Chase points are one of my favorite currencies, and their transfer partner Korean Air SkyPass is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs.

• They offer great first class award space between the US and Seoul and a first class cabin on many of their intra-Asia routes and they fly to more US cities than any other Asian airline. They also offer first class redemption on SkyTeam partners Saudia and China Eastern.
  
• Business class between the US and Europe is 80,000 miles roundtrip on SkyTeam partners. SkyTeam awards between the US and the Mideast or Africa are 120,000 miles in business class. Business class between the US and South America is just 110,000 miles roundtrip.
  
• Hawaii first class roundtrips on Alaska, Delta, or Hawaiian are 60,000 miles. They partner with airlines outside of SkyTeam like Emirates and Etihad, too.
  
• Stopovers are permitted on one-way Korean Air tickets, change fees are just $27 at current exchange rates, and infant fares cost an extra 10% of miles redeemed, rather than 10% of a full fare ticket

Korean Air Kosmo Suites

I’ve accumulated plenty of Chase points over the years with cards including Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card.

Chase points will only transfer to Korean through August 24. Unfortunately Korean is not becoming an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner.

So I have to decide how many points I want to transfer before the clock strikes midnight and I turn into a pumpkin. Here’s the rub: the moment you transfer points they lose value because one of the real benefits of Chase, American Express, and other transferable points currencies is their flexibility. You can put points where you need them when you need them. Transferred points cannot be moved back and used to transfer somewhere else.

And Korean Air does not have a perfect program.

• They only allow you to redeem miles for family members, not friends.
  
• They have ‘peak demand’ dates for travel on their own flights which cost more points.
  
• They add fuel surcharges to awards, which can be significant on Europe and Southeast Asia redemptions.

Korean Air Old First Class

However I do see Korean as offering a good store of value. Miles expire after 10 years (not extendable) but I can certainly redeem whatever miles I transfer within the next decade. They traditionally give significant notice of changes (a year or more). And while I’m hardly an expert in the South Korean regulatory environment I believe this notice for most changes is driven by legal risk there rather than whim so is likely to continue.

I currently have about two million Chase points. Taking into account how I like to use miles, and Korean miles in particular — when no one else has award availability to Asia they’re my go-to for a first class redemption — my rough approximation of how many miles I want in my account is equal to 3 roundtrip first class tickets between the US and Southeast Asia or 570,000 miles. I have a third of that already so my current thinking is to move 390,000 points from Chase to Korean.

This isn’t the only chance to top off an account of course, Korean will continue to be a points transfer partner of Marriott for instance, however with reduced earning power from the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express my Marriott points balance isn’t likely to grow as much as in the past so I don’t want to have to move points if I don’t have to.

I’m not sure there’s a formula for how many points to transfer. I’m transferring 20% of my balance because I’m confident I’ll use them for high value redemptions in the next few years. I’m not transferring more because I have plenty of other uses for Chase points. Other good transfer partners include United, Air France KLM, British Airways, and Hyatt. And over time I expect Chase will continue to add transfer partners as they’ve done consistently since the start of the program.