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Home  >  Award Bookings • Chase • Korean Air  >  Planning My Final Korean Air Award
Award BookingsChaseKorean Air

Planning My Final Korean Air Award

Matthew Klint Posted onAugust 17, 2018August 17, 2018 14 Comments

August 24th is the last day to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Korean Air SkyPass. That has me planning what could potentially be my final redemption on Korean Air.

I’ve procrastinated flying Korean Air First Class for years. With award space so excellent (though not quite as generous as in year’s past), I have always considered this award “low hanging fruit” and deferred it. But now is the final call.

My redemption will have two objectives: fly the A380 and 747-8 in first class and spend 80K points doing it. One-way first class awards cost 80,000 miles during off-peak season. When departing North America, peak season is:

  • 2018
    • May 11 – June 30
    • December 7 – December 25
  • 2019
    • May 16 – July 12
    • December 10 – December 23

Meanwhile, the peak date window is even longer when flying the other direction.

  • 2018
    • January 1
    • February 14 – February 19
    • July 13 – August 18
    • September 20 – September 27
    • October 5 – October 7
    • December 20 – December 31
  • 2019
    • January 1
    • February  1 – February 7
    • July 12 – August 18
    • September 11 – September 16
    • October 3 – October  7
    • December 20 – December 31

During these dates, awards costs double the price.

But I’m encountering a slight problem. No problem getting an A380 out of Los Angeles to Seoul:

But the A380 have the older first class suites, hence my desire to fly a 748-8 as well. My original plan was to connect on a 747-8 to Hong Kong, but that aircraft has been pulled off the Hong Kong route. Any suggestions?

Spencer from One Mile at a Time nicely lays out a number of attractive redemption options by region. If you’re sitting on a pile of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you should carefully consider how many, if any, you wish to transfer. I do not recommend speculative transfers, but there are great deals beyond flying Korean Air. My transfer is speculative only in the sense that I have not finalized my travel date yet, but I know precisely what I want to fly.

CONCLUSION

It goes without saying that this is a very sad development which will immediately diminish the value of Chase points. Thankfully, Chase gave us a bit of warning and you still have a week to make transfers to Chase. I don’t recommend waiting that long, but do carefully consider that this might be your final chance to fly Korean Air First Class using miles.

image: byeangel / Flickr

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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14 Comments

  1. Bobby Reply
    August 17, 2018 at 10:26 am

    I flew the 747-8i Kuala Lumpur to ICN in first. No YQ on flights out of KUL. Do KUL-LAX

    • Matthew Reply
      August 17, 2018 at 10:36 am

      747-8 has also been pulled off KUL route.

      • Lantean Reply
        August 17, 2018 at 10:41 am

        So what routes was it put on?

        • Matthew Reply
          August 17, 2018 at 10:57 am

          Unless I am missing something, it is not used on intra-Asia routing any longer. Rather, just to HNL, FRA and JFK.

          • MeanMeosh
            August 17, 2018 at 3:16 pm

            ATL is still served by the 747.

  2. dolores Reply
    August 17, 2018 at 10:56 am

    seoul-auckland – I flew it in January.

  3. Sam Reply
    August 17, 2018 at 11:17 am

    What is the best product that Korean Air have for First Class? And what gateways from the US do those fly from?

    Thanks!

  4. Tuan Reply
    August 17, 2018 at 11:56 am

    I grabbed a KE award JFK-ICN-ATL for two weeks from now. The ICN-ATL flight is on the 747-8i.

  5. Hal Reply
    August 17, 2018 at 12:28 pm

    I did the 777 in F from DFW. It was pretty nice

  6. Mattt Reply
    August 17, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    There are a few 777s with the 2.0. Check out ATL for the 8i. I have flown all three and tbh… the a380 is better. But I guess I’m not a fan of semi-private suites thanks to a “door.”
    Obvi have to do it for the novelty so ATL-ICN-HKG is prob the best bet.

  7. Kacee Reply
    August 17, 2018 at 6:17 pm

    They’re flying the 748 ex-SFO on many dates.

    Even after Chase goes away, you will be able to transfer MR to KE (at 3:1, with a 5k bonus for every 60k).

  8. Alvin Reply
    August 18, 2018 at 3:52 am

    Matthew, Korean Air updates their schedule to accommodate longhaul routes on regional flights closer to the departure date. October 28 seems to be the date of which all aircraft with Apex Suites have not yet been assigned to intra-Asia routes. If anything you can redeem miles for a 747-400 flight before that disappears soon, or get a 747-8 to Hong Kong this October, or transfer your miles to SKYPASS then wait a bit.

  9. MeanMeosh Reply
    August 26, 2018 at 12:50 am

    So after much consideration, I pulled the trigger on F in the 747-8i from ATL next July, with a return in ANA F via LAX. Come join me; we could do a joint blog adventure!

  10. Pingback: 2018 Year in Review and A Look Forward to 2019 - Travel Codex

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