Looking For Advice Booking A Oneworld Award
 

Looking for tips on trying to book the following itinerary as a OW130C or, preferably, OW180F in June of 2007 . Total distance is 19771 miles. Your help is appreciated.

New York - Tokyo (JAL)
Tokyo - Osaka (JAL)
Osaka - Shanghai (JAL)
Shanghai - Hong Kong (Cathay)
Hong Kong - Bombay (Cathay)
Bombay - Dubai (Cathay)
Dubai - London (British Airways)
London - Paris (British Airways)
Paris - New York (American Airlines)

Can't do it. JAL is not part of oneworld yet. Either you wait until they join (and it may be too late) or use alternate airlines.

When is JAL's join date??? I would have though that by July they'd be in oneworld. If not, then I'd take AA to Tokyo, the train to osaka and skip shanghai.

They may be part of oneworld by then, but you won't be able to book the award ticket until they join. Maybe you could book with AA until then, and if they join in time, pay the change fee and change your flights and routing.

No can do, unfortunately: once the ticket is issued such changes are not allowed, and a hold is only good for 14 days.

Just in case you were not aware, the distances are great circle distances not including connection points. So flying NRT-HKGx-KIX will not cause you itinerary to cross over 20k miles flown.

Yes I was aware, thanks anyway.

I've edited the itinerary to account for the fact that JAL may not be in oneworld and that Shanghai was going to push the whole thing to more than 3 weeks. :o


Saturday, June 2
Japan Airlines Flight 005
JFK 1010 – NRT 1300

Or

American Airlines Flight 142
JFK 1140 – NRT 1430

Sunday, June 3
En-route to Tokyo

Monday June 4
Free Day In Tokyo

Tuesday, June 5
Japan Airlines Flight 1503
HND 0730 – ITM 0835
(I'll just buy this one.)

Wednesday, June 6
Free Day Osaka

Thursday, June 7
Cathay Pacific Flight 503
KIX 1005 – HKG 1305

Friday, June 8
Free Day In Hong Kong

Saturday June 9
Free Day In Hong Kong

Sunday, June 10
Cathay Pacific Flight 751
HKG 1425 – BOM 2005

Monday, June 11
Free Day In Bombay

Tuesday, June 12
Free Day In Bombay

Wednesday, June 13
Cathay Pacific Flight 751
BOM 2040 – DXB 2200

Thursday, June 14
Free Day In Dubai

Friday, June 15
British Airways Flight 106
DXB 0120 – LHR 0555

Saturday, June 16
Free Day In London

Sunday, June 17
British Airways Flight 326
LHR 2010 – CDG 2230

Monday, June 18
Paris Air Show

Tuesday, June 19
Free Day In Paris

Wednesday, June 20
American Airlines Flight 121
CDG 1750 – JFK 2015

That's why he wrote "pay the change fee." I thought for $100 you can redeposit to change a OneWorld award.

Maybe that's why, I don't know, but a redepositing fee is not a "change" fee in the usual sense we normally talk about. Redepositing really means *cancelling*. With normally hard-to-get award seats that is hardly a viable option, particularly when done close to your travel dates, as you lose all your reservations, and there is no guarantee they will ever be released back into the system as award seats, or to you, for that matter.

I can confirm that, when you cancel a OW award and then rebook it a minute later (about as fast as it is possible to do), most of the seats will be gone. Don't forget some airlines allow waitlisting (e.g. CX for their members) so the released seat will go to the waitlist (even to the lowest status member!) before you have a chance to rebook it. It is pointless to book a OW award if you intend to change it later, and the "no changes" rule is pretty firm (I actually had a route cancelled, no longer operated by the airline, and it still required a "special exemption" to reissue the ticket even though it was now impossible to fly; another time flight was switched to one-class and that "involuntary downgrade" was also prohibited by the rules and required an hour of discussion to get the issued award in place again (the computer wouldn't let the agents do it). So just remember, no changes, not even on the same route, flight number and airline (!).

Not true. OW lets you change the date and time on the same airline.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=433366

(It seems dumb that you can't change the airline or switch to a co-terminal by the way...)

You have to read my posts more closely, I worded it carefully (and did not say you cannot change dates; in my example the change was class of travel on the same airline and date). Of course date changes are allowed (but not routing changes, even to different airline on the same city pair, much less co-terminals). In any case these rules change from time to time, so be sure to explicitly check before issuing the award if it matters to you.

I'm sorry if I misunderstood you, but respectfully disagree that it was carefully worded. You should have written "no changes to CLASS OF SERVICE" if that's what you meant. Instead you said "no changes, not even on the same route, flight number and airline" ;)

Thanks for the help.

So, what are you actually asking?