Korean Award Redemption
 

What is the best way to redeem SMs for travel in KE premium cabins?

By calling. It's the only way to find inventory or book.

Yup, you have to call and make sure you get a good agent that will search many multipe dates for you and not some lazy agent that says they have to stop after 3 date searches. (Delta has decided not to make most partner award availablity searchable online for some strange reason after they merged with NWA, forcing you to call and spend much time on the phone)

Keep in mind you can only redeem into business class...not into first class.

Also, depending on what route you are looking for, look out for the A380..they have 94! business seats so there are often numerous award tickets available.

Most importantly: check DL's blackout dates for KE award redemptions before even starting to waste time calling. They include close to half of the year.

It's not half the year, but there are some big blocks of time.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-ke-ci-ae.html

I said close to half the year. The last time I looked closely, the blackout period was about five months to be more precise.

It's very hard to find more than one seat in J available for a reward on KE, BUT it is possible. You have to be flexible and like was previously mentioned, get an agent who will put in the time to search from multiple gateways. I found two J seats for a trip in November around turkey day. IAH-ATL-ICN-BKK... BKK-ICN-LAX-MEM-IAH for 120k each.

I believe its very possible to find 2+ seats in J on the A380...

In my experience, it hasn't been. I've been looking since June for availability on the A380 O flights in October and it's non-existent (this is after the blackout dates).

KE's own award availability shows seats available for their own members but a lot of times, it seems these never get released to Delta.

I'm now also trying to leave earlier in September to go to Korea but I can't seem to find any A380 flights on any day in September. Does anyone know when KE will release seats to DL or is it just luck of the draw? I'm assuming with near 100 seats in Prestige, they've gotta open some up sooner or later...

Do you all know how upgrades work on KE with skymiles? E.g., buying economy then upgrading to biz?

Would only be possible through the SkyTeam upgrade program, which requires full Y fares.