Partner Awards - what if flights late/changed/cancelled?

[tizey]

So I've managed to book our entire honeymoon using a various mix of points, all flights and hotels included. Flights were using AAdvantage miles, but some using Qantas points... none of the flights are with Qantas or AA.

I have booked the following tickets for the two of us:

Using QFF points on one PNR:
MEL-SIN on EK F (2hr stopover)
SIN-HND on JAL J

Using AA points on one PNR:
HND-KIX on JAL Y (12hr+ stopover)
KIX-HNL on JAL J

Using AA points on one PNR:
HNL-NRT on JAL J (12hr+ stopover)
NRT-MEL on JAL J

I know its not the most efficient use of points, but it accommodates our dates exactly as we need, which are very limited due to it being within school holidays and cherry blossom season in Japan.

My questions are:

1. What happens if there are changes to the itinerary due to the partner airline making timetable changes? eg. EK stop flying F between MEL-SIN, or worse stop that route all together? What is likely to occur in terms of re-booking options? Who is responsible for re-booking us to get to SIN or ultimately to HND? Award availability on this date is incredibly scarce - so its of reasonable concern.

2. What happens if EK are late getting into SIN, and as such we miss our JAL connection to HND?

Basically - who's responsibility do I become? Is it the partner airline that was late/cancelled? Is it the booking airline?

I've purposely booked the itineraries between MEL-HND, HND-HNL and HNL-MEL as single PNRs so to avoid re-checking in along the way to our destinations and so that I am somebodies responsibility if the connections are missed due to late/cancelled aircraft, but I dont know who?

I have another booking which is MEL-SIN-NRT with SQ F on the day that we fly out that I made the day SQ flights were released using KF miles, then subsequently made the QFF booking on EK & JL as SQ points are more valuable to me... I am reluctant to cancel this SQ booking until I am more comfortable with what the process is if EK/JAL flights change.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pushka]

We had a similar issue when Qatar wasn't able to fly into Dubai last week and we are travelling in 2 weeks. It seems you only get to choose from what has Award availability at the time. If on Q flights they will try accommodate. In the end we had to settle for different dates and Y but we did get some cash back from taxes and points refund. We were just lucky there was some availability still on Emirates.

If you booked as separate trips then that becomes your responsibility if you miss connections.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

tizey - any flights on the same ticket will be protected. So MEL-SIN-HND, if the MEL-SIN is late, you'll be protected for a later flight amd this will be organised by EK for you, or JL. But you needn't worry about additional costs. This protection however does not apply across separate tickets... not normally a problem if you are stopping for a few days in between tickets... but if they are immediate connections and you are late then it can be a case of bad luck trying to find alternatives.

If there is a schedule change before departure it can be a bit more complex, but generally the process is that you contact whomever issued the ticket (QF or AA in your case). If there are no immediate alternatives, the ticketing airline (QF or AA) will select alternate paid seats and send a message to the operating airline to convert those paid seats to award seats.

That's easy when the operating airline is the one that causes the problem... however any connecting airline (that isn't responsible for the schedule change) doesn't have to play ball and release award seats for you. So for example if EK retimes their flight... EK can simply open up space. But JL would be under no obligation to do so for their connecting flights.

 

[Himeno]

If the EK MEL-SIN flight were to stop, then QF would likely move you to the QF flight.
If the connection is missed, JL has 3 flights between SIN and TYO a day, 2 to HND, 1 to NRT. They'd move you to the next one (or look at bouncing you through HKG on CX).

 

[tizey]

Ok. So it sounds like I'm protected in terms of a delay, and may have limited exposure if there are changes to timetables, but even then reasonably protected.

MEL-SIN-HND : this ticket is very key to ensuring we get away on time as only 1 week in Japan. In all likelihood, I'll hold onto my SQ booking MEL-SIN-NRT until the last second, knowing a financial penalty for late cancellation will be incurred.

HND-KIX-HNL : all on JL with many flights between Japan and Honolulu with JL daily, so feel comfortable this is protected.

HNL-NRT-MEL : all on JL with many flights between Honolulu and Japan with JL daily, and plenty of options to re-route on oneworld to get home from NRT and flexibility if we do have a delay getting home.

Appreciate the responses - thanks guys!

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Using QFF points on one PNR:
MEL-SIN on EK F (2hr stopover)
SIN-HND on JAL J

Did you have to call to get this booking done, given that JAL can't be done via the Qantas site? And how were your points calculated on that route - did it price as MEL-SIN F (cheaper table) + SIN-HND J (higher partner table), or some other way? Looking at doing something similar myself but hard to know what the points would be without knowing how they're calculated in cases like this.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Did you have to call to get this booking done, given that JAL can't be done via the Qantas site? And how were your points calculated on that route - did it price as MEL-SIN F (cheaper table) + SIN-HND J (higher partner table), or some other way? Looking at doing something similar myself but hard to know what the points would be without knowing how they're calculated in cases like this.

If you change between award tables, qantas will charge you the individual prices (add both sets of points together).

if you stick with airlines on the same table, qantas will calculate the points either for the through fare (highest cabin rate applies) - OR - sector fares, whichever is the cheaper of the two.

 

[tizey]

Did you have to call to get this booking done, given that JAL can't be done via the Qantas site? And how were your points calculated on that route - did it price as MEL-SIN F (cheaper table) + SIN-HND J (higher partner table), or some other way? Looking at doing something similar myself but hard to know what the points would be without knowing how they're calculated in cases like this.

I did have to call. Look up JL availability on ba.com, and prepare to make 3-4 calls to QFF as not all agents know how to book JL flights and will report no availability, despite it being there. Dont take the initial 'theres no availablilty' as gospel if you can see it on ba.com - I had confirmed by calling AA reward call centre and they could see it - so I knew it was there. I called QFF about 9pm mid-week and had wait times on the phone of about 30 seconds between calls until I got an agent that knew what he was doing and could locate JL award flights (the 3 prior to him told me there was no JL availability at all during 2017... :shock

Total points was 143,000 QFF + approx $330 AUD taxes per pax.

EK F MEL-SIN 90,000 QFF Points (3,750 air miles)
JL J SIN-HND 53,000 QFF Points (3,290 air miles)
Agent didnt apply any booking fee (the QFF agent never mentioned it - he was a champ of a bloke).

I have wondered if its been calculated right, but I can't see any other way of doing it, given its effectively two awards mashed together on one ticket.

Also, I can access via the booking to redeem the EK car chauffeur service to get to MEL airport.

 

[BacchusMarsh]

EK F MEL-SIN 90,000 QFF Points (3,750 air miles)
JL J SIN-HND 53,000 QFF Points (3,290 air miles)
Agent didnt apply any booking fee (the QFF agent never mentioned it - he was a champ of a bloke).

I have wondered if its been calculated right

That's also what I've had it calculated as in the past. Once it got up to 143k, I figured I might as well do the whole thing in EK F via DXB for 192k. It did take a while, though

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Thanks all!
Interesting - 143,000 QFF points to get from Melbourne to Haneda, whereas 128,000 could get you Melbourne to Europe in business on EK or 139,000 to Europe on most other partners.

Guess the most important thing is that you got tickets to where you wanted to go in a comfortable cabin! (And of course, the longest flight of the journey was in F, so even better.)

 

[tizey]

Thanks all!
Interesting - 143,000 QFF points to get from Melbourne to Haneda, whereas 128,000 could get you Melbourne to Europe in business on EK or 139,000 to Europe on most other partners.

Guess the most important thing is that you got tickets to where you wanted to go in a comfortable cabin! (And of course, the longest flight of the journey was in F, so even better.)

Like I said, not the most efficient use of points, but given we are restricted to school holidays for travel, qff points (Oneworld) have generally worse availability than SQ miles (star alliance). Mel-sin-nrt on SQ F is the same points are mel-sin-europe on SQ J, which we will travel a few times in the year ahead, and hence better off to burn a few extra qff points and keep the SQ miles.

That said, very keen to try EK F which is an evening flight. The JL one is a red-eye, so hoping for sleep on that.