In this guide, we look at how you can use Korean Air’s Skypass frequent flyer program to fly to South Korea from New Zealand, including methods for acquiring the miles that are required to make a redemption.

With Korean Air being the only airline to fly direct from Auckland to Seoul, there are a number of reasons why the program may be of interest to local travellers – including their brilliant first class availability.

Why would I want to fly with Korean Air?

Korean Air is one of the few airlines to offer first class seats to New Zealand, on their Boeing 777-300 ER.

Matt recently flew Korean Air First Class between Sydney and San Francisco via Seoul – you can read his review here

While award redemptions on SkyPass are more expensive than travel to South Korea on Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong using miles from either AAdvantage or Asia Miles, there is an abundance of award availability, and the seats can easily be booked online via the Korean Air website.

Another thing that makes the Korean Air SkyPass program unique is that they allow you to redeem miles for first class on the other SkyTeam carrier that flies to New Zealand, China Southern – though we’ll leave that to another guide.

Korean Air SkyPass is an SPG transfer partner

For Kiwis there is only one way to earn SkyPass miles from credit card spend – points earn from American Express Membership Rewards cards, and then transfers over to SkyPass via Starwood Preferred Guest.

If you’re not sure how transfers work using SPG as an intermediary, have a read of our guide to using American Express Membership Rewards to transfer points to American Airlines AAdvantage via Starwood.

Here’s how the two Membership Rewards cards stack up in terms of effective SkyPass mile earn rates.

The American Express Platinum Edge earns 3 Membership Rewards points per $ at supermarkets, 2 points per $ on fuel, and 1 point per $ everywhere else.

The American Express Platinum Charge earns 2 points per $ everywhere.

For comparison purposes, I’ve assumed that you maximise your SkyPass miles properly by only transferring Starpoints out in 20,000 point chunks:

As you can see, it’s possible to earn an effective 1.23 SkyPass miles per $ at Supermarkets with the Platinum Edge.

And of course, if you purchase gift cards at the supermarket for other retailers, this will extend your earning reach. You can read more about this in our gift card guide.

Redemption figures when using SkyPass miles on Korean Air

The table below shows the cost redemption costs between New Zealand and South Korea using SkyPass miles. All point/mile figures are on the assumption that you are taking advantage of the 5,000 mile bonus that SPG give you for every 20,000 Starpoints that are transferred to SkyPass.

We have also listed the price of how much it would cost to purchase the required number of Starpoints to make a redemption, should you be so inclined to purchase them outright.

The average prices I found for off-peak return flights to South Korea on Korean Air were:

• First Class: $9,800
• Business Class: $4,800
• Economy Class: $2,000

As you can see, unless SPG have a sale on Starpoints, it’s not very likely that it is going to be worth purchasing the miles outright.

Purchasing the required number of Starpoints would also require household transfers, which can read more about in our Starpoints purchase guide.

Once you have them – the basics of redeeming SkyPass miles for travel on Korean Air

Korean Air SkyPass has different rules on award tickets based on whether you’re traveling on Korean Air, or traveling on a combination of Korean Air and their SkyTeam partners.

As this article is focusing on how to use SkyPass to redeem for travel on Korean Air, we’ll only focus on the key rules that you need to know:

• One-way awards are permitted for half the mileage of a roundtrip award.
• As with most programs, award tickets require payment of government-imposed taxes and fees and carrier-imposed charges, which are calculated at the time of redemption. These will only come to about $77 USD on a return flight between Auckland and Seoul.
• Their current change and refund policy is super generous. From 1 August 2017 however date and route changes will cost 30,000 Korean won (~$35 NZD) and refunding an award ticket 3,000-10,000 miles.
• Korean Air has a “peak season” calendar, so additional miles will be required if traveling during those dates (the peak season dates can be found below)

The Korean Air award chart can be found here

How to find Korean Air SkyPass award availability

The first thing to do is sign up for a free SkyPass account, which you’ll need to search for award availability.

Enter your desired route and dates into the search box, making sure to click ‘Redeem Miles’:

After you click ‘Find Flights’, you’ll see the results:

You can also see how much the carrier-imposed fees/taxes will be – shown below is how much it will cost for a return first class redemption:

Summing up – why choose SkyPass?

A redemption on Korean Air with SkyPass is suited to travellers who:

• want good First Class award availability (not many airlines offer a First Class product to New Zealand)
• want to enjoy a first class cabin that is unlikely to be full
• want to visit South Korea, and prefer a direct flight

Earning Starpoints through Starwood Preferred Guest and transferring them to SkyPass represents the best value for redeeming an award on Korean Air from New Zealand.

The Membership Rewards → Starwood Preferred Guest → SkyPass transfer route is a bit convoluted, but once you understand how the earn and transfer rates work for your specific card and each program, that can help make a better call on how you redeem your points.

Make sure to set up an account for everyone in your household, and keep an eye out for Starpoints sales – these will let you purchase the required miles at a significant discount should you not have enough American Express Membership Rewards Points to make an outright redemption.