I've got a $648.04 credit on Korean Air and need help using it.
October 22, 2015 12:48 PM Subscribe
I had to cancel a ticket I bought on Orbitz and I now have $648.04 to spend on a ticket with Korean Air. I'm very open on where I would go. How would I go about searching - and where - to find out how to get the most bang for my buck with this? Google Flights? ITA? And how would i search?
(where are you flying from?)
posted by ReluctantViking at 1:21 PM on October 22, 2015
posted by ReluctantViking at 1:21 PM on October 22, 2015
follow @airfarewatchdog on twitter. They tweet cheap flights as they see them.
posted by homodachi at 1:38 PM on October 22, 2015
posted by homodachi at 1:38 PM on October 22, 2015
Korean Air have an extraordinarily wide network and fly from LAX to Sao Paulo as well as all over the world from Seoul. The Korean Air site may have very good deals if you can commit to being a bit less flexible and get the lowest economy ticket; they are routinely the cheapest way for me to get home to the US from Hong Kong, but I only find their cheapest fares on their site - they never seem to come up on the other sites.
Also, I would call Korean Air and find out these things:
- whether you have to fly a Korean Air plane or can use the credit on any flight with a Korean Air flight number (which would include many other airlines' routes, like Czech Airlines or Delta or other Skyteam members; for an Asian connection, Garuda Indonesia and Vietnam Airlines can get you across their respective regions quite deeply - VN fly to quite a few places in Laos, say, that are otherwise rather hard to get to unless you are already in Laos and flying domestically).
- if you can use the credit on Jin Air, Korean Air's low-cost arm that flies regionally around Asia
Korean Air destinations from Seoul-Incheon are, according to Wikipedia: Akita, Amsterdam, Aomori, Atlanta, Auckland, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Beijing-Capital, Brisbane, Busan, Cebu, Changsha, Chiang Mai, Chicago-O'Hare, Colombo, Da Nang, Daegu, Dalian, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denpasar/Bali, Dubai-International, Frankfurt, Fukuoka, Guam, Guangzhou, Hakodate, Hanoi, Hefei, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Houston-Intercontinental, Huangshan, Irkutsk, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Jeddah, Jeju, Jinan, Kagoshima, Kathmandu, Komatsu, Koror, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Kunming, Las Vegas, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Madrid, Malé, Manila, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Mumbai, Nadi, Nagoya-Centrair, Nanning, New York-JFK, Nha Trang, Niigata, Oita, Okayama, Osaka-Kansai, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Phnom Penh, Phuket, Prague, Qingdao, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, San Francisco, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Sapporo-Chitose, Seattle/Tacoma, Shanghai-Pudong, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Siem Reap, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei-Taoyuan, Tashkent, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Tianjin, Tokyo-Haneda, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson, Ulan Bator, Vancouver, Vienna, Vladivostok, Washington-Dulles, Weihai, Wuhan, Xi'an, Xiamen, Yangon, Yanji, Zhengzhou, Zürich
Seasonal: Cairo, Oslo-Gardermoen, Saint Petersburg
Seasonal charter: Athens, Taichung, Xining, Zagreb
From that list, the places that jump out at me as exceedingly expensive to get to from the US are the Siberian and Central Asian destinations, Yangon, Ulan Bator, Koror in Palau and Malé in the Maldives, as well as regional/third-tier Chinese and Japanese destinations that would maybe require two long/inconvenient connections. Da Nang in Vietnam and Siem Reap in Cambodia are often reached via overland travel from other cities and it's great to see direct flights there; here in Hong Kong we are only getting direct flights to Siem Reap this winter!
Also, it may be worth thinking more strategically - flying to a destination with a lot of competition from your origin, like Bangkok from Los Angeles (there are no non-stop flights, so everyone has to connect and the competition is fierce, driving down fares) and booking onward travel on a Thai domestic/regional budget airline like Air Asia or Nok Air may be better value than flying XXX-Seoul-final destination.
Finally, Incheon airport is absolutely incredible and offers anything a transit passenger could want, and over a longer layover Seoul is very accessible - they run tours and even a night or two in the city is easy to set up and very good value - Seoul is far cheaper than Tokyo or Hong Kong.
Have a great trip!
posted by mdonley at 7:37 PM on October 22, 2015
Also, I would call Korean Air and find out these things:
- whether you have to fly a Korean Air plane or can use the credit on any flight with a Korean Air flight number (which would include many other airlines' routes, like Czech Airlines or Delta or other Skyteam members; for an Asian connection, Garuda Indonesia and Vietnam Airlines can get you across their respective regions quite deeply - VN fly to quite a few places in Laos, say, that are otherwise rather hard to get to unless you are already in Laos and flying domestically).
- if you can use the credit on Jin Air, Korean Air's low-cost arm that flies regionally around Asia
Korean Air destinations from Seoul-Incheon are, according to Wikipedia: Akita, Amsterdam, Aomori, Atlanta, Auckland, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Beijing-Capital, Brisbane, Busan, Cebu, Changsha, Chiang Mai, Chicago-O'Hare, Colombo, Da Nang, Daegu, Dalian, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denpasar/Bali, Dubai-International, Frankfurt, Fukuoka, Guam, Guangzhou, Hakodate, Hanoi, Hefei, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Houston-Intercontinental, Huangshan, Irkutsk, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Jeddah, Jeju, Jinan, Kagoshima, Kathmandu, Komatsu, Koror, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Kunming, Las Vegas, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Madrid, Malé, Manila, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Mumbai, Nadi, Nagoya-Centrair, Nanning, New York-JFK, Nha Trang, Niigata, Oita, Okayama, Osaka-Kansai, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Phnom Penh, Phuket, Prague, Qingdao, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, San Francisco, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Sapporo-Chitose, Seattle/Tacoma, Shanghai-Pudong, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Siem Reap, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei-Taoyuan, Tashkent, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Tianjin, Tokyo-Haneda, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson, Ulan Bator, Vancouver, Vienna, Vladivostok, Washington-Dulles, Weihai, Wuhan, Xi'an, Xiamen, Yangon, Yanji, Zhengzhou, Zürich
Seasonal: Cairo, Oslo-Gardermoen, Saint Petersburg
Seasonal charter: Athens, Taichung, Xining, Zagreb
From that list, the places that jump out at me as exceedingly expensive to get to from the US are the Siberian and Central Asian destinations, Yangon, Ulan Bator, Koror in Palau and Malé in the Maldives, as well as regional/third-tier Chinese and Japanese destinations that would maybe require two long/inconvenient connections. Da Nang in Vietnam and Siem Reap in Cambodia are often reached via overland travel from other cities and it's great to see direct flights there; here in Hong Kong we are only getting direct flights to Siem Reap this winter!
Also, it may be worth thinking more strategically - flying to a destination with a lot of competition from your origin, like Bangkok from Los Angeles (there are no non-stop flights, so everyone has to connect and the competition is fierce, driving down fares) and booking onward travel on a Thai domestic/regional budget airline like Air Asia or Nok Air may be better value than flying XXX-Seoul-final destination.
Finally, Incheon airport is absolutely incredible and offers anything a transit passenger could want, and over a longer layover Seoul is very accessible - they run tours and even a night or two in the city is easy to set up and very good value - Seoul is far cheaper than Tokyo or Hong Kong.
Have a great trip!
posted by mdonley at 7:37 PM on October 22, 2015
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If I were you, I would try to go somewhere like Bangkok, Burma, or Cambodia, but you're going to have to kick in some more money, I think.
posted by superfille at 1:20 PM on October 22, 2015