Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Enigma]

Although I've always been happy with Korean Airlines when I use them, I don't fly with them very often because usually I can find a much cheaper flight with a non-Korean airline (that's often just as good).
I've got about 21,000 miles with Skypass now, but it looks like if I want to use them to fly out of Korea, I need a minimum of 30,000 miles just to fly Economy in the off-season, and that will only get me to Japan or China.
As I'm not that familiar with their program, I'm curious if any of you have used your miles to book flights, and if so, how much cash you had to pay for your "free" flights. I've used Aeroplan (Air Canada's program) to book a Star Alliance flight to Singapore on Singapore Airlines (20,000 points + $0, over Christmas) and Hong Kong on Thai Airways (20,000 points + about $20, also over Christmas).
But I'd like to know how much you actually have to pay with Korean. On Korean's website, they say:

"Award tickets are subject to, and the passenger is responsible for, applicable fuel surcharges, taxes and fees."

I think we've all seen how much those fuel surcharges, taxes and fees add to the base fare recently, so I'm wondering how much it'll actually add up to. As I probably won't even be flying Korean any time in the near future, I'm just trying to decide if it's even worth saving the points, or if I should just use them to fly down to Jeju a couple of times.

Thanks

[thrylos]

I think you need 40 or 50,000 miles for a free ticket to SE Asia, 90 or 100 for Europe/US.

I have gotten a free ticket to SE Asia a couple of times both with Korean and Asiana. I've always had to pay about 150,000 for taxes (which was the standard tax rate if you were to purchase the ticket on their website.)
Unlike programs in NA, you can't 'pay to make up the difference' if you don't have enough miles.

I think it's worth it, as it still saved about 5-600,000 won each time I got the 'free' ticket.

If you're flexible enough and start looking early (ie, 3-4 months out), it isn't that bad, and certainly MUCH better than booking free tix in North America.

Go to Korean Air's website, log in with your skypass ID, select awards travel (or whatever) and play around with the dates. Any available free travel dates will show up and the taxes will be listed as well.

[ttompatz]

I tyupically use the miles to upgrade rather than get a ticket but have taken a "free" ticket going to SE Asia. It cost me about 100k won for surcharges and taxes.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Years ago we used all our accumulated miles to buy 2 round trip tickets Canada-Korea. As with most such programs you pay the taxes on the tickets.

For the past few years however we have used CC points as they accumulate faster and offer more flexibility.