If you’re only used to booking award tickets through US programs, you’ll be surprised by how different the process of booking a Korean Air SkyPass award is.
As I mentioned in the introduction to this trip report, the usefulness of redeeming through Korean Air SkyPass has increased drastically. That’s because probably the best personal credit card and best small business credit cards accrue Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to Korean Air SkyPass.
One of the best uses of Chase points has traditionally been in making transfers to United MileagePlus. As United devalued their award chart recently they are no longer the single most compelling transfer partner (though there are still some great uses of United miles).
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Lucrative, the other transfer partners of Ultimate Rewards haven’t received as much attention, which has naturally led to many questioning if Ultimate Rewards cards are even worth it anymore.
Of value to be found in Ultimate Rewards points, partly because they are so easy to accrue, and there actually some really interesting redemption options outside of United.
One of those is through Korean Air SkyPass transfers. What makes Korean Air SkyPass such a unique program is that they allow you to redeem miles for first class on SkyTeam carriers, while those with Delta SkyMiles can redeem miles for business class at most.
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The italics are important here, as Korean Air SkyPass has different rules on award tickets based on whether you’re traveling exclusively on Korean Air, or traveling on a combination of Korean Air and their SkyTeam partners.
Korean Air has a horrible website in that you can’t link directly to a page of the site, since it all just shows as koreanair.com for the URL. That being said, if you go to koreanair.com and click on the “SkyPass” tab, then “Redeem Miles, ” and then “Award Tickets, ” you’ll be brought to the Korean Air award chart.
It’s worth noting that they do have a slight award chart change kicking in on April 1, 2014, though it’s nothing radical for US based travelers.
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Just to give you an idea of their mileage levels, here’s how many miles are required one-way in non-peak season for travel in Korean Air first class:
. If you are redeeming Korean Air SkyPass miles for travel on a combination of Korean Air and SkyTeam partners, or exclusively on SkyTeam partners, the rules are as follows:
Since I’m sure someone will ask, note that you can’t redeem Korean Air SkyPass miles for travel in Air France first class. I know the 100, 000 mile roundtrip first class award between the US and Europe sounds tempting, but
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Wanted to fly Korean Air and China Southern A380 first class, since those are the two airlines on which I hadn’t yet flown the A380.
Searching for award space in first class on both carriers is really easy if using ExpertFlyer. Both airlines show up under the “Award & Upgrade Availability Search” page, so you just select the route, dates, and fare class (for China Southern you’ll want to select “P” for first class, and for Korean Air you’ll want to select “A” for first class). You can always search availability plus or minus three days at a time, meaning you can easily search space for a week at a time.
For China Southern’s route between Los Angeles and Guangzhou, they typically release two first class award seats per flight when the schedule opens, and often more as the departure date approaches.
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Amount of first class award seats, whether you’re booking far in advance or close to departure. It’s not unusual to see 3-4 first class award seats per flight. For example, picking some random dates later this year, New York > Seoul has 3-4 first class award seats per flight:
Sometimes close to departure award space is even better than that. For example, take a look at the six first class award seats on an A380 flying from Los Angeles to Seoul next week:
The process of booking a Korean Air SkyPass award is much different than booking an award through a US program. You don’t just get to call up and issue the ticket immediately. Instead the process is as follows:
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Step 1: Place the ticket you want on a courtesy hold. Korean Air will let you place an award ticket on hold for up to five days. You must hold the SkyPass award ticket by phone.
If you’re in the US, the Korean Air SkyPass phone number is (800) 438-5000. Any reservations agent can help you place the ticket on hold.
For what it’s worth, I found a lot of the agents had no clue what I was talking about when I said “award ticket” or “reward ticket, ” but when I used the term “bonus ticket” they all understood me.
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When you hold the ticket be sure you tell them that you’ll be transferring points from Chase Ultimate Rewards once the ticket is on hold.
Step 2: Complete the SkyPass Family Mileage Pooling Plan/Bonus Award Application. In order to book an award ticket you have to complete an application, in which you include all your personal information. You must also attach a copy of your passport.
It’s worth noting one of the single biggest caveats of Korean Air SkyPass awards is that you can only book award tickets for family members.
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. That’s right, you can’t redeem your SkyPass miles for a boyfriend, girlfriend, unmarried partner, or any other relation not included in their chart:
Step 3: Call to issue your SkyPass ticket. There are two ways to go about this. One, you can wait for SkyPass to call you, though I wouldn’t necessarily count on that happening.
Once you submit your information via email. The reservations agent will go into their email inbox to confirm that they received your email, and then transfer you to a SkyPass agent that will take down your credit card information and issue your ticket.
Reminder: Chase Ultimate Rewards No Longer Transfer To Korean Air Starting August 25
In the end, my roundtrip award ticket cost 160, 000 SkyPass miles plus about $400 in taxes and fuel surcharges. It’s worth noting that Korean Air does pass on fuel surcharges on award tickets, though to Asia they’re usually quite mild. For example, here’s the cost breakdown for my ticket to Asia:
The taxes and fuel surcharges in the red box are what I had to pay. Not bad for a ticket that would have retailed for ~$15, 000!
I should add one slight caveat to the above. You can search and book Korean Air awards (though not partner awards) directly through Korean Air’s website, though it requires you to have enough miles for the award in your account. Partner airlines aren’t bookable on Korean Air’s website no matter what, though. Generally I still prefer booking by phone so I can hold the reservation, then transfer points, and then issue the ticket.
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First class award space. Not to spoil the rest of the trip report, though I’ve hinted at it enough with my China Southern Los Angeles to Guangzhou summary and my Korean Air Seoul Incheon to Los Angeles summary — Korean Air’s A380 first class is a world class product.
And with their award rates, amazing amount of availability, and how easy it is to rack up Ultimate Rewards points, they’re an amazing option for travel to Asia. At 80, 000 miles one-wayis part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
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The transfers were also temporarily unavailable from November 2014 until January 2015. In that instance, Chase communicated that the problem was temporary and Korean signaled transfers would return in January, which they eventually did.
I’ve reached out to Chase to see if we can get a timeline on just how temporary this problem will be. I will update this post if I hear back.
Normally Chase points transfer instantly 1:1 to Korean miles. In the absence of Chase transferability, your only transfer option to get Korean miles is the new SPG/Korean partnership. SPG points transfer 1:1 to Korean miles, and every 20, 000 Starpoints transferred triggers a 5, 000 Korean mile bonus. Because of this partnership, I’ve written a few posts recently about Korean miles:
Chase Removes Korean Air As Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partner
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60, 000 points after $4, 000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are
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