Book KTX Abroad and Fix Card Declines
Use Korail’s official foreign-language site, check the exact departure station, and keep the email plus the five-digit lookup password. If an overseas card is declined, confirm online overseas payments with the issuer and check My Reservation before trying again. Regular tickets normally open one month before departure at 07:00 Korea time, and two sets of dates break that: trains running 23 to 27 September 2026 sell on a separate Chuseok schedule, and departures from 7 to 11 October open at 10:00 instead. For the wider rail, bus, and airport picture, start with Transport & Payment.
Use the right official booking route
Every high-speed train is now sold as a KTX ticket, SRT included. If you used to look for a Suseo Station train under SRT, search for it as KTX. Regular tickets normally follow the one-month-before-departure, 07:00 Korea time rule described below.
| Booking route | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Korail+ app or Korail website | The main route; every high-speed train, sold as a KTX ticket |
| KorailTalk or the existing SRT app | Temporary fallback per official notices; the SRT app is non-member booking only, so integrated member benefits are limited there |
Book KTX on Korail
Search with the exact station in your itinerary, not the city name alone. Seoul Station and Suseo Station are separate stations, and now that every high-speed train is sold as a KTX ticket, the ticket type no longer tells you which one you leave from - the departure station and train number on the ticket do. Korail says regular tickets normally go on sale one month before departure at 07:00 Korea time and can be purchased on the Korail website or Korail+ app any time before the train departs.
Do not treat that cutoff as an arrival target. Pay earlier and allow enough time to reach the platform.
Trains running 23 to 27 September 2026 sit outside that rule and are sold on a separate Chuseok schedule instead. Departures from Wednesday 7 to Sunday 11 October 2026 stay on the one-month rule but open at 10:00 Korea time rather than 07:00, which puts them on sale from 7 September. Korail moved the hour so that sale would not land on top of the Chuseok one. Sales can also be restricted temporarily during service disruptions or other exceptional operating conditions, and Korail announces those case by case.
- Open Korail’s foreign-language siteChoose your language and the regular ticket reservation.
- Enter the exact stations and dateCheck Seoul Station versus Suseo Station before searching.
- Choose the train and passenger detailsMatch the train number, time, seat class, and passenger count.
- Pay and save the lookup detailsKeep the purchase email with the five-digit password set during payment.
Chuseok 2026: trains on 23 to 27 September are sold separately
Korail treats Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 September 2026 as the Chuseok travel period, a wider window than the three-day public holiday in the holiday calendar. Trains inside those five days were never released under the one-month rule above. They were held back for a separate holiday sale, so counting forward to a 07:00 date gets you nothing for them.
Without a Korail account, the route that works is the remaining-seat sale, which opens at 15:00 Korea time on Friday 11 September. Whatever is left after the advance sale goes on general sale from that moment, through the Korail+ app, the Korail website and station ticket counters. Non-members can buy, and payment is taken at purchase rather than later.
The advance sale itself runs from Monday 7 to Friday 11 September, 07:00 to 13:00 Korea time each day, and Korail requires a membership account for it. Station counters sell nothing that week. Which of the five days you can use depends on the station you leave from and the line your train runs on. Korail has not stated in this announcement what a visitor needs in order to register, which is one more reason to plan around 11 September.
A booking made in the advance sale is a reservation and nothing more. Payment is a separate window, from 00:00 on 12 September to 24:00 on 15 September Korea time, and a seat still unpaid when it closes is cancelled automatically.
The holiday booking page runs in Korean only, and it shuts at 13:00 Korea time on 11 September. Korail did publish an English notice, but its text sits inside images, so a search will not surface it. The first of those images also gives the sales period as 7 September to 4 September; the end date there should read 11 September.
- Free seating, senior seats, seats for passengers travelling with infants and the KTX companion seat are all suspended across those five days, along with the usual discounts.
- Twelve tickets per person for the period, and no more than six in a single reservation.
- Refunding a holiday ticket on departure day costs more than it would the rest of the year.
| Departure station | Where the train runs | Advance sale day |
|---|---|---|
| Any station | Conventional trains, meaning everything that is not a KTX, on all lines | Monday 7 September |
| Seoul, Cheongnyangni, Bujeon and Pangyo stations | KTX to Daejeon, Dongdaegu, Changwon, Masan, Jinju, Pyeongchang, Gangneung, Donghae, Pohang, Uljin, Yeongju, Andong, Gyeongju, Bujeon, Chungju and Mungyeong | Tuesday 8 September |
| Yongsan Station | KTX to Iksan, Gwangju Songjeong, Mokpo, Jeonju and Yeosu EXPO | Wednesday 9 September |
| Suseo Station | KTX to Daejeon, Dongdaegu, Gyeongju, Ulsan, Miryang and Busan, plus Suseo trains on the Gyeongjeon, Donghae, Honam and Jeolla lines | Thursday 10 September |
| Seoul Station | KTX to Daejeon, Dongdaegu, Gyeongju, Ulsan, Miryang and Busan on the Gyeongbu Line | Friday 11 September |
Pay with an overseas-issued card
Korail officially supports overseas-issued credit cards on its website. Card approval is still handled by the issuer, so ask your bank whether the card is enabled for overseas online purchases if payment is declined.
At payment, set a five-digit numeric password and keep it with the email address used for the purchase. The official My Reservation page uses those details to find the booking and, where the interface permits, request a refund.
- Keep the five-digit password; it is part of the non-member lookup.
- Check My Reservation before attempting the same purchase again.
Check the ticket before travel day
Plan the hotel-to-station leg from the station name printed on the ticket, not from the operator logo.
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Date and departure time | Korea time; check an overnight itinerary carefully |
| Departure station | Seoul Station and Suseo Station are both in use; read the one on the ticket |
| Train number | Confirms the exact service on the departure board |
| Car and seat | Tells you where to board and sit |
| Lookup details | Purchase email plus the five-digit password retrieves the booking |
If the train is sold out
A sold-out result is for that service, not proof that the whole route is unavailable. Use only alternatives that appear in the official search: nearby departure times, another train type, or another departure station where the route allows it. Compare the journey to the station before choosing.
Quick answers
When do regular KTX tickets go on sale?
I have no Korail account. Can I still get a seat over Chuseok?
Can I use a card issued outside Korea?
Which station in Seoul does my train leave from?
Are KTX and SRT booked separately?
By Hyouk Seo · Last updated: 2026-09-03