USbank SkyPass VISA: Is this a good product?

[Absolution16]

Asking on behalf of my best friend who only has ONE credit card that he has held for 25 years.  He has his parents and relatives who lives in South Korea and visits them once a year.  He was asking me if it is worth applying for this "SkyPass VISA."  Upon researching this myself, it seems, there are only TWO options to earn Korean Air mileage through use of credit cards, and this card is one of them.  The other method seems to be through earning Marriott Bonvoy, but I see that transfer rate to the airlines is a terrible deal at 3:1.

My best friend does not travel at all, except for this once-a-year trip he makes to see his family.  Looking at this SkyPass VISA, it seems like a terrible product, equivalent to the level of No-AF Airline cards, yet still charging $95 AF.  If it were me, I would think the No-AF United card is better than this card.  But obviously, he is only interested in Korean Airlines, because he says, soon it will be the ONLY airline that will offer him nonstop flight.

This card has almost ZERO mentions in this forum.  The last time this got mentioned, I think, was when USBank offered a secured version.  I think there were small number of people who got that card to start rebuilding, but after that, nada.  This clearly has to be an indicator that this card must not be worth it.

I am not too educated or keen on airline/hotel co-branded cards, so I am hoping for feedback from anyone who may have had experience with this card, or is more knowledgeable about airlines/hotel co-branded cards in general.

[GZG]

seems like there's a $100 annual SkyPass coupon, so a $-5 annual fee + SUB + longue coupons, so doesn't look completely terrible at face value

[Absolution16]

@GZG 

Thank you for your input!

The $95 version only gives ONE coupon annually for $50 only.

The SUB seems okay, but the reward structure looks underwhelming.  For someone who would book flights with them once a year, I am having trouble figuring out how useful this card (effectively a $45 AF card) would be, considering he will miss out on possibly more lucrative earnings on gas.

He does not spend a dime on hotels either.... even if he did, I am sure he would use sites like Expedia or Hotels.com for cheapest prices possible.  As I understand, the 2x on hotels must be booked directly with the hotels.

[K-in-Boston]

I have considered picking this up in the past as I'm all-in on SkyTeam.  The card would be ideally suited to someone who has a considerable amount of annual spending to accrue miles and highly values KAL's miles.  They still have a fixed award chart based on region, so there are some great sweet spots for redemption with partners. (i.e. North America is one number for each class, so Boston to Chicago is 25k economy fare or 45k business fare round-trip on Delta, but so is Miami to Honolulu).  

The value of the SUB could offset the annual fee for years, two lounge tickets certainly have some value if your friend has no other access to lounges, and the annual fare discount also can help but it's important to note that some fare classes will be excluded.  But if your friend only flies this one trip each year, it could take forever to accrue enough miles to cover that trip in the future.  With no other flights, a more flexible partner airline card from Delta (Amex), Air France/KLM (Bank of America), or Virgin Atlantic (also BoA) still wouldn't make sense for your friend outside of the SUBs without having other general purpose points-earning cards to transfer points to miles (the 3 big credit card points programs from Amex, Chase, and Citi, all allow transfers to both AF/KLM and Virgin Atlantic).

A better option would likely be to get a general purpose points card and use the card issuer's travel portal to book the KAL flight.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Absolution16 wrote:

Asking on behalf of my best friend who only has ONE credit card that he has held for 25 years.  He has his parents and relatives who lives in South Korea and visits them once a year.  He was asking me if it is worth applying for this "SkyPass VISA."  Upon researching this myself, it seems, there are only TWO options to earn Korean Air mileage through use of credit cards, and this card is one of them.  The other method seems to be through earning Marriott Bonvoy, but I see that transfer rate to the airlines is a terrible deal at 3:1.

My best friend does not travel at all, except for this once-a-year trip he makes to see his family.  Looking at this SkyPass VISA, it seems like a terrible product, equivalent to the level of No-AF Airline cards, yet still charging $95 AF.  If it were me, I would think the No-AF United card is better than this card.  But obviously, he is only interested in Korean Airlines, because he says, soon it will be the ONLY airline that will offer him nonstop flight.

This card has almost ZERO mentions in this forum.  The last time this got mentioned, I think, was when USBank offered a secured version.  I think there were small number of people who got that card to start rebuilding, but after that, nada.  This clearly has to be an indicator that this card must not be worth it.

I am not too educated or keen on airline/hotel co-branded cards, so I am hoping for feedback from anyone who may have had experience with this card, or is more knowledgeable about airlines/hotel co-branded cards in general.

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Here's a helpful article about earning Skypass miles:

https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airlines/how-to-earn-korean-air-skypass-miles/

[Absolution16]

@K-in-Boston 

Based on my personal research, it seems as though the route that he is interested in, which is between LAX and ICN, only have 3 carriers that offer direct flights: Korean, Asiana, and Air Premia.  Asiana is scheduled to be merged with Korean, so there seems to be a lot of talk about that, considering Korean is Sky Team and Asiana is Star Alliance.  Air Premia seems to be VERY new, and is a lower-cost carrier that only offers economy and premium economy seats, without established mileage program yet.  I know he hates stopovers, so I think he figures that in the long run, his only choice when flying to see his family is eventually going to be strictly limited to Korean.

I see that Chase used to be Korean's partner up until 2018?  Too bad he missed out while they were still partners.  Since I am a points/miles enthusiast, I looked it up a bit to find that earning those Skypass miles seem to be very hard, outside of actually flying with them.  If Delta miles didn't end up being "SkyPesos" as many seem to like to call it, I would have suggested to him one of the AMEX MR cards.  Other than that, the other airlines, as either a SkyTeam member or simply as a partner airlines, don't seem to be very easy nowadays, either due to lack of space, devaluation, and/or super high fuel surcharges.

I agree with you that, only with ONE round-trip flight per year, earning enough miles with that card is going to take a very long time indeed.  What makes that card seem particularly unattractive though, is that the perks you get for that card is almost equivalent to any Airlines cards with No AF.  If this was offered as a No-AF card, I would have recommended this to him, but I have a feeling the earnings he will get through normal everyday use isn't going to cover the AF.