KE BE award using SM
 

FWIW, I had absolutely no issue booking to BE seats rt on KE using SM, JFK>ICN>MNL, for 120K SM each. Very simple, got the dates and time I wanted March 11 > March 26

Based on our inquires, including the information we have recently received from Korean Airlines headquarters, the new KE Standard Award Booking Class for the Business Cabin (O) should be applicable to SkyTeam partner award redemptions.

As you have already noticed, the KVS Tool User Guide has been updated accordingly:

• http://Help.KVSTool.com/#Classes

This new Booking Class applies to KE flights that depart on or after 01 Mar 2012 and is already accessible via the KVS Tool:

[KVS Availability Tool 6.9.4/Diamond - Sabre: Availability/FS/US]

Thank you for noticing. Yes the award inventory should be available to partners as well.

Results from ExpertFlyer.com
With unique features such as award/upgrade inventory alerting via Flight Alerts we certainly hope so. All new users are also welcome to try our 5-day free trial.

Great post bobbybrown.

This is great news...unless of course it creates more competition for award seat.

I called delta yesterday about ke availability and checked 10 or 12 flights. Granted availability can change in 24, but expertflyer is 100% accurate for the flights the agent said were and were not available.

^

I too am glad to see that ExpertFlyer has KE Business Award inventory from 3/1/12 onward. Significant new feature. ^

Thanks for doing this. I will now extend my EF membership in order to utilize this option.

I booked an award KE/DL ticket IAD-->ICN (direct on KE) and ICN-->DCA (DL one stop) for 70K for an economy seat. I wanted to book KE back but it was during their immense blackout period. Did I get ripped off?!

70K is the going rate for US-North Asia round trip in Y, so I'm not sure how you'd think you were ripped off.

Sadly for me, EF is not accurate at all. I asked for about 6 flights that were shown to have O (Prestige Class) on KE (LAX-ICN-SGN, BKK-ICN, ICN-SFO) for mid-March to early April. DL SM said none of them is available. My guess is that DL limits KE awards to its own members. :(

At what redemption level are these KE tickets that you have discovered?

DL only give you redemption on KE if it is the available ticket is at low level.

So I found O class availability on EF for SFO-ICN outbound 7/1 and returning 7/12, but two DL agents said there was nothing available for SkyMiles members; how does one redeem award tickets or find availability for SkyMiles redemption? I thought O class was all one needed, and could then redeem at the low level similar to AF/KLM?

1 July is clearly a blackout date, so that's probably part of the problem.

Mid-March to early April should be outside the blackout dates. I would trust what the EF and KVS reps have said in that these should be available to partners. Did you try calling another agent? Did you make sure the agent was looking for O class and not D class (the previous award booking class)?

The O bucket means low level.

Spoke with another agent, used non-blackout dates this time (July 2, 4 etc.), and was told that Korean is (paraphrasing) "not making the O class available for Skymiles tickets, just for purchase".

So what's going on here? I specifically told the agent that O class was indeed available on the flights I wanted, and she said I can't book those with Skymiles.