Find cheap Jin Air flights

Jin Air is a Korean low-cost carrier at the “cheap and cheerful” end of the airline spectrum. The airline flies mostly within Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, and can be a really budget-friendly option for travelers here. Like most low-cost airlines, Jin Air lets you add extras to the nearly all-economy seats on board, which can make your journey a very pleasant onboard experience.

If you’re heading to this region and want to take full advantage of the airline, this guide to Jin Air will help you do it best.

The Jin Air model

Jin Air is owned by the parent company of Korean Air, but it’s not really equivalent in terms of experience. By comparison, it’s quite different in its relative informality and everything-for-a-fee options.

Jin Air mostly flies all-economy single-aisle Boeing 737 planes that are similar experience to other low-cost carriers in the region and worldwide, but it also has a few large Boeing 777-200ER planes with nearly 400 seats packed into an all-economy layout. Impressively, they do manage to board and deplane all those passengers relatively swiftly.

Unusual for a low-cost airline, all tickets include a 10-kilogram (22-pound) carry-on bag and a 15-kilogram (33-pound) checked bag. Guam flights get an increased weight allowance of up to 23 kilograms (50.7 pounds), and you can buy more weight for fees on all tickets. Do remember, though, that most other airlines allow a checked bag size of around 50 pounds, so make sure not to fill up if you’re connecting from elsewhere and then flying Jin.

Jin Air classes and fare bundles

Jin Air is a mostly all-economy airline that offers regular economy and extra-legroom economy seats. On a very few flights on the Boeing 737-900 model, you’ll find Jinibiz business class seats, and there’s a super-extra-legroom Jiniplus economy section on the Boeing 777 planes. If either of those is of interest to you, keep a careful eye out for the kind of plane your flight will use when you’re shopping.

When booking, you’ll be offered three ticket types in economy: Super Low, Flex, and Jini. The only real difference between these comes with the fee for changes and cancellation, and the difference in price for the change fees themselves is so minimal that I’ve never found any real benefit to picking anything but Super Low.

Once you’ve picked your ticket type, you can add more extras to take more baggage, speed through check-in and baggage claim, add seat selection and other perks.

Jin Air offers three bundle packages: Seat Package, Baggage Package and Lounge Package, increasing cost as you move up in that order. Do note that a few of these benefits are only available when flying from Seoul’s primary international airport at Incheon.

Seat Package adds your choice of an economy seat (not Jinibiz or Jiniplus seats). You’ll get priority baggage claim and, at Incheon only, fast check-in. The Baggage Package adds a further 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of luggage to your allowance and also upgrades your seat selection options.

The Lounge package, meanwhile, keeps you at the original luggage allowance of 15 kilograms (33 pounds), regular seat selection and Incheon fast check-in, but doesn’t include priority baggage. It does, however, add an airport lounge pass at Incheon – this is very much only worthwhile to pick if you’re flying from that airport.

Jin Air economy seats

Jin Air splits its economy class seats into 5 seat types. From most expensive to least, these are Jiniplus – super-extra legroom in a separate cabin at the front (777 planes only), Jinistretch – extra-legroom seats, Jiniexit – emergency exit seats, Jinifront – seats towards the very front of the plane, and Standard, divided between A seats in the front half of the plane and B seats toward the back of the plane.

Note that there are restrictions on who can occupy emergency exit row seats, including passengers under 15, elderly travelers, pregnant people, anyone traveling with an infant, anyone with physical disabilities that would prevent them from assisting and anyone unable to communicate in Korean or English.

If you get to the airport and fancy a bit of extra room, Jin Air lets you purchase up to two seats next to you for a pretty nominal fee when you get to the counter. Want the whole row to lay down? No problem – just buy two extra seats.

That said, I find that very few passengers tend to spring for the extra legroom seats, so there will generally be one free next to me anyway if I choose one of those seats.

Jin Air business class seats

On a few of the airline’s planes (the Boeing 737-900) you’ll find Jinibiz, the only business class option on the airline. These are a similar kind of larger recliner seat that you’d find in domestic first on a US flight or domestic business within Canada – it’s wider with only two seats on either side of the aisle.

Jinibiz also comes with an extra baggage allowance – 30 kilograms (66 pounds) – and it includes priority check-in plus priority baggage return where these are available. By and large, I’ve never found Jinibiz worth the upgrade, mainly because these planes tend to be allocated to short-haul flights where I’m pretty happy with economy seats.

Check-in and bag drop

For most flights, Jin Air encourages you to check in online before you get to the airport, either via the airline app or the website. Online check-in opens 24 hours before the flight for all domestic flights and most international flights, excluding Guam and mainland China.

You also have the option to check in at the terminal. Look for the airline’s bright green branding when you get to the check-in area, which is also where the bag drop will be found if you need to check some luggage.

The Jin Air baggage allowances work a little differently than most airlines. With some baggage already included, you can buy increased checked baggage allowances either before travel or when you get to the airport. Rates vary depending on your destination. Buying your checked baggage allowance before travel in increments of 5 kilograms (11 pounds) gets you a slight discount over buying at the airport, where you can buy in increments of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds).

Jin Air in-flight food and drinks

On most flights, you’ll have the option of drinks and light snacks, and it’s pretty amazing to watch the crew offer them super-fast on short flights. The purple sweet potato chips are my favorite, although if you’re adventurous and like seafood then try the honey butter squid.

Hot meals are available on some longer flights – essentially, anything outside Korea, Shanghai and western Japan, which means no hot meals on Fukuoka, Osaka, Kitakyushu, Nagoya and Takamatsu flights. Not all options are available to and from Guam either. I’d recommend pre-ordering to ensure you get your choice, and if you pick wisely the food is great – I’d say some of the best airplane food you’ll find in the sky.

Bibimbap, a mixed beef and vegetable rice dish that’s one of Korea’s most famous meals, is my absolute go-to. It’s delicious, fun to stir and you can make it as spicy as you like with the side gochujang sauce. The bacon kimchi fried rice is also very tasty.

In-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi on Jin Air

In-flight Wi-Fi is available on Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes, so if being online during your flight is vital then you’ll want to be sure to book one of these planes. Note that it only turns on above 10,000 feet, so on shorter flights your time online may be very short indeed.

Jin Air splits its Wi-Fi packages into three options: a full-flight messaging option, a two-hour browsing package and a full flight browsing package for those rare flights longer than two hours. Note that the messaging option may not support all international apps, but WhatsApp works. Video, photo and file attachments are not supported in this package.