Korea’s Fair Trade Commission approved Korean Air’s mileage plan on 14 September 2026. The airlines’ own 25 page filing, attached to the announcement, sets out the mechanics for Asiana Club members.
Your Asiana miles do not disappear, and they are not turned into SKYPASS miles automatically. They become a second balance, priced on Asiana’s own chart. You can convert it whenever you choose over the next ten years, or never.
The date everything hangs on
Korean Air and Asiana intend to merge on 17 December 2026, with Korean Air as the surviving company. The airlines state in their filing that the approved mileage plan takes effect from that same day. That is the airlines’ stated plan, not a regulatory deadline: the commission approved the scheme, and its release does not fix the date.
From that day your Asiana account stops collecting. After the plan takes effect, miles from flights and from partners accrue to SKYPASS, and accrual of former Asiana miles no longer happens at all. What you hold on the day of the merger is the final balance.
This is a different deadline from the one in our guide to Asiana leaving Star Alliance, where crediting an Asiana flight to a partner programme ends on 15 October. Earning into Asiana Club itself runs two months longer, up to the merger.
A second balance for ten years
Korean Air will run two balances side by side. SKYPASS miles are one. Former Asiana miles are the other, held separately for ten years from the date the plan takes effect, and reached through a dedicated section of Korean Air’s website.
The separate balance keeps Asiana’s terms:
- the deduction chart Asiana was operating on 12 December 2024;
- Asiana’s child and infant deduction rates;
- the expiry dates the miles already had.
A member who does nothing is not moved onto Korean Air’s pricing.
The chart that survives, one way and off peak. Peak dates deduct 50 percent more.
| Region | Economy | Business | Business Smartium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic Korea | 5,000 | 6,000 | Not offered |
| Japan, China, Northeast Asia | 15,000 | 22,500 | 25,000 |
| Southeast Asia | 20,000 | 30,000 | 35,000 |
| Southwest Asia | 25,000 | 37,500 | 45,000 |
| North America, Oceania, Europe | 35,000 | 52,500 | 62,500 |
Seat upgrades run on the same preserved chart, from 1,500 miles on a domestic sector to 30,000 for a long haul upgrade into business and 40,000 into Business Smartium.
The filing sets 2027’s peak periods at 69 days on international routes not departing the Americas, 72 days on international routes departing the Americas, and 65 days domestically.
A bigger network
During the ten year period, former Asiana miles work on Korean Air’s routes as well as the ones Asiana used to fly.
Asiana operated 69 routes, of which 56 overlapped with Korean Air and 13 were Asiana only. Korean Air adds 59 routes that Asiana never flew. The filing puts the expansion at 85 percent by route count, weighted towards long haul: 8 routes to the Americas, 8 to Europe and 2 to Oceania that an Asiana balance could not touch before.
Asiana was not flying Korea to Middle East routes in December 2024, so there is no preserved Asiana price for them. Korean Air will apply its own SKYPASS deduction instead: 35,000 miles in economy, 62,500 in Prestige, and 40,000 to upgrade from economy to Prestige.
What the old balance cannot do
The preserved chart is also a ceiling. Former Asiana miles follow Asiana’s deduction standards as they stood in December 2024, so anything Asiana was not selling then has no price.
Cabins Asiana did not operate. Asiana’s December 2024 cabins were economy, business and Business Smartium. First class and premium economy have no Asiana deduction standard, so an old Asiana balance cannot buy an award seat in them or upgrade into them. Converting to SKYPASS first removes the restriction, because Korean Air’s own chart prices those cabins.
Partner airlines other than Star Alliance. Asiana miles can still be used on Star Alliance flights before Asiana leaves the alliance, but not up to the last day. Asiana’s own notice sets a ticketing deadline per carrier, the earliest being 31 October 2026, listed in the per-airline deadlines for spending Asiana Club miles on Star Alliance. Korean Air’s SkyTeam partners and its other bilateral partners are different: the filing says those require converting to SKYPASS miles first.
Shopping for anyone but yourself. Award tickets, upgrades and mixed payment can be used by the member and by registered family. The non air catalogue is restricted to the member personally.
Two limits carry over unchanged from Asiana. Award seats remain unavailable on codeshare flights operated by another carrier. Family registration stays as generous as it was: spouse, parents, children, siblings, grandparents on both sides, grandchildren, a spouse’s parents, and a son or daughter in law.
Converting is voluntary, total and final
No member is converted without asking. Any member can apply at any point during the ten years, through a dedicated menu on Korean Air’s site, and Korean Air undertakes to process it within five business days.
- It moves the entire balance. The filing says the member’s held former Asiana miles convert in full at the stated ratio, and the separate management of that account ends. There is no partial conversion.
- The rate depends on how the miles were earned, not on what you spend them on (table below).
- It ends the preserved terms. The balance is priced on Korean Air’s chart, which makes first class and SkyTeam awards available and removes the Asiana chart above. Expiry dates carry across unchanged: converted miles keep the original Asiana validity period.
| How the miles were earned | Asiana miles | SKYPASS miles |
|---|---|---|
| Flying | 1 | 1 |
| Credit cards and other partners | 100 | 82 |
At the end of the ten years, whatever is left converts automatically at those same ratios, whether or not the member ever applied.
Elite status
Asiana elite members will be mapped onto a comparable Korean Air tier, and Korean Air is creating a new tier called Morning Calm Select to make the mapping work.
Check this clause against your own account if you are on a fixed 24 month qualification. If you had already satisfied the retention conditions for your tier before the plan takes effect, that performance is recognised even when the original expiry date falls after the merger, and the tier runs for a further 24 months beyond that expiry date. The filing works this through as a numbered example. A qualification earned shortly before the merger is worth considerably more than the date on the card suggests.
A member who converts to SKYPASS also has their Asiana flight record added to their Korean Air record when elite status is next reassessed, so converting does not throw away flown segments.
What the regulator extracted in exchange
The approval came with commitments, aimed at people who suspect a merger means fewer award seats.
- Korean Air must keep award seat and upgrade boarding volumes at or above the two airlines’ combined pre merger level for ten years.
- On long haul routes to the Americas, Europe and Oceania the floor is higher: at or above 2023, which was the strongest of the previous ten years.
- Korean Air must submit its peak season award seat allocation ratios to a supervisory committee each year, so the floor cannot be met by flooding the quiet months.
- Total annual mileage redemption must rise against the two airlines’ combined 2025 usage: to 106 percent across 2027 and 2028, 112 percent in 2029, and 121 percent from 2030 through 2036.
- Mixed payment widens from a minimum of 500 miles and a maximum of 30 percent of the fare, to a minimum of 100 miles and a maximum of 40 percent. That helps small balances most, and the number of non air items purchasable for under 2,000 miles is being doubled.
- On co-branded cards, Korean Air commits not to raise the contract unit price it charges card issuers by more than the rise in the consumer price index since 2019. That is an input cost, not a promise about earning rates.
Underneath all of it sits the original merger condition: the scheme cannot be changed to anything less favourable than the approved plan for ten years from the business combination date.
What the approval does not say
- The merger date. It is the airlines’ own stated intention. The commission’s release approves the plan and does not itself fix 17 December, so a slip in the corporate timetable would move the start of the ten year clock without contradicting anything approved here.
- Flight numbers and aircraft. Neither document describes what becomes of Asiana flight numbers or how Asiana aircraft will be sold after the merger.
- The Asiana Club website. Neither document says whether it and its login survive in any form. The separate balance is described only as a dedicated area of Korean Air’s site.
- Co-branded card earning rates. The commitment covers the price Korean Air charges the card companies for miles, not the rate at which those companies award them to you.
Whether to convert
For most people, not yet. The separate balance keeps Asiana’s pricing while reaching 85 percent more routes than it used to, and nothing forces a decision for ten years.
Convert in narrower cases:
- You want a redemption the old chart cannot price: first class, premium economy or any SkyTeam partner award.
- Your balance is mostly flown miles. The 1 to 1 rate means converting costs nothing.
A balance built largely from credit card spending loses 18 percent on the way across. That loss is identical whether you convert in 2027 or are converted automatically in year ten.
The date to act on first is 15 October, when crediting Asiana flights to a Star Alliance partner stops. Check it against your bookings.