Korean Air is one of my favorite Chase points transfer partners.
- First class awards have been so darned easy to get.
- There are real sweet spots in their Skyteam award chart
- They offer cheap awards to Hawaii
Although they are of course very Korean and their processes for redeeming awards are unique.
Korean went offline as a Chase transfer partner in November, though I wrote that it was expected to come back based on what Chase was suggesting. Korean Air’s website said it would be back in January.
Last week Chase began confirming it would be back very soon, and customer service reps were saying January 25.
And transfers are now back online!
As much as I love the ability to be able to transfer Chase points to United, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Hyatt… I really love transfers to Korean. They’re a unique partner, Korean points are hard to get otherwise, and since Delta doesn’t permit first class redemptions there’s just not a lot of competition for those seats.
Korean serves more US destinations than any other Asian airline, they have first class across the bulk of their long haul fleet and even many short haul destinations intra-Asia. And while there are fuel surcharges imposed by the program, they’re modest to many destinations. A great redemption is US – Hong Kong via Seoul for 80,000 one-way in first class.
You can also use Korean miles for first class redemptions on several other Skyteam airlines, like China Southern.
Very glad to see this return!
- You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Thank you for the updates as well as the helpful reminder of this valuable partner
To check availability before transferring I suppose one must sign up for an account with Korean Air?
And if I understand correctly unless you are a legally married couple you can’t take someone who you are dating?
If so that really sucks!!!
Cheers
There is KE F availability via Delta.
@SCP no, there is business class availability via Delta but not first class
@Dwonderment you can check Korean first class availability at expertflyer. You can transfer Chase points to a domestic partner’s Korean account and then they’re in both of your accounts separately, no problem booking. But you cannot redeem for someone you are dating, crazy huh?
Can I transfer chase points to Korean and then to Alaska?
@Creed – you can transfer to Korean and then use Korean points to book an award on Alaska. You cannot transfer Korean points to an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account
How to book the korean air flight with miles for an infant under the age 2? Thank you!