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As of today, Delta and Korean Air have expanded seamless baggage transfer to two new routes from South Korea: Seoul – Los Angeles and Soul – Seattle. and Los Angeles. On the face of things, that may not sound like a big development, but for passengers on these routes, this is a genuinely useful improvement, so it’s worth understanding exactly what it does and doesn’t cover.
What is seamless baggage transfer?
The programme is powered by International Remote Baggage Screening (IRBS) technology, which screens checked baggage at Seoul Incheon airport before a flight departs. US Customs and Border Protection reviews that screening while the aircraft is in the air and before it lands, which means that passengers can head straight to their connecting gate once they’re through US immigration and security, much like a mundane domestic transfer, while their bags move on to the final destination automatically.
The routes with seamless baggage transfer
This seamless baggage transfer program launched on Seoul-Atlanta flights back in August 2025, on flights KE033, KE035, DL026, and DL188. It then expanded to the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit routes on 15 April 2026 (on DL170 and DL158 respectively), and it’s now offered on flights to LA and Seattle.
The LA and Seattle routes saw service launch today, 23 June 2026 with Seattle covered by flights KE041 and DL196. Los Angeles gets the service through flights KE011 and KE017.
With these two latest destination being added, seamless baggage transfer is now offered in five of Delta’s major US gateways and, importantly, Korean Air and Delta customers connecting through Incheon from elsewhere in Asia onward to any of these five cities are also covered by the programme. It’s not just for customers originating in South Korea.
A few numbers
The airlines have shared a couple of figures worth highlighting.
Korean Air and Delta put the average time saved at up to 20 minutes per connection and, since the programme began with the Atlanta route in August 2025, customs interactions at US airports have reportedly dropped by more than 65%.
Korean Air also says that in situations where a delayed arrival would previously have caused a missed connection under the old recheck process, the majority of affected customers have still been able to make their onward flight under the new system.
Quick thoughts
If you’re not connecting on, this is going to have to benefit to you whatsoever, but for those who are, seamless baggage transfer can be a huge bonus as anything that limits the number of interactions that you have to have with officialdom in between flights is great.
Personally, I’m slightly surprised that Delta and Korean are putting the time saved at “up to 20 minutes” per connection as I would have expected it to be more. I know that, on numerous occasions, I’ve waited at a baggage carousel for considerably longer than 20 minutes while waiting to connect from an international flight within the US and would have loved this to have been in place.
Clearly, this is a great improvement for flyers who are connecting on after arriving from Seoul, so there’s nothing to dislike here.
Anyone who’s had to do the full reclaim-recheck shuffle after a 13-hour flight from Seoul knows exactly how much of a difference 20 minutes can make when a connection is tight, and that why a benefit like this would probably tempt me on to a Korean or Delta flight if I knew that I was connecting on in the US.
Both Korean Air and Delta have said they’re looking at extending Seamless Baggage Transfer to more markets in future, so, hopefully, this won’t be the last expansion of the programme.
Bottom line
Korean Air and Delta have expanded their seamless baggage transfer program to Seoul-Los Angeles and Seoul-Seattle connections as of today, bringing the total to five US gateways alongside Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Detroit.
Seattle is covered by the two daily flights from Seoul (KE041 and DL196) and Los Angeles by daily flights KE011 and KE017.
Passengers connecting onward through these airports will be able to skip bag reclaim and recheck, saving up to 20 minutes on average, with customs interactions reportedly down more than 65% on routes where the programme is already running.
