Following up on the return half of my KE-plated Round 1 ticket: some of this has been reported upthread, but for the readers' ease, I will recap some here.

Following the MI -> SQ change, I wound up booked LAX-NRT-SIN-RGN op'd KE-SQ-SQ, with KE 2 in J, SQ 11 in Y, SQ 998 in J. That involved long layovers at NRT and SIN, including about five hours overnight at Changi. Last month KE re-routed KE 1/2 from ICN-NRT-LAX to ICN-NRT-HNL. I got an involuntary schedule change message from vayama offering a full refund or rebooking on KE 18 nonstop to ICN and KE onward to RGN. A few minutes later, I got a "nevermind" message. No subsequenty communication from vayama received. My booking on vayama and checkmytrip was showing KE 18 LAX-ICN, then SQ NRT-SIN-RGN, apparently leaving me on my own to get from ICN to NRT in about three hours.

Called vayama over the weekend, they said that since I'd flown the outbound segments RGN-USA, the ticket was in the airline's control and I needed to call KE. More than happy to do that and get vayama out of the way.

Called KE over the weekend, explained the problem to an agent, probably located in the US. I said I was willing to go down to SIN from ICN and remain on the presently booked SQ 998 SIN-RGN (thinking they'd likely carry me on KE but if not the SQ flight ICN-SIN would be fine) or they could put me on KE nonstop to RGN (thinking that was more likely, as it's what KE seemed to have communicated to vayama, and presumably KE saves money by not having to pay another airline to carry me). Agent grasped the problem and promised to work on the situation but said that any changes to this ticket needed to be approved by headquarters in Korea as the ticket was a "special case." I said I understood but clarified that I needed to be rebooked in J because it was a J ticket.

Got a call from KE in the US Monday morning. The agent, might have been the same one, said everything had been approved by HQ in Korea: they were ready to put me on KE 471 to RGN and have the ticket reissued accordingly. I accepted. KE e-ticket came through minutes later, properly rebooked on KE LAX-ICN-RGN with a short layover in ICN and J service all the way. Now I get to RGN about 12 hours faster than originally booked. Happy camper. Good on KE for how they've handled this.

Anyone else booked on KE 2 LAX-NRT after the re-route becomes effective in March may wish to handle it the same way.