Process for RTW Classic Award Booking

[nbeck01]

Hi everyone, I am new to this site but I see lot's of good useful tips. I have learnt so much.

I need some help in understanding how to book a RTW trip for 2 people.

I am looking to travel to Europe in September 2011 going from Sydney to Canada (Calgary) to New York then London then Paris, travel around Europe and want to get home leaving from Rome to Sydney.

I have tried a Qantas Multi City Award booking, assuming I wanted to travel may 2011 just to see how it works and with some unusual backwards flying from Rome to London and then home I can get a OneWorld Award for 140000 points each.

Now for my dilemna, how do I book such a trip for September/October next year when flights only become progressively available 353 days ahead of time. It means I can't book the full trip and get the benefit of the OneWorld award points unless I wait for the one year prior to the end of my trip. Does that make sense?

I am worried if I wait till then I will miss out on flights at the beginning of the period.

If I start the booking without completing through to the end, can I simply change the booking? I was led to believe once I am e-ticketed I have to pay points to change my booking. Is it 2500 per change per person, or just per booking?

Can anyone offer advise on the best way to book such a trip?

 

[Danger]

nbeck01, I'm afraid my advce will likely fall short of what you're after. I do understood your dilehma and your understanding of flights generally only becoming available slightly less than a year out (slightly longer for some carriers like, I think, AA where it's 330-odd days). Of course, if you were booking a revenue fare the oneworld explorer ticket would be much more flexible in this regard. My only suggestion would be to contact QF and outline your issue. You may find (and I'm not confident on this) that QF may allow you to book 'dummy dates' and permit date and carrier changes without penalty, once they become available. As I said, though, I'm not confident this would be possible. If you do contact QF please report back with what you learn.

 

[serfty]

What you need are:

• Plenty of Points
• Patience
• Keep on searching daily
• Patience
• Plenty of points!

If you can wear a 2½K QFF point loss per passenger as a "Change Fee" each time you add flights as they become available it can be done.