As Kim mentioned in her blog last week, GT’s auction is in full swing. It’s time to take advantage of the best travel prizes the world has to offer. Not only will you be getting the great packages at exceptional values, but you will also be helping children through the Mentor Foundation — a definite win-win situation.

I currently find myself in southeast Asia, where many of our great auction items could  take you also. I flew through Incheon International Airport and saw many of the recent airport renovations — making an already superb transit hub even better. By adding updated shopping outlets, Korean culture workshops, stores and museums, the airport has turned into a great destination to visit while in transit.

I also transited in the new Asiana first- and business-class lounge, which offers Asiana and Star Alliance passengers a phenomenal space to rest and relax. Before heading south, I spent a few days in Seoul at the Ritz Carlton. The hotel was celebrating its 15th anniversary with a cocktail reception sponsored by Remy Martin. There was a featured cask on display that was valued at more than $20,000 per bottle. It was handled with white-glove service, and they raffled off a taste to a few lucky guests. I happened to be one of the lucky winners! I am not a cognac connoisseur, but I knew I was tasting something special. I also knew to savor it since I would have to pay $800 a glass if I ordered it at the bar. It was smooth going down. Something tells me it will be a long time before I am able to make a fair comparison with a such a rare bottle of Remy Martin.

Bottom line — take a look at the auction website, make a bid and see what global adventures await you!

– Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher

Last night I attended a Star Alliance function at the New York Hilton. I joined my two colleagues, Lisa Matte and Dick Evans, at the exciting airline industry event. The event was in celebration of Star Alliance welcoming Continental Airlines as the newest addition to the alliance. For those of you in the know, Continental has been a member of the SkyTeam alliance for about five years. The event was significant because this is the first time an airline has ever switched its alliance.

The trigger for the switch was the Delta/Northwest merger, which created too much overlap within SkyTeam, especially in regards to NYC flights between Delta and Continental. As they said at the party, we want competition, just not within the same alliance.

Party attendees were from all around the world and representing various airlines, from All Nippon Airways to Spanair. Different regional foods were served, making for a fun, feel-good event, followed today by press conferences. Various CEOs from the alliance airlines will be speaking.

As the group was mostly international last night, I did not hear any talk of baseball. I would be remiss if I didn’t wish my Phillies fan colleagues good luck in the upcoming World Series against the Yankees. As a Mets fan, to have the Phillies and the Yankees in the series is pretty much my worst nightmare — as my colleague so kindly pointed out. But, as a Mets fan first, and a New Yorker second, I will be putting my support behind the Yankees!

– Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher

I was reading our esteemed publisher Fran’s blog from earlier this week and I left a comment, but since the subject of codesharing gets to me, I have some more to say–and I’d love to hear some input from others.

My mother always told me that if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all, so I’ll address the positive aspects of codesharing first.

- You get your tickets and boarding passes altogether.

- You can just make a single booking.

- You can check your luggage straight through to your destination.

Those are all really motivating. Nowadays you can pretty much get an idea of who codeshares with who (though not necessarily) by looking at what alliance they belong to (SkyTeam, OneWorld, Star).

However, my big complaint about codesharing is that it doesn’t bother to coordinate flight schedules in many cases.

Maybe I come late to this party because I used to fly out of the New York metro airports and you can get just about anywhere you want from JFK nonstop. In that case, I don’t really care if the flight being booked under one airline’s code is actually being flown by a partner; it gets me there.

But I gotta tell ya — having moved to the beach in Florida, where my nearest airport is Tampa, it’s a whole different story. Flying internationally from Tampa is all about codesharing. Plus my last two trips involved flying airlines with limited U.S. gateways (or trying to fly, in one case).

I was flying BMI to England (see my review of BMI’s business class in the May issue of Global Traveler) and their codesharing partner was United. So I was booked straight through TPA-ORD-MAN. However, the TPA-ORD leg involved a 10-hour layover! The next flight would have only allowed a 1-1/2-hour layover, which was considered too tight (and I agree). I’m sorry, but my feeling is, if your “partner” requires a 10-hour layover, find a new partner!

Plus, United didn’t seem to have a clue about BMI. When BMI’s phone lines were down for the night, I called United for info and they didn’t have any. Shouldn’t a “partner” have a clue?

I’m heading for Poland this summer, and I’m planning to fly LOT, which is another carrier with a limited number of U.S. gateways. I looked up flights from Tampa and they all want to take me through Chicago, with a long layover, via United, who is also LOT’s codesharing partner. But LOT also flies out of JFK, and I can make better time if I fly into New York and make the connection.

Yes, there will be some hassles. I’ll have to buy separate tickets, and that means that if there’s a problem with my TPA-JFK flight I’ll have less recourse, but on the other hand there are more flights on American to JFK from TPA than there are on United to Chicago, it looks like. I’ll have to either use carryon or pick up my bags in JFK and then recheck them in. (On the way back that won’t be as much of an issue since I’ll have to pick them up to clear customs at JFK anyway). Pricewise I might even come out a little better if I can get a deal on the TPA-JFK leg, and I’ll have my choice of airlines to shop for that route.

Codesharing primarily makes airlines look more competitive. Granted it does also make our lives as travelers easier in many ways. But I just hate being locked into these codesharing partners that are really inconvenient, and I wish they’d take their partnerships a bit more seriously. In business, or marriage, or policework, we expect our partner to have our back.

What’s your best or worst codesharing experience? I’d really like to know.

–Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer

In the Global Traveler office we call China Southern Airlines the black hole since whenever we call their North American regional office (in Los Angeles) we are sent in a loop of telephone holding that lasts for an eternity. It makes me wonder, with an airline like China Southern - which they claim is the largest airline in China - what is going on over there?!

I was shocked to learn that SkyTeam just added China Southern to their list of alliance partners. And it made me wonder, why in the world would Delta and Air France want their customers to call in and not receive satisfaction? Can you imagine purchasing a ticket and thinking you are going to fly on one of the SkyTeam partners and then you find you are on China Southern?

I have personally tried to contact the newest General Manager for the Americas, based in Los Angeles, many times and have heard nothing back. I have never been called back the few times I actually got to his voicemail. So as a traveler, when you book a flight through SkyTeam, be forewarned you might be entering the black hole.

The New York Times reported that the US Olympic Team will be transporting their own food to Beijing. The Olympic team will be bringing 25,000 pounds of lean protein from North America to China. They made a dry run to China, tested the chicken (athletes need protein) and they found that the chicken from China was so full of steroids that the American team would test positive if they ate the food. It was also laden with veterinary drugs, so many times over the U.S. limits that Lassie would run and hide.

So, when if ever, is China going to join the global economy? When are their airlines going to stop thinking like Mao and begin thinking like Chiang Kai-shek?

And, don’t be fooled - the United States represents 44% of the global economy and China represents only 19% of our consumption.

On an unrelated note, I will be traveling around the world next week. It is the first time that I have circumnavigated the earth. I will be departing from JFK on EOS Airlines, arriving in the U.K. on Sunday. On Tuesday night, I depart London Heathrow on Asiana Airlines business class to Incheon where I connect for a flight to Saipan to play the Lao Lao Bay Golf Resort, owned by Asiana’s parent company. From there, I fly to Guam to see what my pal Richard Cruz is up to. On Monday, I return to Incheon for a day in Seoul where I hope to see the DMZ and then that night I fly nonstop on Asiana’s new first class to NYC. Stay tuned for updates!

-Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO