Already booked on Asiana Airlines? How the Korean Air merger impacts your flights and award miles

Got a trip coming up via Asiana Airlines? Don't worry, your travel plans are safe.

Asiana Airlines and Korean Air are officially merging on Dec. 17, and while things might look a little different on paper, your reservation remains intact.

How your flight is handled depends on when you fly. If your departure date is on or before Dec. 16, nothing changes and your (OZ) flight will operate under Asiana as usual. If you are flying on or after Dec. 17, your trip will be operated by Korean Air and assigned a new Korean Air (KE) flight number. The best part? You do not have to worry about manually rebooking anything.

However, if you need to make changes to your itinerary or get a refund, keep an eye on the calendar. For any changes made through Dec. 16, you will stick with Asiana or the travel agent you booked through. From Dec. 17 onward, Korean Air will take over all customer service and ticket management for your booking.

Starting in early November, Asiana will start to transfer your details—like your name, seat selection, passport info, and contact numbers—over to Korean Air's system. For them to do so, Asiana is required to ask for your consent to pass your personal data to Korean Air, and you can decline by Nov. 1, (at 9 p.m. Philippine time). Just keep in mind that opting out essentially cancels your reservation. You will get a refund with all cancellation fees waived, but you will also lose your seat.

As for your existing Asiana miles, they remain valid for a full 10 years, during which you can either keep using them separately under Asiana's standard rules across the expanded Korean Air network or do a one-time conversion of your whole balance into Korean Air SKYPASS miles.

Flight miles convert at a 1:1 ratio, though credit card partner miles convert at a 1:0.82 ratio. Elite members will also see their loyalty status matched in SKYPASS—with a new "Morning Calm Select" tier created specifically to cushion the move. Best of all, Korean Air is required to boost overall bonus seat availability by around 20%, so you will actually have an easier time redeeming those rewards for seat upgrades or award flights on popular routes.

You can find the complete FAQs here.

Asiana Airlines and Korean Air finalized the merger in August of this year.

At the time of the annoucement, Korean Air said, "with merger approvals finalized, the two airlines are accelerating operational readiness, focusing on systems integration, joint training, and team engagement ahead of the launch."