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Over the last decade, we’ve seen a slow but steady decline in the value of some of our favorite rewards currencies offered by U.S. airlines. But the frequent flyer program of Korea's flag carrier, Korean Air, hasn't had these same downturns. The program is still going strong, and you can continue to redeem Korean Air SKYPASS miles for excellent value.
However, there are some noteworthy pitfalls. For one, SKYPASS miles are hard to accumulate, as the program does not partner with any bank rewards currency. You'll have to either credit flights to SKYPASS or pick up one of its co-branded credit cards issued by U.S. Bank.
We've covered our favorite sweet spots with Korean SKYPASS and delivered our top 10 reasons to consider booking SKYPASS awards in previous posts. This post will focus on how to book awards using the Korean Air SKYPASS website, which partner awards can be booked online (and which require you to call a Korean reservations agent), and the rules for using SKYPASS miles when booking Korean, SkyTeam, and other partner awards from the likes of Alaska Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, and Hawaiian Airlines.
Let's dig into how to redeem Korean Air SKYPASS miles.
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Redemption Options With Korean Air SKYPASS
There are several ways you can redeem SKYPASS miles. You can redeem them for flights on Korean Air, flights on SkyTeam and non-SkyTeam airline partners, or use them at the Mileage Mall.
The Mileage Mall offers a variety of choices for redeeming miles: hotel stays with select partners, merchandise, in-flight duty-free items, and a handful of Korean cultural experiences. All of these options will net you less than 1 cent per mile, so we highly recommend that you avoid them.
Really, you shouldn't redeem Korean Air SKYPASS miles for anything except flights. AwardWallet users get an average of 2.87¢ each when redeeming Korean Air miles for flights, with particularly good value for premium cabin flights. This is by far the best way to use them.
How To Redeem SKYPASS Miles for Korean Air Awards
Redeeming SKYPASS miles for Korean Air flights is a straightforward process. Head to koreanair.com to start. If you don't have a SKYPASS loyalty account, you'll first need to create one, as you cannot search for award travel without being logged into your account.
Make sure you remember to track your account with AwardWallet to get notifications about account balance changes or warnings if your miles are about to expire.
To begin searching for award travel, toggle to “Book with Miles.” If you haven't logged in already, you'll be prompted to at this point. Once logged into your account, you can add all the parameters for your search, such as the origin, destination, travel date(s), and desired cabin class. To search for multiple tickets, you'll have to add family members to your award endorsement list. Unlike many loyalty programs, Korean Air SKYPASS is strict with who you can have on an award ticket using your miles.
Note that you can toggle a “flexible dates” search option when selecting outbound and return dates. This is how I prefer to search. Also, for awards on Korean Air, you can specify whether you want round-trip, one-way, or multi-segment awards. Korean Air SKYPASS allows one stopover on award tickets, so consider taking advantage of this program feature. You'll need to use the multi-segment search.
Click “Search” once you've entered all the parameters. If you enabled the “Flexible Dates” option (highly recommended), you'll be presented with a calendar view. This makes it a cinch to find the dates with open seats on Korean Air flights.
I use the calendar view to find dates where there is award space in the Prestige cabin. The premium cabin availability between San Francisco and Seoul can vary substantially much of the calendar year. Korean Air has historically had excellent availability in the business- and first-class cabins, but there have occasionally been dry periods. Currently, I've found that booking far in advance or very close in can both be good strategies.
After settling on specific flight dates, you'll be taken to a page of flight options. This is also the page that will load if you don't toggle the “Flexible Dates” option. Award seat availability in each cabin on each flight will be displayed. Above the flight list, you'll also see a weekly view.
If you are booking a round-trip or multi-segment trip, you'll select each segment one at a time. The initial search page will be slightly different, as well, and there is no flexible date option in this case. However, you'll still be able to see a week of availability at a time, which is super handy.
As you select your preferred flight(s), the cost in both miles and cash will be totaled at the bottom right of the page. Korean Air charges moderately high surcharges on its own flights. You'll pay more in fees for premium cabins over economy bookings. The surcharges for economy flights are enough that I would be hesitant to redeem Korean Air SKYPASS miles for these flights.
Complete your booking by providing all the required passenger information and clicking the “Pay Now” button.
Peak season award pricing
One important thing to note is the peak season award pricing Korean Air charges on its own flights. You need to check the peak season calendar for each year, as the dates change. If you book award travel on any peak season dates, you'll pay additional miles. Head here and click the “Peak Season by Route” button to see the current Peak Season dates.
As an example, here are the award rates for peak versus off-peak trips originating in Korea:
| Arrival Region + Season | Economy | Prestige | First |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korea domestic — off-peak | 5,000 | 6,000 | N/A |
| Korea domestic — peak | 7,500 | 9,000 | N/A |
| Japan/China/Northeast Asia — off-peak | 15,000 | 22,500 | 32,500 |
| Japan/China/Northeast Asia — peak | 22,500 | 32,500 | 47,500 |
| Southeast Asia/Guam — off-peak | 20,000 | 35,000 | 45,000 |
| Southeast Asia/Guam — peak | 30,000 | 52,500 | 67,500 |
| Southwest Asia/Tashkent — off-peak | 25,000 | 45,000 | 57,500 |
| Southwest Asia/Tashkent — peak | 37,500 | 67,500 | 87,500 |
| North America/Europe/Middle East/Oceania — off-peak | 35,000 | 62,500 | 80,000 |
| North America/Europe/Middle East/Oceania — peak | 52,500 | 92,500 | 120,000 |
A few notes on Korean Air awards
- You can book both one-way and round-trip awards. Round-trip awards cost twice the one-way price.
- International lap infant awards cost 10% of the redemption table price. For Korean domestic routes, when a lap infant doesn't occupy a seat, infants can travel free of charge.
- Korean Air charges for refunds and no-show redeposits of SKYPASS miles. The rates are reasonable compared to the award change and cancellation fees of some carriers.
- Changes are free for domestic tickets and cost 30,000 KRW for international tickets (~$21).
There are some more program details common to both Korean Air and partner SKYPASS miles redemption, which we'll cover later.
How To Redeem Korean Air SKYPASS Miles on SkyTeam Partners
In addition to booking awards on Korean's own metal, you can use the Korean Air website to book travel on SkyTeam partners. The process for booking a partner award is almost identical to redeeming on Korean. Head back to the main search form, toggle to “Book with Miles, and then click on the “SkyTeam Awards” button in the upper right corner of the form.
Clicking “Search” will take you to a different form with the “SkyTeam Award Itinerary” toggle on. If you toggle it off, you'll actually just perform a search for Korean Air awards once again. Enter your origin, destination, dates, and number of passengers. For SkyTeam award searches, you also have to select a specific cabin class.
The results will look more similar to the multi-city results you'll see when searching awards on Korean Air flights (discussed above). Here, I've found some nice nonstop space on Delta Air Lines from Seattle to Los Angeles.
After selecting your flights, the rest of the booking process is essentially the same, except for an extra step where Korean calculates the taxes and fees.
If you're lucky and can spot the award space, you can spend 25,000 SKYPASS miles for round-trip tickets to Hawaii. This is one of the best award options for flying to Hawaii.
Notes on Korean Air SkyTeam awards
- One-way tickets cost the same as round-trip, which makes them rarely — if ever — worth it. You also can't book a one-way SkyTeam award online.
- You can book multi-segment SkyTeam award travel. Up to two transfers are allowed per direction. Travel must begin and end in the same country.
- You can combine SkyTeam partner flights with Korean Air flights on one ticket.
- You can incorporate one stopover into a round-trip ticket.
- There are rules limiting circuitous routing.
- You cannot book lap infants. You can book an infant in their own seat, though, at the normal award price.
- Cancellations and no-show redeposits are penalized in miles, as with tickets on Korean Air. Changes to SkyTeam award tickets cost 30,000 KRW (~$22.90).
SkyTeam Round the World award bookings
Sadly, Korean Air ended its Round the World award tickets in April 2023.
Redeeming SKYPASS Miles on Non-SkyTeam Partners
Finally, you can redeem Korean Air SKYPASS miles for travel on the following non-SkyTeam partners:
- Alaska Airlines
- China Southern
- Emirates
- Etihad
- GOL
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Japan Airlines
These partner awards can't be searched or booked on the Korean website. You’ll need to search for award availability elsewhere (such as alaskaair.com), then call the Korean reservations line at 800-438-5000 to book the award tickets.
Notes on non-SkyTeam awards
- You can only book round-trip tickets.
- You cannot book lap infants. You can book an infant in their own seat, though, at the normal award price.
- An itinerary must consist of a single airline. You cannot combine non-SkyTeam partners with either SkyTeam carriers or Korean Air flights, nor can you combine multiple non-SkyTeam partners on a single ticket.
- Only direct flights can be flown between origin and destination, except for Alaska Airlines, China Southern, and GOL.
- Open-jaw travel is applicable once at the destination. You can add one stopover per round-trip ticket with Alaska Airlines, China Southern, or GOL.
- Family Plan or pooled miles can be used.
- Cancellation, refunds, and changes incur the same charges as SkyTeam awards.
Other Restrictions on Korean Award Bookings
Korean Air SKYPASS has some unique rules that you should be aware of before jumping into the program. One of the primary ones is their strict family eligibility requirements for redeeming miles for award tickets. Here's what you need to know:
- You can only redeem award tickets for immediate family members: spouse, children, parents, siblings, parents-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandparents, and grandchildren. No boyfriend/girlfriend/romantic interest/work buddy allowed. You also have to provide documentation to prove your relationship. It can take 3-5 working days to process adding family members, so get this done well in advance of when you want to book!
- You can use Family Pooling of miles between registered family members for awards on Korean and on non-SkyTeam partners. Oddly, you cannot use pooling for SkyTeam award tickets.
- There are strict requirements to redeem Korean Air SKYPASS miles from accounts of minors. You need proof of identity of both the minor and a “legal representative” (which I assume is a parent in the majority of cases). The crazy part? You need a signed award application by both parties.
- Korean Air does not offer holds on award tickets. It used to, but these were ended several years ago.
Increasing Your SKYPASS Miles Balance
Now for the difficult part. SKYPASS used to have one decent U.S. transfer partner, Marriott Bonvoy. However, the partnership between Marriott and SKYPASS has ended. Now, you have to earn SKYPASS miles by either flying or using one of the Korean Air co-branded cards offered by U.S. Bank.
Apply for a co-branded Korean Air credit card
The best of the personal cards is the SKYPASS Visa Signature® Card, which earns 2x miles on Korean Air purchases, 2x miles for hotel stays, and 2x miles for dining. The card earns 1x miles per dollar for all other purchases. Its other perks include two annual KAL Lounge vouchers, plus it doesn't charge foreign transaction fees.
There's also a business version of the card, the SKYPASS Visa Signature® Business Card, which is extremely similar. Both the personal and business cards carry a $99 annual fee.
Transfer hotel points to Korean Air
It's also possible to transfer points from other hotel programs to Korean Air SKYPASS, but the rates here are poor.
Final Thoughts
Booking award travel on Korean and SkyTeam partners is a fairly straightforward process when using SKYPASS miles. Korean's website is much better than it was in years past. Being able to search Korean Air award availability months at a time is a handy feature. Additionally, the agents on the Korean reservation line are knowledgeable and more than willing to walk you through the process.
But the program is still a bit quirky. Rules surrounding Family Pooling and registering immediate family members can be hard to understand at first, but Korean Air has a page dedicated to registering family members on its website. Ultimately, if you're willing to learn the program and can accrue the miles, it's an excellent program for booking Korean Air award tickets and some choice SkyTeam partner flights.
For a handpicked selection of top-value SKYPASS awards, see our post on Korean sweet spots. And if you have any questions regarding redeeming Korean Air SKYPASS miles, let us know in the comments below.
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