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Yes, Korean SKYPASS miles do expire 10 years after being earned. However, any SKYPASS miles earned before July 1, 2008 will remain in your account and will not expire.
According to Korean Air SKYPASS's terms and conditions, there is no way to increase the lifespan of your miles or to reactivate them if they expire. They are valid for 10 years, and that is it. Although a “use them or lose them” policy isn't usually flyer-friendly, 10 years is more than ample time to use up any mileage balance.
Boosting Your Korean Air SKYPASS Mileage Balance
The value of the Korean Air SKYPASS program took a hit a few years back when SKYPASS lost Chase Ultimate Rewards as a transfer partner. This left the SKYPASS program with no credit card transfer partners, making it harder to top up your balance with flexible points. However, Korean Air is still a transfer partner with a few hotel programs.
Accor Live Limitless points transfer over to Korean at a ratio of 2:1, although this is poor value since you redeem Accor points at a fixed value of 2,000 points for a €40 discount on your stay. Transferring 2,000 points to receive 1,000 Korean Air SKYPASS points is not a great deal.
You can also transfer World of Hyatt points over to Korean at a ratio of 5:2. Again this is poor value, and you are much better off keeping your Hyatt points and using them. You can get substantially more value from 50,000 World of Hyatt points (e.g. ten nights at a category 1 property) than from the measly 20,000 miles they would transfer to Korean SKYPASS.
The standout deal with Korean Air is its partnership with Marriott Bonvoy. You can transfer your Bonvoy points to Korean Air ratio of 3:1 with a minimum transfer of 3,000 points. One thing worth remembering is that Marriott has a built-in 5,000-mile transfer bonus whey you transfer 60,000 points. Instead of receiving 20,000 miles, you would receive 25,000 miles when you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to Korean Air SKYPASS.
Final Thoughts
Although the program lost value with the loss of Chase as a transfer partner, Korean Air SKYPASS remains a highly valuable program with some excellent redemption sweet spots and a generous mileage expiration policy. For example, redeem just 25,000 miles in economy or 45,000 miles in business for round-trip awards from the contiguous U.S. to Hawaii. That keeps Korean Air SKYPASS as a top-rate airline loyalty program.
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Even though the miles in this program do have comparatively lower value than “average”, it’s still great that they don’t expire in less than 3 years of inactivity, especially considering the decrease in travel demand due to the pandemic and its associated restrictions in various parts of the world. More airlines and travel providers should follow that particular trend
I think I would still transfer to Marriott and then to KE. I have been looking over the rules of KEs program and it’s special. I am finding that maybe I would only use miles for a ticket for me. I don’t know if I’ll be willing to go and either make a number for my husband and then link them or just go and show our marriage certificate, plus other things to be able to redeem a ticket for him. I feel I should be able to redeem a ticket for whomever. But I really want to try them and solo trips are great.