How Many Points Should You Transfer to Korean Before Chase Loses Them as a Partner Next Week?

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Chase points are one of my favorite currencies, and their transfer partner Korean Air SkyPass is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs.

  • They offer great first class award space between the US and Seoul and a first class cabin on many of their intra-Asia routes and they fly to more US cities than any other Asian airline. They also offer first class redemption on SkyTeam partners Saudia and China Eastern.
  • Business class between the US and Europe is 80,000 miles roundtrip on SkyTeam partners. SkyTeam awards between the US and the Mideast or Africa are 120,000 miles in business class. Business class between the US and South America is just 110,000 miles roundtrip.
  • Hawaii first class roundtrips on Alaska, Delta, or Hawaiian are 60,000 miles. They partner with airlines outside of SkyTeam like Emirates and Etihad, too.
  • Stopovers are permitted on one-way Korean Air tickets, change fees are just $27 at current exchange rates, and infant fares cost an extra 10% of miles redeemed, rather than 10% of a full fare ticket


Korean Air Kosmo Suites

I’ve accumulated plenty of Chase points over the years with cards including Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card.

Chase points will only transfer to Korean through August 24. Unfortunately Korean is not becoming an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner.

So I have to decide how many points I want to transfer before the clock strikes midnight and I turn into a pumpkin. Here’s the rub: the moment you transfer points they lose value because one of the real benefits of Chase, American Express, and other transferable points currencies is their flexibility. You can put points where you need them when you need them. Transferred points cannot be moved back and used to transfer somewhere else.

And Korean Air does not have a perfect program.

  • They only allow you to redeem miles for family members, not friends.
  • They have ‘peak demand’ dates for travel on their own flights which cost more points.
  • They add fuel surcharges to awards, which can be significant on Europe and Southeast Asia redemptions.


Korean Air Old First Class

However I do see Korean as offering a good store of value. Miles expire after 10 years (not extendable) but I can certainly redeem whatever miles I transfer within the next decade. They traditionally give significant notice of changes (a year or more). And while I’m hardly an expert in the South Korean regulatory environment I believe this notice for most changes is driven by legal risk there rather than whim so is likely to continue.

I currently have about two million Chase points. Taking into account how I like to use miles, and Korean miles in particular — when no one else has award availability to Asia they’re my go-to for a first class redemption — my rough approximation of how many miles I want in my account is equal to 3 roundtrip first class tickets between the US and Southeast Asia or 570,000 miles. I have a third of that already so my current thinking is to move 390,000 points from Chase to Korean.

This isn’t the only chance to top off an account of course, Korean will continue to be a points transfer partner of Marriott for instance, however with reduced earning power from the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express my Marriott points balance isn’t likely to grow as much as in the past so I don’t want to have to move points if I don’t have to.

I’m not sure there’s a formula for how many points to transfer. I’m transferring 20% of my balance because I’m confident I’ll use them for high value redemptions in the next few years. I’m not transferring more because I have plenty of other uses for Chase points. Other good transfer partners include United, Air France KLM, British Airways, and Hyatt. And over time I expect Chase will continue to add transfer partners as they’ve done consistently since the start of the program.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Is it definitely 80,000 miles round trip business class from US to Europe? I thought it was 80,000 miles one way and you must book round trip tickets?

  2. Don’t forget to include the miles needed for the Mrs! Need to make it 4 round trips.

  3. I guess the key with European awards is to find them on Korean. So far looking at 2019 I have not had any luck with that. I guess it has to be Skyteam low level available awards?

  4. Out of all the transferable currencies I find it easiest to earn/hoard UR points hence why I transferred 90% of my UR points to Korean Skypass. After all, they expire in 10 years and I go to Asia at least once a year so to me, it made sense to transfer most of my UR points while I can (plus I’m confident I can easily earn all those UR points again in the future.)

  5. Funny thing is my calculus came to the same conclusion, 6 one way redemptions to Southeast Asia. I think this is the best sweet spot of the program. FWIW I posted how I did my math. The transfer was on Thursday and it hasn’t posted yet, though I’m hearing 2-7 days. I’m wondering what kind of spike Korean Air is going to see.

  6. Korean Air is going to enjoy a points windfall, and guaranteed customers/ticket sales. I wonder if, as these points are converted to revenue and start to dwindle down, they will go back to Chase or Amex to attract more customers.

  7. I’m facing the same question. Ive flown many trips to Asia in prestige class using Chase points. I never had any problem with availability, but lately I’ve found tight availability. I’m going again in late September but could only book the outbound direction.

  8. I transferred 180,000 Chase points last year in anticipation of a trip to Asia. Did not make it but did not mind parking them there as I knew I would eventually take that trip. Now as then, I know I will visit Hawaii within 10 years so I will move 200k or so in anticipation of that.

  9. @gary – you mislabeled the DL Hawaii cost…Econ is 25k KE miles and F is 45k

    I think i’ll move 150k points over for 6 econ DL to Hawaii for the family and another 90k for 2 DL F Hawaii tix. That should be plenty for me.

Comments are closed.