Korea - 2 hrs enough time to transfer b/ween airlines in Seoul

Hello All
I'm hoping that someone with a lot of experience in transferring between international flights in Seoul can help me with this question.

My partner is flying from SFO to Ulanbator (Mongolia) in June, connecting in Seoul. He bought his ticket via Travelocity and the first leg is on Asiana (SFO to Incheon) and the 2nd leg (Seoul to ULE) is on Korean Air.

He has 2 hrs of connection time between flights. The flights (despite being on 2 different airlines) are all on one ticket (he's been told he'll get both boarding passes in SFO). However we are confused about the luggage transfer situation in Seoul as we have been told conflicting info: Travelocity says that Korean Air and Asiana will handle the luggage transfer. Asiana says he has to collect the luggage in Seoul and re-check it for the 2nd leg and that the 2hrs he has between connecting flights is enough time to do this.

We are wondering if 2 hrs is enough time to disembark from Asiana, go through immigration, pick up his luggage and then ??? Is there a transfer desk for Korean Air in the transit area? Or will he have to completely enter Korea, enter the unsecure area of the terminal, check in at Korean Air, go back through security and immigration control to re-enter the departure area?

It seems like 2 hrs is too short a period of time to do this (He's arriving at around 5 pm on a Mon evening) but we're not sure.


How about it fellow FT'ers? Who out there does international transfers (and changes airlines during the transfer) in Seoul?

I did a search on this and found a thread from 2003 where someone arrived into Seoul on KLM and left (for ULE) on Korean Air. They mentioned a transfer desk but didn't mention anything about how they dealt with luggage.

We are debating if we should just cancel the existing ticket and book a new one with more transfer time between flights in Seoul.

Thank you!

Its fine. 2 hours is fine for any connection in ICN. Its really easy, and well signed. To make things even easier is that Korean Air and Asiana both fly our of the same terminal, so you wont even have to take the train.

KE and OZ don't have a problem transferring bags, just make sure the agent SFO does tag it all the way to ULN.

You will probably need to get your KE boarding pass at the transfer counter before clearing security when landing at ICN. You won't have to pass through immigration. When you deplane, just follow the arrows to connections, and you will see the Korean Air transfer counter before entering the queue for security.

Whoever told him that he would get both boarding passes at SFO is totally wrong. I am not sure why Asiana told him that he had to recheck bag at ICN. If Asiana does not have interline baggage agreement with Korean Air, yes he would have to recheck bag and two hours may not be enough.