Originally Posted by pgary
Correct in one sense: You have to stay with one airline for your entire trip. But in another sense, they do have quite a few airlines from which to choose, and it appears that it will get much better. They say that soon we will be able to use Alaska miles to get tickets on Air France and KLM. That business class Air France ticket non-stop from San Francisco to Paris is really nice, and from there you can go to most anywhere in Europe. I believe that
so far that ticket is available only via Delta miles from U.S. Airlines miles programs.
You can book pretty much any AF or KL flight in business class with DL, NW or CO miles (subject to availability, which is a big qualification). And I'd much rather take KL if going to points beyond AMS/CDG, since AMS is a far superior airport to transit. If going to PAR, however, SFO-CDG nonstop on AF can't be beat.