Originally Posted by
tarmac
* The Skyteam network is really limited, and some partners -- including Korean -- only seem slightly connected. It's impossible, for example, to fly from Europe to Australia entirely on a Skyteam carrier.
I really don't think the SkyTeam network is any more limited than the oneworld network other than flights involving only Australia/NZ and SE Asia. As to flying from Europe to Australia on SkyTeam, it must have been a figment of my imagination when I flew FRA-ICN-MEL entirely on KE last December, then. Possible SkyTeam routes from Europe (I'll leave off Russia and Turkey to keep the list shorter.) to Australia/NZ:
VN: LGW/CDG/FRA-SGN-SYD/MEL
KE: VIE/PRG/CDG/FRA/MXP/FCO/AMS/MAD/ZRH/LHR/LGW-ICN-BNE/SYD/MEL/AKL
CZ: CDG/AMS/LHR-CAN-SYD/MEL/BNE/CNS/PER/AKL
MU: FRA/HAM/CDG/FCO/LHR-PVG-CNS/MEL/SYD
CI: VIE/FCO/FRA/AMS-TPE-BNE/SYD/AKL
That's of course neglecting situations where you might fly one of the many European SkyTeam members (AF/KL/AZ/UX/RO/OK/SU) to one of the Asian members' hubs and then onward to Australia. If one wanted to use oneworld and not change carriers, your options would be QF, BA, JL, or CX. Of course, BA's time for Oz may be limited and they fly only one route. JL only serves SYD, and CX only offers six European destinations in contrast to KE's 10 (11 airports).