Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm hoping that someone may be able to help.

I have nearly completed a OneWorld Reward itinerary for 5pax in economy.
So far I have booked BNE-DRW-SIN-HEL, HEL-LHR, LHR-JFK, EWK-DFW-HNL, SYD-BNE.
The flights all the way through to New York were booked online first, and the remainder of the flights were added via a phone call with a very helpful consultant.
The only leg missing is HNL-SYD.
The Qantas website shows 5 classic reward seats as being available for this leg.
The telephone consultant said she is unable to book this segment as the HNL-SYD reward seats are available for a new booking but the correct fare class is not available to add them to an existing booking. Does anyone know why this is the case, and is there a way around it? It's a long swim from HNL to SYD

Thanks in advance for any assistance. I have learned much from AFF over many years and always managed to find the answer to my question by searching threads, but this has left me stumped, hence my first post!

Is it an immediate connection SYD-BNE after arriving from HNL?

If so, there’s a system block in place that won’t allow you to book ‘separate’ connecting domestic flights on award tickets.

You can get around this by having 24 hours between flights.

I reckon if you were to cancel the SYD-BNE flights the HNL ones will be available for existing bookings.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I reckon if you were to cancel the SYD-BNE flights the HNL ones will be available for existing bookings.

Or cancel the SYD-BNE and ask for HNL-BNE.

 

[DC3]

Or cancel the SYD-BNE and ask for HNL-BNE.

Sneaky (via somewhere).

 

[bobeaumontswife]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Still no luck. Despite there being 5 reward seats on multiple flights between HNL and SYD on different days I'm getting the same answer today that none of these reward seats can be added to existing bookings, they are only available for new reward bookings. The SYD-BNE flight at the end is inconsequential, if it's deleted it makes no difference to the availability of the HNL-SYD leg. I think my energy is now going to be best directed to looking for alternative stopovers (with OneWorld airlines) between New York and Brisbane. Super frustrating.

 

[pyramidforce]

You need to hang up and call again 300 times. Make sure you fold 1000 paper cranes while you do so and roll the magic 8 ball. Also buy a powerball ticket. You could try learning tagalog to explain what you want from the manila agents or become an elected MP to get access to the chairmans lounge so you get the p1 line who will help you. Good luck!

 

[Kangol]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Still no luck. Despite there being 5 reward seats on multiple flights between HNL and SYD on different days I'm getting the same answer today that none of these reward seats can be added to existing bookings, they are only available for new reward bookings. The SYD-BNE flight at the end is inconsequential, if it's deleted it makes no difference to the availability of the HNL-SYD leg. I think my energy is now going to be best directed to looking for alternative stopovers (with OneWorld airlines) between New York and Brisbane. Super frustrating.

Did you say you want to "change" the booking?
How long are you stopping in HNL? If it's a connection (<24 hours) then the system may be looking at availability for EWR-BNE/SYD.

 

[DC3]

You need to hang up and call again …

HUACA is the way to do it. Admittedly, it’s a real pain, but eventually you are bound to get someone who will put it through for you. You just need the right person not these lazy/poor trained types.

 

[bobeaumontswife]

Did you say you want to "change" the booking?
How long are you stopping in HNL? If it's a connection (<24 hours) then the system may be looking at availability for EWR-BNE/SYD.

Yes, it's a change, or more specifically it's adding a flight to an existing itinerary. It's a three day stopover in HNL (give or take, we are flexible). The EWR-HNL flight is already in place.

 

[bobeaumontswife]

HUACA is the way to do it. Admittedly, it’s a real pain, but eventually you are bound to get someone who will put it through for you. You just need the right person not these lazy/poor trained types.

Both consultants seemed reasonably knowledgeable. They said exactly the same thing. There are award seats but they can't be added to existing bookings. They can only be booked as a new booking. Even trying random dates weeks later it was the same thing - there are classic awards available but to access them I would have to create a new booking thereby losing the benefit of the capped OWR.

 

[meowster]

Both consultants seemed reasonably knowledgeable. They said exactly the same thing. There are award seats but they can't be added to existing bookings. They can only be booked as a new booking. Even trying random dates weeks later it was the same thing - there are classic awards available but to access them I would have to create a new booking thereby losing the benefit of the capped OWR.

Try messaging them on facebook messenger, with your preferred flights. They seem to respond quite well

 

[DC3]

I think my energy is now going to be best directed to looking for alternative stopovers (with OneWorld airlines) between New York and Brisbane. Super frustrating.

I have a OWA trip of about 12 flights in Business class coming up. I started working on this almost 12 months out. It was looking good until I tried to return from the US to Oz. QF had no Classic award seats (only CR+).

I managed to book DFW-HND-SYD on JL by searching individual flights on the QF website, one at a time, from various US cities to Japan, and then trying to tie that in for JL flights to SYD/MEL.

JL has flights US-Japan from a number of North American cities, including HNL, ORD, BOS, SAN, JFK, DFW, LAX, SEA, SFO and YVR.

This may be worth looking into you haven’t done so already. Availability usually dries up pretty quick, and it will depend on how far out your trip is of course.

 

[DC3]

Both consultants seemed reasonably knowledgeable. They said exactly the same thing. There are award seats but they can't be added to existing bookings. They can only be booked as a new booking.

There are some posts on here where AFFers have proven this to be incorrect and have successfully made such bookings.

Don’t be fooled by the Call Centre staff sounding reasonably knowledgeable. Do they actually attempt to add the booking for you and “Computer says No”, or are they just providing the spiel that they have been successfully using on others? Probably hard to really tell I guess.

By the way, when you say “Both consultants seemed reasonably knowledgeable”, have you spoken to only two? It’s all about HUACA, HUACA, HUACA, rinse and repeat, repeat, repeat ……………. Yes, I feel the pain.

Edit: The Hobart Call Centre seems to produce the best results, but the chances of getting through to them is not good.

 

[bobeaumontswife]

I have a OWA trip of about 12 flights in Business class coming up. I started working on this almost 12 months out. It was looking good until I tried to return from the US to Oz. QF had no Classic award seats (only CR+).

I managed to book DFW-HND-SYD on JL by searching individual flights on the QF website, one at a time, from various US cities to Japan, and then trying to tie that in for JL flights to SYD/MEL.

JL has flights US-Japan from a number of North American cities, including HNL, ORD, BOS, SAN, JFK, DFW, LAX, SEA, SFO and YVR.

This may be worth looking into you haven’t done so already. Availability usually dries up pretty quick, and it will depend on how far out your trip is of course.

Thank you for the suggestion. I've been looking at Japan as an option but unsurprisingly I can't get 5x reward seats from Japan to anywhere in Australia. The problem is that we are talking Australia Day long weekend Jan 2026. Seats.aero is helping me identify lots of routes to try but no luck.

Post automatically merged: Mar 2, 2025

There are some posts on here where AFFers have proven this to be incorrect and have successfully made such bookings.

Don’t be fooled by the Call Centre staff sounding reasonably knowledgeable. Do they actually attempt to add the booking for you and “Computer says No”, or are they just providing the spiel that they have been successfully using on others? Probably hard to really tell I guess.

By the way, when you say “Both consultants seemed reasonably knowledgeable”, have you spoken to only two? It’s all about HUACA, HUACA, HUACA, rinse and repeat, repeat, repeat ……………. Yes, I feel the pain.

Edit: The Hobart Call Centre seems to produce the best results, but the chances of getting through to them is not good.

Thanks, I will try again tonight, and again tomorrow.

 

[flapper]

On my OWA I have a US domestic flight on AA in Y connecting to a J international flight on AY. I assume I can check my bagage throught to HEL. Does anyone know if I will be charged for checked baggage? I tried checking the AA website but it was rather vague:
"What will customers be charged if American can through-check the bag?
The charges would depend on what tickets the customer holds in the same PNR"

 

[pyramidforce]

Both consultants seemed reasonably knowledgeable. They said exactly the same thing. There are award seats but they can't be added to existing bookings. They can only be booked as a new booking. Even trying random dates weeks later it was the same thing - there are classic awards available but to access them I would have to create a new booking thereby losing the benefit of the capped OWR.

At the end of the day, it is up to you how much you want to fight it. At some stage, if it costs you 300 hours to get a good agent and you make federal minimum wage of 22 per hour, you have spend 6600 aud to save 20k QFF points. Thats one way of looking at it.

But unless you have (inadvertently) misrepresented something about your booking, the agent is just wrong. There shouldnt be any reason why syd-hnl doesnt work (unless it is on Hawaiian Air or Fiji air or something). I had an agent tell me she couldnt book me on DUB-LCY because she the moon was in the wrong phase of alignment with uranus. Good luck, understand though why u want to call it quits.

 

[pyramidforce]

Thank you for the suggestion. I've been looking at Japan as an option but unsurprisingly I can't get 5x reward seats from Japan to anywhere in Australia.

Yeah...that's not going to happen ever. Its a popular route even in off season. I think this idea is too ambitious to ever work.

 

[bobeaumontswife]

I'm hoping that someone may be able to help.

I have nearly completed a OneWorld Reward itinerary for 5pax in economy.
So far I have booked BNE-DRW-SIN-HEL, HEL-LHR, LHR-JFK, EWK-DFW-HNL, SYD-BNE.
The flights all the way through to New York were booked online first, and the remainder of the flights were added via a phone call with a very helpful consultant.
The only leg missing is HNL-SYD.
The Qantas website shows 5 classic reward seats as being available for this leg.
The telephone consultant said she is unable to book this segment as the HNL-SYD reward seats are available for a new booking but the correct fare class is not available to add them to an existing booking. Does anyone know why this is the case, and is there a way around it? It's a long swim from HNL to SYD

Thanks in advance for any assistance. I have learned much from AFF over many years and always managed to find the answer to my question by searching threads, but this has left me stumped, hence my first post!

Update: We decided to change our travel plans rather than keep pushing to access the HNL-SYD flights. Going to spend a few days in Miami instead. Husband and three teenage sons are happy, plenty of boats and fast cars. Also means we are flying home non-stop from DFW-BNE which is a long flight but less mucking around. OWR is now complete, everything booked and only $3,600 total in taxes for 5 people which I think is pretty good considering we have a flight out of LHR.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my query.

 

[Nfrequentflyer]

Hi all

It has been a while since I last booked flights using QFF points so thought Id join up here with a few questions. (Yes I know there is a search function, however hoping more experienced people can give me a quick rundown beforehand).

Query 1. I was trying to book a oneworld rewards ticket (the 132400 pnts capped round the world ticket) for around mid september this year, starting in Perth The multicity booking all seemed to indicate reward flights were available for each leg (as it had the little reward symbol on the flights), however, each time I tried to book the "somewhere in asia" to dubai to europe leg, error kept coming up saying no reward flights available for your requested dates... tried the business oneworld reward ticket and the same thing happens.
1. Is something dodgy going on?
2. Do I need to call Qantas to try and make the bookings?
3. Is there anyway you can be exempt from the 7700 pnts cost for making a booking over the phone?

Query 2. Checking the classic rewards qff points cost to fly from Perth to say Lisbon or Madrid return (or oneway), indicates a specific points cost (e.g per-sin-london 51200, lon-mad 14000) however when you try to "search for available flights, the points cost is always higher... same occurs for business flights.
4. Shouldnt the points cost be the same as what the points calculator indicates when flights are availlable?
5. Ive tried to extend travel dates into next year to try and secure flights using points, however it only goes to february 2026... So you cant try and search/book reward flights more than 11months in advance?

Regards

 

[Mr H]

Hi all

It has been a while since I last booked flights using QFF points so thought Id join up here with a few questions. (Yes I know there is a search function, however hoping more experienced people can give me a quick rundown beforehand).

Query 1. I was trying to book a oneworld rewards ticket (the 132400 pnts capped round the world ticket) for around mid september this year, starting in Perth The multicity booking all seemed to indicate reward flights were available for each leg (as it had the little reward symbol on the flights), however, each time I tried to book the "somewhere in asia" to dubai to europe leg, error kept coming up saying no reward flights available for your requested dates... tried the business oneworld reward ticket and the same thing happens.
1. Is something dodgy going on?
2. Do I need to call Qantas to try and make the bookings?
3. Is there anyway you can be exempt from the 7700 pnts cost for making a booking over the phone?

Query 2. Checking the classic rewards qff points cost to fly from Perth to say Lisbon or Madrid return (or oneway), indicates a specific points cost (e.g per-sin-london 51200, lon-mad 14000) however when you try to "search for available flights, the points cost is always higher... same occurs for business flights.
4. Shouldnt the points cost be the same as what the points calculator indicates when flights are availlable?
5. Ive tried to extend travel dates into next year to try and secure flights using points, however it only goes to february 2026... So you cant try and search/book reward flights more than 11months in advance?

Regards

You may be trying to include EK which is not OW. The telephone assistance fee is waived for J. Miles seem to be charged for each connecting flight in an itinerary until they call out if the OWA rules are met. You cannot book flights before they are released, either when paying with points or cash. The search function is your friend.

 

[Nfrequentflyer]

You may be trying to include EK which is not OW. The telephone assistance fee is waived for J. Miles seem to be charged for each connecting flight in an itinerary until they call out if the OWA rules are met. You cannot book flights before they are released, either when paying with points or cash. The search function is your friend.

Thanks for your response.

Hmmm, you're correct it was an Emirates flight, weird that they showed up with the Rewards Flight symbol on that leg AND I did click Rewards slider option.

Queries for all again:
1. Post-covid, how early should you be looking to try and book Classic Reward tickets to Europe in general? (The last time I managed to book a Oneworld Reward Classic ticket I did around 6months in advance with no issues, doing the PER-aus east coast-usa-europe travel direction)

2. Seeing as Emirates is not part of the OW alliance, what would be the airlines/routes leg to try if you want to go to Europe from Perth via the middle east region using Classic Rewards ticketing (I dont really want to have to go via longer London route then "backwards" slightly into europe)? Or is it better just to travel via the USA?

Regards