Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky. How are you? I’m sure you get inundated with questions all the time, but if you had a quick sec to respond to mine it would be greatly appreciated. I have read some of your articles on Korean Airline’s SKYPASS program. I would like to fly their biz/first product from JFK-ICN.
I was wondering if you could shed some light on searching for saver partner award availability for a KE operated flight… What is the best way to search for KE J award avail. for booking on EK, AS, or DL?

From my understanding, you can only use KE’s FF program to book F redemptions, so in that case, the best way to search for availability is directly on KE’s website using their “Award Seat Availability” tool — [URL]https://www.koreanair.com/mobile/global/en/skypass/view-bonus-seat.html[/URL] ?

For J redemptions, I have tried using KLM Flying Blue search tool, but I can never find KE flights — only flights on AeroMexico. So, what sites are the best to show partner award availability for flights on KE?

Lastly, does expert flyer work for searching award avail on KE? I see that A space “First – Award & Upgrade (A)” returns results, but nothing for “Business – Award (O)”. Does EF not show accurate “O” space?

Thanks so much!

Welcome [USER=6697]@Zach G[/USER] – are you searching one-way or have you tried searching round-trip even if you don’t need the return leg? In a [URL=’https://thepointsguy.com/guide/searching-skyteam-availability/’]TPG post from May[/URL] I found this about searching for awards on the KE website:

[I]Unfortunately, however, the Korean Air engine is full of kinks, and its search results are not always accurate. You also must search for round-trip itineraries rather than one-way too, which makes it difficult to use a segment-by-segment award search strategy.[/I]

This post on [URL=’https://upgradedpoints.com/searching-flight-award-space’]Upgraded Points[/URL] from March suggests using Flying Blue and Delta to look although we know you won’t see F awards on Delta. But perhaps the round-trip thing is in force here too?

See if searching round-trip helps and let us know what you find.

Thanks [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER]. I’ve read both of those articles, but still couldn’t find great answers. I have tried RT search on KLM Flying Blue as well, but it still only shows the AM routes. Appreciate you sharing those links.

Essentially, I am trying to figure out the best way (if there is any) to see when KE has partner award space available in biz. For example, when searching for ANA awards from US-Japan, a lot of people use United’s site to find the dates where ANA has award space available. Or, when looking to fly etihad, customers use AA’s old award calendar tool to find available dates.

What search engines can I use to find KE’s award avail?

[USER=6697]@Zach G[/USER] – I think it’s simply because there is zero availability for J for the dates you are looking for. There is virtually nearly no space available until next year from what I can see, which could be a byproduct of Covid. There are very few dates by the end of the year with availability (a couple in December, one in November), and then towards the end of January it’s picking up again. I’m using the Air France website and can see plenty of availability then. The website is also very handy because you can see availability for an entire month. A lot of these flights seem to be the direct flight on Korean, sometimes it’s a connecting.

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Same flights are available for 10k miles cheaper on Alaska, but the search experience is not as good.
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[USER=2278]@Clem[/USER], Thanks for the insight. Can I ask you how you’re getting those results on AF’s website. This is what my search results look like…

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Are you filtering out only non-stops? If so, how?

Also, how come Expert Flyer then doesn’t show award avail. for that flight you referenced in your AS search. Is it possible that EF doesn’t have access to this inventory? Or that it’s phantom award space?

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Thanks for the help!

Hmm very odd. I checked ExpertFlyer and it will only show O when a roundtrip is selected. But you’re right, there is zero availability according to EF.
However I can see the same availability on Air France, Alaska, and Delta – and I can also confirm it on AwardNexus.

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And I’m also not sure what’s happening with the difference in results with Air France! I’m Flying Blue Gold so wondering if it makes a difference. But it looks like you can see the Korean saver availability on the flights with much lower taxes.

Honestly, you’re right, it looks murky. I would probably do a tentative dummy booking to see if it tickets – you’ll have at least 24 hours to cancel it free of charge so it might be worth the test. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!

Right? Well thanks for the help anyway. I definitely learned some things that are helpful. I also appreciate you checking Award Nexus and using some points lol. All the best!