Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[Captain Halliday]

But if I just transit SIN on the way back?

Still no.

it’s not a stop? And

It’s a return to your point of departure and will terminate the award.

Post automatically merged: May 22, 2025

You are not permitted to return to your original country of departure.

Incorrect.

You are not allowed to depart your country of origin a second time.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Still no.

It’s a return to your point of departure and will terminate the award.

Post automatically merged: May 22, 2025

Incorrect.

You are not allowed to depart your country of origin a second time.

We will just have to agree to disagree however take note of the second last bullet point from page 1 of this thread.

"Oneworld Classic Flight Reward routing requirements​

These are the basic criteria for any Oneworld Classic Flight Reward itinerary:

• Up to 5 stopovers
• Up to 35,000 total miles flown
• Up to 16 total flight sectors (maximum 10 if you want to book on the Qantas website)

There are a few other rules that you also need to follow:

• Maximum of 1 stopover (over 24 hours) and two transits (up to 24 hours) per city
• You cannot stop over in the country where you start your trip mid-way through the itinerary (only at the start or end)
• Surface sectors are allowed, and count as one stopover, but the distance between the two airports counts towards your total limit. Although there is no published limit, Qantas seems to allow up to 2 surface sectors per itinerary."

 

[Scottt]

If one of your segment flights is in economy, are you able to upgrade at the gate or online? Its the last flight/segment on the last leg.

Thanks in advance

 

[smellan]

Still no.

It’s a return to your point of departure and will terminate the award.

Post automatically merged: May 22, 2025

Incorrect.

You are not allowed to depart your country of origin a second time.

Hmmm thank you! Glad I asked! I already know this will be hard work to book based on the feedback on this forum with the call centre!
Will have a re think. Would be keen to know when FJ is coming on board. Any ideas? surely it must be soon!

 

[smellan]

We will just have to agree to disagree however take note of the second last bullet point from page 1 of this thread.

"Oneworld Classic Flight Reward routing requirements​

These are the basic criteria for any Oneworld Classic Flight Reward itinerary:

• Up to 5 stopovers
• Up to 35,000 total miles flown
• Up to 16 total flight sectors (maximum 10 if you want to book on the Qantas website)

There are a few other rules that you also need to follow:

• Maximum of 1 stopover (over 24 hours) and two transits (up to 24 hours) per city
• You cannot stop over in the country where you start your trip mid-way through the itinerary (only at the start or end)
• Surface sectors are allowed, and count as one stopover, but the distance between the two airports counts towards your total limit. Although there is no published limit, Qantas seems to allow up to 2 surface sectors per itinerary."

So based on that any surface sectors are an extra stop??? I was aware that the distance between were added to the total km. but didn’t realise if we departed from a different airport than what we landed we got penalised also as a stop.

 

[Captain Halliday]

We will just have to agree to disagree however take note of the second last bullet point from page 1 of this thread.

"Oneworld Classic Flight Reward routing requirements​

These are the basic criteria for any Oneworld Classic Flight Reward itinerary:

• Up to 5 stopovers
• Up to 35,000 total miles flown
• Up to 16 total flight sectors (maximum 10 if you want to book on the Qantas website)

There are a few other rules that you also need to follow:

• Maximum of 1 stopover (over 24 hours) and two transits (up to 24 hours) per city
• You cannot stop over in the country where you start your trip mid-way through the itinerary (only at the start or end)
• Surface sectors are allowed, and count as one stopover, but the distance between the two airports counts towards your total limit. Although there is no published limit, Qantas seems to allow up to 2 surface sectors per itinerary."

It’s unclear to me what part of my post you disagree with.

Here’s the relevant clause (my bolding):

14.4.3 A one way oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itinerary will be charged as a return Itinerary.

So when you return to your point of origin, the award terminates.

 

[FlyingFiona]

We will just have to agree to disagree ...

Well, to be pedantic, you actually said ...

You are not permitted to return to your original country of departure.

Of course you are permitted to return to your original country of departure. Most people end their OWA in this way .

 

[mt1552]

So based on that any surface sectors are an extra stop??? I was aware that the distance between were added to the total km. but didn’t realise if we departed from a different airport than what we landed we got penalised also as a stop.

Only if you stop for over 24 hours then it counts as 1 surface segment and 1 stopover. That point was just to highlight it doesn't count as 2 stopovers in a stopover situation.

However if you fly out within 24 hours it's just 1 surface segment and 1 transit.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Well, to be pedantic, you actually said ...


Of course you are permitted to return to your original country of departure. Most people end their OWA in this way .

Yes I am wrong but we were discussing mid trip with the OP, not the end of journey.

 

[FlyingFiona]

Yes I am wrong but we were discussing mid trip with the OP, not the end of journey.

Not wrong, just not precise. (Problematic for people reading things out of context when scanning back over the 851+ pages of the thread.)

As I said, I was being pedantic and only prompted by the continued discussion.

 

[Phoenix-1]

Can't return to Singapore on your return from rome > Helsinki. .

What if you added a MH KUL-SIN leg to start? I wonder if that would work for the itinerary.

SIN to Helsinki then Rome- stop one
Rome back to Helsinki then Singapore then onto Darwin and Cairns stop two
Cairns to Fiji stop 3
Fiji to Vancouver stop 4
San fran to fiji and to cairns stop 5 and end.

2 things to note on this

1.You only have 4 stops in this itinerary. Final stop is not a leg, so you could add one more stopover. However....

2. As it is, you're over the 35,000 mile limit

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

 

[serfty]

What if you added a MH KUL-SIN leg to start? I wonder if that would work for the itinerary.

It a logical workaround that has been done before.

 

[sifntdaz]

Hi All / Experts

First time trying to book the classic rewards ticket, however confused about surface sectors.

In their rules it states that the distance counts between airports, however no mention that it counts as an additional stop over. So apologies if this has been clarified before but is counting surface sectors as stop overs definitive?

As an example I have tickets already booked:
Mel to Hanoi, transit tokyo - 1 stop
Hanoi to Tokyo - 2 stops
Sapporo to Paris, transit tokyo - 3 or 4 stops?

Surface sector of Tokyo to Sapporo.

Would the above be counted as 4 stop overs of the 5 or 3?

Thanks

 

[Captain Halliday]

Would the above be counted as 4 stop overs of the 5 or 3?

Paris would be stop three.

 

[elanshin]

Hi All / Experts

First time trying to book the classic rewards ticket, however confused about surface sectors.

In their rules it states that the distance counts between airports, however no mention that it counts as an additional stop over. So apologies if this has been clarified before but is counting surface sectors as stop overs definitive?

As an example I have tickets already booked:
Mel to Hanoi, transit tokyo - 1 stop
Hanoi to Tokyo - 2 stops
Sapporo to Paris, transit tokyo - 3 or 4 stops?

Surface sector of Tokyo to Sapporo.

Would the above be counted as 4 stop overs of the 5 or 3?

Thanks

In terms of stops it would be 3. But you're playing with fire in terms of stops and transits. In theory, it's fine (2 transits and one stop) but sometimes the computer might not be able to correctly get it because it's a surface sector too.

You can have the Sapporo to Paris via Tokyo but be ready to drop the Sapporo to Tokyo leg if its causing issues in getting it ticketed.

 

[sifntdaz]

In terms of stops it would be 3. But you're playing with fire in terms of stops and transits. In theory, it's fine (2 transits and one stop) but sometimes the computer might not be able to correctly get it because it's a surface sector too.

You can have the Sapporo to Paris via Tokyo but be ready to drop the Sapporo to Tokyo leg if its causing issues in getting it ticketed.

Thanks

I already have all those legs ticketed with the remainder being:

London to Hk
Hk returning to Mel

These tickets are not yet available, but will be soon.

I am just trying to figure out if I can do London to Hk and then Hk to Mel and be within the rules, or if I have to make my way back to Paris given I have already landed there and counted it as a stop over to facilitate Hk to Mel.

Just to add the Sapporo to Tokyo leg was required in order to get Business from Tokyo to Paris. From what I have read it is some sort of married leg? So therefore we will arrange for our own transport from Tokyo to Sapporo as a surface sector

 

[elanshin]

Thanks

I already have all those legs ticketed with the remainder being:

London to Hk
Hk returning to Mel

These tickets are not yet available, but will be soon.

The problem here is anything can be ticketed but until the whole itinerary is pieced together, it may or may not qualify for OWA. When many agent say they can't ticket it what they're actually saying is they can't get it ticketed with 318k cap. They CAN ticket it, but if its 400 or 500k points, that's not what the customer is after.

I am just trying to figure out if I can do London to Hk and then Hk to Mel and be within the rules, or if I have to make my way back to Paris given I have already landed there and counted it as a stop over to facilitate Hk to Mel.

it should be fine to do Sapporo > London (Stopover) then Paris > HK > Mel.
No problems there as long as your sector count and distance count is fine.

Just to add the Sapporo to Tokyo leg was required in order to get Business from Tokyo to Paris. From what I have read it is some sort of married leg? So therefore we will arrange for our own transport from Tokyo to Sapporo as a surface sector

Ah I was afraid of that. Often the case that Tokyo > xx_ city is not available but an extra Domestic leg in Japan makes it possible.

I still think it should in theory be ok, but i've had trouble before using Sydney doing similar things with you (stopover, 2 transit with a surface sector in there) and the system didn't like it until i got rid of one syd-mel leg.

 

[WilsonM]

Just to add the Sapporo to Tokyo leg was required in order to get Business from Tokyo to Paris. From what I have read it is some sort of married leg? So therefore we will arrange for our own transport from Tokyo to Sapporo as a surface sector

Yeah - this is common practice from Japan Airlines.

I recently booked a successful J OWA, but could only get Y from Japan-YVR - there was a married segment available from NGO-NRT-YVR in J, but it wouldn't process with an Australian Point of Sale either. So good job getting it ticketed so far

 

[QFFBNE]

Morning all,
I'm currently booking flights for a Oneworld Classic Reward trip in April next year to Egypt, UK and Ireland with about 80% done and just waiting on a couple of sectors to show availability (e.g. SYD-BKK). I'll hit P1 in August so that will help with this trip, but I'm wondering if I can/should jump the gun on the next trip as well to beat the Points increase in August this year.
We want to fly to the US around October 2026 but obviously no Award seats will be available until October 2025 at the earliest. Would I be able to book Award seats prior to August 2025 for flights in say July 2026 (at the old rate), then change those flights to October 2026 when those Award seats become available? And if so, would the old pre-August 2025 rate still apply, or would we have to make up the difference to the new rate? I'd be surprised (but happy) if this was allowed but no harm in asking.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Morning all,
I'm currently booking flights for a Oneworld Classic Reward trip in April next year to Egypt, UK and Ireland with about 80% done and just waiting on a couple of sectors to show availability (e.g. SYD-BKK). I'll hit P1 in August so that will help with this trip, but I'm wondering if I can/should jump the gun on the next trip as well to beat the Points increase in August this year.
We want to fly to the US around October 2026 but obviously no Award seats will be available until October 2025 at the earliest. Would I be able to book Award seats prior to August 2025 for flights in say July 2026 (at the old rate), then change those flights to October 2026 when those Award seats become available? And if so, would the old pre-August 2025 rate still apply, or would we have to make up the difference to the new rate? I'd be surprised (but happy) if this was allowed but no harm in asking.

That scenario worked for me at the last points cost increase, but… that also coincided with some of the Covid period (so some extra leniency may have been built in to the system). In any event, if you’re committed to making the trip anyway, you’ve really got nothing to lose if you give it a try.