I realize that this is relatively niche in terms of usefulness in the miles & points world, but I’m delighted to see that Korean Air is once again making first class award seats available.
Korean Air first class award availability returns
Up until recently, the Korean Air SkyPass program just didn’t make any first class award seats available, even though Korean Air has first class seats on many of its aircraft.
The airline would let passengers waitlist for first class awards, but those waitlists almost never cleared for the average member. It’s my understanding that waitlists would sometimes manually be cleared for higher tier SkyPass members, but for someone without status, it was nearly impossible.
It looks like Korean Air has turned over a new leaf in the new year, as the SkyPass program is once again making first class award seats available. I don’t want to say that availability is excellent, or anything, but within a month of departure, there’s a fair amount of first class award space.
For example, over the course of the next month, there are 12 days that have first class award availability from New York (JFK) to Seoul Incheon (ICN).
And we’re not just talking about one or two award seats, but in some cases there are even six or more first class award seats.
Availability is even better out of Chicago (ORD), with a vast majority of dates within the next month having first class award availability.
There’s also some award space out of Los Angeles (LAX), but it’s not nearly as readily available.
Here’s to hoping that this isn’t just a temporary fluke, but rather is a permanent change.
The timing of this is noteworthy, because this development follows Korean Air’s takeover of Asiana having closed. What’s interesting is that Korean Air had intended to devalue its SkyPass program back in 2019. First the devaluation was delayed due to the pandemic, and then the devaluation was indefinitely postponed.
It’s my understanding the postponement was due to Korean Air’s takeover of Asiana, and the company not wanting to give regulators a reason to block it. However, around the same time that the airline postponed its devaluation, it also stopped making first class awards available. I’m pleasantly surprised to see a positive SkyPass change following the merger, since I wasn’t expecting that.
This is only valuable for those with SkyPass miles
Unfortunately this Korean Air first class award space is only useful for those with SkyPass miles, as this availability isn’t bookable through partner frequent flyer programs. The issue is that nowadays the opportunity to earn Korean Air SkyPass miles in the United States is extremely limited.
The program doesn’t partner with any major transferable points currencies, and on top of that, SkyPass isn’t even a Marriott Bonvoy transfer partner anymore.
The reason this is all relevant is that up until 2018, Korean Air SkyPass was a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. When it was announced the partnership would be discontinued, many of us made large speculative points transfers, given the massive amounts of first class award space the airline historically made available.
So I’ve been stuck with a sizable balance of Korean Air SkyPass miles… at least the program has a good expiration policy! While I’ve redeemed for some Korean Air business class flights, I still have a lot more to redeem. And also keep in mind these miles can’t even be gifted to others — they can only be redeemed for the member and family.
You can bet that I’ll be flying Korean Air first class again soon, because I don’t actually have that many options for redeeming these miles. So if you’re also someone with a balance of SkyPass miles, this availability is worth being aware of. You really can’t beat just 80,000 miles for first class on a nearly 16-hour flight, eh?
Bottom line
Korean Air SkyPass is once again making first class award seats available, at least within 30 days of departure. For quite some time, the program didn’t let members redeem directly for first class, but rather required waitlisting, with those waitlists almost never clearing.
I’m happy to see this award availability make a comeback, and look forward to a redemption in the near future.
What do you make of Korean Air bringing back first class award space?
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