Qantas RTW Ticket

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Qantas

• 

  kindshibe on 08/03/2019 - 15:15

  +1 to this question, I'm in a similar position and have pretty much the same questions. Hopefully you get some replies!

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 00:58

    Sorry! Slow response… just realised i'd created and hadn't checked back to the topic. HOw has your research been and experiences to date? I am getting somewhat flustered given time flies and it's nearly end of March.. i presume if it hasn't already a RTW ticket for Feb-March 2020 will be open and up for grabs soon.

• 

  woodg on 08/03/2019 - 15:26

  +4

  OzBargain is awesome and someone will come along with help, but you might also like to checkout australianfrequentflyer.com.au as you will get great help there.

  • 

    wellglued14 on 08/03/2019 - 15:40

    +2

    +1

    There is a dedicated thread to the OneWorld (the alliance Qantas is with) RTW planning - https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/threads…

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:00

    THanks for the tip. I hadn't checked out those forums yet as I was worried there would be so much guides and information it would be overwhelming. I figured asking a specific thread and questions would hone in more on my situation and make it easier to digest. I'll definitely have a look hopefully sometime to get some basic understanding of how the multi ticket/RTW thing works.

    Seems quite confusing as some websites seem to state different things. i.e. i'm still trying to work out if you could fly into on city in a country, but fly out of another city to continue the RTW trip? The mrs reckons you have to arrive and depart from the same city, which seems quite prohibitive (we're hoping to do Scandinavia as a general area of focus, so landing in one city then going back to it rather than just flying on internally using our own $$ seems abit unproductive).

    • 

      melay0326 on 21/03/2019 - 08:51

      you can fly in another city and fly out in another city on the same country

• 

  Drew Peaballs on 08/03/2019 - 15:39

  QF RTW are pretty hefty and you'll probably find your points may not get you around the world including internal euro flights etc.

  Business class - pretty much the same as economy. The earlier you buy the seats the cheaper the seats, but the more restrictive the ticket becomes in terms of changing/cancelling/upgrading.

  https://rtw.oneworld.com/rtw/?Origin=QF helps you build the RTW ticket. March 2020 tickets come available very very soon, they go on sale just after 365 days.

  Use your points for your long haul flights. Pay for your small internal flights. You'll also find that you wouldn't be able to buy internal flights on QF points.

  The issue with QF RTW is it is a TRUE RTW ticket. So you need to circumnavigate the globe either clockwise or anti-clockwise. IE: AUS - TYO - HEL - NYC - LAX - AUS.

  Hope that helps you out.

  • 

    djkelly69 on 09/03/2019 - 07:37

    So you need to circumnavigate the globe

    I believe OP is talking about the Qantas Oneworld Classic Award ticket (140k economy/280k business/420k first), which does not require circumnavigation.

    • 

      SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:02

      Yes, this was the program I meant. I thought this was the RTW (but in a multi-city search tool) function one did, where you pay a fixed points to go through various round the world places? We figured it would be cheapest to get us to Scandinavia (we're thinking of focusing there for now instead of Europe in general) although we would be forced to stop off I believe in other countries to meet the requirements? Not to say we aren't keen to stop by a sneaky Japan visit on the way.

      Am I getting confused by referring to RTW as is it a completely different thing to what the poster above responded with to what I am after? Hopefully what I am after is much more easier to get.

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:05

    Please see my response to djkelly below. APologies if I got confused or am using the wrong terminology. I thought the RTW tickets were the fixed points redemptions i.e. 280k qantas points for business class, and that way it would be cheaper to fly from Perth all the way through to Scandinavian countries and back (it would require us to book a stop over in Japan or something I believe to meet t & c's).

    Are these two completely different things? ANd in which case is the oneworld classic award tickets of 280k for business class harder to redeem at that time of year than the RTW ticket you mentioned?

    I am abit confused when we can start to book. We are still trying to work out where to go exactly but I assume we need to book all the flights at once, and if we leave mid Feb 2020 and come back end of March 2020 then we would need to wait till the last leg of the flights opens up? Is it 365 days?

    Also is it best to book under one account by transferring the mrs points to myself, or can you both book independently and still pick seats next to each other typically without all the fuss of pooling points and booking through just the one account?

• 

  Stewardo on 08/03/2019 - 15:42

  +2

  Yeah for a rookie it’s probably best to use a service like: https://frequentflyer.com.au/award-flight-assist/
  Often using your points for oneworld airlines other than Qantas will cost less in charges and taxes.
  Have fun on your trip

  • 

    kindshibe on 08/03/2019 - 16:58

    Has any other ozbarginer used this service? They charge max $290 for help in booking a RTW ticket, is it worth it for a newbie or not?

    • 

      MrHyde on 08/03/2019 - 17:07

      +2

      Yes, I did and it's brilliant.

      Provide your estimated dates and itinerary… They provided 3 options with 24 hrs and I had flights all booked same day.

      With business class round the world flights, availability is limited, so book as early as you can. You can try to change later by paying the change fee, if there is still avalability.

      I could have done the research myself, but found the price was low enough to outsource that research to this mob.

      • 

        kindshibe on 08/03/2019 - 20:01

        Cheers MrHyde for the reply, and thanks Stewardo for bringing it up!

        Looks interesting, I'll definetly have to look into it if it saves the hassle of dealing with qantas's website!

      • 

        SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:09

        DO you get a quote from them but physically book through your account yourself i.e. you have control and privacy over your points?

        I may be getting my wires crossed but the one my mrs was suggesting was the round the world flights where you pay a fixed 280k points for business , some in this thread have referred to it as a 'oneworld classic award' flight? Not sure if this method of ticketing is still advisable to do myself?

        • 

          MrHyde on 20/03/2019 - 05:32

          @SaberX: Yes, you still book yourself. They find the flights and dates with availability.

          If you have the time to find the flights yourself, you can definitely book this yourself.

          I've found it easier to pay a little bit more points and book over the phone with Qantas than online.

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:07

    I may have gotten my wires crossed looking at responses above but the ticketing I was looking at was the fixed 280k points for flying business throughout the world? Which someone above has pointed out is a oneworld awards ticket? SO I presume if we do this then we will DIY save the lesser charges and taxes anyway without paying a 3rd party to organise?

    Or is it particularly difficult to organise this sort of trip? Is there a guide as to which airlines and all on these oneworld alliances are cheaper/better to use given I understand taxes and fees can vary widely in addition to what points you think you are paying? Or is there no easy way but to painstakingly crunch the different airlines and routes through the booking system to see what the total taxes and all come up to?

• 

  tanksinatra on 08/03/2019 - 15:45

  Qantas doesn't offer a RTW ticket with points, but they do offer a 'oneworld classic award' which allows up to 35k miles and five stops.
  Tickets are released approximately 11-12 months in advance (varies by carrier), but standard Qantas Bronze & Silver members are barred from purchasing Qantas flights until 10 months. Tickets walk out the door the moment they are released and during popular periods none will be released at all. More tickets may be released about one week before departure.
  Popular routes (e.g. LHR-SYD, Syd-LAX) might have no business tickets released at all.
  Fees vary by airline but are extremely high, probably around $1.5-2k, per person.

  I've been through the process.

  My advice: Pay cash.

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:16

    Yes, the oneworld classic award is what I was originally had in the back of my mind. Would that imply that we would need to book the whole trip together as it is one five stop journey and so to come back in March 2020 we have to await the march 2020 flights to open now prior to booking our Feb 2020 flights? We would just be standard entry level Qantas members so i presume we are barred until 10 months prior? THe mrs reckons there are plenty of these redemptions to Scandinavia to get us there as she has plugged in various dates until end of this year… so am abit conflicted given most people seem to be jumping onto boooking these a yr in advance or so it seems (kind of like a crazy Aldi best buys sale day).

    Is there a way to determine which routes and airlines give best optimised taxes and fees , in order to plan who to fly with and which cities i.e. change to a diff non capital city in Scandinavia in order to get a much better fees/taxes or airline time etc.

    And did you book for you and the partner with one account i.e. transfer points into one pooled account. Or much the same as just leaving your points separate?

    • 

      tanksinatra on 20/03/2019 - 05:46

      Would that imply that we would need to book the whole trip together as it is one five stop journey and so to come back in March 2020 we have to await the march 2020 flights to open now prior to booking our Feb 2020 flights?

      No you can book in a piecemeal fashion but you pay 5000 points per person for every time you change. It adds up quickly.

      Is there a way to determine which routes and airlines give best optimised taxes and fees , in order to plan who to fly with and which cities i.e. change to a diff non capital city in Scandinavia in order to get a much better fees/taxes or airline time etc.

      Not really. The surcharges are not based on taxes/fees. They are arbitrary charges set by the airlines. It's a bit of a murky world because airlines charge what they can get away with and don't tend to reveal their pricing structures.

      And did you book for you and the partner with one account i.e. transfer points into one pooled account. Or much the same as just leaving your points separate?

      I'd pool them together so that you can book your flights together. Otherwise you might end up on separate flights or seats.

• 

  TheMindsetTraveller on 08/03/2019 - 15:46

  The correct info is here guys;

  https://thehighlife.com.au/ultimate-use-qantas-points-busine…

  I have used these in the past, taxes and surcharges depend on a variety of factors eg. which airports you fly out of and which airlines (some airlines such as British Airways charge higher surcharges).

  The likely outcome is an economy ticket, forget about booking business class (2 people) unless you have Qantas Platinum status where at least you have some chance at getting Qantas business class seats 'opened' up.

  My last booking - sydney, santiago*, mexico*, miami, new york*, barcelona*, helsinki, bangkok*, sydney where * are the cities I stoppped in for more than 24hours.

  • 

    kindshibe on 08/03/2019 - 16:56

    Hey bud,

    I'm completely new to this stuff, so apologies if you already explained this in your post, but what do you mean by "forget about business class unless you have platinum status"?

    Are you saying it's pretty much impossible to get business class seats without having Platinum status?

    • 

      tanksinatra on 08/03/2019 - 17:04

      +2

      Qantas blocks you from booking business rewards tickets on their planes from release (353 days) unless you have gold status or above. Otherwise you need to wait another two months and sort through the scraps.

      Upgrades requests are processed in a similar fashion - Platinum One's get first dibs, bronze goes last.

      This makes it quite difficult for regular non-status-holders to get premium seats. Virgin is a bit more egalitarian in that regard.

      • 

        kindshibe on 08/03/2019 - 20:03

        Cheers mate for the reply, really clears things up!

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:23

    THanks for the link! Will check it out - it seems that the 35,000 miles oneworld classic award requires 353 days opening up for gold members on qantas. So being a pleb qantas member i presume we're subject to the 303 days or 10 months? THe other airlines listed on the link seems to indicate if one was to book non qantas partners some open up already and dont discriminate on your qantas membership?

    Is there a guide out there which details a comparison of cities and airlines in order to gauge which have the higher taxes/fees for that city/route vs other airlines in order to pick the most ideal route and itinerary?

    And would you recommend pooling all points in one account and booking two tickets, or is it much of the same just deciding on the route and flights and both of you booking seperately via your accounts (we keep our points seperate and quite independent).

    We're hoping to do Scandinavia as a general "area" in the majority of our mid feb 2020 - March 2020, so some stops off in Japan probably and somewhere else (USA?) as I believe it is required by the t & cs? Am hoping this means a less popular area to go, especially being middle of winter, than europe and usa, and hopefully more flight availability?

    I am abit confused though as I think i read that link previously and other guides, and i was under the impression one could land in one city i.e. say in Finland, fly around the area and various cities, and depart that Scandinavian area from one city to the next continent? THe mrs insists you need to eventually depart from the city you arrived in however in order to continue on the journey? Which would imply any internal flights you pay for separately need to account for you returning to your first city to board the flight again …. Is that true?

    • 

      MrHyde on 20/03/2019 - 05:35

      I would suggest pooling the points and booking together…. Reduces the risk of booking one set and then not having availability for the next person .

      You do not need to fly out of the same city you arrive in. It would just be considered a land sector.

    • 

      melay0326 on 20/03/2019 - 09:52

      +1

      Booked under 1 account for 2 business class oneworld classic award ~34K miles
      Route: AU-US-South America-US-Asia-AU
      Plane: QF, AA, Latam, CX
      Tax: ~$1K each
      Points: 280K each
      Booking date: Last week of Sept 2018
      Flight: 1st week of July- 1st week of Aug 2019
      Status: Bronze(basic)
      Tip: Search first leg by leg for availability before booking all together

• 

  knobbs on 08/03/2019 - 16:02

  +1

  Be prepared to be dicked around, hung up on and lied to by the South African call centre.

• 

  warrenkole on 08/03/2019 - 17:21

  +5

  I've booked our family (2A 2C) on Oneworld RTW in business class twice, and 2 other times in economy. I'm a peasant Bronze member but a hardcore credit card churner.

  It's definately do-able. You just have to be flexible with your dates and destinations.

  The call centers are no help as they only see the exact availablity that you can see online. They're good if you're Gold or Platinum status. Ditto for the flight-assist service. No point paying for something that you will still have to book yourself.

  In a few months we are doing MEL - Tokyo (into Haneeda out of Narita) - Frankfurt - make our own way around Europe using LCC for 3 weeks - Depart Vienna - JFK - San Antonio - Make our way to Dallas - SYD - MEL.

  You need to know which destinations each Oneworld airlines flies into from their hub. Remember that Jetstar isn't part of Oneworld.

  Forget about using the included legs/flights in Europe as you will be forced to fly via LHR using British Airways (very expensive taxes). LCC's are your better bet.

  Taxes for the 4 of us were about $5,500 . If I wanted to fly Frankfurt to anywhere in Europe they wanted an extra $1000 in taxes for the 4 of us. A $200-$300 on Easyjet or RyanAir is way cheaper and direct (no need to route via LHR).

  • 

    madreece on 09/03/2019 - 08:57

    Wow, who the hell gave you a neg? You are exactly right.

    People have this idea that they are just going to get online and just book Sydney-London on Qantas and then fly to directly to New York and on to Japan and then home for four people on the exact days they want in business class on Christmas school holidays.

    As warrenkole says you need to be flexible and have some skills, book well in advance, and use the right tools to find work around routes and just accept that you may have to do things like fly out of Vienna instead of Berlin to hit your dates, or stay somewhere for two more days than you were planning.

    The advice on using Qantas flights for their 'Oneworld classic award' is correct, but no where does it say you need to fly on Qantas metal for this ticket. We have used this award ticket several times and are yet to fly on a Qantas flight.

    As Stewardo said for all the mucking around use a booking service like https://frequentflyer.com.au/award-flight-assist/ .They will save you a pile of time and their fees are cheap when you factor in the time/stress they will save you, yes you still have to get on the phone and do the booking, but they will find you routes that aren't on the airlines websites and give you an easy to follow list on doing the booking. A fantastic well priced service.

    Or you can subscribe to some on line tools, I like https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2Fcollage%2Fedit%2F58… which for around $50 USD will give you almost unlimited advanced searches for one multi-leg trip, or $100 USD for one years use.

    Mate, life is short, enjoy the pointy end.

    • 

      warrenkole on 09/03/2019 - 09:19

      Thanks madreece.

      I thought I was being helpful, but some people don't see it that way.

      The other thing I will add is that there is a huge difference in taxes between airlines for the exact same flights.

      The classic example is LHR - JFK or vice-versa.
      Fly this route with BA and you will be hit with an extra $200 per person in taxes. Take an AA flight and save your holiday money.

      All of our Oneworld RTW redemptions have been made 6-10 months in advance. Depart before school holidays begin and come back after they end. Avoiding peak times as much as possible.

      I've never had any success getting Qatar or Malaysian Airlines flights. But Cathay, JAL, BA, Iberia and AA all have some availablity.

      • 

        madreece on 09/03/2019 - 10:24

        That interesting, Qatar, is one of my go to airlines. I've got four legs booked with them for our next trip, three in Qsuites. Looking forward to that.

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:29

    Thanks for your uplifting feedback haha. I was getting worried as alot of negative opinions on booking (not that there's anything wrong with that). I told the mrs and she plugged dummy flights through to Scandinavia and other parts throughout this year to prove there were still 'some' options, albeit maybe not the best, that could get us the 280,000 points for biz class/35,000 miles. I assume that's the Oneworld RTW you did, as i just realised throughout this thread that there is a RTW and there is a oneworld classic award which is the "RTW" that i'm referring to (280k points for business, fixed).

    I am perth based, however the idea would be a stopover in Japan , similar to yours. I am interested in how you arrive in frankfurt and travel europe on your own LCC, but then depart Vienna? I told my mrs if we arrive in one city in Scandinavian country i.e. denmark, we could fly around internally and to neighbouring countries and depart from another city using the qantas oneworld RTW option. She insists you must arrive and depart from the same city eventually.

    GIven you are arriving in frankfurt and departing from Vienna, is she wrong?

    With regards to knowing which oneworld airlines fly to from their hub, is it not simple to just use the Qantas website to bring up which partner codeshare/flights fly to your selected destination? Or do you get more options by directly using each airlines website to search?

    Is there also a way to find out which cities and airlines generally have what taxes/fees in order to select which destination city to fly into and which airlines, in terms of best combination? Or did you literally have to crunch different cities in itineraries, followed by different airlines to work out which cities and airlines worked out cheapest/most optimised for your travel plans?

    SO what your saying about Europe is fly in to Europe using the RTW oneworld rewards, then pay your own way around europe as the inter europe oneworld award redemptions only provide you with LHR BRitish airways (which is expensive for taxes)?

    May i ask how far in advance you booked your itinerary for 3 months time? And do you book all your family together on one account? I.e. should I Get my mrs to transfer her points to me (if that's even possible) to book us both at once? Or is it just as simple to pay with seperate accounts when booking?

    Thanks for your advice!

    • 

      madreece on 20/03/2019 - 08:14

      You can book the same itinerary on different tickets using different accounts, but it may be easier to transfer the points and have it all on the one ticket.
      You don't need to fly back out of the same city.On our upcoming ticket we land in London and then fly out of Rome.

    • 

      warrenkole on 21/03/2019 - 00:15

      Hi SaberX,
      Our business class flight redemptions are definately the 280,000 point/35K miles version.
      I booked back in October 2018 for June 2019 departure. So 8 months in advance.
      You can definately fly into one city and depart from another. The distance between the 2 cities is added to your 35K mile maximum. In my case the distance from Frankfurt to Vienna was negligible.
      I found more detailed flight information when I looked at the airlines websites (JAL, Cathay, BA, Iberia etc).
      Taxes are nearly impossible to calculate on your own. I just wrote down the various cities and associated taxes until I got the flights I wanted. It took me a few hours over 2 afternoons to work it all out.
      As for Europe, the other option was Iberia. But there weren't many flight options from Madrid/Barcelona to New York. There's way more availability going with BA or AA to New York.
      All of my family's points were in my account. I redeemed 4 x 280,000 points (1,120,000 in total) in one hit. Booking by multiple QFF accounts is dangerous as you run the risk of not being on the same flights.

• 

  Foxtail on 09/03/2019 - 17:19

  Been using QFF points for decades flying in J (bus.) mostly, refuse to go from OZ as the fees they want are extremely high, commence in HKG, much easier to get award seats of all kinds and fees are low. Recently did HKG/NYC/HKG in J on CX (Cathay) was 200K points and just $100 in fees.

  • 

    SaberX on 20/03/2019 - 01:30

    Can you do that with the oneworld classic reward though? I am thinking of the 280k points fixed, for business flights around the world, back home? I thought you had to depart from aus and not from another international city to activate the fixed pricing in terms of rewards points?

    • 

      starburstyellow on 20/03/2019 - 13:05

      Think he/she was booking a return redemption between HKG and NYC.

• 

  blutek on 20/03/2019 - 21:33

  You can start in or out of Aus. My last started in SIN. Next is probably HKG.
  Release dates from AFF wiki:
  CX 360, BA 354, AA 330, QR 361, JL 330, IB 361, MH 354,
  AY 361, QF 353 (Platinums) etc.