747-8 No Longer Flying ICN-SFO-ICN?
 

Hi all,

I received an email this morning informing me that my seat on an upcoming flight was changed due to an aircraft swap. To my dismay, the magnificent 747-8 was replaced by the boring 777-300ER.

I immediately canceled the reservation (the 747-8 was literally the only reason I booked this ticket), but upon searching for a new use for my miles, I came across something confusing. Specifically, while all SFO-ICN flights seem to have had the 748 swapped out for a 77W, the 748 still seems to be loaded for ICN-SFO. For example, the website shows KE24 flown by a 77W on January 4, even though the inbound flight is loaded as a 748.

I want to re-book on a route that will have the 748 (one of the JFK flights is now showing it), but I'm afraid that KE will change the schedule again and I'll once again have to pay the refund penalty. Any ideas?

That seems correct...
My partner got notifications just right now...
He wanted to fly KE because of the 747-8.
That's why he booked the flights by miles.
Now he wants to cancel the award tickets, but those miles won't go back to Chase anymore...

Of course, the phone robots were of zero help—they won't even waive the cancellation fee!

Did you buy the tickets or are they award tickets?

They're award tickets. I thought it wouldn't be too much to ask them to waive the cancellation fee, since I'm stuck with the miles and will need to rebook travel on KE anyway. Unfortunately, all they seem equipped to do is read policy off a screen. They wouldn't even help me find other 748 flights for my dates!

Yikes, sorry to hear about that situation. That's unfortunate as KE was my best shot at the 747-8. It's a shame that they would not waive the cancellation fee. Did you escalate to manager? I haven't read KE's COC, but for some airlines, equipment swaps are counted as schedule changes and get change fees waived. Perhaps that reasoning would work with agents here?

I escalated twice, actually, and both of the "managers" simply read policy off the screen. I tried to explain to them that if it was any other aircraft than the 747-8 (i.e. the flagship) I wouldn't be insisting, but that it was the entire reason I booked the ticket. They didn't care!

They fly the 747-8 to Vancouver so you could switch to that routing. That's what I did for September.

+1, the email only appeared to indicate a time change however upon looking into the reservation my 747-8 flights out of SFO in F have changed to the 777-300er. Furthermore ICN-BKK also has schedule changes- KE is running the 744 and A380 on that route now. Ugh I really wanted to fly the 747-8 and unsure what to do- our flights are on hold as an award and we have not yet transferred miles from Chase. Would it be worth flying down to LAX for the 380??

It looks like VYR is a 789 in early 2018. The only NA city I can see for a 748 in January is JFK, but I'm scared to book now. Does anyone know when KE's schedules are finalized?

I also want to know when KE makes a major schedule changes...

SFO is swapped into 77W with the newest product, identical to 748, although that could be changed again.

Edit: don't believe me. It appears that there are one too many newer 77W routes (with Kosmo 2.0 & prestige suite). KE must be still finalizing the schedule.

It's not about the seat, though. The 747-8 is a completely different (superior) aircraft to the 77W, and provides a totally superior passenger experience, if only because of the upper deck.

Unfortunately, KE swaps equipment quite regularly. I've changed my reservation three times chasing the 747 as well. Hoping Vancouver works or next month.

And I know it's nice being on the upper deck of the 747 but the business hard product on the A380 can't compare to the hard product on the new 777s. So personally I'd rather stick with the new configuration 777 than fly down to LAX for the A380. But you also run the risk of last minute equipment swaps from the new 777 to the old 777. There was a report on flyertalk of that happening with the SFO route which is what prompted me to switch out.

Same here. Booked with miles for an early-January flight ICN-SFO specifically for the 747-8. Not too many options for re-booking the award flight at this point (looked at ICN-LAX and SEA-LAX, too). Really disappointing to see the equipment change and hoping they don't downgrade to the old version.

Email Did Not Mention Equipment
 

I'm glad I check FT as often as I do. I'm flying SFO-ICN on 1/18/18 and ICN-SFO on 1/28/18, and I too specifically booked my flights to fly both directions in F on the 747-8. Unfortunately I do not haveucj flexibility to delay travel as I'm meeting a friend in Japan, and his travel is booked too.

I received an email from KE a day or two ago notifying me of a five minute change to my return flight, but it did not make any mention of an aircraft swap. Pretty disappointed, but on the bright side, now I can devote the entire labor day weekend to researching everything there is to know about the 777-300ER. :/

Explanation for some of the changes?
 

This helps explain where some of the 747-8i's are going:

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...as-of-30aug17/

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...as-of-31aug17/

Unfortunate, Malaysia, Singapore, and Rome. So no NA routes on the 748 anymore? I vaguely remember YVR having it, but a brief search looks like it's going to be on 787s now.

I was upset about this as well! My GF and I are going to Koh Samui in January and were scheduled to fly the 747-8 from BKK to ICN onto LAX the next day. Found out two days ago they switched the aircraft to a 747-400.........W.T.F.?!?!?! We had transferred 190,000 Sapphire points just so we could fly the new Suites!

For what it is worth, I spoke with an agent and she was kind enough to let me switch my flight from BKK:ICN to KUL:ICN which flies the 747-800. They waived any change penalties except for the obvious difference in taxes. Thankfully there is a direct flight from USM to KUL on Bangkok Air, otherwise I would not have done this.

Interesting. The good news here is at least most of the 77W's have the new business class product.

I'm not surprised about KE switching out the 748, because they went from one frequency daily to SFO to twice daily, and are doing so with 77W's.

I'm sure we will see more 748's in the summer season in 2018 going to the US.

During the summer, KE also flies a 747 to Seattle, making it two flights a day.

Just got swapped to the old 777! We leave in 3 weeks so I probably won't be able to do anything about it. Keep this in mind if you fly SFO - ICN.

I'm still showing the new 77W for my SFO-ICN flight in November.

Regarding KE being notorious for equipment swaps...

Knowing what I know now, I'm not sure if I would have booked my trip with a different airline, but it certainly is disappointing that they swap as often as they do. Like so many frequent fliers, I booked my trip (SFO-ICN-CTS, NRT-ICN-SFO) under the assumption that I would be flying on the 748. Fortunately for now I am still in the Kosmo Suite 2.0 on the new 777, but I'm still nervous that it could be swapped yet again.

Step it up KE!

They've swapped my 2nd leg about 4 times now, and each time I have to log in and select new seats, but it's not nearly as annoying as being switched to the old business class product on a long haul flight.

I also wouldn't have booked with Korean air knowing all this now.

I'm in the same boat...flying SFO-ICN-BKK in early November. Both legs swapped (now 77W and A380). Super bummed.

Something triggered me to check my January reservations for ICN-SFO and I could have sworn that when I booked it was on the 747-8 as well but I see the 777 now. I remember the schedule change email a while back but didn't realize it was also an aircraft swap! I didn't care so much about the plane type as much as the first class product -- we really wanted the Kosmo suites 2.0.

When I click on the aircraft link from my reservation it takes me to the 777 seat map with the new layout but how can I confirm if this is actually the case? It looks like the fleet info page it takes me to for the 777 has 2 tabs, one for 291 seats and the other for 277. It automatically selects the 277 seat tab when clicking from my reservation -- does this mean we have the 2.0 suites?

The ICN-SFO flight was actually less convenient for us but I booked solely cause of the new F suites. Is there any way to tell which other of the North America flights operate with the new F suites? Would love DFW to be on that list!

Check the seat map in your reservation details - The 777-300ER with Kosmo Suites 2.0 has a galley and lavs between Rows 7 and 8. Business Class is also a 2-2-2 configuration.

The `old` version of the 777-300ER has a galley and lavs between Rows 8 and 9, and Business Class has a 2-3-2 configuration.

Hmm, not sure I can tell what the case is by looking at the seatmap. It doesn't give me the option to check the row numbers/layout for any other classes of service since I'm in F. Tried adding the screenshot as an attachment, does that help at all?

I tried doing a new booking to see if I could figure it out there but KE doesn't seem to show you a seatmap during the booking process like many other airlines to

Do you have your Flight Number and Departure Date? I would probably go that route and look at the seat map online, through their reservations system.

***EDIT*** Ooops, did not see the date and time at the top of the screen shot! Sorry about that!

Oops. Forgot the quote.

My husband is on this same flight in February. I checked the seat map on expertflyer, and indeed it is the new configuration.

If you login to your reservation on KE.com, you can print your e-ticket. That will open as a PDF file and it will show the seat type. If it says Kosmo 2.0 you're still ok. But remember they can still change it up to departure.

Thank you. I'm guessing this option does not appear for a held reservation that hasn't been paid for, right? At least I'm guessing that's why I don't see an option to open an eticket PDF

Yeah in that case you don't have a ticket number yet.