catennacio

Apologize if this was asked before.

I'm Diamond status which qualifies Star Alliance Gold. Korea Air is SkyTeam. What will happen then?

Can I transfer my mileage to another Star Alliance airlines like ANA? I want to stick with Star Alliance because of their better policy for Gold members. My frequent route from LAX to ICN is best served by OZ203, what are the alternatives for me?

TIA.

downinit

The correct answer is that no one knows. No announcements have been made, and the actual transition is likely to be at least 18-24 months from now. In the meantime, I doubt even the management at OZ and KE know for sure what the future holds. Right now, they are more concerned about staying solvant and hoping that things return to normal soon. As for flight schedules, that is an even bigger mystery. The only certainty is that they will continue to evolve as demand returns and we slowly eek back to a new normal.

As for transferring your mileage, that is almost certainly not going to be an option for any airline aside from KE. Currently, no *A airlines will status match another *A airline. Historically, the demise of an airline may result in temporary offers from partners for a status match, but since this is a merger and not a complete shutdown, the odds of getting such an offer when OZ finally does go away are not great. TK does status match non-*A airlines, so if you get status with KE, you may be able to match to them. However, the terms of their status match program are a bit convoluted, and it may be easier and more beneficial to just earn status outright.

catennacio

Thanks, so I guess we will just have to wait and see. It would be catastrophic if all my mileages goes away for nothing. I've accumulated so much after all these years. Hope Korean Air will at least take those at 1:1 ratio. Or Asiana somehow allows people to transfer the mileage to other sister airlines. Would love to fly with ANA after Asiana.

downinit

The FF program for NH is pretty terrible unless you are based in JP and do a lot of domestic travel and/or J/F flights abroad. The miles expire quickly, the redemption options are very limited, and earning status is difficult. As for the miles you earned with OZ, they have absolutely no value to any other airline. The only hope is that there is some non-airline program where you can transfer them to (hotel/credit card/etc).

Supersonic Swinger

I'd add a few points:

- I'm not aware of any airline program which allows you to transfer point out other than Virgin Atlantic, which allows you to transfer points out to Hilton Hhonors and IHG Rewards, but at relatively bad rates
- I suspect one of the reasons Korean is acquiring Asiana is for their customer base, and to preserve that base they will in all likelihood continue your points across in the merged program. Like NW points when they merged with DL, US points when they merged with AA, CO points when they merged with UA etc
- Post-merger I too am looking around for other Star Alliance options but see nothing else out there quite as compelling for the infrequent Star traveler as Asiana's
- All up, I find it is best to accumulate points in the program of the airline you fly the most, because you have the best opportunities to use them.

catennacio

Hey thanks for chiming in. I do hope Korean Air will allow Asiana customers to transfer the points in. We have a large customer base here in the West Coast who frequently travel back and forth to Korea and other Asian countries. I don't think Korean Air will want to piss those off. As in my case, Asiana Airlines is the the airline I fly the most internationally, and United for domestic flights.

I don't know if SkyTeam has perks similar to Star Alliance. If they do, I'm willing to take them.

Gasolin

How much have you accumulated? Just out of curiosity.

Gasolin

SkyTeam has, but their status on KE with the new rules is pretty hard to match. You will have to fly frequently/

I really don't think KE cares that much about the OZ customer base. This... was a political move by the family owning KE to get back some ownership control that they lost with those complicated shareholders structure some of the chaebols had to do in order to stay solvent at some point, and it was the "perfect" opportunity, with the context of OZ being in difficulty on its own and the backing of the government. I would be surprised KE does anything much in favor of the OZ customer base, but maybe I am just simply too pessimistic. We will see how it goes.

catennacio

Close to 100k miles (Diamond Plus)

SPN Lifer

Transfer of miles between OZ & KE (at some undetermined rate, likely 1:1) is indeed the most probable outcome, as discussed in comments to the original merger news, and in this post quoted below.

Korean Air Seeks to Buy Asiana (Recent News Article)

Transfer of miles to another carrier in the same alliance would be unprecedented. That is not going to happen.

catennacio

So has this merger been passed by the govt?

1P

In the grand scheme of things, that's not a terribly large amount. Wouldn't even get you a single business class segment on some airlines.

paperwastage

Virgin Australia Used to allow 1.55:1 transfer to SQ (vice versa too, also at 1.55:1, so you lose quantity going either direction). Helps when SQ owns a part of virgin Australia

https://www.pointhacks.com.au/how-to...s-to-krisflyer

Gasolin

Yes, but they have some operational delay due to covid and are also waiting some approvals from foreign authorities. However, it seems to be more a matter of when rather than if.

Supersonic Swinger

Yes, although this was suspended at the start of the pandemic. There are rumours that it may come back, but at an even worse rate if it does. SQ no longer owns any part of Virgin Australia, after going into administration it is a wholly owned portfolio company of Bain private equity.

This also implies you can swap Delta, Hawaiian, Icelandair and JetBlue miles out through Points.com, although I believe the transfer ratios are terrible and also come with an exchange cash fee payable to Points.com: https://www.points.com/wallet/programs/