My OneWorld Classic Flight Reward booking experience.
This may be a little long for some readers, so feel free to bypass if not interested.
Understandably, there's quite a bit of negativity and reports of undesired outcomes in these pages. After all, it's only human nature to register a complaint and vent about things that may not go 100% as we would hope or expect.
But often, advice provided here helps resolve and smooth out those issues. (This is one of the few examples of the internet/social media actually working as we all hoped and thought it would back in the day!)
In early July, heeding the advice provided on this forum, I booked my Rewards trip using the Qantas online Multi-City tool. I did not include all my destinations, but booked immediately due to a couple of the legs being high demand and points seats likely to evaporate quickly. My plan was to constantly monitor (using Seats.aero and the Qantas tool), and when my preferred/desired seats were all available I would gird my loins and brave the vagaries of the dreaded call centre, to perform the changes.
My initial itinerary was:
MEL - DPS
DPS - HKG
HKG - HEL
HEL - HND
HND - MNL
MNL - MEL
... including 5 x stopovers, and 2 x surface sectors.
318,000 points capped, all J class, with fees surprisingly only $730.
But the MEL-DPS first leg was a month before the remainder (as a placeholder - I feel a day in Bali would be a day too much, let alone a month), and I doubt there will ever be Classic Reward seats available for that leg in December.
So my idea was to remove the first leg, and make my way there with a QF or Virgin economy seat on the day of my DPS-HKG.
And then, after monitoring for six weeks, I had other changes to add:
HEL-OSL
OSL-VNO
HEL-KIX (replacing HEL-HND)
HND-HKG, HKG-MNL (these two replacing HND-MNL a 5:00am arrival and 36 hours in MNL)
Thus, three deletions, including the start port, and five additions. And remaining as 5 x stopovers and 2 x surface.
With all of the flight details on my spreadsheet (colour coded, of course), with having just checked the Multi-City tool and Seats.aero for current availability, and preparing my initial comments (again, as advice offered in these pages), this Sunday afternoon I called the Qantas call centre to make the changes.
There was about a 30-40 minute hold period, and then I was connected to the Manila centre. (I think, given the accent of the CSO.)
After providing my existing booking details, I clearly explained that I wanted to remove three legs, and add five. I said that the itinerary still met the conditions, and that the seats were currently (as of 30 minutes earlier) available.
The CSO made one mistake at first, telling me that I had to return to my departure point. But I reminded her this was a OneWorld Classic Flight Rewards, and not a RTW. She went silent for a minute or so. I was worried.
But then she returned, apologised, and we entered all the changes in her system.
Everything was accepted *except* the smallest, least-points leg (HEL-OSL). Weird. All the days before my desired date, and all the days afterwards all had availability (and there are many flights each day). The Multi-tool had many flights available in Y and J (and Seats.areo of course had them available too). But her official Qantas tool said no.
I have monitored that small leg for six weeks, and flights have always been available. I can understand if there were only one or two seats in total, but six or eight flights with AY, and all the days before and after... what is it about 17 December? LOL.
Anyway, as *everything* else was OK, what a relief, I went ahead and removed that leg and accepted the changes (for 5000 points).
Within 10 minutes, after Kim had read back the whole itinerary, the changes were reflected in the online booking info, and within half an hour I received the confirmation of the booking by email. The extra fee cost, for all the changes, was only $47. Again, a pleasant surprise.
All done, almost no pain.
I will keep an alert for the 'missing' leg at Seats.aero, although both it, and the Qantas tool, both say (as of this moment) that there *are* Rewards seats available. I guess the only option, if they stay showing as available, is that I will have to call the centre again. Oh well.
But it's not a huge deal anyway, as I was always going to have to fly independently of Rewards, from OSL to BGO. So I can just make it HEL to BGO instead.
So, overall, despite my fears, the experience was really positive. The consultant was very professional, rather 'clinical' in fact (perhaps some cultural nuance being missed by a certainly fluent, but non-native English speaker). And, after the initial assumption I was on a RTW ticket, she certainly seemed to understand all the T's & C's of our Classic Rewards deal. I was happy to provide positive feedback at the post-call survey.
I do not know if this short story will be of any benefit to anyone. In this forum we all know how complex and frustrating this whole process can be, and our friends, work colleagues, family, etc, probably don't understand or appreciate this. So at least I might have a slightly receptive audience.
