Ultimate Rewards, the rewards currency of various Chase credit cards, transfer to nine airline loyalty programs...

Aer Lingus

British Airways

Iberia

Korean Air

Singapore Airlines

Southwest Airlines

United Airlines

Virgin Atlantic

Flying Blue (Air France, KLM)

...and three hotel programs.

Hyatt Gold Passport
IHG
Marriott Rewards

As of August 25, you can cross Korean Air off of that list.
How bad is this?
First Class flyers to Asia are probably pretty pissed off.

This is the final post in a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to airline loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards Series Index

Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #2 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean SkyPass #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #2
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #3
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: British Airways Avios 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Flying Blue
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #2
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Southwest Rapid Rewards
Maximizing Ultimate

This post is part five of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards Series Index

Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #2 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean SkyPass #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #2 (this post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #3 (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: British Airways Avios (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Flying Blue (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

This post is part four of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards Series Index

Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #2 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean SkyPass #1 (this post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #2
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #3
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: British Airways Avios 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Flying Blue
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #2
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Southwest Rapid Rewards
Maximizing

There are lots of obvious reasons why miles are better than cash, like the ability they give us to book mini palaces on planes that look like this...

...or the loose routing/stopover/open jaw rules of some programs that allow us to see more places on one trip.

But what about the smaller perks we often overlook? Like free or nearly free change and cancellation fees?

Delta will operate a nonstop flight between New York (JFK) and Honolulu from December 17, 2016 to March 25, 2017 five day a week (not Tuesday or Wednesday.)

Delta doesn't publish its award chart, but it still has a secret award chart. The cheapest awards from the mainland United States to Hawaii are 22,500 Delta miles one way. But we can do a lot better than that.

Every day that Delta offers award space on this route for 22,500 miles one way, we can book it for 25,000 Korean miles roundtrip.

China Eastern flies its 777-300ER with flat beds in Business Class and a flat double bed in First Class for two people to share between several American cities and Shanghai with connections throughout Asia.

You can book Business Class for 77,500 Korean miles or 80,000 Delta miles, and you can book First Class for 100,000 Korean miles. If you book two First Class award seats, you can combine your beds into one large double bed.

The Ink Plus currently offers:

60,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards after spending $5,000 in the first three months
5 Ultimate Rewards per dollar at office supply stores and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services
2 Ultimate Rewards per dollar at gas stations and hotel accommodations
1 Ultimate Reward per dollar on all other purchases
$95 annual fee

That means you'd have at least 65,000 Ultimate Rewards after meeting the minimum spending requirement (60,000 for the bonus, and 5,000 for 1x spending), enough to fly several Korean and Singapore First Class routes with no

Korean Air releases amazing award space on its flights. Here is a post focusing on how Korean releases more First Class award space than any other airlines, and award space is similar in all cabins.

Despite both being in SkyTeam, Delta miles cannot book Korean First Class, which is one reason to focus on Korean miles. However Delta miles should be able to book all the Business and economy award space on Korean flights, since partners generally release all their Saver award space equally to all partners.

At the moment, this isn't the case.

Korean SkyPass offers co-branded business and personal credit cards to Americans through US Bank. The standard sign up bonus on the cards is a paltry 15,000 miles.

Because of the small sign up bonus, if you want Korean miles, you're normally better off getting a card that earns Ultimate Rewards or SPG Starpoints and then transferring them to Korean miles.