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Chase has announced that Korean Air will no longer be an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner effective August 25, 2018. For anyone that has redeemed with Korean, this is a definite hit to the value of Ultimate Rewards.
The move is disappointing since Korean Air has some great redemption sweet spots, including flights to Europe on Sky Team partners, as well as some of the best value on flights to Hawaii.
Couple good redemption value with a relatively easy and straightforward process for award redemptions, and family pooling, and it becomes clear how big of a hit this move by Chase is.
Our Take
However you look at it, this is terrible news. If you are a diehard Korean Air fan looking to build a mileage balance, you'll need to look to one of the co-brand credit cards issued by US Bank, or transfer points from another transfer partner, such as Marriott Rewards.
Source: Point Me To The Plane
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I transferred 80k ur to SkyPass hoping I can take a first class flight or find a roundtrip biz to Europe in the next 10 years before the miles expire ?
I never used Korean and never thought I would so. I’m not too upset about losing Korean but wonder who will or even if they will replace Korean. Who else might they lose also. I think we all keep in the back of our minds that Chase can change transfer partners but hope they don’t.
Thanks for the heads up — I’ll definitely be transferring over some CSR points before the deadline so I have 25,000 with Korean for a US round trip later on!
I’d love them to add American, but I doubt it will happen since Chase has the United link and Citi has the American link. Oh well, I guess I’ll just keep dreaming.
I flew them from Uzbekistan to Korea one time and they were nice. I wonder why Chase lost them?
I’d be willing to bet $1 that it comes down to what Chase is paying Korean for the miles.
This is disappointing. Hopefully they replace with another useful partner. Was looking forward to an award to Hawaii but haven’t found the right opportunity.
It’s a significant loss for Chase. I hope there are new things to make up for this.
Agreed. I’d love to see LH added. It would also be nice to see an increased offer on the US Bank issued KE credit card.
Agree with above, let’s hope they replace with another suitable partner.
This is unfortunate.
let us hope that some decent alternative could be arranged.
So sad. Thankfully we just transferred enough over for interisland flights in Hawaii.
Fingers crossed for the addition of Alaskan Airlines
This sucks. Hopefully another program will transfer to Korean.
Certainly changes all my plans for first class tix to Hawaii. time to explore other options
While I hear KE first can be lovely, I find their business class to be hit or miss. Service is amazing, but meal portions are small, wine glasses are miniscule, and amenity kits/water bottles too small. I will be sad that I missed out on redeeming for F though.
Absolutely terrible. Hope Chase has something good up their sleeve to replace Korean!
Would love to know how much chase pays the airlines for each point. Considering how much Chase spent on CSR the last few quarters that actually made it to their earnings report, I’m sure Korean air raised their price to Chase. Hopefully they will add someone to replace Korean Air.
And short notice, too. 🙁
It is a bummer to lose an option. But to be honest, I never transferred points to Korean Air before, so it’s no loss for me.
Really bummed about this!
I’m sorry to hear this! I love Korean.
Definitely disappointing. Have had some solid redemptions before using these means. Oh well.
Loss of options is always a bad thing, especially from our flexible currencies. I had never used the transfer to Korean Air but had always cherished the idea of doing so. I have not been to Asia in many years, and transferring from UR would have been one of the ways I would have been able to “afford” their premium cabins. However, as the article says, there are other ways to transfer points so all is not lost.