You could download Microsoft's free Excel viewer.
It will allow you to view, but not alter, .xls files.

http://office.microsoft.com/download.../xlviewer.aspx

Thanks very much for that. I do have Microsoft Office and managed to find that particular programme in the list. As you say it is rather limited (I haven't worked out how, if at all, I can change the currency) but at least I can open the file. Thanks again.

Award RTW?
 

Hi,

I've heard there is a skyteam RTW award ticket, but can't find a link to official information anywhere... anyone have a link?

Dan K

Do a search, pretty much everything has been posted here before.

I've scanned this entire thread for links, and searched and scanned many posts without finding a link to any official information... say on skyteam.com. I'm not saying it doesn't exist anywhere in the forums, I may have overlooked it, but I just can't find it.

Anyone have the link to Award RTW on Skyteam?

Dan K

There is no such thing as a reward redeemed from SkyTeam.

You need to redeem a RTW ticket on your preferred carrier. In my case, CO is the carrier of choice, and I found the information here. Depending on your carrier you'll have to look in their FF program pages for details. I just quickly checked DL and NW's pages and didn't see anything specific, so you might have to dig deeper or actually call. I believe that the mileage redemption levels are pretty consistent across the carriers.

Ok, that clears up some things... My miles are in NorthWest, so I guess I am out of luck then?

Dan K

I don't think you necessarily are. I think that a RTW ticket is essentially a bunch of award tix stapled together and sold at an agreed-upon rate by all SkyTeam Alliance members. So, I think you'd be able to utilize your NW miles on any NW partner. And I think you could make several versions of a RTW trip using NW partners. Calling NW Award tix reservation line would be in order for you. I am almost certain that you can book a RTW tix on NW, but you will need to set up the dates and routing with NW. Make sure you inform them that you want a RTW award ticket and go from there. I've heard some agents don't know how to do this kind of ticket(?), so if you get one that's unhelpful, hang up and call again.

Hello,

We are planning to make a RTW trip in january. We noticed the pricing table a few pages earlier and saw that the ticket price in Egypt is about half what we would pay in the Netherlands. Does anyone know how to purchase such a ticket in Egypt? Or does someone has experience with buying a ticket in an other place than the city of origin? Any help would be apriciated!

Thank you in advance!!!

Welcome, JulienH!

If you purchase your ticket in Egypt, you must depart from there. Those original tables are incorrect, so try and get WearyBizTraveller's spreadsheet and look at that. I don't think that there is any Egypt discount any more. I know that the UK is cheap though, and might be a good option for you. Another thing to do, is to look at Star Alliance RTW as well, because there is a lot more information on them, and often have better options for routes! Good luck!

I bought it from Cairo in May. 2 days before KLM adjusted their pricing in Egyptian Pounds. I took a one-way to CAI and flew CAI-AS as the first leg.

Buying it from there saved me 2500 euro's (instead of buying it here in the Netherlands). Unfortunately, that price is no more. Price for the 'old' KL/NW RTW from Cairo is now about the same as from Europe.

It is by the way is not the Skyteam RTW we are talking about... but the pre-AF KL RTW (still available though)

I'm contemplating a RTW award trip with my wife. I would begin and end in Orlando and our six stops would probably be in Tokyo, Sidney, Hong Kong/BKK, Delhi, Capetown and London. One issue is whether to fly Business or F. Given the upcoming reality of not being able to get F tickets on AF and the limited F classes now available on ST members, does anyone have a strong opinion that F would be worth it to these destinations? Or would I be wasting the extra 60K needed for F due to the fact that these routes are not likely to have many F opportunities? I am open to using all ST partners to accomplish the trip so I have flexibility that way. I know you would need more details of the trip to make a definitive choice but I was just wondering if anyone has any general thoughts on whether this would be worth an F award. Of course, I might not be able to arrange the trip given limited availabilty of awards but let's assume I can find availability to all these destinations. Would you spend the extra 60K to go F? Please be as specific as you can about ST members' equipment and routes that would warrant F if you believe I should go F. I'm open to strange and/or lengthy routings if that would get me true F class experiences. Thanks in advance for any advice and insights you can offer.

There isn't a lot of true F on the SkyTeam network. Assuming that you choose to fly Westbound, you are probably looking at CO or NW from MCO to TYO. I know that CO requires F to fly their BF seats. For my upcoming RTW that was enough to justify my paying the extra miles. Otherwise you are looking at flying via KE and connecting in Seoul. After TYO you would probably need to go back up to ICN and then down to SYD on KE. Or you could connect via GUM to CNS on CO/CS and find your way on a LCC down to SYD. I'm pretty sure that CO/CS offers a CNS-HKG one stop flight (via MNL). From there, getting to DEL is pretty difficult on SkyTeam. You'd pretty much have to fly KE (if they even serve DEL) and do it back up via ICN again. After DEL, you are looking at connecting somewhere in Europe to get to JNB which is again not too convenient. From there, JNB-LON could probably be on KL, AZ or AF.

In the end, not too many options in F, but to get the decent seats on the CO I know you need an F reward; not sure about NW. You may also want to reconsider your routing to take advantage of the cities that SkyTeam actually serves conveniently. My fiancee and I are having to replan our originally scheduled honeymoon routings to try to find reasonable connections on SkyTeam.

I would only go with an F award if MOST of your flights have -new- AF first class available. Otherwise, J will be fine!

In fact, on KE's ICN-SYD and SYD-ICN flights there is no first class. There is a first class cabin, but you cannot book it. J revenue tickets and sweet-talkers can get up front on the 744.

We tried but failed.

But, we did convince them to let us sit up front (rather than upstairs) on ICN-BKK!

MissBumpMe! and I took a J trip, and have no regrets EXCEPT for wasting time in PPT. (The AF flights to get to/from there were great, though!)

I don't know, but would Singapore or Malaysia work for any portions of the trip. I know that there are some ways that they can be used on DL awards, but am not sure about RTW. I agree that unless a lot/most of the travel is available in F I would go with a J ticket. CO BF is nice, but it's not FC. I'm also curious about AF availability in F.