Post by : Jyoti Gupta

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In December 2024, Korean Air officially took over Asiana Airlines after more than four years of work. Even though Korean Air owns Asiana now, both airlines are still working separately and will probably stay that way until at least the end of 2026.

Both airlines have their own loyalty programs where customers earn miles. Korean Air has the SkyPass program, and Asiana has the Asiana Club program. Korean Air wanted to join these two programs into one, so customers could use their miles from both airlines together.

But South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC), which protects consumers, said no to Korean Air’s plan. The FTC said the plan did not protect Asiana’s customers well enough. The problem was mainly about how Korean Air wanted to change the value of Asiana miles when they moved them into the SkyPass program.

Korean Air wanted to give less than one SkyPass mile for every Asiana mile earned from credit card spending and other partnerships, which means customers would lose some value. For example, Korean Air might give only 0.7 SkyPass miles for every 1 Asiana mile earned without flying. This is because Korean Air’s credit card miles are harder to earn compared to Asiana’s.

The FTC said this is not fair because Asiana miles are valuable and customers should not lose benefits. They want the mile transfer to be equal (1:1), especially for miles earned by flying and other ways.

The total value of all the miles in both programs is about $2.7 billion, so this is a big deal for many customers.

Right now, Korean Air has not been allowed to merge the two programs because the regulators want to make sure customers don’t lose out. This means Asiana Club members can keep their miles safe for now.

The regulators’ decision shows they want to protect customers from losing value in their miles, and it will take some time before the two programs might be combined fairly.