Korean Air Skypass - Economy vs premium class travel

I am browsing through this board and something just somehow struck me.

Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me that there are a lot more discussion of the status of economy class of korean air than any other board. Moreover, there appeared to be "minimum" talk of their premium class travel. Why so? Does this means that if FT member travel on KAL, they go by economy rather than in their premium class, which definitely do not seems to be the case with the other airlines board.

Just curious.:p

well i'm taking economy this summer with KE because of the round trip fare deal i got for July which is usually expensive. i got a roundtrip ticket from new york going to manila for just under $1,000 which is cheap for summer season..other ticket prices for Y were like $1500-$1600. and i could not refuse. and i'm just curious about their economy seats because 1) i have not taken korean in the loooongest time (last time was like 1989?) and 2) i've been seeing different interior styles so i just wanted to know what would be on my flight. :)

I agree with you, most other airlines' posts seem to be about 50% premium classes, 30% general stuff, 20% economy, and the KE forum seems to be 50% economy, 30% general, 20% premium!

I'm guessing that there are a larger percentage of posters in the KE forum who are traveling on their own nickel than the other fora. Throw in KE's pretty nice economy class, and that may explain it.

I'm betting that North America-based business travelers (who, along with those from the UK seem to make up a large percentage of these boards) are probably selecting airlines based on mileage program, so unless one travels to Korea often enough that KE is your primary airline, or you're a heavy flier on Delta and get a code-share, you're probably not flying KE on business that often.

I'm guessing that there are a larger percentage of posters in the KE forum who are traveling on their own nickel than the other fora. Throw in KE's pretty nice economy class, and that may explain it.
I think you've captured the reason exactly. When you have to pay your own way, you're more inclined to look for value for your money, and Korean has reasonable fares combined with a very good up-to-date economy product, especially on many if not most of its flights to/from the US. I know that KE's well-priced and (reasonably) comfortable economy service between IAD and ICN came as a very pleasant and welcome surprise to me.

KE is much bigger carrier of Korea than OZ, so I'm just surprised that OZ forum gets so much more traffic than KE forum.
Also, OZ board talk about premium cabin all the time while KE board is more about Y.
Should there any reason why this may be?

KE is much bigger carrier of Korea than OZ, so I'm just surprised that OZ forum gets so much more traffic than KE forum.
Also, OZ board talk about premium cabin all the time while KE board is more about Y.
Should there any reason why this may be?

I think KE would be doing better if they weren't using old products on some of their long-haul flights. but i'm sure that'll all change by 2010-2011 since according to another thread, KE will be refurbishing ALL their current aircrafts.

KE is much bigger carrier of Korea than OZ, so I'm just surprised that OZ forum gets so much more traffic than KE forum.
Also, OZ board talk about premium cabin all the time while KE board is more about Y.
Should there any reason why this may be?

I noticed that also. I think one of the reasons is due to their alliances. I fly a lot into/out of Korea and almost always choose OZ over KE mainly for the reason that OZ is a member of Star Alliance. With the exception of a handful of DL flights I took many years ago, KE is the only member of SkyTeam I ever fly and even then it's very rare. I have no real desire to be an elite SkyTeam member. I'd much rather bank my miles with *A if possible or OW as a second choice.

My guess is that most FTers are similar to me in that they prefer *A or OW over ST. So they only fly KE if it's their last choice, or if it's their own dime and they need to fly as cheap as possible. KE's much larger size compared to OZ is due a lot to Korean travelers, not foreigners. If you compared the number of foreigners on KE vs. OZ, then I doubt you'd see as much of a difference. Foreigners prefer OZ due to it being a member of *A. Koreans don't care so much about the alliances and choose KE simply because it's the biggest in Korea and has flights to most places they want to travel to.

I noticed that also. I think one of the reasons is due to their alliances. I fly a lot into/out of Korea and almost always choose OZ over KE mainly for the reason that OZ is a member of Star Alliance. With the exception of a handful of DL flights I took many years ago, KE is the only member of SkyTeam I ever fly and even then it's very rare. I have no real desire to be an elite SkyTeam member. I'd much rather bank my miles with *A if possible or OW as a second choice.

My guess is that most FTers are similar to me in that they prefer *A or OW over ST. So they only fly KE if it's their last choice, or if it's their own dime and they need to fly as cheap as possible. KE's much larger size compared to OZ is due a lot to Korean travelers, not foreigners. If you compared the number of foreigners on KE vs. OZ, then I doubt you'd see as much of a difference. Foreigners prefer OZ due to it being a member of *A. Koreans don't care so much about the alliances and choose KE simply because it's the biggest in Korea and has flights to most places they want to travel to.

My thoughts exactly. I used to be a *A elite and would fly mostly UA/OZ/NH. Now that I live in Korea, I find KE has routes that better fit my needs. I'm originally from Hawaii and they're the only carrier that flies direct from ICN-HNL. I also visited Bali last week and OZ doesn't fly there.

I've had good experiences with both OZ and KE. If OZ flew to HNL, I would choose them due to *A.

I too suspect that the alliance of the airline have something to do with that. However, it still does not really explains why the increase discussion of economy class vs premium class of travel except perhaps the "old" hardware on board.

With regards to the cost involved and value for money, thai is similarly regarded as that for economy travel, but yet the discussion of their premium travel still outweight that of their economy travel. So my feeling is that this might not necessary be the key point.

Another peculiarity about the Skypass forum is the dearth of discussion about KE's Skypass program itself.

FWIW, I discovered that I had qualified for Morning Calm status in time for my return BKK-ICN-IAD trip, which resulted in upgrade on my economy ticket to an upstairs seat on the BKK-ICN 744 and a row to myself (in economy) on the ICN-IAD 772. I'm sure it helped that neither flight was packed, but it was still a very pleasant surprise.

Another peculiarity about the Skypass forum is the dearth of discussion about KE's Skypass program itself.

FWIW, I discovered that I had qualified for Morning Calm status in time for my return BKK-ICN-IAD trip, which resulted in upgrade on my economy ticket to an upstairs seat on the BKK-ICN 744 and a row to myself (in economy) on the ICN-IAD 772. I'm sure it helped that neither flight was packed, but it was still a very pleasant surprise.

Skypass does have a generous elite program at the lower tier level.

Skypass does have a generous elite program at the lower tier level.

how generous? because their requirements to qualify are quite high

To echo what's been said above about Skyteam vs. Star Alliance: I was really hoping for a Delta-UA merger a while back, just on the off chance that KE and UA would end up on the same team. I fly UA for business domestically, and would fly OZ to Korea to keep it in the family, but the ORD-ICN flight leaves at 1 am, which is a drag.

I fly KE business class between BKK and Japan almost 10 times a year. When I flew to Japan last month, I got new C seats luckily on both BKK-ICN and ICN-BKK sectors. I like the new seats so much and I continue to fly KE business.

Last time, I flew out of Fukuoka, Japan on KE. Before you reach the check in counter, you need to have your check-in baggage security checked at this airport. There was only one secuirity check machine. Therefore, there was a long line for the security check, and noboyd was waiting at the check in counter because there are 6 or 7 counters were open.

They did not have a separate line for C passegers and elite members. I talked to one of the agent if C passenger could go forward, but I was told I had to stay in line with Y passengers. I wish they closed one of the counters and had one agent out by the security check to fast track elites and C passengers. The same problem occurs at KIX, but not at NRT.

Its true, oz has alot more postings. I thought this was because OZ is part of staralliance and it has more people in general than skyteam? Plus, More foreign passengers uses OZ and trickling down to FT, where it has more posters of foreign origins (meaning non-koreans) than korean posters?

My personal experience is that I use OZ more frequently than KE because of staraliiance and UA awards. UA award is one of the most generous but of course, the downside is they now blocks so much partner awards, I find it to be almost useless for me. They are VERY hard to use.


KE is much bigger carrier of Korea than OZ, so I'm just surprised that OZ forum gets so much more traffic than KE forum.
Also, OZ board talk about premium cabin all the time while KE board is more about Y.
Should there any reason why this may be?

Its true, oz has alot more postings. I thought this was because OZ is part of staralliance and it has more people in general than skyteam? Plus, More foreign passengers uses OZ and trickling down to FT, where it has more posters of foreign origins (meaning non-koreans) than korean posters?

My personal experience is that I use OZ more frequently than KE because of staraliiance and UA awards. UA award is one of the most generous but of course, the downside is they now blocks so much partner awards, I find it to be almost useless for me. They are VERY hard to use.



OZ has a lot more posting PRIMARILY BECAUSE it inherited all the OZ-related postings from Other Asian Frequent Flyer Programs forum when it was created while KE forum did not innate any KE-related from that forum when it was created. So OZ forum started with few thousands of postings at the beginning while KE forum started with nothing. I do not know why there is the asymmetry. You can verify this by searching OZ and KE posts in Other Asian Frequent Flyer Programs forum. On weekly basis, it seems like there is a hardly noticeable difference in the numbers of postings between the two.