Questions and Answers

Just a quick question to all those out there who have been in this game much longer than I have been – suppose I make an redeem an award ticket using Asiana miles either on Asiana or a Star Alliance partner like EVA for 2022, what will happen to my ticket once Korean Air completes its acquisition of Asiana Airlines?
If I am booked on a Star Alliance partner, will my ticket be invalidated and miles refunded or rebooked on a KAL/SkyTeam award ticket if available?
I suppose if I am on an Asiana flight and KAL operates the route post-acquisition, then I will just be flying on KAL?

Hi! So I haven’t looked at the details of this particular deal yet, but in general:

Most likely, nothing would happen – when you acquire a company, you get both their assets and their liabilities (which would include unflown tickets). There will almost certainly be terms in the acquisition deal requiring Korean to honor any Asiana-plated tickets, regardless of if those tickets were booked with miles or cash.

In terms of things going wrong, if you had an Asiana-issued award ticket for a partner airline, and [I]that[/I] airline canceled their flight or even went out of business, it could get complicated, but would still be resolvable. If it was a day-of cancelation, the operating carrier would probably move you to a new flight. If it was canceled in advance, Korean would likely rebook you on one of their flights or partners.

It could potentially get messy if things were canceled such that no alternatives were available, and you wanted a refund. Since you paid in Asiana miles, you’d be due a refund in a currency that no longer exists. There will likely be a plan for this as well, that is aligned with the conversion of Asiana miles to Korean miles, but again — I haven’t seen the specifics yet.