMB - CDG UL Stop 1 including a land leg CDG - NCE and road trip thru Swiss Alps and Dolomites beginning and ending in Milan
MXP - CMN - GRU AT Stop 2 (with cash fares to/from GRU - GIG)
GRU - CMN AT Stop 3 (with train to Tangier and ferry to Spain for road trip around Andalucia before returning via ferry)
RAK - CMN - DOH - CMB Stop 4 AT & UL
CMB - MLE UL Stop 5
MLE - CMB - MEL UL

This has 13 sectors and is just over 54,000km
* I may still yet add CGD - LHR - NCE or CDG - MAD - NCE later

Super impressive.

 

[p--and--t]

I have never flown with Sri Lankan Airways or Royal Air Maroc but I have just had a J OW classic rewards itinerary ticketed for my wife and me commencing in Aug 2025 (with a shout out to the great work and timely assistance of the QF escalations team in Hobart). This trip consists entirely of UL and AT flights, something that just eventuated without much conscious effort on my part and finding availability was far less time consuming compared to the multiple OW CR bookings I've done in the past. It appears that quite a few RAM flights have 2 J rewards available.

For anyone interested, our itinerary is this:
MEL - CMB - CDG UL Stop 1 including a land leg CDG - NCE and road trip thru Swiss Alps and Dolomites beginning and ending in Milan
MXP - CMN - GRU AT Stop 2 (with cash fares to/from GRU - GIG)
GRU - CMN AT Stop 3 (with train to Tangier and ferry to Spain for road trip around Andalucia before returning via ferry)
RAK - CMN - DOH - CMB Stop 4 AT & UL
CMB - MLE UL Stop 5
MLE - CMB - MEL UL

This has 13 sectors and is just over 54,000km
* I may still yet add CGD - LHR - NCE or CDG - MAD - NCE later

I have tried looking for flights originating in Colombo in multi-sector search and it doesn’t seem to have the airport loaded as an origin airport?

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Jacques Vert]

If they mean just to remove the AF flights, then yeah I agree - remove them if/when you make other changes to the booking.

Or when there is a change initiated by one of the airlines.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I have tried looking for flights originating in Colombo in multi-sector search and it doesn’t seem to have the airport loaded as an origin airport?

What am I doing wrong?

You can't start a flight in CMB on the QF website; CMB is not supported as an originating airport. Put in a dummy first flight and you will then be able to search flights departing from CMB as a second or subsequent flight.

 

[itsjackson]

Yeah, I’m aware of the NZ problem, but I shouldn’t have issues with continents as I’m starting in KUL.

Is there any way around the NZ problem where it counts as Australia?

 

[sap1l]

Is there any way around the NZ problem where it counts as Australia?

Not that I know of, sorry. Happy to be corrected if there is a way.

Your best bet is to probably re-work your itinerary and start in an Asian port.

What itinerary are you looking at? Maybe we can offer some suggestions.

 

[itsjackson]

Not that I know of, sorry. Happy to be corrected if there is a way.

Your best bet is to probably re-work your itinerary and start in an Asian port.

What itinerary are you looking at? Maybe we can offer some suggestions.

Thanks! Damn, I almost had it. I was hoping to fly from AKL since I'll be there anyway.

My itinerary right now is:
AKL-KUL MH
KUL-HKG CX
HND-SYD QF
SYD-MEL-HKG QF,QF
HKG-HND JL
NRT-FRA-LCY, JL,BA
LHR-HEL-PVG AY,AY
PVG-HKG CX
HKG-MEL-SYD QF

I'm also having trouble adding the HND-SYD segment as I'm running into the JQ search error.

 

[sap1l]

My itinerary right now is:

Sorry, I’m not fully following your itinerary. What are your stopovers?

If KUL is your first stop, then perhaps you can just start there? You lose one leg, but I think you will still hit the 318k cap (and you could potentially save miles for another Asian leg at the end).

Otherwise DPS may be your cheapest option to start from if you buy a one-way cash ticket from AKL.

 

[itsjackson]

Sorry, I’m not fully following your itinerary. What are your stopovers?

If KUL is your first stop, then perhaps you can just start there? You lose one leg, but I think you will still hit the 318k cap (and you could potentially save miles for another Asian leg at the end).

Otherwise DPS may be your cheapest option to start from if you buy a one-way cash ticket from AKL.

Oops Sorry, I should've mentioned.

My stopovers are:
AKL-KUL MH
KUL-HKG CX Stopover 1
HND-SYD QF Stopover 2
SYD-MEL-HKG QF,QF
HKG-HND JL Stopover 3
NRT-FRA-LCY, JL,BA Stopover 4
LHR-HEL-PVG AY,AY
PVG-HKG CX
HKG-MEL-SYD QF

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[ozflier]

I have never flown with Sri Lankan Airways or Royal Air Maroc but I have just had a J OW classic rewards itinerary ticketed for my wife and me commencing in Aug 2025 (with a shout out to the great work and timely assistance of the QF escalations team in Hobart). This trip consists entirely of UL and AT flights, something that just eventuated without much conscious effort on my part and finding availability was far less time consuming compared to the multiple OW CR bookings I've done in the past. It appears that quite a few RAM flights have 2 J rewards available.

For anyone interested, our itinerary is this:
MEL - CMB - CDG UL Stop 1 including a land leg CDG - NCE and road trip thru Swiss Alps and Dolomites beginning and ending in Milan
MXP - CMN - GRU AT Stop 2 (with cash fares to/from GRU - GIG)
GRU - CMN AT Stop 3 (with train to Tangier and ferry to Spain for road trip around Andalucia before returning via ferry)
RAK - CMN - DOH - CMB Stop 4 AT & UL
CMB - MLE UL Stop 5
MLE - CMB - MEL UL

This has 13 sectors and is just over 54,000km
* I may still yet add CGD - LHR - NCE or CDG - MAD - NCE later

I flew RAM both internationally and trans Europe 12 months ago- an excellent airline !

 

[vetrade]

You can't start a flight in CMB on the QF website; CMB is not supported as an originating airport. Put in a dummy first flight and you will then be able to search flights departing from CMB as a second or subsequent flight.

Yes, that's correct. Just to expand on that, the same applies to CMN and DOH too.

 

[Mr H]

Yes, that's correct. Just to expand on that, the same applies to CMN and DOH too.

And Lahore - and presumably lots of other places too.

 

[elanshin]

Does anyone know with a OWA if you depart LHR do you still get whacked with quite a lot of surchages?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Does anyone know with a OWA if you depart LHR do you still get whacked with quite a lot of surchages?

Whacked very hard.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Yes, that's correct. Just to expand on that, the same applies to CMN and DOH too.

And a few others as well.

 

[ozflier]

Does anyone know with a OWA if you depart LHR do you still get whacked with quite a lot of surchages?

Large surcharge for departures from the UK ( with a few exceptions eg Inverness) .
Its a government levied fee and varies according to which class you are travelling and the distance your first sector travels . I think 2000 miles is the magic number .
It is more complicated than this - and it does not apply to arrivals only departures .
The cost can be substantial well over AUD 1100 for business seats plus all the other fees !
There are a few workarounds .
Air Passenger Duty - Wikipedia is a good reference but may not be totally up to date as some fee increases occurred this year.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Whacked very hard.

Large surcharge for departures from the UK ( with a few exceptions eg Inverness) .
Its a government levied fee and varies according to which class you are travelling and the distance your first sector travels . I think 2000 miles is the magic number .
It is more complicated than this - and it does not apply to arrivals only departures .
The cost can be substantial well over AUD 1100 for business seats plus all the other fees !
There are a few workarounds .
Air Passenger Duty - Wikipedia is a good reference but may not be totally up to date as some fee increases occurred this year.

And was announced yesterday (our time) that it’s increasing further.

Details in this thread: UK Air Passenger Duty increasing again and more in 2025

 

[Lynda2475]

No APD flying into London airports, or if connecting through from elsewhere.

So fly into LHR long haul have your stay in London; then fly out of LON to somewhere close in western Europe small APD, then if flying long haul out of LHR just make sure you connect from an Euro airport on same day to avoid APD.

Or fly home from HEL.

 

[Mr H]

Its a government levied fee and varies according to which class you are travelling and the distance your first sector travels . I think 2000 miles is the magic number .

Sector can mean different things to different people. In this case, it means the total distance of the next series of flights until you next have a break of more than 24 hours or switch to a new ticket. So LHR-CDG-BGF in Y/J will count the mileage from LHR-BGF and charge at the highest class of travel you use on the journey.

 

[gaz0303]

I’ve been able to select 5 Y award seats to Europe and onto the UK, but I can’t find a way home travelling east ~8-10 Oct 25. Tried getting seats released as a WP but told only F class available. Do I book the available westerly flights and hope something opens up and then make changes?

Also, I note that when searching from different countries, teenagers can be classed as a child. Are taxes based on 1st origin or do they get recalculated somehow? Might need to do some dummy bookings and work out differences from having seperate tickets and lower tax, or point savings but more cash outlay.