How to Book Korean Low-Cost Airlines as a Westerner: Air Busan & T’Way Air

Low Cost Carriers (LCCs I’ll be referring to them like this in the post) have become very prominent in the aviation industry worldwide. For decades they have been the backbone of short range travel for many passengers. Recently they have also expanded into long haul operations with mixed results. LCCs in Asia though are on another level, thanks to the massive client base. Booking a flight on an LCC in Asia for a westerner is not always all that straight forward. Here’s my experience and what you should know about booking a flight with a Korean low cost airline, specifically Air Busan and T’Way.

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Why Book Korean Low-Cost Airlines?

The reasons to book a flight with a low cost carrier are always the same:

• The offer flights on secondary routes which might be off the radar of the big carriers.
• Cheap one way fares compared to what you’d end up paying a legacy carrier.

In my case the reason for choosing Air Busan and T’Way are both of the above, one per route. Air Busan offers flights on the not so popular Hong Kong to Busan route, albeit not that frequently, while T’Way Air provides a cheap one way travel opportunity on the long haul segment from Seoul Incheon to Rome Fiumicino.

The role of LCCs after the Korean Air–Asiana merger

With Korean Air and Asiana Airlines becoming one entity the roles of Korean LCCs becomes all the more important. If you don’t want to travel with the newly formed larger flag carrier they are your only option. The unification of Asiana an Korean Air has created some unexpected opportunities which I’ll touch on below.

T’Way Air: Expanding into long-haul, including Rome–Seoul

For those not closely monitoring what happens on the daily in aviation (shame on you, sign up to my newsletter to stay on top of the news), Korean Air and Asiana are merging. They will soon become a single airline operating under the Korean Air brand with a unified fleet.

With Korean Air acquiring Asiana Airlines (yes Hanjin, Korean Air’s parent company bought Asiana from Kumho so technically it’s not a merger), they had to make some concessions in some markets they served to preserve competitiveness. One of those markets is the EU, where Korean Air had to let go of slots in some key airports, among which Rome Fiumicino.

That’s where T’Way Air comes into play. T’Way is a Korean LCC which has primarily operated until recently only within Asia with a mixed fleet of wide and narrow body planes. However, in the past two years they have ventured into long haul operations establishing routes to Europe, taking over those Korean Air slots.

Air Busan: Regional routes and Asiana heritage

Air Busan is a much more classic type of low cost airline. The carrier is an Asiana Airlines subsidiary so we’ll see what happens to it in the coming months and years. It’s much unheard of in the west and has been used by Asiana to have an effective presence in the southern hub of Busan/Gimhae (PUS) airport, which serves Korea’s second largest city (Busan). The type of operations is much simpler and streamlined than that of T’Way, only short and medium haul hops within east Asia are Air Busan’s thing.

Price advantages vs legacy carriers

LCCs are tricky. If you’re looking for a ticket no strings attached, you can find fantastic deals and fly for peanuts. As soon as you start looking for specific days with a certain amount of luggage and so on the prices creep up rapidly almost aligning with legacy carriers. However, where the key difference remains between LCCs and legacy carriers is on one way tickets.

Long story short, on long haul flights one way tickets become extremely pricy on legacy carriers while that is not the case with LCCs. On an LCC a return ticket is more or less two times the cost of a one way flight. On a legacy carrier a one way ticket’s price is a multiple of a return one. It all boils down to the fare rules. But that is the key advantage to keep in mind for long haul travel with budget airlines.

Common Challenges for Western Travelers

Society works in a very different way in Korea to how it works in the US or in Europe. Korean have their own way of building websites and they have built them focusing on convenience for themselves, of course. This is also the case on Korean airline websites tailored to the domestic market.

However, when creating the English version of their websites they didn’t change the framework to make it easier to use for foreigners, they merely translated the language. Therefore, retaining all the peculiarities of a Korean website. I’ll help you make sense of that with the next sections.

Language barriers on booking sites

As far as T’Way Air and Air Busan are concerned the language is not the main barrier. Both airlines have their sites translated in English. The English used reads well so you won’t be left scratching your head wondering what to do to get your flight booked.

Payment gateways optimized for Korean users

Where you will definitely come across some more challenges is the payment section. Both airlines use a Korean payment gateway called Eximbay. On both T’Way and Air Busan you will not have the possibility of using American Express cards (my go to credit card for travel). Debit cards are accepted though, which is a plus.

Browser and device compatibility issues

I faced no issues with browser compatibility. I used Safari, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge with no problems whatsoever. This is something you won’t be facing issues with, at least according to my experience.

Email confirmations and quirks

This is where you’re really in for a ride. I had to try three different email addresses before finally being able to register T’Way Air’s site, and Air Busan’s procedure was no easier.

Prepare yourself, prepare a huge dose of patience and then set off to register on T’Way and Air Busan’s sites. Its going to take a while. I tried my primary email, it didn’t work. I tried my Gmail, it didn’t work. Finally I tried a third email which generally let’s emails through a bit easier and that worked.

Phone number registration was also a bit of a hassle, particularly on Air Busan.

Booking on Air Busan – Step by Step

Booking a flight on Air Busan, for a westerner is a quirky affair. Let me drive you through what it involves.

Site layout and navigation

You’ll start off from the site’s homepage, where you’ll have to select departure and arrival from a dropdown menu. No search functionality available, feels very 1990s.

Seat selection and baggage policies

Then you are directed to the fare page, where it all starts getting confusing. You are faced with 3 fares to select from:

• Super special fare
• Special fare
• Regular fare

If you’re confused, you’re not alone. I was too when first booking. In a nutshell Super special fare doesn’t include checked bags, which the other two fares do (15kg). However if you need additional checked baggage weight or other, then you’ll have to go to the next steps where you can buy packages which include seat selection and extra baggage.

You can also purchase individually a preferred seat or baggage but it turns out to be more convenient booking a bundle.

Payment options and acceptance

So as is the case with T’Way, Air Busan also doesn’t accept American Express cards. It does however, accept all Mastercard and Visa issued credit cards along with debit cards on the same circuits.

No Paypal accepted with Air Busan though. As a foreigner your only option is using a card because the other options are Korean payment gateways (Kakao Pay and Naver Pay which work similarly to Apple or Google Pay).

Personal notes and nuances

Getting the system to accept my phone number and receive a registration email was really challenging. This was supposed to be one of the easiest tickets to book of the trip and it took me the longest to get sorted. Simply put it’s not the most westerner-friendly website. It was designed for Koreans so keep it in mind when navigating the process.

Booking on T’Way Air – Step by Step

Now T’Way Air is a different case to Air Busan. The airline, primarily serves a Korean client base but having branched out into Europe it has had to also make some adaptations to be easier to use for users in those countries. However, it has only done so partially.

Differences from Air Busan

The main difference is that the English interface is much easier to use and navigate. You can easily search routes and get to the prices without the quirky extra step of the bundles. Information of what to do is clear, albeit the action to be taken afterwards is not always as easy. There are still many functionalities that are not that friendly to a western audience.

Payment quirks and verification

What is a little confusing is the selection of which payment type to use, they sound very similar:

• Overseas credit card
• Card issued outside of Korea (Eximbay+)

Or you can opt for simple payment which would allow to also pay using Paypal. Now if you’re using card you’ll need to go for overseas credit card, or you’ll need to download the Exmbay+ app. I would not advise that, I did it for a duty free payment and it took ages to get through the process.

As I mentioned before getting you email verified to move through the checkout process is more challenging than you might expect. Be prepared to use multiple email addresses by different providers and look carefully in the spam folders for emails from T’Way. It took me approximately 10-15 mins to get registered and verified so that I could have my tickets in the airline’s website user section.

One tip, if you have some flexibility in your travel days try moving departures on different days. You might find some significant fare differences. In my case moving the departure date two days forward pushed the price down by several hundred Euro.

Final Thoughts – Is It Worth It?

I’ll be able to tell you fully only after having traveled wit the two airlines. That will be in early October. As far as price and routes are concerned, yes it is worth it. Expect a full review of the flights, so sign up to the newsletter using the form below. Air Busan will be a standard short hop from Hong Kong to Gimhae, while with T’Way I’ll be trying out their business class with lie-flat beds.