Round the world - award booking help

[futago flyer]

Hi everyone,

I've got 200,000 points and my partner and I want to do a round the world flight.

I know I've got enough to cover mine, I want to lock it in, but am having trouble using the booking engine online as it isn't showing some of the flights I'd like to include. I need to book mine so that I can then buy my partners on the same flights.

What I want to do:

• June 4 - Sydney - London (I'll then do some travel around europe/uk for 3 weeks)
• 25 June - London - New york
• 8 July - New York - Toronto
• 15 July - Toronto - Las Vegas
• 22 July - Las Vegas - LA
• 29 July - LA - Papeete (tahiti)
• 3 August - Papeete - Sydney

I am a lowly bronze - so no special booking treatment for me!

Questions:

• Qantas code share with Air Tahiti - but these flights don't come up in the award booking system - does anyone know if you can book them with award points?
• Can you still get an economy oneworld around the world flight for 142500 points? I think this would be best use of my points as we can get one of us a free flight.
• Would I be better just buying the flights and then trying for up-grades for both of us. I'm concerned about how easy it is going to be to get an award and buy the same flight path...

Is there anything I could do or think about in booking this holiday - open to suggestions! Unlikely to amass this amount of points in a hurry again so want to make good use of them.

 

[notzac]

[*]Can you still get an economy oneworld around the world flight for 142500 points? I think this would be best use of my points as we can get one of us a free flight.

Yes absolutely, however you won't be able to include the LAX-PPT-SYD in your itinerary as these flights are operated by non-OW metal (codeshares aside).

Have you considered leaving Tahiti for another time and just doing SYD-LHR-JFK-YYZ-xJFK-LAS-LAX-SYD? That will definitely price out at 140k points, or 142.5k points if you do it over the phone.

 

[Mwenenzi]

LAS LAX is cheap to buy, so not good use of points.

Upgrades are a lottery (worse odds than Tattslotto ) so better to lock in the flight you want. You cannot upgrade awards flights or non QF flights

Air Tahiti: phone QF and ask (all for the cost of a phone call)

You will need to be flexible with dates

For you partner are you going to try a xONEx round the world or point to point ? xONEx has different rules to award flights

 

[antycbr]

The 140,000 (142,500 with telephone assistance) Oneworld Award is definitely one of the better awards in the Qantas program, I've done three Oneworld awards on Qantas and it's definitely doable.

Important points - 5 stops MAXIMUM. Your proposed itinerary looks like it has too many stops, however you will not be able to include Tahiti (PPT) in the award. All flights must be on Oneworld flights, so codeshares are not permitted. Jetstar are also not permitted on this award if i recall correctly.

Generally there's very little problem finding revenue seats on most of the routes you highlighted so booking one award and one OneWorld Explorer or Global Explorer fare will work. Ask the Qantas rep if there is availability in "L" booking class (they should be able to see this) when planning your award, as this is what the OneWorld Explorer books into. Pinning down award seats will be your real challenge!

Taxes for the award flight will be north of $600, as soon as you include London you are up for a significant UK tax.

Toronto to Las Vegas will connect through one of AA's hubs - most likely Chicago.

 

[JohnK]

LAS LAX is cheap to buy, so not good use of points.

Should not be an issue with a Oneworld award if the mileage or 16 sectors has not been maxed out.

If a separate ticket is purchased for the LAS-LAX sector it will still be counted in the Oneworld award as a surface sector and included in the total mileage.

 

[Superheated]

Important points - 5 stops MAXIMUM.

Just to clarify:

Is the 140,000 point round the world ticket the Oneworld Award (5 stops as quoted by antycbr) or a Oneworld LONE4 ticket that futago/JohnK seem to be referring to?

Another question I have about this ticket is how strict they are with the status of the "partner" you are booking the ticket for.
I am planning to travel with my girlfriend and only have enough points for one ticket. I was wondering if I could book the Award ticket under her name, and the paid ticket under mine (and thus earn SCs for myself )

 

[JohnK]

Is the 140,000 point round the world ticket the Oneworld Award (5 stops as quoted by antycbr) or a Oneworld LONE4 ticket that futago/JohnK seem to be referring to?

A Oneworld award is 140,000 QFF points. I was referring to a Oneworld award although futago flyer mentioned that they only have enough QFF points for one Oneworld award and the other will be a paid ticket either a Global Explorer or LONE4.

Another question I have about this ticket is how strict they are with the status of the "partner" you are booking the ticket for.
I am planning to travel with my girlfriend and only have enough points for one ticket. I was wondering if I could book the Award ticket under her name, and the paid ticket under mine (and thus earn SCs for myself )

Define strict? If need be can you convince Qantas that you are in a "de facto relationship" or whatever it is called these days?

I cannot see any issues with what you want to do although do note that booking a Global Explorer or LONE4 will then have the same limitations as the Oneworld award.

In theory you should be able to get the 2 bookings linked so you can sit together.