I recently flew IAH – LAX - ICN on CO and KE (CO code share), and had some notable experiences/annoyances with Korean Air:

- KE changed my CO FF to the DL # that I had used many years ago with them, even though I bought this ticket on CO.com for the CO code-share with my CO ff #. I only caught this because of the small “DL” on my boarding pass. The agent claimed KE did this as a “favor” for me.

- KE claims to offer priority boarding to SkyTeam Elites, but do not: http://www.koreanair.com/local/kr/gd...g_sp_cb_sb.htm They do offer it to ElitePlus members (CO Plats).

- As a CO elite, use the Morning Calm counter for check-in. There is no sign for SkyTeam elites.

- KE's systems cannot see CO silver elites (at least this elite) as SkyTeam elites. Two different agents told me this after verifying the correct CO FF#.

- No OLCI, argh!

- No advance seat selection, made worse by...

- CO cannot issue boarding passes or assign seats. Mrs. ralfp and I were assigned seats two rows apart. At least the KE agent was able to fix this.

- Times of the KE flights on the reservation page are messed up (see my post on the co.com thread).

There should be a way that CO can issue boarding passes, however many gate agents may not know how or be willing... if you sweet talk a gate agent at your departure city they should be able to log into the flight since no one at LAX is logged into it yet and assign seats and print boarding passes that way.

I've had nothing but positive experiences with KE. I don't know which cabin you were in, but the coach seats have about the most generous seat pitch of any trans-pac carrier short of a premium economy cabin. Though one time I had a really long delay at ICN due to fog (my plane was stuck at the old Kimpo airport waiting for it to lift), I certainly prefer KE to a lot of other Asian carriers that I can think of and I would certainly fly them over any of the domestic carriers serving Asia except maybe UA since I can get E+ seating... (Again assuming Y cabin)

I talked to several CO people, by phone and at IAH. All said that only KE could change seats. KE phone said I had to do it at the airport.

Way to go KE, limit advance seat selection & OLCI to your own FF members only.

The on board KE experience is pretty good. except that the FAs have a habit of setting the temperature way too high. I still remember this from 5 years ago.

Othewise I can't comment too much on the last flight, as I was asleep for 9 for the 11 hours (ballpark); the last thing I remember before breakfast was falling asleep eating dinner.

It seems Korean Air intentionally makes life difficult if you book one of their flights with a CO flight number (codeshare).

I was not allowed to get my boarding pass downtown at KCAT (basically their downtown check-in facility). The KE agent actually printed the BP for both the Korean Air and Continental flights (I saw them in her hand), but she refused to give them to me. Why? My ticket was for the CO flight number.

At least I was able to get a seat assignment there (the morning of the flight). When I got to ICN all they did for me was reprint the boarding passes (no bags to check).