Update, October 2026: Chase points no longer transfer to Korean Air
Korean Air SKYPASS stopped being a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner on August 25, 2018 (Doctor of Credit), so the main point of this post (move Chase points to Korean and book SkyTeam awards online) no longer applies. The award prices, rules and SkyTeam member list below are from 2016; check Korean Air’s current award chart before planning around any of these sweet spots.
Before today, Skyteam award flights booked with Korean Air had to be booked by calling in. Now, those awards can be booked online. This is a huge upgrade and makes Chase Ultimate Rewards points even more useful in my opinion. You can search for flights through this link after logging in and selecting Skyteam awards in the search.
Note that while you’re now able to book online, searching for availability isn’t the easiest thing in the world from this website. I recommend you first search for the availability you need from the Delta, Air France, or Alaska Airlines websites because those searches show a calendar-view. Once you confirm your flights are available from those websites, note the dates and search those dates in the Korean Air website to book the flights you want. Note that with regards to Delta, only the lowest-level awards will show as available on Korean Air.
You can search Korean Air’s Skyteam Award Chart here (defaulted to North America departures) and also in the image below. Note that one way Skyteam awards are priced the same as round trip awards, so book round trip flights only.
It appears that non-SkyTeam partners of Korean Air (Alaska Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, GOL, Hawaiian, and JAL) flights can still only be booked by calling 800-438-5000.
List of SkyTeam Members
- Aeroflot
- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- AeroméxicoAir Europa
- Air France
- Alitalia
- China Airlines
- China Eastern Airlines
- China Southern Airlines
- Czech Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Garuda Indonesia
- Kenya Airways
- KLM
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines
- Saudia
- TAROM
- Vietnam Airlines
- Xiamen Airlines
Korean Air Award Rules Refresher
- One way awards are priced the same as round trip, so might as well book round trip
- You are allowed one stopover per round trip award
- Maximum of 3 segments (2 layovers) in each direction
- They do charge fuel surcharges if a cash ticket would also include fuel surcharges
Best Uses of Korean Air Miles
1. North America to North America, Including Hawaii, for 25K/45K Miles Round Trip
Korean Air has a very fair award chart for Skyteam travel (and travel on their own planes, for that matter). One of the best known and likely best-value awards are flights from the US to Hawaii on Delta, which costs just 25,000 miles round trip. That’s true whether you fly from Los Angeles or from New York, with the latter being the better offer due to the longer flight. Business Class flights are just 45,000 miles round trip.
To take it a step further, it’s not just the US to Hawaii at these prices. The region includes the US, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the US Virgin Islands. You can find tremendous value from many of these locations.
Unfortunatly, Hawaiian Airlines flights still have to be called in since they are not a member of Skyteam, so online booking to Hawaii applies only to Delta for now.
2. North America to Europe in for 50K/80K Miles Round Trip
One of the other fantastic values are round trip Business Class from the US to Europe for 80,000 miles round trip, which is a significant discount to what US airliners charge for similar flights. Economy flights are also a great value at 50,000 miles round trip.
3. North America to Tahiti for 60K/90K Miles Round Trip
This flight would be on Air France, and the only option is from LAX. Still, this is a great price compared to the other options available.
4. More Complex “Hopper” flights
This will require another post (many have already been written – feel free to Google it), but there are Indonesian Hoppers, South America Hoppers, China Hoppers, Middle East Hoppers, and Europe Hoppers, among others. A “Hopper” is when you can book many segments usually within the same region at a very low price, so you can “hop” from one location to another to explore a large area.
Conclusion
The ability to book awards online makes lives easier, and given that Korean Air is a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, those flights will now be easier to book. Skyteam isn’t the biggest or best alliance, but it can definitely come in handy…especially given the pricing of particular regions.
Any idea why certain regional airports won’t pull up in the Korean Air search engine and if there is a work-around? I’m looking for flights from GFK or FAR to HNL and neither of the originating airports show up. Both are primarily serviced by Delta.
looks like you can’t book the stopover online – unless i’m doing it wrong by using multi-city? Trying to book BWI-HNL; HNL-BWI (stopover); BWI – NAS – get error message that journey must end in the same country. Tried switching NAS to Key West (EYW) and get error message saying journey must end in same city as departure and to contact them if you want a different city within same country.
[…] Skyteam Award Flights Now Bookable Online with Korean Air Miles – This Ultimate Reward transfer partner has now made it much easier to book many partner awards. There are some sweet spots, but look out for the fuel surcharges on some routes. […]
Awesome post! I’m excited!
Historically KA has very strict rules on whom you can book a ticket for: only parents, children, oneself, spouse, mother in-law, father in-law. You must fax or e-mail legal proof of relations, even for your child. And the application for the award ticket is tedious and takes days of processing time.
However, you can also set up a KA rewards account for someone and transfer your Chase UR directly into their account IF Chase will let you transfer into that person’s name.
I’m looking to book a ticket for a friend (actually for her 7 year old child), or possibly for her for a Delta flight upstate NY to SEA. (Already have a voucher for one ticket for one of them.)
Any tips on how to make my Chase UR work for a ticket for a non-relative through KA? My son is currently the AU on my account. Should I take him off and add my friend (or her child)?
I also have some SPG points, if that is a more viable option?
Thanks for the help! Love your posts! Still hoping to meet you one day ?
Frugal Nellie (aka Lela from Twitter)
Why do you say Europe only applies to LAX? Is it because other cities can only be booked by calling in?
The only flight from North America to Tahiti (South Pacific) departs from LAX. It happens to be operated by Air France.
There are more options if you want to go to Europe.
Looking to do Hawaii in June. Ive been calling in every other week, and I haven’t gotten anywhere. Any advice on when KA will have the Delta tickets for this timeframe?
KE will have awards available when DL decides to release award space. Delta ultimately controls award availability.
Thanks for the post. I’m looking at ATL-LHR with level 1 space available (140K) and both flights are on Delta metal. Carrier imposed fees are $518 and Taes, Fees and Charges is 287.70 for a total of $805.70 + 80K miles. Is this right? I’m a bit confused with your response to Al.
Belated welcome to BA BTW!
Thanks, but I’ve been with BA for a couple of years now!
My previous response (now edited) was incorrect. My apologies. A fuel surcharge will be included on all flights where the airline would have charged it for a cash ticket. Delta adds them to fares now, so they are included in the surcharge section. To my knowledge, Alaska Air and Hawaiian, both not bookable online but bookable on the phone, do not have any fuel surcharges.
Sorry, I thought you migrated over from UPGRD. Thanks for the update.
Surcharges to Europe don’t make the redemptions practical. Is there a way to avoid these?
80,000 miles round-trip in business class seems like a great deal to me even with the fees.
United charges 115,000-140,000 miles, American charges 115,000 miles, and Delta charges 135,000 miles. If you think a mile is worth a penny, that’s at least $300 in miles saved you can use for the fees instead.
Ahhh. I was looking at Economy Flights. For business class that makes sense. Is there a way to look up SkyTeam business class flights on Korean Air’s Booking Engine? I can only find Economy flights for SkyTeam flights.
Thanks in advance.
Do certain carriers tend to have lower fees than others for these skyteam partners? I know that the star alliance partners can be very different from each other.
There isn’t a way to avoid them, but you can try finding flights on Delta metal since they don’t charge them (unless the trip originates in Europe). That’s the only way I’m aware of.
The search will only let me do Honolulu International Airport to/from continental USA, and not any of the airports on the outer islands to/from continental USA. Do Korean only allow award redemptions to/from HNL?
No, I found seats from LAX-OGG from 1/20/17 to 1/23/17. If the Delta website shows availability at 22.5K, and all segments are on Delta, then it will show on the Korean website.
Is saver award level price 90K r/t from US mainland to HI?
On the Delta website the lowest-level pricing, which is required to find availability on Korean Air search, is 45K round trip economy from mainland to Hawaii. If you’re seeing 90K then you’re finding standard award pricing (or one of the higher cost levels).
Oops sorry I meant how much is a saver business/first r/t to HI? Thanks
Ok, I’ll bite as this interests me very much. I’m looking to go from MSP to anything Caribbean this winter on Delta, 2 tix in F. I’m assuming I need to find saver availability to use Korean but that is proving basically impossible on Deltas website. Tips?
If the Delta website doesn’t have availability at the lowest level, then there’s really nothing else that can be done except to wait until it becomes available. There’s no trick or anything to make more appear, to my knowledge. The Caribbean is a popular destination so it might be difficult if your dates are limited.