One WayPrestige/F : From ICN or USA?
 

So you all know I post a lot here, but actually, I've NEVER flown in biz or F on KE! I was saving up my miles for round trip F to the US (at 95,000W)...but well, that's not gonna happen by April 2021 with my mileage earning rates (one trip to USA per year, local vacations in Asia, Korean credit cards with 1:1 earning rates basically).

So now I'm gonna burn my miles this year for a trip - I'm looking at like one way economy, one way biz OR one way F on miles, one way economy cash.

Any advice as to which one you'd do? Presumably, I feel like I should be doing biz or F from ICN since that's their "home turf" and you get the full program and best "experience." Right?

Or in your experience is it better to do it Ex-USA? I'd be flying from ATL or JFK..... Yes i know plane makes a difference (so of course if I can get it on 747-8 instead of A380 that's better).....

The most important thing of course is what seats are actually available, but of course I'd love your opinion! With regards to sleeping - generally I sleep 7-8 hours in either direction even in Y. Drugs are my friend haha. Thanks everyone.

From ICN
- Get to use the Biz or F lounge
- F lounge used to have a service that makes a small metal luggage tag for u.
dont know if they still have it
- F has the "kings royal meal" for certain routes to USA. Dont know if they still have it. Have to preorder.
- F has pajamas which are very soft n nice. My fav pjs out of all the airlines.

From USA
- Longer flight to enjoy
- USA lounges tend to be quite awful but i dont know about the ones in JFK or ATL.
- Have premium line security clearance at tsa.
- Same number of miles from USA to Korea/Japan/China so u can tag on an extra flight from ICN to say Tokyo or Osaka.

A bit of a waste to sleep so much on a F/J flight but that's just me!

If im burning all my miles for a one way, it would be for F definitely with the new seats.
747 upper deck business is actually very nice n cozy. That is my fav.

One way Economy can be quite expensive ...so be sure to check.
Can buy a roundtrip too on another airline if dumping KE.

Never done F on KE either... But if you're gonna burn the miles, burn them on F (better rates, if not F now, when? Etc.). Maybe check Alaska Miles? If they got the award spaces, you can easily purchase 60,000 miles required for one way from US to Asia in business class on JL. So F going to US... And Y (or hopefully something better) coming back.

As you are based in Seoul, if I were you, I would save till I have 115,000 miles, then redeem a Asia 2 - Morocco/ Western Europe Skyteam business roundtrip award.

my thoughts:

• one-way is super expensive, try the math first. you might want to try getting enough miles for 2 award business, or 1 business 1 economy.
• I prefer optimizing for the longer flight.
• ICN lounges are nice, but I'm happy with only seeing them once. I do want to see each one once, though.

Thinking about it...
Probably better to try F than J(biz) as F space on KE is only open to KE members.
however KE J class is available to other airlines.
J class is also much more affordable than F.

So i would maximise F from USA to Japan or China via ICN and just buy a cheap one way from Japan/China back to Seoul.
U can also do the reverse from Japan/China to USA via ICN.
This way, u can use both the F lounges in ICN and USA/Japan/China.

If you can go for F, go for it. That's my stance since the program change, which makes F stupidly expensive. A great experience to have in ones lifetime IMO.

If I had to choose the leg myself, I'd go for an ex-ICN leg, as you get the full First class service they provide from check-in. Food would also be better, especially if going for Korean meal option.

Bear in mind that you can get the "most for your buck/miles" by travelling from Japan, or China/HK. HK would be a 3h+ flight and still has F (just an idea if you plan on travelling there, why not combine...)

One other way to look at it, is if you plan to fly an A380, try and go for F (the old biz seats are outdated), and if you fly the B747, just go with the amazing Apex biz seat, window side.

On my F flight last week from Hnd to gmp. They shockingly only had ONE wine. No sake no Soju. Just beer and that sour fruit alcohol. Definitely not worth it solely for the F experience. The F lounge in ICN has a la carte meal. Very nice meat.

Flights from the USA are generally a bit longer because they aren't flying with the Jetstream. I think the A380 F would be a fun experience if you never flown with the F cabin before. There's a bar and lounge area and couple of smaller self service bars in the F cabin area which can be a fun picture taking area. Plus the A380 is a marvel to fly in. The seat itself is fine but not as sleek as the newer Kosmo Suite 2.0

When I travelled alone in the A380, the bar wasn't such a highlight, IMO (I'd rather have a drink at my seat... :) ). Might be nice when travelling with someone else...

Now I do think that F has great value on the A380 just because the seat is SO much better than in J.

Thanks everyone for your advice!! Really appreciate it! I have been searching and searching and searching and searchingggggggg whew. So basically award space to Atlanta is NONEXISTENT. It's wild. So I gave up on that idea.

Instead - I'm going to fly Biz to Prague. It's a 1 PM flight and all day time and easy to go west. I don't have to force myself to sleep that much. I can enjoy the flight to the max. It's not super early, so I can enjoy the lounge at a reasonable time like 10 AM. It's also a 787 which is their new biz seat! And it's like 11.5 hours flight which is almost the same as NYC/ATL.

Then I'll fly economy from Barcelona. That's easy, overnight, drug myself up. I'll have EXACTLY enough miles to achieve this soon. I am planning a trip to Europe in Oct for my bday to visit friends that live in Prague and BCN. Korean Air nonstop is perfect. Originally I planned to use my OZ credit card earned miles, but they don't fly to PRG (only BCN). KE much more convenient and newer planes, too.

I've looked and can't find any reference to this. Do you have any additional information?