Korean Air still the best choice?
Oct 16, 2017, 11:15 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 96
Korean Air still the best choice?
Considering flying to ICN from PHL area thinking probably around June of 2018 or September/October of 2018. Probably want to do J class fight.
Need at least 2 seats. (MAYBE 4 - depending on what my kids are doing).
Is JFK->ICN using Korean air the best option still?
I have 360K (385K if I include my wife) in UR points. (I am pretty sure that I can get my wife a Chase Reserve card (she currently have Sapphire - which I should downgrade to Freedom Unlimited) to add another 50k IF needed. If not, I can wait when/if 100k returns for Reserve..
Also have 181K AA.
I guess I can enroll my wife into one of those 50-100k bonus program for AA if needed and possibly buy few points to go on AA to ICN from PHL since PHL would be the best airport to fly out of. But how does AA J class compare to KE's J class?
Thanks.
Need at least 2 seats. (MAYBE 4 - depending on what my kids are doing).
Is JFK->ICN using Korean air the best option still?
I have 360K (385K if I include my wife) in UR points. (I am pretty sure that I can get my wife a Chase Reserve card (she currently have Sapphire - which I should downgrade to Freedom Unlimited) to add another 50k IF needed. If not, I can wait when/if 100k returns for Reserve..
Also have 181K AA.
I guess I can enroll my wife into one of those 50-100k bonus program for AA if needed and possibly buy few points to go on AA to ICN from PHL since PHL would be the best airport to fly out of. But how does AA J class compare to KE's J class?
Thanks.
Oct 16, 2017, 11:30 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: DL PM, MR Titanium/LTP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 10,130
With the 181k in AA you could do JL J or JL F ex-JFK. It's 60k/person for J, 80k for F.
Much better than any AA option and they have decent availability (you can probably even find 4 J if flexibility which would come in at 240k AA - you can pick up a Barclaycard AA with 60k after 1st purchase and $95 annual fee).
Search for availability on Alaska website or British Airways. JL flies planes with good J (e.g., lie-flat instead of angle-flat) out of JFK, ORD, LAX, SFO, and BOS so check those and with AA be prepared to pay out of pocket for positioning flights due to lack of sAAver availability.
Something like:
JFK - HND - ICN
Much better than any AA option and they have decent availability (you can probably even find 4 J if flexibility which would come in at 240k AA - you can pick up a Barclaycard AA with 60k after 1st purchase and $95 annual fee).
Search for availability on Alaska website or British Airways. JL flies planes with good J (e.g., lie-flat instead of angle-flat) out of JFK, ORD, LAX, SFO, and BOS so check those and with AA be prepared to pay out of pocket for positioning flights due to lack of sAAver availability.
Something like:
JFK - HND - ICN
Oct 16, 2017, 11:52 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 96
With the 181k in AA you could do JL J or JL F ex-JFK. It's 60k/person for J, 80k for F.
Much better than any AA option and they have decent availability (you can probably even find 4 J if flexibility which would come in at 240k AA - you can pick up a Barclaycard AA with 60k after 1st purchase and $95 annual fee).
Search for availability on Alaska website or British Airways. JL flies planes with good J (e.g., lie-flat instead of angle-flat) out of JFK, ORD, LAX, SFO, and BOS so check those and with AA be prepared to pay out of pocket for positioning flights due to lack of sAAver availability.
Something like:
JFK - HND - ICN
Much better than any AA option and they have decent availability (you can probably even find 4 J if flexibility which would come in at 240k AA - you can pick up a Barclaycard AA with 60k after 1st purchase and $95 annual fee).
Search for availability on Alaska website or British Airways. JL flies planes with good J (e.g., lie-flat instead of angle-flat) out of JFK, ORD, LAX, SFO, and BOS so check those and with AA be prepared to pay out of pocket for positioning flights due to lack of sAAver availability.
Something like:
JFK - HND - ICN
Oct 16, 2017, 12:36 pm
#4
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: IND
Posts: 2,005
60K one way using AA miles (on JL or AA), 62.5K one way using KE. June from USA to Korea is a peak season where KE charges 50% more miles. JAL doesn't offer inbound (Seoul-HND-JFK) same day connection while outbound will be fine. So you could mix outbound-JAL (AA miles), inbound-KE especially if 4 of you will travel and not enough miles for all. That's of course if you're willing to arrange JFK transportation by yourself.
JAL suspends NRT-ICN soon. But if you find availability only to NRT, then KE offers free stopover (NRT-ICN-JFK) with no additional cost.
JAL suspends NRT-ICN soon. But if you find availability only to NRT, then KE offers free stopover (NRT-ICN-JFK) with no additional cost.
Oct 18, 2017, 8:23 pm
#5
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,407
Just in case you might be tempted to try to get award tickets on KE using DL miles, note that KE imposes extreme blackout periods for such tickets. The same might apply to other partners, including other SkyTeam members, so be sure to check the blackout dates carefully if any KE award flights are involved.
Oct 28, 2017, 7:03 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,719
Giant KE blackout periods for travel to/from the US have almost always made KE a non-starter in my award searches.