johnjeffreys

Hi All

I am planning a round the world trip for the end of the year, and am hoping to do at least part of the travel using points.

One fare/award that looks interesting is the "Oneworld classic award"

From what I can gather, I can travel up to 35,000 miles for 142,500 points. Has anyone got any extra info on this award / had any experience booking it? Advice appreciated.

A second question I have: is it possible to book a RTW fare and choose your destinations as you go (ie only define your first destination at booking time)?

Cheers
JJ

serfty

Welcome to FT.

I know some who have booked and traveled on the 140K (+2½K) Qantas ff oneworld award fare.

You make get more assistance with this on www.frequentflyer.com.au

As for your second question, the answer is no - if nothing else to determine the taxes/levies/surcharges payable which vary greatly between differing origins/destinations/stopovers/transits.

Febs2

The Award Explorer flights (RTW on points) can be booked online, saving you the 2,500pt booking fee. Just start a multi-city itinerary, and as long as it meets the requirements, it'll be capped at 140,000pts.

E.g. I was doing a dummy booking yesterday. I was only utilising 2 carriers (QF and BA), and the total came to 170,000pts. As soon as I added in a HEL-JFK flight on Finnair, the total came to 140,000pts, even though that itinerary included additional flights.

(One of the restrictions of the Award Explorer is you have to fly QF + 2 other OneWorld carriers).

As long as you book a long time in advance, you should be fine with availability. I plan on booking my Sept 2009 trip in...Sept 2008.

Cheers,
- Febs.

PS: Depending on the routing, there may still be some hefty taxes. My sample itineraries were between $800 and $1,000ea, in taxes alone.

Leumas

I recently booked 4 such tickets. The QF + 2 OW carriers thing is a good point, note that if you end up picking CX, you'll have to book that via the phone (i.e., spend the 2500 points per person booking fee).

I think there's also a transit rule in the OW Classic Award - while you can backtrack to the same city, there can only be one stopover, the others must be transits (i.e., <24 hours).

NM

One of the restriction of this award is the maximum of 5 stopovers. So make the most of them. If you include a "surface segment" (i.e. land at one place and take off from another, getting yourself between the points) it is counted as a single stopover, but the miles between the points is included in the travel distance.

A few years back I booked 7 of these for my family (were 130K points then, but rules were the same). We travelled as follows:

BNE-AKL-LAX; 3 weeks driving around the USA West Coast
LAS-DFW-MCO; 3 week driving up the USA east coast
YYZ-LHR-KBP; weekend in Kiev
KBP-LHR-NCL; 3 weeks driving around the UK
Train London to Paris, then 3 week Eurail pass
TXL-HAN-HEL; ferry to Tallinn
HEL-FRA-HKG-SYD-BNE

DFW was an overnight stop but less than 24 hours so not a stopover. We had a whole day at HKG, arriving at 7am and departing late in the evening, so again no stopover but a day of sightseeing.

So if the 5 stopovers is going to limit you, look for alternate ways between points and make a surface segment into a single stopover instead of two.
No, you need to have it all issued at the same time. For some segments the award availability can be hard to find, so you need to book early.

Note that when I did it, no changes were permitted to the itinerary once the journey had started. I believe that changes (date/time, but not routing) are now permitted providing there is award availability on the new flights at the time you want to make the change. Waitlisting is not permitted.