Ultimate Guide to Korean Air Miles: Part 1 – Introduction to Korean Air Miles

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Update:   Korean Air is no longer a Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer partner. Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers. Korean Air SKYPASS isn’t usually the first frequent flyer program that comes to mind when you’re planning to transfer flexible points to book award flights.

But did you know you can get great deals using Korean Air miles to places like Italy, South Africa, and Hawaii on partner airlines like Delta, KLM, and Alaska Airlines?  Or spots in Asia beyond Korea, like Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines?

Many folks have access to Korean Air miles without realizing it!  That’s because you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Starwood points to Korean Air at a 1:1 ratio.

And Korean Air makes lots of award seats available – even in First Class.  Their award charts include a few sweet spots that make redeeming Korean Air miles a tremendous value.

But it’s not always easy to redeem Korean Air miles, and the process might seem intimidating if you’re not familiar with it.

In this series, I’ll share tips and tricks for earning and redeeming Korean Air miles for Big Travel!

Ultimate Guide to Korean Air Miles Series Index

• Part 1 – Introduction to Korean Air Miles
• Part 2 – How to Book Award Flights on Korean Air
• Part 3 – How to Book Award Flights on Partner Airlines
• Part 4 – The Biggest Downside to Using Korean Air Miles
• Part 5 – 6 Expert Korean Air Tips and Tricks (#4 Saves a Ton of Money)

What Can You Do With Korean Air Miles?

1.   Lots of Alliance and Non-Alliance Partners to Choose From

Korean Air is part of the SkyTeam alliance, which is the same alliance as Delta.  You can use Korean Air miles to book award seats on all SkyTeam airlines, including:

• Aeroméxico
• Air France
• China Airlines
• Delta
• KLM
• Saudia
• … and more

You can redeem Korean Air miles on other airline partners (sometimes only on certain routes) as well:

• Alaska Airlines
• Emirates
• Etihad
• GOL
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Japan Airlines
• Jet Airways

And of course, you can use Korean Air miles for award seats on Korean Air!

Korean Air flies non-stop between Seoul and these North American cities:

• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Dallas – Fort Worth
• Honolulu
• Houston (through October 13, 2017)
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• New York
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Toronto
• Vancouver
• Washington, DC

Keep in mind, your journey doesn’t have to end in Seoul if you fly Korean Air.  You can connect onward to other Korean Air destinations in Asia and beyond, like Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, and Bangkok!

2.   Plenty of Available Award Seats

The remarkable thing about Korean Air’s frequent flyer program is the number of award seats they release in all classes of service.

Available award seats on Korean Air are plentiful both last-minute and in advance.  It’s usually easy to find 9 award seats in coach on a single flight.  And in Business Class, it’s common to find 4 or more seats.

What makes Korean Air extra special is how (relatively) easy it is to book First Class award seats.  Because there are few frequent flyer programs that are allowed to book Korean Air First Class, almost every flight that has a First Class cabin will have available award seats. 

You can often find 4 First Class award seats on a single flight! 

And even better, you’re allowed to book First Class seats on several partner airlines, like China Eastern, China Southern, and Saudia.  You can even book Emirates First Class, which gives you an in-flight shower on their Airbus A380 planes!

Note:   You can NOT redeem Korean Air miles to fly Air France La Première (First Class), which is reserved for Air France’s Flying Blue frequent flyer members.

To compare, Delta is also a SkyTeam alliance member.  But they do NOT allow you to book First Class seats with Delta miles.

Booking Awards With Korean Air Miles

1.   General Tips and Tricks

Korean Air’s frequent flyer program has some quirks:

• You can only use miles for yourself and family members.  You must send Korean Air proof-of-relationship documents to book family (I’ll share how to do this later in the series)
• Their call center is NOT always easy to work with.  Fortunately, Korean Air now allows online award bookings for many partner airlines, in addition to their own flights.
• Award bookings that involve flights operated by a partner airline can only be booked as a round-trip or multi-city ticket.  If your flights are only on Korean Air, you can book it as a one-way ticket.

But Korean Air has some terrific features as well:

• You can hold award seats for 30 days!
• Change fees are low – just 30,000 South Korean Won (~$27).
• Infant award tickets cost 10% of the miles required for an adult (some airlines charge 10% of the adult paid fare)
• Korean Air adds fuel surcharges on award tickets, but Korean Air flights have low or no fuel surcharges.

2.   How Many Korean Air Miles Do You Need?

Link:   Korean Air Award Charts

Here is Korean Air’s award chart to or from Korea on Korean Air (mile requirements shown are round-trip, one-way is 50% off):

Note that Korean Air has off-peak and on-peak dates.  On-peak is during normal high season dates, and off-peak is everything else.

For 2018, Korean Air has the following on-peak dates:

North America to Asia / Oceania	Asia / Oceania to North America
May 11 to June 30 December 7 to 25	January 1 February 14 to 19 July 13 to August 18 September 20 to 27 October 5 to 7 December 20 to 31

The best thing about Korean Air is how many award seats they release, especially in First Class.  With many airlines, finding First Class is a challenge.  On Korean Air, most flights have plenty of First Class award seats:

They also have award redemption sweet spots, such as 120,000 Korean Air miles from North America to Africa round-trip in Business Class on partner Delta!

In comparison, Delta charges 160,000 Delta miles round-trip for the exact same flight.

In future posts, I’ll share strategies for booking and even more sweet spots to help you make the most of Korean Air miles!

Want More Korean Air Miles?

Link:   Which Points Transfer to Which Airlines?  Handy Chart for Converting

Korean Air miles are easy to earn!

1.   Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Korean Air

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Korean Air directly at a 1:1 ratio with these cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Reserve
• Chase Ink Business Preferred
• Chase Ink Bold (no longer available)
• Chase Ink Plus (no longer available)

If you have the Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited, or Chase Ink Business Cash Credit Card, you must combine points with one of the cards listed above to transfer to Korean Air. ®

2.   Transfer Starwood Points to Korean Air

You can also transfer Starwood points to Korean Air at a 1:1 ratio.  And for every 20,000 Starwood points you transfer, you’ll get an additional 5,000 Korean Air miles as a bonus!

• Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
• Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express

You can also transfer Marriott points to Starwood at a 3:1 ratio, which means that you can get Marriott credit cards and convert your points into Starwood points.  Then move Starwood points to Korean Air.

• Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card
• Marriott Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card

3.   Earn Korean Air Miles Directly

You can earn Korean Air miles by flying Korean Air or their partners.  Or from the SKYPASS Visa® Signature Credit Card by US Bank, which gives you 15,000 Korean Air miles after your first purchase and payment of the annual fee.  But I do NOT recommend this card for most folks, especially if you’re new to miles and points.

Bottom Line

Booking award flights with Korean Air miles can be an excellent deal, especially because they release so many award seats in all cabins.  You can also use Korean Air miles to book award flights on SkyTeam alliance and other partners, like Delta and Alaska Airlines.

Korean Air miles are easy to earn, because you can transfer flexible points from Chase Ultimate Rewards and Starwood to Korean Air.

While rewarding, Korean Air’s SKYPASS frequent flyer program has its quirks!  But I’ll explain how to use your miles step-by-step in this series, and share the program’s best sweet spots and booking strategies.  Stay tuned!