Questions and Answers

I called Korean Air last month to place 2 award flights on hold (flying next April) so that I can earn enough points to ticket. They gave me 1 month to transfer my points over to Korean Air. I just called to ask for an extension and was only granted 1 more month to ticket. The lady on the phone said I’m only allowed 1 extension request, so this was it. I have until Sept. I read a few posts regarding Korean Air extending the hold for months, but this isn’t the case for me. Has anyone else experienced the short holds with Korean Air recently??

While I can’t say that I’ve had personal experience with KE award holds recently, reading your problem, I’d suggest this may be a hang-up call back situation. You might specifically ask that it not be ticketed until (March?) with a reasonable excuse (“my work schedule might change so I may need to change the dates”). Even if you lose the hold, though, it’s probably not the end of the world. Closer to departure, you’d probably have more options for award tickets than 8 months out.

I’ve only held a Korean Air ticket once. I’d agree, hang up and call again. Honestly though, I wouldn’t call this a “short hold” at all… they have one of the most generous policies out there for holding award tickets. I wish every program let you hold that long to make a decision or earn miles.

[QUOTE=”Andy 11235, post: 36813, member: 3494″]While I can’t say that I’ve had personal experience with KE award holds recently, reading your problem, I’d suggest this may be a hang-up call back situation. You might specifically ask that it not be ticketed until (March?) with a reasonable excuse (“my work schedule might change so I may need to change the dates”). Even if you lose the hold, though, it’s probably not the end of the world. Closer to departure, you’d probably have more options for award tickets than 8 months out.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Andy! I went back to Korean Air and spoke to a rep via chat who was able to extend my ticket hold a bit longer 🙂

[QUOTE=”gdis2002, post: 36927, member: 2793″]I’ve only held a Korean Air ticket once. I’d agree, hang up and call again. Honestly though, I wouldn’t call this a “short hold” at all… they have one of the most generous policies out there for holding award tickets. I wish every program let you hold that long to make a decision or earn miles.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! I went back to Korean Air and spoke to someone via chat. The rep on chat was much more generous than the rep on the phone.

Glad it all worked out and thanks for reporting back! Just a friendly reminder here that Korean is by far and away the most generous with their hold policies. Singapore would be similar with their waitlist policy. But would hate for you to think that this is the norm as you continue to redeem across other airlines in the future

Agreed, [USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER]. Made me chuckle to see a one month plus one month hold described as too short :).