Buy the Korea Ticket Before November

A ticket out of Korea takes its fuel charge from the day you buy it. A November departure can keep October’s fuel charge, if you buy the ticket now.

Dong-a Ilbo ran the contrast on New York. Buy Incheon–New York this month and Korean Air’s one-way fuel charge is 362,600 won. Buy it in November and the charge is 408,100 won. You can be on the same airplane.

This table covers a flight that leaves Korea. If your trip starts in the United States, the fuel charge is set on that side.

Yonhap reported Friday that tickets bought in November carry level 27, four steps above this month’s 23. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport sets that scale, from 1 to 33, off the price of jet fuel in Singapore. Korean Air published its charges for November 1 through 30 on Friday. Asiana’s range for those days was reported the same day.

Korean Air’s top band is the East Coast and Toronto: Incheon to New York, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, and Toronto, at 408,100 won one way. The increase from this month is 45,500 won, or 12.5 percent. The Korea JoongAng Daily converted that one-way charge as about $304.

If both directions are priced on Korea’s table, Yonhap’s round-trip sum is 816,200 won. That is 91,000 won more than a ticket bought in October. At the rate the JoongAng Daily used for the $304, the difference is about $68. MoneyToday noted that the flight home can be charged in the country where it starts.

The Tokyo band is 76,000 won one way. It covers Incheon to Narita, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, and Okinawa, and also Taipei, Shanghai Pudong, Beijing, and the Gimpo–Haneda hop. That is 10,200 won above this month, about 15.5 percent.

Paris and Rome are 370,100 won one way, under the East Coast charge. Los Angeles and San Francisco were outside the group Yonhap and the JoongAng Daily priced, so neither city has a published November figure.

Asiana’s November one-way range runs from 62,400 won to 351,100 won. The top is 49,900 won above this month. Korean Air and Asiana use different distance bands, so the New York charge is Korean Air’s.

A domestic hop moves less. Dong-a said Korean Air’s surcharge on those tickets rises 4,400 won, to 25,300, when you buy in November.

November’s level comes from jet fuel averaged in Singapore between September 16 and October 15. Yonhap put that price at $173.89 a barrel, up 9.7 percent from the period before it.

The scale hit 33 in May, the top step, then fell to 14 in August. It has climbed every month since: 21 in September, 23 in October, 27 in November. MoneyToday said 27 is the highest reading since June. The JoongAng Daily attributed the higher fuel price to the war in the Middle East.

The average for November is already finished. What you can still choose is the day you buy.

October 31 is the last day for this month’s rate.

Buy before then if the trip is already set. The flight can leave in November, and you keep this month’s fuel charge.

If the dates are still loose, waiting is fine. A ticket bought in November pays the new table. December’s level will follow the next fuel average, and that average has not been taken yet.