Continental - caught in the Skyteam Star Alliance divide
 

I hope somebody can assist - consider it a challenge to those who truely know their mileage programs!

In October I will be travelling from San Francisco to India (Delhi and Mumbai). When I leave SF in mid October, Continental (with whom I am a Platinum Member) they will be in SkyTeam. When I return to Europe around the 23rd Oct they will still be in Sky Team, but when i fly back to San Francisco from Europe (Oct 31st) they will be in the Star Alliance!!! 8-(

I am looking for an efficient business class routing that will maximize my mileage on good carriers whilst still securing a decent price. Any thoughts on good options and routings that would maimise those miles. The European in's and out's don't matter (London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam could all be considered)

Also does anybody know if Virgin (not in Skyteam but a mileage partner of CO right now) will remain as such once CO exits Skyteam for Star? Right now I think information wise I'm caught between the two programs when it comes to planning this trip.

Thanks for your tips

Mike

I'm not sure I understand your issue. You are Plat with CO, so I assume you will bank all of your miles to CO so you can retain that status, right? Or are you implying that you are more loyal to Skyteam and would rather fly a Skyteam carrier on your way back?

Sorry to clarify. From SF to India you could go direct through Newark and direct from there to India but stopping in Europe would requires a third flight (and another carrier) and there are no 'sky team' carriers from London to India direct.

Right now under the current CO One Pass program I could go SFO - LHR - Mumbai, then Delhi - LHR - SFO all on Virgin and get miles in my CO program but I'm not sure if that relationship still exists after the Skyteam relationship ends .

Air France or KLM could help but then for the last flight back to SF i'm out of luck because they are Skyteam not Star (and its business class so there are som miles to be lost there).

i'd prefer the Virgin option, I'm just not sure of it's status post Oct 25th.



SF- India on Continental would go through Newark and to accomodate stopping in Europe wo

There is no indication that the VS relationship is going to end on October 24th when CO leaves SkyTeam. Considering the relationship that VS has with other *A carriers (SQ and BD) I just don't see that being a serious risk.

Be careful with the fare buckets; CO has limited earnings on some fare classes as of last December. I know that some Y classes were affected; I don't know about the J buckets.

And, obviously, the CO routing is the most certain to earn miles but it means the SFO-EWR flight potentially in a domestic F seat which isn't ideal.

Did they reduce RDM or EQM?

Both.
http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US...aspx?ItemId=77

So to max your miles on CO, I'd fly as much of CO as you can.

Maybe this CO to India
KLM, AF, NW/Delta, or other ST partner (is there a CO codeshare you can book) back to Europe
Return from Europe on CO or star alliance.

Try having your agent piece this together or expedia/travelocity.

If you're willing to write off the India-Europe segment anyways I'd book it on LH. There is a chance that you actually will get credit and if you don't you're no worse off than having booked on DL/AF/KL.

You can pick up CO from FRA back to EWR or (later in the year, I don't remember the exact start date) to IAH.

thanks, sorry I thot that CO reduced some its own RDM earning classes.