SkyTeam - Stopover question on award travel

I searched for an answer to this question but didn't find it anywhere on FT.

Delta's rules say you can have a stopover on award travel. The published rules don't give any guidance or details. An agent with whom I just spoke told me a stopover could only be at at a hub city and it seems from looking at FT that people have been able to do stopovers at cities that are not hubs. What are the rules? If you can fly into one city on a ST airline and out of it to your home destination on the same or another ST airline, would you be allowed to stop over?

Here's an example from the trip I'm beginning to plan:L I'd like to go to New Zealand (optimally on KE connecting in ICN but DL also flies to ICN; KE flies ICN-AKL) and then return via PPT (Tahiti). TN flies AKL-PPT and both TN and AF fly PPT-LAX; then I'd take DL back to JFK or BOS. Would I be allowed a stopover (several days) in Tahiti?

When you look at using multiple ST airlines, what constitutes a hub?
In the example above, if I flew DL into ICN and wanted a stopover in Korea, would that be allowed. It's not a DL hub but it is a KE hub. Also in the example above, if I wanted a stopover in Tahiti, would I have to fly into and out of PPT on TN in order to have a stopover in a hub (PPT is TN's hub) and be unable to fly out of PPT on AF? The agent told me a stopover in Tahiti was not permitted because, he said, it is not a hub.

Here's an example from the trip I'm beginning to plan:L I'd like to go to New Zealand (optimally on KE connecting in ICN but DL also flies to ICN; KE flies ICN-AKL) and then return via PPT (Tahiti). TN flies AKL-PPT and both TN and AF fly PPT-LAX; then I'd take DL back to JFK or BOS. Would I be allowed a stopover (several days) in Tahiti?

When you look at using multiple ST airlines, what constitutes a hub?
In the example above, if I flew DL into ICN and wanted a stopover in Korea, would that be allowed. It's not a DL hub but it is a KE hub. Also in the example above, if I wanted a stopover in Tahiti, would I have to fly into and out of PPT on TN in order to have a stopover in a hub (PPT is TN's hub) and be unable to fly out of PPT on AF? The agent told me a stopover in Tahiti was not permitted because, he said, it is not a hub.

This question might be more suited to the Delta Forum, as it's basically about the application of SkyMiles rules.

However, as far as I can tell, the issue is not so much about hubs, as about routing rules. The SkyMiles 'Award Travel Rules And Conditions' say:
Routing (http://www.delta.com/skymiles/about_skymiles/membership_guide_program/award_travel_rules/index.jsp#routing)
Routing restrictions apply for Award Travel. Valid routings vary based on the operating carriers of the Award Ticket. Any exceptions or variations to these routings may require additional mileage for the award.


As far as I know, most FFPs assume/require that point-to-point award tickets are provided by one specific carrier (even if you can choose that one carrier from a number of partners). So, the ticket has to be in accordance with the published routing rules of that airline. So, if DL has a routing that allows AKL-TN-PPT-TN/AF-LAX-DL-JFK (eg: with DL code-shares on the TN/AF sectors) then you could book that as an award. But if it doesn't, then you can't.

I don't think you can just mix&match carriers unless it's a) a published route, b) a RTW fare, or c) you book the sectors as separate one-ways.

However, maybe someone else can provide more clarity on this issue?

Just remembered that DL generally work with MPM fares, rather than routing rules (even though the SkyMiles Rules & Conditions mention 'routing restrictions'...) However, for paid fares the fare rules then provide a list of allowable operating carriers, so it amounts to pretty much the same thing.

So in your case, the question would be whether TN and AF are allowed as operating carriers for a DL route AKL-JFK - and as far as I can tell, they are not.

AFAIK, the ST award scheme allows free mixing of ST airlines on an award trip. However, as TN is not a member of ST you might run into problems with your itinerary. So if you insist on including TN, this is a question of DL's private rules and not a ST question anymore: ST has no rule about awards with TN.

This was cross-posted to DL, so I assume the mods will lock soon. Before that, I should probably address some things in the responses above.


So in your case, the question would be whether TN and AF are allowed as operating carriers for a DL route AKL-JFK - and as far as I can tell, they are not.

It shouldn't be a problem, actually. Basically, DL lets MPM rule as long as someone involved publishes a fare. JFK-AKL is published by AF, TN, and DL. DL then lets you combine carriers more or less willy nilly on such things. The problem arises when you try doing something like using a KE fare DTW-AKL via ICN, as DL might not let you use their DTW-ICN flight because the only way to make the routing valid (since it exceeds MPM) is the KE routing rules that might not permit use of the DTW-ICN flight.

AFAIK, the ST award scheme allows free mixing of ST airlines on an award trip. However, as TN is not a member of ST you might run into problems with your itinerary. So if you insist on including TN, this is a question of DL's private rules and not a ST question anymore: ST has no rule about awards with TN.

DL has no restrictions on mixing ST and non-ST carriers on awards.