Asiana Leaves Star Alliance: Every Date Both Sides Have Published

Star Alliance announced on 23 June 2026 that Asiana Airlines is leaving, and on 8 September followed it with a lounge agreement at Incheon. The two releases give four dates. The earliest, 15 October, is the one most likely to cost you something. If your miles sit in Asiana Club, the date to check first is 31 October.

Four dates

Earning ends on 15 October

Reports lead with the exit date, but crediting an Asiana flight to a partner programme stops two months earlier. Star Alliance says members “may continue to earn miles on Asiana Airlines-operated flights departing on or before October 15, 2026.” Its FAQ, asked whether miles can still be earned after the exit, answers “No. Points and miles can only be earned for flights operated by Asiana Airlines departing on or before October 15, 2026.”

The clock runs on when the flight departs. An Asiana ticket you buy today for a November flight credits nothing, and the booking will not tell you.

Miles you have already banked are safe. Star Alliance confirms that points and miles earned on Asiana flights “will remain valid as per the usual terms of your frequent flyer programme.” Only future earning is lost.

Redeeming runs two months longer

Miles can still be spent on Asiana for “travel completed on or before December 16, 2026, subject to the redemption policies and timelines of their respective frequent flyer programme.”

The word is completed. A Star Alliance award on Asiana that departs on 15 December and returns on 20 December does not meet it, because the whole journey has to be flown by the 16th. Each programme also applies its own redemption rules on top, so the alliance date is a ceiling. Check the programme that holds your miles.

Status benefits stop when the airline leaves

Star Alliance Gold and Silver hold on Asiana “until December 16, 2026”, and the FAQ pins it to the minute: “until December 16, 2026, 23:59 Korea Standard Time.”

Your status itself does not change. On 17 December you hold the same card and it still works on every other member airline. Only Asiana stops honouring it.

For what survives, see what Star Alliance Gold actually gets you and Star Alliance lounge access.

Incheon: the lounge fix has no date

Star Alliance and Incheon International Airport Corporation signed an MOU to set up a Star Alliance lounge in Terminal 1, a seventh worldwide. The release also says “Eligible passengers of Star Alliance member airlines currently enjoy access to Asiana Airlines lounges at Incheon International Airport.” From 17 December those are no longer Star Alliance rooms.

The MOU gives no opening date, not even a quarter. The alliance says Gold customers may use “eligible Asiana Airlines lounges” only “until December 16, 2026” and names no replacement. Someone connecting at Incheon in late December has a card that works and no published date for the lounge.

The airline network at Incheon stays. The release says “14 Star Alliance member airlines will continue to operate to and from Incheon International Airport, including Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, EVA Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Lufthansa, LOT Polish Airlines, SWISS, Singapore Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines, and United,” with “more than 1,900 direct flights each month from Incheon International Airport to 29 destinations worldwide.” If your Seoul routing runs on any of those, nothing changes. If it runs on Asiana, it ends in December.

You can price the lounge gap now. Plaza Premium lists the Incheon lounges it sells, terminal by terminal, with opening hours and a price for each room in both terminals. Most are labelled as run by a third party. You pay an independent operator for a seat, and your Star Alliance card has no bearing on getting one. A seat in a lounge that no alliance membership controls has a known price today, whether or not the alliance lounge opens in time.

Round the World and Circle Pacific tickets

Tickets issued by any member and “fully flown prior to November 30, 2026, will not be affected.” Anything still open after that is a matter for whoever issued it. Star Alliance sends holders of tickets issued through its own site to an email address, and holders of agent tickets back to the agent, so expect these to be handled case by case.

Asiana’s own notices

The alliance release tells members to “refer to updates from Asiana Airlines” on anything about Asiana’s own programme. Asiana has published those updates in two notices on its own site, and the sections below come from them. Korea’s competition regulator approved Korean Air’s mileage plan on 14 September 2026; what happens to your Asiana miles after the merger covers it.

Spending Asiana Club miles on partners: three earlier deadlines

Asiana’s notice of 23 June 2026 sets a ticketing deadline per carrier:

Four carriers sit outside that pattern. Aegean, Avianca, Croatia Airlines and Turkish Airlines take the 16 December 2026 ticketing deadline with a travel period running “on or before December 16, 2027”, a full year past the exit. Asiana also requires that “Star Alliance award tickets must be booked and ticketed at least 3 days before your first departure.”

If a Lufthansa or SWISS award is what your Asiana miles were for, you have until 31 October, six weeks before the exit.

Where the notice disagrees with itself

For an award already ticketed for travel on or after 17 December 2026, the notice says “Even if already ticketed, these tickets will no longer be valid for travel following our exit from Star Alliance.” It directs holders to the reservation centre and promises that affected tickets “will be fully refunded and miles reinstated without penalty.”

That conflicts with the row granting Aegean, Avianca, Croatia and Turkish travel through December 2027. If you hold a ticketed award on one of those four for travel after the exit, ring the reservation centre rather than relying on the table.

Asiana Club status converts

Star Alliance Gold held through Asiana Club Diamond or above “will end, but it will be converted to an equivalent SkyTeam Elite membership status without any gap in benefits.” Asiana names the tier: “existing Star Alliance Gold status will be converted to SkyTeam Elite Plus, the corresponding top-tier status within SkyTeam.” The reason is the merger. Asiana calls its exit a move from Star Alliance to SkyTeam, and says that after integration “you will be able to enjoy SkyTeam benefits as part of the integrated Korean Air network.”

The effect runs the other way for a Gold card earned elsewhere. A Lufthansa Gold card keeps working everywhere except Asiana. An Asiana Club Gold card changes alliance and keeps working on Asiana.

What happens to the miles

Asiana’s mileage integration guide sets the terms. Existing balances survive as “former Asiana Mileage” for 10 years from integration and stay redeemable to their original expiry. New earning after that date credits as Korean Air SKYPASS miles. One SKYPASS account can hold both kinds, and you choose which to spend. Combining them means converting the Asiana balance across.

The conversion ratios differ:

• Flight-accrued miles convert 1:1. 100 Asiana Club flight miles become 100 SKYPASS miles.
• Partner-accrued miles convert 1:0.82. 100 Asiana Club partner miles become 82 SKYPASS miles.

Miles from a credit card, shopping portal or hotel partner lose 18 percent on conversion; flown miles lose nothing. Conversion must be done in full, can be done at any point in the 10 years, and anything left at the end converts automatically.

Asiana attaches one caveat to the whole guide: the plan is “subject to review and final approval by the Korea Fair Trade Commission and it will take effect following the merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines. Details are therefore subject to change.”

Still unpublished

• When the Incheon lounge opens. An MOU commits to doing something; no date exists.
• The non-alliance partners. Asked how long Qatar Airways, Etihad and Air Astana keep working with Asiana Club, the notice says only that “details regarding the end of partnerships with these airlines will be announced separately on our website.”

Corrections

20 September 2026. This page carried a section saying that if your miles sat in Asiana Club rather than a partner programme, “this page does not answer your question and neither does that release.” The second half was right. The first half was wrong: Asiana publishes the answers on its own site, in a mileage integration guide dated 30 September 2025 and a Star Alliance wind-down notice dated 23 June 2026 with eight FAQs. We had not read them.

The cost was specific. An Asiana Club member holding miles for a Lufthansa or SWISS award was told to plan around 16 December. Asiana’s ticketing deadline for those six carriers is 31 October. The alliance-level sections are unchanged, because they were correctly sourced and scoped. What was added is the half the page had declared unanswerable.

18 September 2026. This page said a reader connecting at Incheon after the exit had “no published statement that there is anywhere at that airport to use it.” That overstated the silence. Star Alliance’s release names the 14 member airlines that continue to operate at Incheon and quantifies the schedule, so a Gold card still has carriers to use there. What is unpublished is narrower: the announced Star Alliance lounge has no opening date, and the alliance names no replacement for the Asiana lounges once Gold access to them ends on 16 December 2026.

The Plaza Premium links stay. A lounge you can price today differs from one with no opening date, and that comparison does not depend on the overstatement.