Korean Air ordered to revise mileage conversion plan with Asiana

Korean Air's Boeing 787-10 jet / Courtesy of Korean Air

Korean Air was ordered to revise its mileage conversion program with Asiana Airlines by supplementing a mileage redemption program for in-flight seats, the nation’s antitrust watchdog said Monday.

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) urged Korean Air to submit revised measures on the management of bonus seats and seat upgrades using mileage. Korean Air has less than a month to report its updated measures.

This is the second time the authority has put the brakes on Korean Air’s proposed mileage integration plan. In June, the FTC rejected Korean Air’s initial mileage conversion proposal on concerns that it did not adequately safeguard Asiana customers’ interests.

Three months later, Korean Air submitted a rectified measure that would allow Asiana customers to convert their flight-accrued mileage at a 1-to-1 ratio. Korean Air also offered to apply a 1-to-0.82 conversion ratio for Asiana customers’ partner mileage earned from credit card rewards.

“We view that the mileage conversion plan should be fixed in line with the expectations of the public, so the FTC will review the proposed integration plans more strictly and thoroughly,” an official from the FTC said.

Korean Air is scheduled to launch a converged mega carrier in 2027 after finalizing its operational merger with Asiana by the end of 2026. The mileage conversion between both airlines has drawn keen attention from the public, as the issue is linked directly with the interests of tens of millions of customers.

“After Korean Air submits its updated integration measures to the FTC, we will conduct a review in a way that further strengthens the rights and interests of customers,” the official from the watchdog said.

On the same day, Korean Air was also slapped with a fine of 5.88 billion won ($4 million) for violating a precondition for the approval of its integration with Asiana.

The rule mandates that Korean Air and Asiana maintain the number of their in-flight seats at a level of more than 90 percent, compared with the same period in 2019. Asiana was also fined 580 million won for the same reason by the FTC.

The FTC investigation showed that the number of both airlines’ supplied seats for routes between Incheon and Frankfurt between Dec. 12, 2024, and March 28, 2025, was only 69.5 percent of the total recorded in the same period in 2019.

The watchdog fined both airlines, saying that they could unfairly benefit from airfare increases by reducing the number of flight seats for certain routes.