Yes, we do plan ahead! This year's trip was originally just to HKG...but then why not just keep on going? RTW in F is a bucket list item anyway!

And the $700 in fees is actually $588 each, and yes, almost all is BA. We could have done cheaper but wanted to try the BA product once.

shouldn't the amount of BA miles needed for a one world award have been the same as the amount of AA miles needed? Why the 60k discrepency?

thanks for all the replies. Can someone chime in on RTW with delta/sky team?

how can you already book for 2014 given the 330 day schedule?

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Nope; different FFPs, different redemption rates. AA and BA charge the same number of miles for a Coach oneworld award; BA charges more than AA for Business and First oneworld awards.

Not booked, just planned!

I researched this a good bit back in March and am currently traveling on the SkyTeam Europe Pass (not the RTW) but also recently went back to SkyTeam to explore their Asia Pass for some upcoming travel. In short, with all of the RTW options: It totally depends on where you want to go. Despite all of the Asia-centric airlines in SkyTeam, they couldn't put together an itinerary that would cover the 10 segments I was attempting to include. In Europe, it was easy and a total steal.

OneWorld has the best coverage but seemed to cost the most. Star Alliance is better with Africa and Asia than SkyTeam. I ended up going with the Europe Pass because I've got more in my SkyMile bank than the rest and just booking segment at a time for Asia.

If you call Delta International, ask to speak with the RTW desk and give them your dates/cities, they're good about calling back with a quote for miles/cost.

Boots N All has a quick comparison of the options with mostly up-to-date info: http://www.bootsnall.com/rtw/rtw-ticket-comparison.html

You should use up your BA miles soon as I've read they are starting to make distance based awards rather than the great NA to SEA/Asia redemptions.

Delta can only book into C, not F, on award flights so that's somewhat limiting. Then again, SkyTeam doesn't offer much in the way of F awards so that's pretty limiting, too.

Pretty sure it is 6 stops for the RTW and no backtracking. No one-way awards so no ability to piece something "fun" together that way.

You can't backtrack with any of the options, SkyTeam lets you within region. Up to 15 stops with the RTW.

Doesn't the Delta SkyMiles RTW ticket have a rule in place that if you don't change your flights at least 72 hours prior to scheduled departure then DL will expire your mileage ticket/miles? That's the general rule for DL SkyMiles tickets now, and it's why I would avoid collecting miles with DL for a RTW mileage ticket.

I do not believe that SkyTeam (or any other alliance) sets rules for any awards across all members. Claiming that SkyTeam lets you do anything is most likely a misleading path to head down.

I know that when CO was in SkyTeam the rule was 16 coupons, 6 stopovers and no backtracking, even within a region, on an award ticket. The rules for revenue were different but for reward it was definitely this. At the time I believe the DL rules matched that.

Details of the current DL RTW award (which pretty much matches what I posted above) can be found here.