In December 2024, we saw Korean Air’s takeover of Asiana finalized, after a process that took over four years. The two airlines are continuing to operate as independent brands, and that will likely remain the case until at least late 2026.
There’s now an interesting update, as it appears that Korean Air is trying to screw over the members of Asiana’s loyalty program, and fortunately regulators are stepping in to block this.
In this post:
Regulators reject Korean Air’s loyalty program plans
While Korean Air and Asiana are owned by the same parent company, for the time being the airlines continue to maintain separate branding, as well as separate loyalty programs. Korean Air is in SkyTeam and has the Korean Air SkyPass program, while Asiana is in Star Alliance and has the Asiana Club program.
Korean Air has reportedly submitted its proposal to regulators for merging the loyalty programs of the two airlines. However, this proposal has been rejected by South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC), citing insufficient consumer safeguards, and a lack of clarity.
According to the FTC, “the proposed scheme did not sufficiently ensure the availability of mileage usage options comparable to those previously offered by Asiana Airlines,” specifically noting details surrounding the conversion ratio of miles between the programs. The FTC emphasized that any unified mileage program must “protect the trust of Asiana Airlines consumers and ensure they do not suffer disadvantages.”
It’s believed that the value of outstanding miles at the two airlines totals around $2.7 billion in value, so that’s quite a large amount.
Korean Air aiming for less than 1:1 transfer ratio
While details about Korean Air’s proposed mileage integration plan aren’t officially being made public, unofficially we do know what’s going on. Essentially, it appears that rather than transferring all miles from Asiana Club to Korean Air SkyPass at a 1:1 ratio, Korean Air instead wants a lower than 1:1 transfer ratio for all Asiana miles not earned through flying.
The reason is due to the rate at which people in South Korea have historically earned miles with co-branded credit cards. While it varies based on the program, Korean Air has generally offered one mile per 1,500 KRW (1.11 USD) spent, while Asiana has offered one mile per 1,000 KRW (0.74 USD) spent.
Some have suggested that Korean Air is considering only offering 0.7 Korean Air SkyPass miles for every 1.0 Asiana Club miles, but regulators aren’t okay with this. Especially in a country like South Korea, with strong consumer protections, anything less than a 1:1 transfer ratio seems unreasonable.
Asiana Club miles are actually quite valuable, with lots of great redemption options, so there’s no denying that most Asiana Club members would be disadvantaged if their miles were transfered at less than a 1:1 ratio, despite the better credit card spending opportunities they’ve had access to.
Bottom line
Korean Air hasn’t received approval for its request to integrate the Korean Air SkyPass and Asiana Club loyalty programs. The issue seems to involve the transfer ratio of miles. You’d think that a 1:1 integration would be the obvious plan, but Korean Air reportedly doesn’t want to offer 1:1 transfers for Asiana miles not earned through flying.
I appreciate Korean regulators standing up for consumers, so it’ll be interesting to see how long this is drawn out.
What do you make of this Korean Air mileage integration situation?
Sorry, how is this fair for those historically loyal to KE? All else equal, OZ card holders in Korea would get more points in the new program than KE card holders for the same historical spending. If the rate is made equal, KE would be forced to screw over their own customers. This doesn’t sound like a “consumer protection” situation, but rather trying to decide which group of customers are left holding the short end of the stick.
I'm also a star alliance gold member due to Asiana :). And have been for 12yrs. I've already qualified for the next 2yrs (1yr early), so I would maintain that until 2028. Hopefully I won't lose out if/ when the merger happens! TY Korea for always looking out for consumers!
Any idea when Asiana Club and SkyPass will be fully merged? I've used Asiana Club as my primary mileage program for a decade now, given the ease of qualifying for Star Alliance Gold. I'm a year into my two-year requalification period, which means I could requalify for Star Gold all the way through April 2028, although if it's unlikely Asiana Club will be around for that long I might need to start considering switching my Star Alliance program.
KE said the goal is to fully integrate two companies by late-October 2026. So I guess around a year and a half left?
If only we had some regulators like that, you know, like a kind of government Consumer Financial Protection agency, to advocate for consumers and keep big businesses from screwing them over and over.
You know, those South Koreans have some good ideas, and the balls to carry them out. When their elected leader declared martial law and rolled tanks, people were outraged, they filled the streets, their congress stood up and stopped the guy. Then...
If only we had some regulators like that, you know, like a kind of government Consumer Financial Protection agency, to advocate for consumers and keep big businesses from screwing them over and over.
You know, those South Koreans have some good ideas, and the balls to carry them out. When their elected leader declared martial law and rolled tanks, people were outraged, they filled the streets, their congress stood up and stopped the guy. Then he was impeached.
Hey, wait a minute...Hmmm...