jjglaze77

When I first read kahuna613's post, I missed that they had already updated the "multi-airline award" list. After a quick call to the RTW Award Desk, I've been told that these carriers will now be available for RTW award travel:

This will make for some fun new opportunities when building these trips! The supervisor did mention one caveat: some individual carriers have certain regional restrictions and those would apply in the case of a RTW (ie, no mainland-HNL flights on HA). It's based on whatever agreements are in place with each carrier, so basically if you can't book a particular segment with a carrier on a regular award, you can't book it on a RTW either... makes sense.

To the OP, this is the thread you need:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...l-j-2-pax.html

ecaarch

Wow! This def opens up a lot of possibilities. When I did my RTW award in 2005, it was limited to ST + AV. I traveled from EZE to CPT the long way on AF + KL via CDG + AMS. Having MH on that list is def a huge plus. I might have to plan another RTW sometime soon.

kahuna613

Wow, excellent! This opens up a ton of new possibilities...new distraction from work....

Im supposed to finish grad school in August and this may be the final nudge toward taking a RTW.

kahuna613

Any former NW people know if redemptions on MH codeshares are permitted? They seem to have quite a few codeshare partners.

SDQBound

Same Here!

mikelevitt

http://www.skyteam.com/about/product...dtheworld.html

jjglaze77

That link is referring to PAID RTWs, not award RTWs. The rule for the paid RTW are set by Skyteam whereas the rules for the award RTW are airline specific. Check out the link AndyTLe posted earlier as well as the thread I referenced earlier for info about the award RTW.

mnredfox

30% more???!!! Seriously folks, did we know about this inflation? Not that I take a RTW trip every year but, really, 30% inflation? Another best of both apparently.

jjglaze77

Although it may cost 30% more than NW previously charged, there are some advantages to the DL program. During the time of unlimited free transfers between DL/NW accounts, I looked into NW's program. Jaimito Cartero can certainly give more info, but I believe 3 things set DL's award apart from NW's: 1) NW's had a 29,000 mileage cap (DL has no mileage cap), 2) NW only allowed full (not associate) ST members (DL allows many non-ST carriers as posted earlier in the thread), and 3) no open jaws were allowed. That may not make up for a 30% increase, but at least you are getting a more valuable reward.

This of course is ignoring the fact that DL's award USED to be 220k... That inflation happened around the time the 3-tier award chart was born and was widely lamented here. I'm only trying to make the point that if you are coming from NW's program, though the cost has gone up, so has the value of the award.

koko_lopez

I was thinking about buying an around the world ticket from delta and paying with miles (it costs 180,000 miles, and includes I think 6 stops in any one direction, ie. you can only travel east or west once you start travel). Does anyone have any experience or tips about this program? Would one be better off just purchasing the ticket with cash? It seems better to use miles as the price will vary, but the miles required (supposedly anyways) remains static independent of destinations.


Anywho, thoughts / opinions are appreciated.

koko_lopez

Ah thanks! Thats very helpful! When I spoke to the agent on the phone about it, she just mentioned one rate in miles (the 180,000) -but here it seems like there are several rates if you pay in dollars. Perhaps I'll call again and try to verify there is just one rate when paying in miles.

avidflyer

Where does it mention paying with miles?

koko_lopez

It doesn't, thats just what the agent at the 'round the world' desk told me.

avidflyer

I would like to read about the RTW option as well. I have 800,000 miles and am probably only going to be W/DL for 1-2 years max. If they allow unlimited rollover next year too then it will be 2 years. If I could get a REALLY good sabbatical type vacation (I have never took more than a week at a time of in my life) then I may be able to "go out with a bang" when I move over to OW. If you find anything please post it.

redtailshark

But I want to hear what happens when you actually try to redeem one of these. It can't even be done theoretically by DL.COM.

Wait until the agents apply the same SM multiplier ratio to this award that the website does to NRT-SIN in J...about 3.8, so what is touted as a 180k award in fact does become about 700k.