cruise2006

We have twice used skymiles on KAL to southeast asia destinations in Prestige. Both times availability was not a significant question. You need to look early on with some flexibility and you can find flights... recently it seems to be less difficult to get 2 tkts at the same time due to 380 lax-icn flights than was previously the issue with other Korean aircraft types.

But Delta reservations does seem to be able to find those flights. If you get someone who doesn't seem to know what they are talking about, just hang up and try again. I think making reservations on KAL, as early as you can, before the dates you want, is important... and if seats are available it is not with inflated miles like you find with many flights (at least that's been my experience). ICN by the way is a great airport and relatively easy to manuever and make connections throughout asia and perhaps other destinations like Aus, etc.

Interestly the biggest problem has been the connection from SLC to LAX at the basic 1st class rate (had to fly coach to keep the skymiles at minimun).
We are flying on the 380 in February returning in March. 380 was scheduled to only fly 3 times a week, but I think that's been changed to daily for now. You might want to click on KAL forum to get other flyers experience with their 380 with a couple of great photo/video accounts as well.

mtkeller

EF doesn't have KE award availability, just upgrade inventory.

yjames83

Hi all,
I may have a good shot of being a silver member with DL skymiles this year with 1 more flight to go, but I'm contemplating if getting silver is worth my money, since I fly KE more than DL metal most of the time.

Does anyone know that as silver member, will the upgrade benefits at DL also apply to sky team members such as KE?

For example, if I buy a Y, does that qualify me a biz class upgrade just like in DL flights? And what are the chances if I'm on deeply discounted prices such as Q, can I have a slight expectation to be upgraded at the gate?

I've seen some people got upgraded as the gate during my FUK-ICN flight recently, but just not sure whether they were it's own skypass members or what...
Need your expert comments here. Thanks!

avidflyer

Delta does not upgrade (for free) any class of International ticket. Y/B/M is eligible to use mules/SWUs but that is it.

MSPeconomist

If the person buys a full Y fare, DL miles can be used to obtain a SkyTeam upgrade, confirmable in advance. How KE treats DL elites with respect to OPUPs is anyone's guess, but I would imagine that OPUPs are not very frequent on KE.

avidflyer

I took the info about the "upgrades at the gate" to mean ala UDU.

mnredfox

Yes, but using SWU or miles on YBM fares can only be done on DL, AF, or KL metal. No other UG options exist on any partner unless original ticket is in J.

foofiter

This has happened to me at least 5 times.

I call a lot to get KE availability becuase DL's flight times from SE Asia are horrible. Not to mention 3x as many miles needed...

This is a common occurrence.

xmurphy

Not truth.
You can upgrade with miles full fare economy ticket on almost all SkyTeam carriers, including KE: http://www.skyteam.com/en/Why-SkyTea...-Redeem-Miles/

exwannabe

No argument, but alas from my limited checks a Y fare on KE makes a DL M look like a bargain.

AeoNKiNG

Truth. I called 4 times and was quoted 360,000 miles 4 times. Then I finally got the CSA to get me KE availability and it was about a third as many miles as it was on DL. This is JFK-ICN-SE Asia-ICN-JFK

mnredfox

Wow, didn't know that. Thanks. Not sure if it is useful though as full Y is expensive, for sure swu's nay on DL, KL, or AF though.

mtkeller

I've seen some not too bad KE fares that book into the Y bucket on Europe-Southwest Pacific, but I'm not sure exacly what "full Y" means, since they publish more than one Y fare.

ckpeter

The Star Alliance has a similar alliance-side upgrade program, but the fare requirement is also full-fare or near-full-fare.

Generally, alliance-wide upgrade programs are not aimed at individual price-conscious travelers such as ourselves. It is aimed at corporate travelers whose travels are paid by company, but for whatever reason could not buy business fare.

For reasonable upgrade deals on any particular airline, you almost always have to use that carrier's own miles, and not mileage from another programs.

TechMarauder

Here's a general question for Korean redemption.

I'd like to do LAX-ICN-AKL-SYD-ICN-LAX. Is this possible using KE on everything except AKL-SYD? (Thinking VA for the AKL-SYD route)