Korean Air’s Skypass program is perhaps one of the world’s best-kept miles and points secrets. Korea’s national carrier connects key hubs in the United States and Europe with many destinations in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and unlike most other programs that have incredibly limited award availability, Korean Air opens seats. free on almost all flights, even in the coveted First Class cabin, along with Business Class on the A380, which includes access to a highly exclusive staffed bar.
Until recently, however, Korean Air made it very difficult to find award seats. If there was a scheduled flight, it was safe to assume that there would be at least a few seats available to reserve with miles, but the only way to confirm availability unless you had enough miles in your account to complete a reservation was to call the airline. call the center or search using a paid tool called ExpertFlyer, which, while a fantastic resource for finding available seats across all programs, isn’t worth searching for just one Korean Air award.
Find award seats
However, after the latest round of airline website updates, it’s now possible (and easy enough, even) to search for award seats online, even if you don’t have miles on your account. The logic above was that you wouldn’t be looking for a flight that you couldn’t ‘afford’, but since you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Korean Air instantly (1 point = 1 Skypass mile), there was no reason to accumulate a miles balance. before you can confirm the availability of the flight.
To search for award seats with the new site, log into your Korean Air Skypass account (you can create one for free if you haven’t already) and then head over to the regular booking tool. There, you can select a one-way flight search, check the “book with miles” box and click next to select your cabin class. After continuing with that step, you’ll see a list of available flights for the day you selected, along with several days that follow in the left sidebar, making it easy to see availability on alternative dates as well.
Unfortunately, the site will only show availability for one cabin at a time, but it’s easy enough to switch to a new class of service – just click to modify your original search in the top bar and make any adjustments you need. In addition to availability, you will also see the total number of miles and the amount of cash copay required for your reservation (including taxes and fuel surcharges in Korean Won, around 1,000 Won at USD 1).
If you have the required miles and have already submitted to Korean Air the documentation required to activate award reservations on your account, you can complete the reservation. Otherwise, you can call the Skypass call center and have an agent put the itinerary on hold for you; You can request that the hold stay up to just two days before departure, even if you are booking months. Then you just need to complete the reservation process before the hold expires and once you have received the ticket and confirmed on the flight, you will be able to select your seats.
