Korean Air Skypass - U.S. mainland to GUM not bookable

I was searching for award flight to GUM and was shown the following message. I have never heard of this regulation.

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In compliance with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s regulation,
tickets including Guam itinerary cannot be purchased online.
If you are only traveling between Seoul and Guam,
please contact a travel agency in your area to purchase your ticket.

Please note that travel between the U.S. mainland and Guam,
a territory of the U.S., with a connection in the 3rd country
using non-U.S. carriers including Korean Air are strictly prohibited by the U.S. DOT.

Thank you for your understanding

Interesting. I guess one could always depart from YVR.

Transporting passengers between 2 points in the US is considered as cabotage and it is not allowed

Transporting passengers between 2 points in the US is considered as cabotage and it is not allowed

Thanks, that explains the 2nd paragraph of the KE message I quoted.

Interesting. I guess one could always depart from YVR.

Well, so I tried award searching YVR to GUM via ICN. Curiously, I was shown the very same message.

Also tried NRT-ICN-GUM and PVG-ICN-GUM, none worked.

In compliance with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s regulation,
tickets including Guam itinerary cannot be purchased online.

This doesn't make sense to me. Last year, I didn't see this message on KE when trying PVG to GUM. I can go all the way to purchase, though I didn't because CO award is better than paying out-of-pocket for both KE and JL.

But why can I still book PVG-NRT-GUM-NRT-PVG with JL then? (Their price is ridiculously high.)

And an quick search on expedia.com, I can find KE flights from PVG/ICN to GUM very easily.

So the first statement in this KE message seems to be quite vague and/or inaccurate. They have definitely made booking and researching trips to GUM a little bit more difficult.

My best guess would be that some lazy IT person just took the easy way out. Rather than implement the rule properly, which would have required more work to parse where the ticket is originating from and see if it matches a US origin, he/she just made it so the system would refuse all X-ICN-GUM routings.

Is it possible that you can break up your search? Search for X-ICN as one search, then ICN-GUM as another. Once you find a match for both searches, then call to have your ticket booked.

My best guess would be that some lazy IT person just took the easy way out. Rather than implement the rule properly, which would have required more work to parse where the ticket is originating from and see if it matches a US origin, he/she just made it so the system would refuse all X-ICN-GUM routings.

Is it possible that you can break up your search? Search for X-ICN as one search, then ICN-GUM as another. Once you find a match for both searches, then call to have your ticket booked.
It could also have something to do with the region set on KE.com. What happens if Europe is selected, for instance?

My best guess would be that some lazy IT person just took the easy way out....

Could be this case. Both KE and OZ have some issues with their website.

Is it possible that you can break up your search?...

Not on KE's website. I'll just use expedia or travelocity to check prices and schedule.

It could also have something to do with the region set on KE.com. What happens if Europe is selected, for instance?

So I set it to China. And tried PVG to GUM via ICN. Got a message:

根据美国运输安全协会的指示，每一位从美国出发/去往美国（包括关岛）乘客的详细信息都将要求被检查。请检查乘客详细信息-姓名/性别/护照信息（护照号码，签发国家，到期日）/出生日期/国籍/之后再继续您的预订。


I clicked "OK" and got to the booking page. mtkeller, very nice work around!

Could be this case. Both KE and OZ have some issues with their website.



Not on KE's website. I'll just use expedia or travelocity to check prices and schedule.

considering how the KE website is coded, I am not too surprised.

As far as KE website, you should still be able to break up the search. Just search one part, write down flight #/times, then check the rest of the itinerary. Sometimes, searching on other travel websites results in higher prices than if u were to search through KE, or you can call a Korean Travel Agency in LA that you can get the prices for?