Hi, i am after help with booking a one world RTW trip in first class on points.

Hi, i am after help with booking a one world RTW trip in first class on points. I have over 600k Qantas points ready to use. I am just finding it very difficult to find award seats on each leg even trying to book 12 months in advance. Any advice on how to do this would be great. I'm not fussed on dates and happy to book 12 months in advance

Swallow the assistance fee and ring QFF.

How much is the fee?

There is a great post (many many pages long) which explains the ins and outs of booking a Oneworld Award (which in reality is up to 35,000 mile ticket, not necessarily a RTW ticket) on the Aust Frequent Flyer forum. It is useful reading.

As I am currently booking a the business version of this product, here is some advice:

-You try and book the first leg of your trip on-line, as soon as it becomes available.

-Then as each additional leg becomes available, you call Qantas (ensuring you give them your current booking ref) and get them to add the next flight to your current booking. 

- This costs 3,500 points in change fees each time. Sometimes they try and charge you a 8,000 service fee, but kindly remind them that this fee is waived for business / first bookings

- Once you reach the points cap (280,000 in Business, 400,000 in First), the remaining flights won't cost more points 

- You have 35,000 miles to play with, try using a site called GCMapper to check your combo

- If you care about taxes, avoid flying BA where possible and flying out of LHR (transiting is okay) as the taxes are higher.

- You have to fly at least 2 non-qantas oneworld airlines

-I believe it is 5 stop-overs (more than 24hours) and 6 total flight trips 

And apologies... First is 420,000 points, not the 400,000

Also, note the "main"rules:

14.5 Classic Flight Rewards - oneworld Classic Flight Reward booking conditions

14.5.1 A oneworld Classic Flight Reward is a Classic Flight Reward Itinerary that includes travel on at least two oneworld Alliance Airlines other than Qantas and does not include any travel on any airline that is not aoneworld Alliance Airline.

14.5.2 Classic Flight Rewards using the oneworld classic flight reward table must be no more than a distance of 56,315 kilometres (35,000 miles). Longer journeys must be broken into separate Itineraries.

14.5.3 A one way oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itinerary will be charged as a return Itinerary. oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itineraries finishing in a port other than the port of origin must include the distance to return directly to the port of origin when calculating the number of Points required to redeem the Flight Reward and the maximum distance for the Itinerary.

14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Classic Flight Rewards:
(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and 
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

14.5.5 Surface Segments are permitted as part of oneworld Classic Flight Reward Itineraries, but the distance between the disembarkation point and the next embarkation point will be included in the Reward Point zone calculation for that Itinerary.

14.5.6 Where mixed-class travel is booked in a oneworld Classic Flight Reward, the whole Itinerary will be calculated using the Points level for the highest class booked.

Great help hutch - would I be able to do this within the 420k points

Melbourne - Hong Kong - Helsinki - Stockholm - London - Miami - Rio - Santiago  - Sydney - Melbourne 

Just to note, assuming the above routing is valid, the only legs that could actually be in first class would be London-Miami and possibly Miami-Rio (via somewhere as I don't believe there's a direct Oneworld flight) as the highest cabin on the flights on all those other routes is business class, so realistically you're better off picking different routes and airlines with first class or just making it a business class award.

It adds up to around 28500miles. Which is good, because you may need some flexibility in your booking... ie getting seats between Australia and South America can be difficult. May need to re-route back to Australia via USA or even DOH?

Also, you can only do 5 stops. So you could do something like:

MEL-HKG (stop)

HKG-HEL (stop)

LHR-MIA (stop)

MIA-RIO (stop)

RIO-SCL (stop)

SCL-SYD-MEL 

And just make your own way to Stockholm and London?

Worth noting, that many of the routes you have mentioned do not have First class. You may be better off, just booking a 280,000 point business trip and saving the First class for another time. As soon as your booking has one First class leg, the whole booking gets charged at the 420,000 point rate. Is it worth losing 120,000 points?

Also, if you can add Doha into your trip (even a transit), it may be worth it for the DOH lounge and the Qatar experience in the air (especially the 787, A350 or A380).

Awesome, thanks!

im now on the right path to doing a RTW. Good point regarding doing it in business class as opposed to first.

appreciate everyone's advice

cheers

If you are looking to 'cut down' the number of booking sectors AND have no intention of spending any time in Sydney, then

- book your SCL-SYD-MEL as SCL-MEL and let QF re-route you via SYD. The only two options are LAN or QF ex SCL and both can only offer transit in SYD for your connecting flight to MEL.

It will still count as a sector.

If memory serves me correctly, this was not my experience on a previous complex redemption - but happy to be corrected if I am wrong, Hutch.

Does the method I suggested not become an involuntary QF tansfer / re-route and thus fall within the parameters of 14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to oneworld Classic Flight Rewards:(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and (d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.

In this case, SYD would be a transfer point, not a stop-over.

Hutch - thank-you, that is great advice