Before Korean Air Absorbs Asiana, Save These Screenshots

Korean Air and Asiana Airlines still plan to register as one company on 17 December. Two earlier deadlines will do more damage to an unprepared passenger. Asiana’s own customer notice says the airline leaves Star Alliance at 23:59 Korea time on 16 December, and Star Alliance has said partner programs may keep earning on Asiana-operated flights only if they depart on or before 15 October.

Those three dates are the spine of what follows. Everything else here is paperwork that makes them less expensive.

We have already covered the merger calendar and what usually happens to miles when two airlines combine. This is the narrower version, the one that belongs on your phone: what to screenshot, what to fix this week, and what to leave alone until South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission finishes its review.

Do not convert a pile of miles because a blog reprinted a ratio. Korean Air’s published plan—ten years of “former Asiana” balances, optional conversion at one-to-one for flight miles and 0.82 for partner miles, a new Morning Calm Select tier—still sits with the competition regulator. Asiana’s English mileage guide says the same thing in the first line: subject to Fair Trade Commission approval, details can change. Money Today reported as recently as mid-August that approval had not arrived. Until it does, treat the ratios as a proposal and assume the two balances can still live apart.

Open both apps tonight.

Screenshot the Asiana Club balance and the SKYPASS balance on the same day. Note the expiration dates. If the account shows how miles were earned—flown segments versus credit cards, hotels, or shopping portals—capture that screen too. Korean Air’s proposal prices those piles differently. You cannot argue the split in January if you never saved the ledger in August.

Elite status deserves its own screenshot. Save the tier name, the membership number, and the date the qualification ends. Asiana has told members that Star Alliance Gold earned through Diamond or higher will convert to SkyTeam Elite Plus after the exit, without a gap, which is a useful promise if it holds. It will not preserve your United or Singapore lounge access on a Star itinerary after 16 December, because status follows the alliance you land in. Keep the plastic or the digital card until the integrated carrier issues whatever replaces it.

If you hold both an Asiana Club number and a SKYPASS number, write down both. Duplicate accounts are where miles go to sleep. Korean Air already runs a SKYPASS member-number consolidation tool for its own duplicates; after integration, expect a similar cleanup wave. Having the numbers on paper beats reconstructing them from old boarding passes.

Audit every award that touches Asiana metal or Asiana miles.

There are two doors, and they close on different days. Star Alliance partner programs—United MileagePlus, Aeroplan, KrisFlyer, and the rest—may keep earning on Asiana-operated flights that depart on or before 15 October, per Star Alliance and Asiana’s own FAQ. Redemptions and upgrades on Asiana for those partner programs can generally be flown through 16 December, subject to each program’s rules. If you are holding a Singapore or United award that uses an Asiana flight after mid-October, read the partner’s fine print this week. The earn window closes first.

Asiana Club members who used Asiana miles to ticket Star Alliance partners face a sharper rule. Asiana’s notice says that even already-ticketed Star award travel on or after 17 December will not be valid after the exit. The airline tells customers to call reservations, and it promises a full refund with miles reinstated and no penalty. That is a remedy the airline has already agreed to give you, so use it. If your winter award sits on the wrong side of midnight on the 16th, fix it before the call centers clog.

Codeshares deserve the same audit. An itinerary that looks like one ticket can still hide an Asiana-operated segment that stops earning for your Star program in October. Rebuild anything fragile while inventory still exists.

A paid seat is a purchase, and purchases come with receipts.

Screenshot the seat map and save the confirmation email. When flight numbers change, whether that is OZ becoming KE or a codeshare swapping operators, seat maps sometimes reset. A PDF settles that in a minute; hold music takes an afternoon. The same goes for special meals and wheelchair or bassinet requests, which are worth reconfirming on the reservation after any schedule-change notice.

Do not expect the cabin to match the press kit on day one. Korean Air has said repainting the combined fleet will take years, with Asiana aircraft following after legal integration, so liveries and interiors will mix for a long while. That part is cosmetic. Whether your ticket still shows the seat you paid for is not, so watch the reservation and let the paint sort itself out.

Lounge access is already half-merged at the airport and still split by alliance. Asiana moved to Incheon Terminal 2 beside Korean Air in January. Star Alliance Gold benefits on Asiana, including eligible Asiana lounges when you travel on the Star network, run through 16 December per Asiana and Star Alliance. After that night, assume SkyTeam rules and Korean Air’s lounge map. If your December trip was built around a Star Gold sweet spot at Incheon, rebuild the evening now.

The cobrand card is the piece almost everyone forgets.

Write down which Asiana or Korean Air card you hold, the last four digits, and which loyalty number the bank thinks it feeds. After any membership consolidation, card issuers often need the customer to tell them the number changed. Korean Air’s own SKYPASS FAQ already warns that merging duplicate SKYPASS numbers does not automatically retarget a cobrand card, and it is fair to assume the same friction when Asiana balances move under a SKYPASS roof.

Keep boarding passes and e-ticket receipts for Asiana-operated flights you credited to a Star partner this year. Asiana’s Star FAQ says missing-mileage claims for the partner-earn window are accepted through 31 October. That is a filing deadline, and miles nobody claims by then are simply gone.

If the airline changes your schedule, ordinary passenger protections still apply—rebooking, refunds, and care rules under the law that covers your ticket. The merger does not invent a special compensation menu beyond what the carriers have already published. The specific promise worth using is Asiana’s: Star awards that become invalid after the exit get miles back and a refund without penalty. Use the published channel. Do not buy a third-party “merger protection” product that sells you your own rights back.

The rest of it will keep moving. Award-chart grace periods, cabin consistency, and the exact elite-matching table all wait on the regulator and on whatever the airlines publish afterward, and our miles explainer and December launch piece will follow those as they land.

What you can finish this week is smaller and entirely yours: an hour with both apps, a folder of screenshots, and one phone call about any winter award sitting on the wrong side of 16 December. Do that now, while the call center is still quiet.