In March 2025, Korean Air revealed a major rebranding, which follows the merger between Korean Air and Asiana being finalized. What’s exciting is that changes at the airline go way beyond just branding, as the airline is also investing in the passenger experience, like launching a new first class product, and adding premium economy.
Continue reading: Korean Air’s Global Lounge Network Gets Much Needed Makeover
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I feel like Korean air put off a lot of these investments until they had full clarity on the Asiana deal. Partly because the acquisition cost probably swallowed up a large part of the budget and partly because it might have been difficult to award contracts for things such as lounge refurbs or cabin refits when they couldn't guarantee the scale of the work required. It's just pure speculation so I hope it makes sense
In my experience, the principal challenge with the KE lounges - including the newly-refreshed Prestige East - is that there's not enough capacity for the demand. Though don't get me wrong, the food upgrades are welcome.
The miler club is also already renovated and has a great food selection including a meat carving station. It is used temporarily for F passengers, and they also give F passengers a little luxury gift from Baccarat or Christolfe for the ‘inconvenience’. Makes me smile every time because the ‘inconvenience’ (miler instead of first lounge) is leaps and bounds better than the old first lounge.
As the Air France lounge at JFK is ho-hum, Korean Air might provide a good alternative. And, while the Air France lounge at LAX is a big step up from the one at JFK, Korean Air might provide a nice change of pace.
KE spent a long time waiting for Korean and all kinds of foreign government approvals which still have carved up many of the Asiana routes among a number of new carriers.
Still, ICN and KE are on track to grow to easily become the largest hub in Asia and take a growing share of TPAC traffic.
The growth of KE's hub at ICN as well as new routes from DL and KE will support the investment being done in the ground experience.
I'm excited for whatever their (and other's) new lounges are going to be at the new JFK T1. While the existing KE lounge at the old T1 is fine, I'd expect something much more grand for the new one.
If the renovated lounge at LAX is part of Priority Pass it'll feel like 2016 all over again
The KE and OZ merger held a lot of stuff up, so all this (including the new branding and livery) is way overdue.
In any case KE is not going to fix my gripes with ICN, including Terminal 2
Not sure if it has been reported here, but I believe KE is also expanding its LAX footprint by taking over the old unaligned LAX International Lounge for its first class lounge. If KE's new lounges are on par with their offerings at ICN, Skyteam is on track to have the best lounge profile at LAX (VS, AF, DL, KE).
Korean Air is a bottom feeding VFR focused airline. They need to do alot more than revamp their lounges.
KE is no NH or JL.
> I’ve called the airline second rate among its Asian peers.
Is Asiana better than Korean in premium cabin quality?
while all these updates are great, my Skypass miles are still worthless since not a single F seat can be found on any of the routes…
If you have a skypass account try getting on their waiting list which they allow you to do for award tickets. I had a business class (ATL-ICN) & first class (ICN-ATL) clear back in November/December as they wait til last minute to open up some business and first class seats. But it might not open until about three days before departure. So you have to be very flexible.
If you have a skypass account try getting on their waiting list which they allow you to do for award tickets. I had a business class (ATL-ICN) & first class (ICN-ATL) clear back in November/December as they wait til last minute to open up some business and first class seats. But it might not open until about three days before departure. So you have to be very flexible.
Funny enough I traveled through Korea to Thailand in November and did a bunch research on the lounge experience and what I should do with a long layover. I ended up doing a tour which is always my go-to but I was dreading the lounge because everywhere I looked said the lounge sucks and watch out for the noodles. I get there and got into the space pictured or a space like it and was like whoa. Did we accidentally get admitted into the first class lounge? This is nothing like what I read. But while it wasn't great, it was way better than expected.
People are being too harsh on ICN lounges. Design esthetic are subjective. As long as it's functional and not overrun.
They are catered from "blogger favorite" Hyatt.
Yes KE lounge outside ICN are terrible. But while ICN is not fancy, the food is not exciting but still solid.
The cup ramen is better only outside ICN.
That said. PP lounges ICN at does give KE run for their money.
If the quality of instant cup ramen is what you're touting as making the lounge "solid," you need to try literally almost ANY other lounge to see how poor Korean's lounges stack up. And if the Matina lounge at ICN is as good as the business class Korean lounge...really?
Step foot in Singapore's lounge in ICN. It already blew the doors off of Asiana's lounge, and that's OZ's home airport! And nobody will compare the PP lounges to Krisflyer's.
Korean may be second rate, Asiana is/was probably slightly worse. But there are a LOT of Asian carriers that are notably better than both.