I'm in the middle of my RTW...

TLV-AZ-MIL-AF-PAR-AF-MEX-AM-QRO
(almost missed 1 flight - had to go through passport control 3 times - bags still haven't caught up with me... one week later)

QRO-AM-MEX-AM-MIA

FLL-DL-JFK (side trip)

LGA-US-CLT (side trip) and that's where I am now

CLT-NW-DTT-NW-TYO-NW-SHA

SHA-MU-CKG (side trip)

CKG-CA-PEK (side trip)

PEK-KE-ICN-KE-OKJ

KIX-KL-AMS-KL-BCN

BCN-IB-LEN (side trip)

LEN-IB-BCN (side trip)

BCN-AZ-MIL-AZ-TLV

Thanks to the side trips, I was able to squeeze this into 29K and save my company a few $$. You're allowed open jaws, but they calculate that into the milage you have (even if they don't fly the route), so as part of my 29K goes MIA-CLT, SHA-PEK and OKJ-TYO-KIX (since there is no flight from OKJ to KIX!!!) It is pretty rude of them, but it is not only a SkyTeam thing... My (soon to be former) travel agent explained that when you buy a bagel, you're paying for the hole too... If I get a chance (and people are interested) I will write a trip report...

Take care,
Arie

Can you use frequent flyer miles to buy a rtw ticket?

Hey guys:

Wanted to get 2 RTWs using CO Onepass miles (either Business 220K or First 280K)... The trip will take place over May/June and July of 2007...

Locations we will probably want to visit:

Bali, HKG, Bombay or Delhi (or does a SkyTeam carrier fly to Bangalore? since I've never been to South India), Rome, S. Africa, and then back to NYC.

Questions:

When should I ask for the 2 certs from CO?

Since I might have to utilize the First Class option (from what I read here.. getting seats on CO BusinessFirst, etc.) which other airlines should I really consider trying to get 1st class seats on, in addition to CO?

Will I be able to get Virgin to/from S. Africa in UpperClass?

I am assuming I can only have 6 stopovers, but unlimited mileage.

Thanks for all your help..
DD

Yes you can. For DL SkyMiles it is 140,000 in Ecom, 220,000 in Business and 280,000 in First IIRC.

Thanks. What about Northwest miles?

I does not look like NW offers a RTW award option.

I'm almost certain that NWA flies into Bangalore with their older DC-10s.

I am going on an RTW using Delta miles (econ 140K...will probably upgrade to business). I'm flying from the west coast to:

NZ/Australia
Bombay
Dubai
Russia/Istanbul
South Africa
Brazil
Back home


I'm doing open jaws on all segments to maximize the places I can visit.

The trip will take place during June and July 2006. I made the reservations during the last week of December and paid for it on January 3rd ($268 in taxes). I did not have to be very flexible with my dates or routes and feel pretty satisfied.

I will be making some minor changes in a couple of weeks and possibly upgrading to business class. I will post on how that goes.

Good luck and enjoy your travels!

For SkyTeam, Back tracking is only allowed if you purchase your RTW tickets (paid fares). On award RTW tickets, backtracking is NOT allowed.

They have one. You just have to call to get it. They have the same redemption levels as the others (140K/220K/280K).

Thanks

Can someone give rules for this award?

Max miles?
Max Segments?
#stops total?
#stops per continent?
backtracking allowed?

Has anyone actually done a RTW with NW miles????

Thanks

I'm doing one with NW miles right now. I think there are 3 min stops. Must move E-W or W-E. Do some searching and you'll find a lot of info on it on FT. You will find no info on NWA that I've ever seen.

Max 1 year for flight times, you can only schedule 300-350 or so days in advance. I paid about $300 in taxes on a Biz class ticket.

NO max miles as long as you don't exceed 6 stops. Transit don't count as a stopover and a transit also don't count as backtracking. Each stopover must be in one continuous direction (so no backtracking (for stopover) is allowed). Max 3 stops per continents. Unlimited segments. All SkyTeam airlines can use each of its own frequent flyer miles to redeem this award. It requires a very advanced planning and quite time consuming if you want to get the dates (or close to the dates) that you want. If you start booking now for a trip this summer, u will find it very difficult to get a hold of award seats especially Europe-North Amerca or vice versa. Watch out blackout dates from each airlines as well (for sure KE has blackout from July 20-Aug 20). Although using NW miles (for your case), don't expect to fly on NW as their award seats availability really sucks (mostly asia-america-asia routing).

If the prices that are posted here are correct then it is very attrective to start a first class rtw in Sweden, does anyone know any good travel agency in sweden that i could contact to make my reservations?

Sorry for my ignorance. What exactly is FT to find information?