The Best Ways to Fly to South Korea With Points and Miles [Step-by-Step]

- UPDATED: July 22, 2022 |

Travel

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South Korea is a small peninsula that’s full of fantastic culture, delicious street food, and beautiful nature.

A dense country, South Korea is known for K-pop, Korean barbecue, economic growth, and legendary gamers. If South Korea is not already on your bucket list, be sure to add this amazing country right to the top!

In this guide, we’ll be diving into the best ways to fly to Korea with points and miles. There are 7 airlines that fly nonstop to South Korea from North America, including 6 from the U.S.

With so many options, it’s important to focus on the best value for your points.

Since South Korea is such an accessible country from North America, we’ll talk about nonstop flight options only. Let’s get to it!

Table of contents

Nonstop Flights Between the U.S. and South Korea
Best Programs for Booking Flights to South Korea
Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

Nonstop Flights Between the U.S. and South Korea
Best Programs for Booking Flights to South Korea
Final Thoughts

Nonstop Flights Between the U.S. and South Korea

South Korea is the second-closest Asian country to America, behind only Japan. Furthermore, South Korea represents an important business hub for many Americans. Luckily, there are many ways to fly to South Korea with points and miles.

Generally speaking, award availability on Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, the 2 largest airlines headquartered in South Korea, is generous both with far-in-advance and close-in booking.

We’re going to be analyzing other nonstop options, too, including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, and even Hawaiian Airlines. Award availability on these U.S. airlines is difficult to come by, but is not impossible, especially when booking near your departure date.

All 3 of the main alliances are represented in this guide: Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam. There’s going to be more representation from Star Alliance and SkyTeam, due to the fact that Asiana is a member of Star Alliance and Korean Air is a member of SkyTeam.

Check out all of the airlines offering nonstop flights between the U.S. and Incheon International Airport (ICN) in Seoul, South Korea:

American Airlines

Dallas (DFW) – Seoul (ICN)

Asiana Airlines

Los Angeles (LAX) – Seoul (ICN)
Honolulu (HNL) – Seoul (ICN)
New York (JFK) – Seoul (ICN)
San Francisco (SFO) – Seoul (ICN)
Seattle (SEA) – Seoul (ICN)

Delta Air Lines

Atlanta (ATL) – Seoul (ICN)
Detroit (DTW) – Seoul (ICN)
Minneapolis (MSP) – Seoul (ICN)
Portland (PDX) – Seoul (ICN)
Seattle (SEA) – Seoul (ICN)

Hawaiian Airlines

Honolulu (HNL) – Seoul (ICN)

Korean Air

Atlanta (ATL) – Seoul (ICN)
Boston (BOS) – Seoul (ICN)
Chicago (ORD) – Seoul (ICN)
Honolulu (HNL) – Seoul (ICN)
Las Vegas (LAS) – Seoul (ICN)
Los Angeles (LAX) – Seoul (ICN)
New York (JFK) – Seoul (ICN)
Seattle (SEA) – Seoul (ICN)
San Francisco (SFO) – Seoul (ICN)
Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Seoul (ICN)

United Airlines

San Francisco (SFO) – Seoul (ICN)

Best Programs for Booking Flights to South Korea

Now that we’re familiar with the nonstop routes available, let’s get down to the analysis.

4 major U.S. airlines have at least 1 nonstop flight to Korea, while the 2 major Korean airlines both offer plenty of nonstop routes!

All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club

Enjoy Asiana Airlines business class’ “honeymoon” seats! Image Credit: Stephen Au

It’s no secret that ANA Mileage Club is arguably the best frequent flyer program in the world. The plentiful airline partners, stellar redemption rates, and awesome open-jaw/stopover allowances make this our first place winner.

With ANA, you have the option to fly Asiana or United to South Korea. While both of these options are great, you’ll generally want to stick with Asiana due to its superior soft product. That’s because United has chosen to offer its inferior 787-9 aircraft with seats in a 2-2-2 setup. These seats don’t have direct aisle access at every seat and are generally not as spacious as Asiana’s product.

Asiana Airlines flies from a variety of different cities. Its best business class product is known as Smartium, which we recommend choosing if it’s available.

While there are some restrictions with using ANA miles, it may be worth it if you can get the best deals. ANA doesn’t allow one-way redemptions and it generally passes on fuel surcharges. However, its round-trip award prices are phenomenal, particularly in economy and business class.

That being said, ANA employs 2 separate award charts:

In our case, we’re going to be looking primarily at award chart number 1, since Asiana and United are ANA partners. Here’s how much ANA charges for round-trip flights between the U.S. and South Korea on airline partners:

Cabin Class	ANA Mileage Cost	Taxes & Fees
Economy	60,000	~$397
Business	95,000
First	180,000

The value of ANA miles is optimized primarily with business class redemptions. A lot of the value in economy class is diminished by the cost of taxes and fees.

Hot Tip: Want to get a better idea of taxes and fees? Check out our guide to airline fuel surcharges.

Here are some examples of routes you can take:

Los Angeles (LAX) – Seoul (ICN) round-trip for 95,000 ANA miles + ~$397 in taxes and fees for Asiana Smartium business class
New York (JFK) – Seoul (ICN) round-trip for 95,000 ANA miles + ~$397 in taxes and fees for Asiana Smartium business class
San Francisco (SFO) – Seoul (ICN) round-trip for 95,000 ANA miles + ~$397 in taxes and fees for Asiana Smartium business class

Your only nonstop option flying on United to Korea is the San Francisco (SFO) – Seoul (ICN) service.

ANA’s website enables award bookings to be completed online. Follow these steps to do so:

Go to ANA’s website.
Click ANA Mileage Club on the top-right side of the homepage.
Click International then Award Reservation. Log in with your ANA Mileage Club number and password.
Type in the desired cities, dates of travel, number of passengers, and cabin class. After that information is filled out, click Search.
- ANA transfer times are not instant. Be sure to account for this when booking award flights.
Finish your booking by paying for any taxes and fees.

Earning ANA Mileage Club Miles

ANA is currently transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Amex is a 1:1 transfer partner with ANA and is one of the easiest ways to earn a lot of ANA miles. Keep in mind that transfers aren’t instant, as it typically takes 2 to 3 business days for transfers to execute.

Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1 ratio in up to 7 business days. You’ll also receive an additional 5,000 ANA miles for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points transferred, which brings your total up to 25,000 ANA miles.

Recommended Amex Cards (Personal)

Recommended Amex Cards (Business)

Bottom Line: There are a ton of ways to use ANA miles for loads of value. The best sweet spot, in our opinion, is business class redemptions. You can book round-trip business class on any partner for 95,000 ANA miles and ~$300 in taxes and fees. There are 2 transfer partners in Amex and Marriott Bonvoy, making it easy to earn ANA miles.

Emirates Skywards

The following award redemption method is one that’s not well known, but extremely effective. If you want to book Korean Air business class and have a ton of flexibility, but you don’t have a lot of Marriott Bonvoy points, utilizing Emirates can be your saving grace.

Korean Air and Emirates are partners, which means that you can use Emirates Skywards miles to book flights on Korean Air.

In addition to Emirates being known for offering a phenomenal first class product, its frequent flyer program actually has a few niche partnerships like with Korean Air and JetBlue. If you want to fly to South Korea, Emirates Skywards can offer a great redemption opportunity.

Currently, Emirates Skywards charges these prices for one-way flights between North America and Korea aboard Korean Air:

One-Way Flight Distance (Miles)	Economy Class	Business Class	Taxes & Fees
0 to 250	8,000	16,000	~$92 to $185
251 to 500	10,000	20,000
501 to 1,000	14,000	28,000
1,001 to 2,000	20,000	40,000
2,001 to 3,000	26,000	52,000
3,001 to ,000	32,000	64,000
4,001 to 5,000	38,000	76,000
5,001 to 6,000	44,000	88,000
6,001 to 7,000	52,000	104,000
7,001 to 15,000	60,000	120,000

For travel on Korean Air, this is one of the ways to attain business class awards using miles that can be earned in many ways, as long as you’re open to paying for fuel surcharges.

Hot Tip: Need some ideas of cities to fly out of with Korean Air? Check out our definitive guide to Korean Air U.S. routes.

The best way to book this type of award flight is to search availability on Delta Air Lines and call Emirates to confirm the booking:

Visit the Delta website.
On the top banner, fill in the search box and find partner-level availability on Korean Air.
Call Emirates Skywards at 800-777-3999 and feed the flight information to the representative.
Complete the award booking by providing your credit card information to pay for taxes and fees and pay the appropriate mileage cost.

Here are some examples of routes you can take:

Boston (BOS) – Seoul (ICN) one-way for 104,000 Emirates miles and $92 in taxes and fees for Korean Air business class
Chicago (ORD) – Seoul (ICN) one-way for 88,000 Emirates miles and $92 in taxes and fees for Korean Air business class
Honolulu (HNL) – Seoul (ICN) one-way for 76,000 Emirates miles and $92 in taxes and fees for Korean Air business class
San Francisco (SFO) – Seoul (ICN) one-way for 88,000 Emirates miles and $92 in taxes and fees for Korean Air business class
Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Seoul (ICN) one-way for 104,000 Emirates miles and $92 in taxes and fees for Korean Air business class

Earning Emirates Skywards Miles

American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One Miles, Brex Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy are transfer partners with Emirates Skywards.

This is a crucial strength for booking Korean Air awards. Korean Air is transfer partners with only Marriott Bonvoy, so the ability to earn Emirates miles further boosts the strength of this redemption.

Amex, Chase, Citi, and Brex are 1:1 transfer partners, while Capital One is a 2:1 transfer partner. Transfers are typically instant.

Marriott Bonvoy is a 3:1 transfer partner. Transfers typically usually take around 3 days. For every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you transfer to Emirates, you’ll receive 20,000 Emirates miles plus a 5,000-mile bonus.

American Express and Capital One have both been known to offer transfer bonuses, so be sure to hold out for those to make your points go further.

Recommended Chase Cards

Etihad Guest

American Airlines 787-9 Flagship Business Class rear cabin view — American Airlines 787-9 Flagship business class rear cabin view. Image Credit: Stephen Au

Etihad Guest is yet another unexpected frequent flyer program for flights to South Korea. And while Etihad isn’t in any alliance, it partners with American Airlines.

Etihad Guest’s award chart for American Airlines is better than American Airlines’ own award chart. Round-trip economy tickets cost 50,000 miles, while business class tickets cost 100,000 miles. One-way tickets are half the cost.

If 50,000 miles for a one-way business class flight sounds good to you, you’ll be pleased to find out it gets even better. American Airlines operates the 787-9 Dreamliner, which is a great product.

Unfortunately, it only operates 1 route to Korea:

Dallas (DFW) – Seoul (ICN)

Award availability is difficult to find, but those who want to fly on American Airlines and save a bundle on points may be willing to put in the extra effort to get this outsized value.

Here’s the process you’ll need to follow to book AA business class using Etihad Guest miles:

Go to British Airways’ website and log in with your Executive Club ID and Password.
Type in the desired route, dates of travel, and business or economy class.
Once you’ve located availability, write down your flight numbers, dates, and times.
Etihad Guest’s Serbia call center (877-690-0767) is the best for booking flight awards. Press 1 for English, and then press 4 (don’t press 2 for “first and business class”). Press 1 to book or change a flight. Then press 1 again to book or change a flight with Etihad Guest miles.
Feed the representatives your flight information.
Ticket the reservation and pay for taxes and fees.

Earning Etihad Guest Miles

Etihad Guest is transfer partners with 4 award currencies: American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Marriott Bonvoy.

Amex, Capital One, and Citi transfer at a 1:1 ratio. Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1 ratio with a 5,000 Etihad Guest mile bonus for every 60,000 points transferred.

American Express transfers are instant, Capital One transfers take up to 36 hours, Citi transfers take up to 7 days, and Marriott Bonvoy takes around 5 days.

Hot Tip: For more ideas to get miles, check out our best ways to earn lots of Etihad Guest miles.

Recommended Capital One Cards (Personal)

Korean Air SKYPASS

Korean Air Kosmo Suite 2.0 First Class — Want huge, private suites in first class? Check out Korean Air. Image Credit: Korean Air

Korean Air’s frequent flyer program is called SKYPASS. Korean Air SKYPASS is great because it offers the only way to book Korean Air first class with points and miles.

Additionally, one-way flights on Korean Air are bookable when spending Korean Air miles, instead of just round-trip.

Keep in mind that Korean Air redemptions with SKYPASS are subject to seasonality. Korean Air charges the following mileage prices for one-way flights between the U.S. and South Korea:

Cabin Class	Korean Air Mileage Cost	Taxes & Fees
Economy (off-peak)	35,000	~$92 to $185
Economy (peak)	52,500
Business (off-peak)	62,500
Business (peak)	92,500
First (off-peak)	80,000
First (peak)	120,000

Round-trip flights are simply double the mileage and fees. Korean Air first class is an excellent product, and using SKYPASS is the only way to book it on points.

Best of all, you can book Korean Air first class completely online. If you’re open to booking over the phone, you can actually request an award hold of up to 30 days while transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to Korean Air.

Hot Tip: Need help booking? Check out our step-by-step guide on booking Korean Air first class.

Here are some great redemptions you can make:

Atlanta (ATL) – Seoul (ICN) one-way, during off-peak season in Korean Air business class for 62,500 Korean Air miles and $92 in taxes and fees
Boston (BOS) – Seoul (ICN) one-way, during off-peak season in Korean Air business class for 62,500 Korean Air miles and $92 in taxes and fees
Las Vegas (LAS) – Seoul (ICN) one-way, during off-peak season in Korean Air business class for 62,500 Korean Air miles and $92 in taxes and fees
Los Angeles (LAX) – Seoul (ICN) one-way, during off-peak season, in Korean Air first class for 80,000 Korean Air miles and $92 in taxes and fees
New York (JFK) – Seoul (ICN) round-trip, during off-peak season, in Korean Air first class for 160,000 Korean Air miles and $277 in taxes and fees
Seattle (SEA) – Seoul (ICN) one-way, during off-peak season in Korean Air business class for 62,500 Korean Air miles and $92 in taxes and fees

Earning Korean Air SKYPASS Miles

The only transfer partner of Korean Air is Marriott Bonvoy. As a result, the best way to earn Korean Air SKYPASS miles is by transferring Marriott Bonvoy points.

Both Chase and American Express offer co-branded Marriott Bonvoy credit cards with huge sign-up bonuses.

Marriott Bonvoy points transfer at a 3:1 ratio. If you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to Korean Air, you’ll earn another 5,000 bonus miles to bring your total up to 25,000 miles. Transfer times could take as few as 2 days, or quite a while — sometimes as long as 3 weeks.

Recommended Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Hot Tip: Need some more inspiration on earning miles? Check out our guide on the best ways to earn lots of Korean Air miles.

Avianca LifeMiles

Asiana A330 Business Class — Asiana A330 business class. Image Credit: Asiana

Avianca LifeMiles is one of the most underrated booking programs. Avianca LifeMiles enable you to book on any Star Alliance airline, which means you can leverage both Asiana and United flights.

Best of all, LifeMiles doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges on award flights. It recently removed its award chart, but it still uses a region-based award chart.

Here’s how much awards cost on one-way flights to South Korea:

Cabin Class	Avianca LifeMiles Cost (Continental U.S.)	Avianca LifeMiles Cost (Hawaii)	Taxes & Fees
Economy	35,000	27,500	~$51
Business	75,000	48,000
First	90,000	66,000

On the surface, this might not seem terribly attractive. However, LifeMiles is known to offer promos of up to 20% off! This could bring a one-way business class flight down to 60,000 LifeMiles.

Additionally, there are often transfer bonuses from American Express and Citi of 15% to 30%. If you’re able to stack these transfer bonuses with the LifeMiles promos, you can secure business class for as little as 42,000 miles. To make things even better, fuel surcharges aren’t charged.

To book award travel on Avianca LifeMiles, follow these directions:

Visit LifeMiles.
Log into your LifeMiles account by entering your LifeMiles number and password.
Change the language as necessary by clicking the flag icon in the top-right corner.
Click Fly on the top banner of the landing page.
Type in your flight information, including airports, number of passengers, and class of booking.
Select your flights and pay with your miles along with any taxes and fees to complete your reservation. A $25 award booking fee is charged for each way. This means round-trip flights are charged a $50 award booking fee.

Here are a few great redemptions you can make:

Honolulu (HNL) – Seoul (ICN) one-way in Asiana Airlines business class for 48,000 LifeMiles + $51 in taxes and fees
Seattle (SEA) – Seoul (ICN) one-way in Asiana Airlines business class for 75,000 LifeMiles + $51 in taxes and fees

Earning Avianca LifeMiles

Avianca LifeMiles are very easy to earn. In fact, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Brex Rewards, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards points at a 1:1 ratio, and transfers process instantly. Sometimes, LifeMiles even offers generous transfer bonuses of up to 30%, particularly from Amex and Citi.

If you have a bunch of Marriott Bonvoy points, you can transfer at a 3:1 ratio, which takes 3 business days. Transferring 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points gets you a 5,000 LifeMiles bonus.

Lastly, LifeMiles routinely offers huge sales of up to 125% to 200% more miles. Buying LifeMiles outright can make for some cheap first and business class redemptions.

Recommended Citi Cards

United MileagePlus

United Airlines Polaris Business Class — United business class to Korea is not true Polaris, but it’s a solid option. Image Credit: United

United offers some decent opportunities to fly to Korea with points and miles. Specifically, the most attractive redemptions are on United’s own flights, as they’re slightly cheaper than partner flights.

The main strengths of United MileagePlus are the extremely easy award booking process, no fuel surcharges, and the ability to transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Marriott Bonvoy.

United uses dynamic award pricing, but here’s an estimate of how much it would cost to redeem for one-way United flights to South Korea:

Cabin Class	United Miles Cost	Taxes & Fees
Economy	From 35,000	$5.60 to $81
Business	From 70,000
First	N/A

Here’s an estimate of how much it would cost to redeem for one-way partner flights to South Korea:

Cabin Class	United Miles Cost	Taxes & Fees
Economy	From 38,500	$5.60 to $81
Business	From 88,000
First	From 132,000

As you can see, using United miles for partner flights is significantly more expensive in business and first class, so you may want to avoid that unless you have a bunch of United miles sitting around.

We give mention to United because the booking process is extremely easy. The search engine on United.com is excellent and you can take care of your booking completely online.

To do so, follow this process:

Go to United’s website.
Click either One-way or Roundtrip.
Check Book with miles.
Enter your flight information, which includes booking class, number of travelers, flight dates, and origin and destination cities.
Pick your flights and ticket the reservation.

That’s it!

Hot Tip: If you’re a United elite member, you may have access to additional award availability for United flights.

Earning United MileagePlus Miles

United Airlines is transfer partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Chase transfers at a 1:1 ratio instantly while Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1.1 ratio in 3 business days. Furthermore, you’ll receive a 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy point transfer bonus if 60,000 Marriott points are transferred.

This will bring the miles up to 27,500 miles for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

Additionally, Chase offers a bunch of co-branded United credit cards to earn lots of United Airlines miles directly.

Recommended United Cards

Delta SkyMiles

Delta One Suites A350-900 rear view — Delta One Suites on the A350-900. Image Credit: Stephen Au

Delta SkyMiles is the frequent flyer program used by Delta, and it has been ruthlessly devalued over the years.

It has different types of award space and enjoys the explicit benefit of being able to access more award space that isn’t given to partners like Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Air France/KLM Flying Blue.

Delta charges anywhere from 120,000 to 300,000 miles for a one-way, international business class flight. Most of the time, the business class award availability costs 120,000, 150,000, or 180,000 miles one-way.

You can book Delta One Suites on the following A350 and A330-900neo routes between the U.S. and Korea:

Atlanta (ATL) – Seoul (ICN)
Detroit (DTW) – Seoul (ICN)
Minneapolis (MSP) – Seoul (ICN)
Seattle (SEA) – Seoul (ICN)

There’s also a Delta One route, which does not offer the newest Delta One Suites offering:

Portland (PDX) – Seoul (ICN)

Here’s how you can book Delta One Suites to Korea with Delta SkyMiles:

Visit Delta Air Lines.
Enter your travel dates, airports, and number of passengers. Click Advanced Search right under the number of passengers.
Select Show Price in Miles. Choose Best Fares for Delta One if flying in business class or Main Cabin if in economy.
Click on the red return arrow.
Confirm award availability and complete your award reservation.

Bottom Line: Practically speaking, Delta SkyMiles will be the best program to book Delta One awards to Korea. Other partners like Virgin Atlantic and Flying Blue exist, but they don’t have access to any award space besides the lowest-level Saver awards, which are almost impossible to find. Expect mileage prices to start at 120,000 Delta SkyMiles one-way.

Earning Delta SkyMiles

You can earn Delta SkyMiles by transferring from American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Amex transfers instantly at a 1:1 ratio, while Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1 ratio with a bonus of 5,000 miles after transferring 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. Marriott Bonvoy transfers in 1 business day.

Other Options To Fly to Korea

We analyzed a slew of different booking options for award flights to Korea. However, we didn’t include them due to unfavorable redemption rates, convoluted booking processes, or even a lack of viable transfer partners.

Some of the airlines we analyzed included Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Virgin Australia, Singapore KrisFlyer, Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa Miles & More, Asiana Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and JetBlue.

Final Thoughts

There are tons of ways to book award travel to South Korea as there are many airlines that operate nonstop flights to Korea due to its geographic location near the U.S.

We went over a variety of booking options for the 3 major alliances. In addition, we discussed the pros and cons of each method, so now you have the inside scoop on the best ways to fly to South Korea with points and miles.

The information regarding the Capital One Venture Rewards Card, Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, and Capital One Venture X Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, click here.

Featured Image Credit: ESB Professional via Shutterstock

Frequently asked questions

Which airlines include carrier-imposed surcharges on award flights to South Korea?

Pretty much all of the airlines levy a fuel surcharge.

Asiana, United, American, Delta, and Korean Air all levy around $92 to $185 for one-way flights, regardless of cabin class.

The booking programs that don’t pass on fuel surcharges on flights to Korea are Avianca LifeMiles, United MileagePlus, and Delta SkyMiles.

What is the fewest number of miles you can use to book an economy class award flight to South Korea?

ANA is one of the best frequent flyer programs in the world, and for good reason. For 60,000 ANA miles, you can book a round-trip economy ticket on any Star Alliance partner, which includes Asiana and United.

Otherwise, United charges 70,000 miles and Avianca charges 70,000 miles. Delta and American both charge 70,000 miles for round-trip flights.

What is the fewest number of miles you can use to book a business class award flight to South Korea?

One of the best deals is using 95,000 ANA miles for round-trip business class. Your options would be either Asiana or United.

If you can find MileSAAver availability on American Airlines, Etihad Guest only charges 50,000 miles each way to fly on AA business class. Etihad Guest is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, and Capital One Miles, so there are tons of opportunities to earn miles.

To fly on Korean Air business class, you can spend 76,000 to 104,000 Emirates miles or 62,500 Korean Air miles for one-way flights.

What is the fewest number of miles you can use to book a first class award flight to South Korea?

Korean Air charges as little as 80,000 miles for one-way first class. Unfortunately, the lack of transfer partners may be a deal-breaker for these particular redemptions.

Asiana doesn’t offer first class anymore, making it impossible to book Asiana first class.

What U.S. airlines fly nonstop to Gimpo Airport?

No U.S. airlines fly nonstop from the U.S. to Gimpo International Airport (GMP) in Seoul.

What U.S. airlines fly nonstop to Busan?

No U.S. airlines fly nonstop from the U.S. to Gimhae International Airport (PUS) in Busan.

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About Stephen Au

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Stephen has been privileged to enjoy many premium cabin products and 5-star hotels. As one of the foremost experts in credit cards, over the past 4 years, he has amassed a portfolio of over 70 credit cards, both personal and business. Stephen has personally tested, first-hand, almost every major rewards credit card on the market today, spanning banks such as American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Brex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, City National Bank, U.S. Bank, and more.

Disclaimer: Any comments listed below are not from the bank advertiser, nor have they been reviewed or approved by them. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments.

28 comments

steve June 27, 2019

I looked into booking via ANA and Alaska for May 2020 and they both came back with nothing available.

Reply
- Stephen Au June 27, 2019
  
  Hey Steve,
  
  Award availability is subject to the inventory of airlines, and this is something that is out of our control. Keep looking and trying! Thanks for reading.
  
  Reply
Paul August 6, 2019

Hi Stephen – is it possible for me to use Chase ultimate rewards to book ANA flights on ANA’s website? The only star alliance travel partner is United, but Mileageplus points can’t be transferred at all. I was wondering how I could take advantage of the Mileageplus points to book directly on ANA for the 95k business flight from North America to Korea.

Reply
- Stephen Au August 6, 2019
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  There’s no easy or cost-effective way to do so. Unless you transfer Amex to Marriott and then to United, you won’t be ale to transfer Amex points directly to United.
  
  Reply
Sam August 8, 2019

Hi Stephen,

This is very helpful as I have quite a bit of both Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards points. I’m leaning towards ANA business or Delta One suite to fly to ICN later this year. However, availability is very tough find. One quick question though: when searching for a Delta One flight to Korea (on Delta’s website) from either Detroit, Seattle or Atlanta, do I need to pick the dates that has 100,000 miles (lowest cost) one way? Or is it possible to pick dates with maybe 125,000 miles and still use 60,000 Virgin Atlantic miles to book that exact flight?

Thanks in advance,

Sam

Reply
- Andrew Kunesh August 8, 2019
  
  Hey Sam, good question!
  
  We’ve found that Delta’s award pricing and the saver award space (bookable by Virgin Atlantic, etc) it releases to partners do not go hand-in-hand. This means that an expensive Delta SkyMiles award ticket may still be bookable for 60,000 Virgin Atlantic miles. With this in mind, we recommend calling Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and working with a representative to find dates bookable with Virgin Atlantic miles. Hope this helps—thanks!
  
  Reply
  - Sam August 23, 2019
    
    I thought I’d just follow up to provide what happened when I called the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club customer service. Good thing I hadn’t transferred the points in advance because I almost did so that I didn’t lose Amex 30% transfer bonus to flying club miles which ended back in June 30th? or July 31st.
    
    Virgin Atlantic representative was actually very delight to work with and helpful. However, there were pretty much 0 availability from August to December 2019 from all four airports that fly to ICN (Seattle, Atlanta, Detroit and Minneapolis) in delta one suite. It looked like delta really doesn’t allocate any delta one seats to Virgin Atlantic. However, I was able to locate very spotty economy seats (even these weren’t very available) which may have been a great deal for someone looking to fly economy who’s also flexible with travel time.
    
    Anyhow, I was determined to fly first class or at least business SEP/OCT/NOV time frame! looked at every single method listed on this blog post and came to a conclusion that availability is just not an easy find. You really have to do your due diligence and search way in advance to score business/first class seats. (tip: Asiana’s 777 no longer has first class seats)
    
    Ended up transferring points to ANA and found Asiana business class going at an awkward date mid November and coming back on late Nov (wanted to get 3 weekends with 2 weeks of vacation, i.e. leave friday, come back sunday two weeks later). Oh and it definitely wasn’t fun looking for availability too because ANA’s website is the worst for finding business availability!
    
    At this point, I’m tempted to open korean air’s skypass credit card because they dropped chase as their transfer partner. It was nice flying first class back in 2017.
    
    Reply
Ben August 26, 2019

I was just checking Chase Ultimate rewards and I see that you can transfer points to Emirates Skywards now?

Reply
- Stephen Au August 26, 2019
  
  Hi Ben,
  
  Yes, Emirates is now a Chase transfer partner. We’re working on updating our entire site to reflect this.
  
  Reply
  - MICHAEL January 31, 2020
    
    Using the Alaska portal there seems to be an issue with ICN being recognized as a destination.
    
    Reply
James September 23, 2019

Hi Stephen, I currently have about 200,000 citi points (on prestige) and about 160,000 amex points. I’m trying to send my retired parents from LAX to ICN on Business Class around Feb – Mar – Apr. What do you think would be the best transfer option based on your experience.

I also currently have over 1 million Avios points, but I can’t find anything for less than 570k avios points and another $3.8k cash. Thanks in advance for your answer!

Reply
- Jarrod West October 8, 2019
  
  Hi James,
  
  If you’re hoping to receive some award booking help from Stephen, he offers a dedicated service that provides just that. Have a look at his website here: https://aupacs.com/
  
  Reply
El April 2, 2020

When using Emirates Skywards option: As I look for RT Econ flights from IAD to ICN within the Alaska Airlines portal, I see numerous flights on Korean Air for 70k miles.

Do I then call Emirates and reference that flight? Or am I doing this incorrectly and need to find an Emirates flight on Alaska Airlines portal?

Reply
- Stephen Au April 2, 2020
  
  Hey El,
  
  If you’re using Emirates Skywards miles, you need to call Emirates Skywards to book your award ticket.
  
  You can find availability using Alaska Airlines, write down all the pertinent flight information, and then call Emirates Skywards to feed them the flight information you want to book.
  
  Reply
Joyce January 30, 2021

Hi Stephen,

Thank you SO much for this very thorough post! With all the research I’ve done on flights to Korea and credit card points to use, this by far is the most helpful. I hope you and your now wife (?) enjoyed your trip. Is “UP” also on social?

Reply
- Stephen Au February 1, 2021
  
  Hi, Joyce!
  
  Thanks for your kind words.
  
  Here is UP’s Instagram: @upgradedpoints
  Here is UP’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/upgradedpoints/
  
  Reply
Jimbo September 21, 2021

Hi Stephen. I’m located in the Washington DC metro area and I’m looking to go to Seoul (preferably direct) for ~1 month around the end of April 2022 . I’m sitting on a decent number of KAL miles; however, upon searching Korean Airlines award bookings (off-peak, economy), I’m seeing outrageous fees. Curious if you could recommend a way to minimize taxes&fees. I’m planning to stay in Seoul for ~3 weeks, Osaka for ~1 week, then head back to IAD. Thanks in advance.
(1-way) IAD-ICN: 35k miles + ~$180
(round trip) IAD-ICN, ICN-IAD: 70k miles + ~$396

Reply
- Stephen Au September 29, 2021
  
  Hi Jimbo,
  
  These fees are unavoidable when redeeming Korean Air miles. If you are only interested in redeeming Korean Air miles, there’s no way to reduce it besides changing your route entirely to start in a country like Mexico.
  
  You can redeem Delta SkyMiles to avoid these taxes and fees if you have a pile of them sitting around.
  
  Reply
Thomas November 10, 2021

Hi Stephen – Thanks for the insightful article. I actually have previously used your article as a guide to book Korean Air prestige tickets through Emirates, but due to last minute troubles of flying had to cancel the ticket. As I am trying to rebook through the same method, it doesn’t look like there are business options (checked with Delta and Alaska Airlines websites) anymore. Any chance you might be able to provide some insights? – Thanks in advance!

Reply
- Stephen Au November 11, 2021
  
  Hey Thomas,
  
  Korean Air business and first class award space is much harder to come by now. If possible, check with ExpertFlyer first and search week-by-week. If nothing shows up there, you’re just out of luck, sadly.
  
  But if it does show up on ExpertFlyer and want to use Emirates miles, just call Emirates to book the ticket over the phone at 800-777-3999.
  
  Reply
Lulu January 15, 2022

Hi Stephen,

This is amazing. Thanks so much. Though I enjoyed reading your article very much, still haven’t been able to book my flight.

I currently have about 240K Capital One miles. What will be the best way to book a non-stop business class from NY to Seoul on Korean Air (or others).

As you recommended, I could transfer my Capital One miles to Emirates? But I didn’t understand why I have to go to delta.com to check availabilities for Korean Air flights? I followed your detailed instruction but wasn’t able to figure it out.

Really appreciate your recommendation.

Reply
- Stephen Au January 18, 2022
  
  Hi Lulu,
  
  The best way to accomplish this is to transfer your Capital One miles to Air France/KLM Flying Blue or Emirates Skywards. These 2 frequent flyer programs can book flights on Korean Air. However, in order to identify the flights with availability, it’s easiest to search on Delta.com. Once you see a Korean Air business class flight pop up on Delta.com, search the exact same dates, cities, and cabin class on Emirates.com or AirFrance.US.
  
  From there, you should be able to book your ticket using points.
  
  Reply
Justin February 4, 2022

What a terribly written article. This author says the following:
Currently, Emirates Skywards charges these prices for one-way flights between North America and Korea aboard Korean Air:
One-Way Flight Distance (Miles) Economy Class Business Class Taxes & Fees
5,001 to 6,000 44,000 88,000
6,001 to 7,000 52,000 104,000 ~$92 to $185
7,001 to 15,000 60,000 120,000
For travel on Korean Air, this is one of the CHEAPEST ways to attain business class awards, as long as you’re open to paying for fuel surcharges.

Cheapest ways? Are you blind? It clearly states 104,000 miles for a ONE-WAY business ticket from East Coast USA to Korea. Even West Coast will cost you 88,000 miles. Korean Air only charges 62,500 miles if you use their Korean Air SkyPass miles. So how is Emirates the cheapest way? Stop trying to swindle your readers!!!

Reply
- Stephen Au February 8, 2022
  
  Hey Justin,
  
  Thanks for reading. This article was originally published when Emirates had excellent pricing on Korean Air in business class for round-trip tickets. This has since been eliminated, which is why you see some remnants of the old language specifying “cheap” flights.
  
  Reply
JC April 25, 2022

Just called Emirates 800.777.3999 to book a KE flight. Rep advised Emirates points can only be used on Emirate flights, not codeshare. Thoughts?

Reply
- Jarrod West April 25, 2022
  
  Hi JC,
  
  That is definitely not true. I’d recommend calling back and speaking to a new rep.
  
  Reply
John B July 2, 2022

Thanks for writing this and keeping it updated. I’ve read this article several times, because I am wanting to fly to Seoul from Dallas-Ft. Worth. I really enjoy the 787 Dreamliner business class seats. (Only way I am going to last 14 hours in the air).

Right now, AMEX is offering a 20% increase in points if you give to Etihad. Just not 100% sure of the process. Do I go to the British Airways website to find info on flights, or the American Airlines site, and then call Etihad reps using those flight numbers and dates? Appreciate any clarification.

Reply
- Jarrod West July 6, 2022
  
  Hi John,
  
  You can check for availability on both the AA website and BA website, as both are reasonably good about showing Oneworld availability. Once you’ve located the flight you’re interested in, you’ll want to call Etihad directly and give them the dates and flight number to complete the booking.
  
  Reply