Many people dream about flying round-the-world in business class but dismiss it as a lofty goal that’ll forever be out of reach. In fact, this ‘bucket list’ experience is more attainable than you may realise, thanks to a unique and highly rewarding way of using Qantas Points.
The ‘oneworld award’ is a special type of booking that allows you to fly with oneworld airlines up to 35,000 miles with up to five stopovers – which is enough for a round-the-world journey, though you don’t have to fly RTW if you don’t want to (more on that later).
This booking costs a relatively modest 140,000 points in economy, 280,000 points in business class or 420,000 points in first class (plus taxes and fees, of course) until 17 September 2019, after which the costs will be 132k/318k/455k points respectively.
Business class is the sweet spot, as it’s a higher-value use of points than economy. As for first class, that’s very hard to book because the number of routes with this cabin is very small.
Since you can spend up to 278,000 Qantas Points on a return business class fare to Europe or the USA, flying 35,000 miles with 5 stopovers for a similar price is superb value.
The main ‘catch’ with the oneworld award is that it can be time consuming to research flights and make the booking, so here are some tips to make the job easier.
You may need to read this article several times to absorb all the info … there’s a lot to cover!
The rules
Here are the specific rules you must follow for a valid booking:
- maximum total distance of 35,000 miles
- maximum of 5 stopovers (a stopover is when you have 24+ hours between flights)
- a maximum of 16 individual segments – a segment is a flight OR when you travel over land yourself. These land segments are counted towards the 35,000 mile maximum
- no more than one stopover and two transits through a single airport
- you must fly with at least two oneworld airlines that are not Qantas (in fact, you don’t have to fly Qantas at all – just two or more other oneworld airlines – see below for the list)
- you have 12 months to complete the travel
- once you return to your country of origin you can’t leave it again
- you must finish booking all flights in the itinerary before the first flight takes off.
Possible itineraries
You can fly anywhere and in any direction you want, so long as you comply with the above rules.
There are no restrictions on how many continents you can visit or regarding backtracking, which are limitations in most paid round-the-world fares.
If you make some land segments on your own, you can actually visit more than five destinations. That’s because when you land in one city and take off on your next flight from another city, it doesn’t count as two stopovers – just one. The land segment is counted towards the 16 maximum and the distance towards the 35,000 mile maximum.
To illustrate: here’s an example where you fly from Sydney to Tokyo (first stop), make your own way to Hong Kong, fly to Helsinki (second stop), make your own way to Paris, fly to Marrakesh (third stop), make your own way to Casablanca, fly to New York City (fourth stop), make your own way to Montreal, fly to Lima (fifth stop) make your own way to Santiago, and fly home.
Also, there’s no requirement to fly round-the-world, though that’s how most people use this award. You could do a loop around a specific region or criss-cross between continents – it’s totally up to you.
For example, here’s one of my recent itineraries, which started in Singapore and took me to the USA, followed by Australia, Japan and back to Australia.
How to book
Now, here’s the catch: it can be very time consuming to book this award because finding business class seats on popular routes is often tricky and the booking process usually requires several phone calls / chats with Qantas.
Here are some tips:
- start planning early – ideally a year in advance – and research which specific flights you want to book, and when you can expect the seats to become available for the dates you want (more on that below)
- be flexible with your dates
- explore the oneworld alliance route map here
- use Qantas’ website to research the availability of award seats on each individual leg. Write down the details for future reference
- be flexible with cities in Australia for departures and arrivals – ie. if you can’t find a long-haul flight ex-Adelaide, try Perth or Sydney. Don’t assume that the search results on Qantas’ site will have considered this option along with a domestic connection from your home city
- you can book the initial flight(s) online yourself on the Qantas site. Use the multi-city tool for multiple flights. Be prepared for the possibility that you can’t book all the flights in one go, either because the Qantas’ site isn’t capable of handling complicated itineraries or the seats you want aren’t all available yet
- note that you cannot make a series of individual bookings online with different reference numbers and then ask for them to be “stitched” together
- if you can’t book all the flights you want online in one go, to add flights you’ll have to call Qantas or use its online chat or SMS functions, because you can’t add to/change existing itinerary online – a Qantas rep will have to do that
- you’ll be charged 5000 points per person each time you make a change, like adding flights – this is an extra cost to factor into your planning. There’s no additional change fee if you’re flying in business or first class
- to calculate the total miles flown to make sure you don’t exceed the 35,000 mile limit, use the Great Circle Mapper tool. Just type in the airport codes separated by hyphens (for example, MEL-LAX-JFK-LHR-HKG-MEL). You can search for the codes on the site.
- you don’t have to finish in the city you started, but the booking system will calculate the distance back to the original departure airport in determining whether you’re within the 35,000 mile limit
- airlines release award seats at different times. Here’s how many days in advance you can usually book:
- Qantas – 353 days, restricted to gold members and higher on some long-haul routes (others get access a month or two later)
- Cathay Pacific – 353 days
- British Airways – 354 days
- Qatar Airways – 361 days
- American Airlines – 331 days
- Japan Airlines – 330-360 days
- Malaysia Airlines – 354 days
- Royal Jordanian – 362 days
- Finnair – 361 days
- LATAM – 330 days
- Sri Lankan – 361 days
- Iberia – 361 days
- S7 Airlines – 330 days
- you can only fly with oneworld member airlines, which does not include some Qantas partners like Emirates – so be careful when looking at search results on Qantas’ site
- if you mix different classes, the highest class will be used to calculate the cost – i.e. just one first class flight in an otherwise all-business class itinerary will make the cost jump to the first class level. You can include lower classes if you wish with no price change.
Summing up
Booking the oneworld award is complex but definitely worth the effort given what you get to experience: flying in style, visiting a range of destinations and having bragging rights for years!
If you find that booking is too time consuming or difficult for you, try a fee-based award booking service like Award Flight Assist.
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Hi Kris. Wonder if I have got this wrong? Booked the first part Oneworld Class Business in April 2019 (KUL-FCO–SIN for Oct 4 2019). Tonight finally got through to Qantas call centre to book second part (SIN to Marrakech – MAY 2020, LKR-KUL JULY 2020) and was told that all travel had to be completed by end of April 2020? I though it was 12 months from the date of first flight?
Yes 12 months from the date of the first flight. Try speaking to someone else at Qantas. I’ve heard lots of reports recently of call centre staff giving people the wrong info about the oneworld award!
Hi Kris After two staff telling me that I was wrong the third consultant was a perfect gentlemen and an expert in booking this type of reward. It definitely pays to be patient.as he was able to offer further advice on how to maximise my miles/points for my husband and myself. With only 4 weeks before I start this adventure he flagged that my first sector wasn’t arriving with enough transit time so then sorted out the changes..Funny how no-one had made contact to tell me about the flight change and the potential issue. A huge thank you to you Kris! 13 business class sectors in 12 months with Qatar, Cathay P, British Airways, Sri Lankan and Qantas. Taxes came in at $1300 each. 👏
That’s a great result. Enjoy the trip! 🙂
Hi Kris, How do you add a sector to this special 280K fare on thew website? I’ve taken your advice and booked the sector out of Australia right away (MEL – NRT). But using the multi-booking feature I was unable to book a second sector despite it showing as available on the QFF website when I searched each sector individually (it’s a JL flight NRT – YVR). Is this a quirk in the system? What happens if I log in to my QFF account at different times and book individual sectors? Would they be considered as individual award reservations or does it all eventually recalculate and link up to be 280K?
You need to call Qantas to add flights to the existing itinerary. You can’t ‘combine’ separate bookings you make on the site.
I am looking at booking 2x First Class RTW with an infant prior to the point increase. If I were to make a flight change after the point increase would they try to charge additional points ontop of the normal change fee.
Yes if you make any changes after 18 Sept the whole itinerary will be repriced at the higher points cost.
Thanks Kris. Another question. Can i gain access to First Class lounges where I am forced to book a business leg because First Class is not offered.
Not unless you hold oneworld emerald (QF Platinum) status.
Hey Kris, quick question – I’m currently on the qantas multi stop tool and booking my first leg from Sydney to Kathmandu.
The only option I have is to stop over in Hong Kong, first leg on Qantas OR Cathay, second leg on Kathay Dragon.
Can you please confirm, is this okay? Or because Kathay Dragon isn’t part of the Oneworld Alliance, this wouldn’t count toward my oneworld ticket?
Thanks!
Katie
Hi Katie, I think Cathay Dragon will be OK because it’s an affiliate oneworld member. Worth a try!
Just wondering what counts as an overland segment. Can you make your own way from New York to Santiago in Chile for example?
Yes you can. There are no restrictions on what counts.
Hi,
Another question, Is it total distance flown that counts towards the 35000 mile limit, if I fly and transit through another airport to the connecting flight such as Nadi (NAN) to Singapore (SIN) via Hong Kong (HKG) is it just the distance between NAN and SIN that is counted or is the transit in HKG counted as well.
Thanks for your help,
Andrew
The HKG transit is counted as well.
Hi,
Can you use Fiji Airways as part of a one world round the world award as they have just joined as a one world connect partner or is it limited to full traditional members
Thanks for your answer!
Hey Andrew, good question! I’m not sure of the answer though. You should check with Qantas.
If booking this one flight at a time, I understand I’ll incur change fees, but how do I make sure it is booked in accordance with the Oneworld Classic Flight Reward table that caps out at 35,000 miles, rather than it just being booked as a Partner Classic Flight Reward table. I noticed these have separate tables for the number of points required, and whilst the Partner Classic Flight Reward table provides lower points for individual flights, I want to make sure I actually get the Oneworld Classic Flight Reward to go round the world.
Thanks for all your help!
So long as you have two non-Qantas oneworld airlines in the itinerary (and comply with all the other rules) the price will be capped once it reaches 280k points. If you aren’t adding the second oneworld airline until much later in the booking process, it’s possible the price will go above 280k before then – but once you add that second airline, it will drop back to 280k and you’ll be refunded the excess.