LifetimeGS

The merger of Korean Airlines and Asiana has now been approved by 12 countries, including Japan, as well as the EU. According to Korean Airlines CEO this paves the way for the integration of Asiana into Korean to start in 2024. This will include Asiana leaving Star Alliance

WineCountryUA

For general discussion of the merger, please use

Asiana to be acquired by Korea Air. What will happen to my mileage and status?

Korean Air Seeking to Buy Asiana (Recent News Article)

Discussion og the impact on UA flyers is appropriate here

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

rittenhousesq

I wonder what UA will use as a lounge for its passengers at ICN? The Priority Pass lounge is nice and big, but lacks bathrooms.

paperwastage

At icn? SQ operates a lounge with limited hours ( they open and close 4 times throughout day to match SQ flight times, anyone with qualifying *alliance access can visit then). SQ lounge isn't that big , so likely contract lounge instead, and you'll start seeing SQ deny entrance due to overcrowding


USA hasn't approved yet, so unlikely to see OZ leave *alliance in Q2. Q3/Q4 is more likely

goodeats21

I have my first ever Asiana flight scheduled in July. Great timing. Haha.
016 ticket. Hopefully they will stick in *A til then.

dinoscool3

It won't be leaving for a while.

worldwidedreamer

I will truly miss Asiana...they were my favorite United partner in Asia. Pre-Covid a truly elegant lounge, nice J and Y products, and civilized staff. While Air China and Junyao are perfectly fine for short haul trips, I'm not rather fond of their longhaul product. Eva Air is better, but does not add much incremental connecting opportunities.

For this transpacific passenger truly a loss---especially on top of the departure of the UA NRT hub. The net/net will be a vast increase in UA passengers changing planes in PEK/PVG...at a time when flights to/from China are capacity constrained.

In an alternative universe UA might need to reconsider using ancient route authorities from NRT and HKG to fill in the gaps...

Destinations not served by UA:
Australia
NH 1

Cambodia
NH 1
CA 1


China
CA many
OZ 13
NH 7

Indonesia
CA 1
OZ 1
NH 1

Japan
CA fewer
NH many
OZ fewer

Korea n
CA 1

Korea s
CA a few
OZ a few
NH a few

Malaysia
CA 1
NH 1

Mayanmar
CA 1

Nepal
CA 1

Kazakhstan
CA 1
OZ 1

Mongolia
CA 1
OZ 1

Pakistan
CA 2

Phillipines
OZ 1

Russia
CA 2

Sri Lanka
CA 1

Thailand
CA 4
NH 1
OZ 2

Uzbekistan
OZ 1

Vietnam
Ca 3
OZ 3
NH 1

Kmxu

It would be nice to put a net loss for each country due to OZ's leaving *A. CA, NH and OZ may serve the same destinations within a country.

drewguy

Whether this matters has a lot to do with where you fly from. If you fly from or connect through SFO, ICN is a useful transfer point to other Asian countries with UA+OZ (or others). But from elsewhere, especially east coast, NRT/HND (and formerly HKG) are often better because of non-stops on UA to those airports.

EWR764

We already know that Cebu will be added to NRT, for what it's worth!

I too would be curious what kind of connectivity UA is actually losing with OZ exiting Star. From a quick glance at the schedule, it seems the biggest losses for which ICN is a logical connection are some smaller Chinese cities, UBN, TAS, DAD, and PNH. Several of those destinations have less-than-daily service.

ICN is a great transfer hub, but we know that United would much rather push traffic over TYO on the ANA JV.

ContinentalFan

I’ll miss Asiana. 😔 It was a great way to redeem UA miles. I used it a few times to from LAX to SYD; admittedly, the flight was via ICN, but first class all the way. Thanks United! 😜

PsiFighter37

I wonder if Star Alliance might get any new members - losing OZ and SK is unfortunate.

thejaredhuang

Thread seems a bit premature since the US DoJ is still against the merger

mihaid

Obviously each person’s situation and flying patterns are different, but from my perspective OZ leaving *A will be a much, much bigger loss than SK leaving.

PsiFighter37

As a TATL leisure flyer, not being able to access (mainly) CPH, as well as OSL and ARN, directly from other European cities is a bigger drawback.