enjoystravel

Is there any place where I can find these. Star and OW fares and rules can found by chasing links at fewmiles.net (FT regular).

I called up some of the partners and they give rules piecemeal on the phone and keep saying give us the full itinerary or contact a TA (in these days when TAs are being decimated by airlines). I don't have a full itinerary - I need the rules and fares to construct one.

number_6

I have yet to find one, and Delta can't supply the detailed rules. DL used to have a good RTW fare (with SQ/SR) but no longer. The Skyteam terms are awful, much worse than Star or Oneworld. The worst Skyteam rule is no backtracking, which eliminates more than half of the skyteam flights from use on RTW. It also eliminates many surface segments as a way to fill in the gaps that exist in the Skyteam network. Basically it is terrible and I say that as Skyteam ElitePlus. Use Oneworld, you'll be much happier.

Track

It's not quite correct to say no backtracking is allowed on Skyteam RTW flights. You may backtrack to make a connection to continue your RTW flight in the same direction, e.g., Europe-Seoul-New Zealand-Seoul-LAX is allowed as long as you don't stay in Seoul longer than until the next flight to Los Angeles on the way back from New Zealand. You could count Seoul as one of the 6 allowed stops on the way to NZ but not on the way back, since you are travelling eastbound, and New Zealand is east of Seoul. You could, of course, omit Seoul as a stopover alltogether - if you take the next flight out of Seoul to NZ and LA, and this would be allowed, since there is no other way to get to NZ than via Seoul. Surface segments are allowed in the same way (and the two cities connected by surface will count as only one of the six allowed stops). For example, USA-Paris by air, Paris-Munich by train, Munich-Paris-Far East would be allowed, and Paris/Munich would count as only one stopover. By the way, this applies to the RTW award tickets; paid RTW tickets have other (more liberal) All clear?

[This message has been edited by Track (edited 08-13-2002).]

enjoystravel

number_6 and Track, thanks for clarifications. While allowing some flexibility in connections, it still looks as though SkyTeam has one of the worst RTW rules. Oneworld and Star seem to be the best choice for RTWs. There seem to lower fares with special airline combos (such as SQ alone, SQ + Virgin, CO+Air India, etc.) but the network footprint is small.

I understand that NW has an RTW that is fairly decent that includes multiple airlines including KLM, Emerites, Jet Airways in India, South African airlines, etc. They allow backtracking within a continent but not between continents (actually it is areas). The fares are based on mileage.

I sure hope SkyTeam introduces a good RTW purchased fare. For now, I will look elsewhere.

number_6

Interesting ... I tried to purchase with ATL-TXL-CDG-NRT and that was not allowed for the "more liberal" paid RTW, nor did DL suggest that I could do ATL-CDG-surface-TXL-CDG-NRT as an alternative. The Skyteam offering is abysmal compared to the alliances that DL head preceding Skyteam.

Track

If you stopped off in Berlin first as one of your six allowed stops, you would not be allowed to count Paris as your other one. If you chose Paris first and then Berlin, both would count as stops against your six allowed, but if you flew to Paris, then took the train to Berlin (who would know?) and then returned to Paris, it would count as only one stop. If you flew to Paris and then right on to Berlin (for one of your stops), you could return to Paris and then fly right on further east with no problem.
Call the Delta RTW people for more information; they are really wonderful and know all the rules. They have two RTW desks, one for award travel and one for paid travel.

jgoldman

I take the NW/KLM around the world fairly frequently. They also allow Malaysian Airlines and Cathay. (Although CX might have been suspended.) The only problem is all European flights go via Amsterdam.

The Skyteam is $1000 more (in Business Class) with almost no options for Asia unless you are going to Korea/Japan.

LH738

http://www.airtimetable.com/around%20sky%20team.htm has some info.

enjoystravel

Thx, LH738!

I found the info at the link helpful.