Korean Air’s SkyPass loyalty program is known for great value and solid premium cabin availability. Reports have been floating around that the program has ended the ability to put award tickets on hold — however that’s not the case.
Korean allows you to put award tickets on hold for up to a 30 days — even if you don’t have the miles in your account. This is a great tool because you can then transfer in points to your SkyPass account from a program like Chase Ultimate Rewards, eliminating the fear that the award seat would disappear while you waited.
Korean Air is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, meaning you can book award tickets with its partners like Delta and Air France. 
When logged in, you’ll get an error message that you don’t have enough miles in your account to book the award.
We tried calling an agent to put an award on hold, but unlike other reports, the agent was able to put an award ticket on hold for me (from New York JFK to Seoul-Incheon on Korean Air in business class in January 2019), even though I had zero miles in my account.
We reached out to Korean, and they confirmed that there has been no policy change regarding award ticket holds.
The Korean rep said that if you don’t have the required number of miles in your SkyPass account for your desired award, then you’ll need to call in to Korean and put the award on hold over the phone. However, If you do have enough miles in your account for an award ticket, you can still hold that seat online.
So, Korean Air award ticket holds remain alive and are still a fantastic tool when planning points-fueled trips.