Booking frequent flyer seats on KAL
 

A couple of questions:

I have enough Skypass miles to book Business Class R/T US to Bangkok. Am I able to book and choose seating on the KAL website, using my Skypass ID, without calling customer service?

I notice that the website will show me the mileage required from the KAL gateway cities like Atlanta, Chicago, New York, etc., Would it be the same mileage required from Orlando, or any other non gateway city? I know that Delta mileage would be the same from any US city.

Strange. No one that uses Skypass mileage on KAL can answer either of these questions? Guess I will have to call KAL and inquire as their Chat Line could not help me. Once I use all of my Skypass mileage for flights I'm going to drop the KAL Visa card. Not worth the aggravation.

There's a nice seat selection tool at koreanair.com after booking. Not sure about mileage from non-gateways.

Am I able to use Skypass mileage to book and select a seat through KAL's on line website without making a call to customer service? Are there only specific seats allocated for mileage use or can you select any available seat on the flight? :)

Yes, you can do it all online without calling. I tried entering a non-gateway city (e.g. Phoenix) as the departure for an award itinerary, but the website wouldn't allow it.
Only a specific number of seats are allocated for mileage use in first and in business. So, some flights may be unavailable using mileage.

How were you able to include the departure and return from Phoenix in order to include that leg on the overall ticket? Did you have to call customer service? Or, will KAL not allow award tickets from non gateway cities? I know that Delta charges the same mileage from any city in the US. If it's 125,000 miles R/T from New York to Tokyo it's 125,000 miles from Orlando to Tokyo. Doesn't KAL work that way? If they do allow mileage usage from a non gateway city do they charge more miles than from the gateway cities? If you have to book and pay for a R/T on another airline from a non gateway city to a KAL gateway city, I wonder how you get the two checked bags for free and how you get them to automatically transfer your bags to the KAL flight as it would be if the flights were all on one KAL ticket? :confused:

You have to call to book a ticket starting from a non-gateway city. Korean Air partners with MANY different airlines, so you could be on Delta or American. You simply just have to call them. They will inform you of the miles/fees accordingly.

If you reserve the two flights on one ticket, your bags will be checked all the way to your final destination.

Also, with free bags, the rules on how many free bags, size, carry on limits are determined by the airline that operates "the longest portion of your flights." So, if you fly Phoenix to Dallas to Seoul, Dallas to Seoul is longer so the Korean Air rules would apply for baggage.

You've answered my questions. Truly appreciate it. ;)