Comparing RTW awards across alliances
 

Thanks to some of the marvelous credit card deals this year, I'm within striking distance of having enough miles for a RTW (or RTW equivalent) type award for both skyteam and oneworld (and if I stretched could possibly make it on star alliance, but to be honest unless there is a strong reason to push for this I'd rather not). I know the basics (oneworld allows 16 segments--the amount of miles needed is itinerary dependent); delta/skyteam (6 stopovers permitted, max 3 per continent), but what other factors should I be considering? For anyone who has done an awards RTW, did you compare awards across alliances? Any general thoughts/tips on finding flight availability/scheduling etc? Do flights have to be the lowest bucket or as long as there is awards availability they can be added to a RTW itinerary. I've skimmed the oneworld and skymiles forums, but most of the information seems to be dated and/or about paid itineraries. Apologies if there is a thread or blog somewhere discussing this (please let me know).

With *A you can do mini-RTW's (a simple round trip award but flying TATL one way and TPAC the other on say Aeroplan or US Airways)- significantly cheaper than a real RTW but only two stopovers (+destination) allowed (though transfers under 24 hours are free).

AC allows two stops. CO allows just one. Don't know about the other *A carriers.

Thanks for the *A suggstion. I'll need the full RTW as I plan stops in Europe, Africa, Asia, and possibly Australia/NZ. Saving Latin/South America for my BA miles.

I'm seriously considering using my AAdvantage miles for a OneWorld award.

I'm still a bit fuzzy on the details, but it is mileage-based, with a max of 16 segments, and I don't think there is a direction rule etc. The 16 segment rule is the hard part, since "ground" segments count against the limit (e.g. fly into JFK and out of EWR is 1 segment).

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pr...title=oneworld has details.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...er-awards.html looks like a great resource (perhaps much better than aa's)

Yes this is a great resource. The Oneworld awards really do seem to be the best for complex round-the-world itineraries. Some of the redemptions people have done with many stops on multiple continents and just barely squeezing into a mileage tier have insane value in terms of cents per mile, especially for business class. There are rewards on there with 16 segments for 190,000 miles in business class plus a few hundred bucks in fees that would cost many tens of thousands of dollars if bought. Those have got to be some of the highest cpm awards out there.

Don't know if this will help, but might give you some ideas...

My partner and I are doing our first RTW in Nov. using mix-and-match strategy with One World and *A carriers. Going the northern route (Australia, etc. RTW scheduled for 2014) flying Philly to Toronto on US (12,500 US miles), Toronto to Hong Kong on Cathay (F) for 75K BA miles, HKG to Bangkok and Bangkok to London on Thai (F) for 80,000 CO miles and London back to PHL on BA (F) for 75,000 BA miles. The total is 242,500 miles and about $700 in fees/taxes each for a first class RTW that would run about $22,000. All flights booked one way, of course, so the Bangkok stop is 23 hours...but it's an overnight at the St. Regis for SPG points and cash anyway.

I like this idea! Very nice use of minimal miles

Smart redemption. Nice use of one-ways.

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Just by way of comparison, this itinerary

Phl-ord-hkg-bkk-lhr-phl

could be had for 180,000 AA miles as a First Class oneworld award, or 130,000 AA miles in Business. (Not sure whether CX offers First Class on the HKG-BKK route, however.)

2014?

Good point. Can you do a stopover on a OW award? (I think you can, just clarifying since I've never done a OW award, just keeping enough miles to have one planned for the future)

I noticed that too. Must have been a typo. Or just talking about a trip planned but not yet booked.

yes you can.

OP, You will find that OW awards are generally the way to go unless there are specific places out of reach from a RTW itin perspective which require putting together several one-way itins.

And probably no more than $150 in taxes/fees.

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The fees would very much depend on how many -- if any -- BA segments were included on the itinerary, since AA now assesses fuel surcharges on all BA segments flown. But just LHR-PHL in BA F would add a substantial sum, not to mention the UK APD (unless one were merely connecting in LHR, as opposed to stopping over).

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.