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 open two months before departure at 07:00 Korea time. Trains running 23 to 27 September 2026 came out of a separate Chuseok round that has since closed, and the seats left over are on general sale now. 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 two-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 two months 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 sat outside that rule, and the Chuseok section below covers where those seats are sold now. 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: get a seat on the 23 to 27 September trains
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 never went on sale under the one-month rule in force at the time. They were held back for a separate holiday round, and it shut at 13:00 Korea time on 11 September. There is no 07:00 opening left to wait for on those dates.
What is on sale now is the remainder. At 15:00 Korea time on 11 September everything unsold in the holiday round moved to general sale, and that is where it has been since. The channels are the Korail+ app, the Korail website, station ticket counters and station ticket machines. Counters and machines ask for nothing beyond payment, and the website takes non-member bookings. About 84% of the seats Korail put up had already gone in the holiday round, so what reached general sale was thin.
A booking made in the holiday round was only a reservation, and the window to pay for it closed at 24:00 on 15 September Korea time. Seats still unpaid then were cancelled automatically and passed to waiting-list applicants in turn, which is how a seat can still surface on a train that was full on 15 September; a second payment deadline at 24:00 on 18 September will move one more set of unpaid seats the same way.
- 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.
- Refunding a holiday ticket on departure day costs more than it would on a Monday-to-Thursday departure.
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: 2026-10-28