Getting a train or bus out of Seoul for Chuseok

Right now

1. 1Member booking closed on 11 September. Since 15:00 on the 11th, leftover seats have been on sale to anyone in the KORAIL+ app, on the website, at station counters and at ticket machines. A non-member cannot hold a seat and has to pay on the spot.
2. 2If the train you want is sold out, join the waiting list before you refresh anything. You can apply until two days before departure, and seats cancelled for missed payment come back in the order people applied.
3. 3Book a bus as a fallback now. Express and intercity buses have sold holiday seats since 25 August, and a bus cancelled two days before departure costs nothing.

What to have ready

• KORAIL membership number and password: Only if you have one. Sign in the day before, because the booking page gives you three minutes once you are in.
• Passport or Alien Registration Card: For buying or collecting at a station counter.
• A card that has already worked on a Korean site: A Korean-issued card is simplest. Non-members buying leftover seats must pay on the spot.
• Your route written the way the screen writes it: 부산 for Busan, 동대구 for Dongdaegu, 광주송정 for Gwangju Songjeong.
• A second plan: A bus terminal name and a departure time you would accept.

Phrases you can copy and paste

Step by step

1. 1

   The member window gave each line its own day, and it closed on the 11th

   Where:

   The KORAIL+ app or the holiday booking page linked from the KORAIL website

   The member window ran from 7 to 11 September, 07:00 to 13:00 each day, and the day depended on the line, not on how early you woke up. The 7th was conventional trains on every line. The 8th was KTX on the Gangneung, Gyeongjeon, Donghae, Jungang and Jungbunaeryuk lines from Seoul and Cheongnyangni, which covered Gangneung, Pohang, Andong and the trains that reach Dongdaegu by those lines. The 9th was Honam and Jeolla Line KTX from Yongsan, so Gwangju Songjeong, Mokpo, Jeonju and Yeosu. The 10th was every KTX that starts or ends at Suseo, on any line. The 11th was Gyeongbu Line KTX from Seoul Station, which was the Busan, Ulsan, Daegu and Daejeon day. KORAIL's own example is Seoul to Dongdaegu, which could be booked on the 8th on Gyeongjeon and Donghae line trains and again on the 11th on Gyeongbu Line trains.

2. 2

   The member window is Korean and members only, and that decides who gets in

   The holiday booking page is in Korean, and it admits KORAIL integrated members only. KORAIL and SR merged on 1 September, so this is the first holiday with one page. Existing KORAIL members were carried across. Anyone who had only an SR account has to convert it in the KORAIL+ app before the page will open for them. The English booking site is a separate system and is not where this window runs. KORAIL has not published a note for foreign residents, but signing up on the Korean side goes through Korean identity verification, which in practice means an Alien Registration Card and a phone number here. If you have neither, this window is not for you, and that is fine, because the next step is.

3. 3

   Without a membership, buy from the leftover seats on sale since 15:00 on the 11th

   Where:

   The KORAIL+ app, the KORAIL website, a station counter or a ticket machine

   How long:

   Open sale of leftover seats, from 15:00 on 11 September

   Two hours after the last member window closed, every seat that nobody reserved went on open sale. KORAIL sells those seats through the app, the website, station counters and ticket machines, and non-members can buy, with one difference: a non-member has to pay immediately instead of holding the booking. Station counters were not part of the member window at all, so a counter where you can show the route on your phone is now a real option. KORAIL says that by the 11th, 92.7 percent of KTX seats and 58.6 percent of conventional train seats had been sold. If the KTX is sold out, look for a conventional train on the same route too.

4. 4

   Booked seats come back when nobody pays for them

   How long:

   Payment closed on 15 September for general bookings, the 18th for priority bookings

   A member booking was a hold, not a purchase. Payment opened at midnight on 12 September and closed on the 15th for general bookings, the 18th for priority bookings. Anything unpaid was cancelled automatically and offered to people on the waiting list in order. Read that from the other side and the days after the 15th were when seats reappeared for everyone who missed the first round. Those seats now move only through the open sale and the waiting list.

5. 5

   If your train is sold out, join the waiting list before you refresh anything

   Where:

   KORAIL+ app or website, the sold-out train, then 예약대기

   The waiting list, 예약대기, is how a returned or cancelled seat finds its next owner. You apply on the sold-out train for your section and number of people, up to two days before departure. When a seat matches, KORAIL sends a KakaoTalk or text message and you have until 18:00 that day to pay, or it moves on to the next person. This year there is no standing room to fall back on. For the five holiday days KORAIL is not running free seating, standing tickets, senior seats or family seats, is not selling discount products such as N card fares, internet specials or travel passes, and is not crediting mileage. A seat is the only thing on sale.

6. 6

   Buses have been on sale since 25 August and have a kinder cancellation rule

   Where:

   KOBUS for express buses, Tmoney GO for intercity buses

   Express bus seats for the holiday went on sale on 25 August and the website keeps selling until one hour before departure. KOBUS has English, Chinese and Japanese versions of its site, and Tmoney GO, the app for intercity buses, also sells trains and flights. From Seoul the two big departure points share one subway stop, Express Bus Terminal station on lines 3, 7 and 9: the Seoul Express Bus Terminal side runs the Gyeongbu and Yeongdong routes to Busan, Daegu and Gangneung, and the Central City side runs the Honam routes to Gwangju, Jeonju and Mokpo. Dong Seoul Terminal, next to Gangbyeon station on line 2, covers much of the east. The holiday cancellation table is the reason to book a bus first: nothing is charged up to two days before departure, 10 percent from the day before until three hours ahead, 20 percent inside three hours, and 60 percent once the bus has left. A bus you cancel on the 21st for a train you found on the 15th costs you nothing.

7. 7

   Flights are the third route, and they book in English

   Where:

   Gimpo Airport, on line 5, line 9 and the airport railroad

   Seoul's domestic airport is Gimpo, not Incheon. Between them, Korean Air, Asiana, Jeju Air, Jin Air, T'way, Air Busan and Eastar fly from there to Busan, Jeju, Gwangju, Yeosu and Ulsan, and their sites take a foreign card in English without any membership. As of 8 September no airline has announced extra holiday flights, so the seats on sale are the normal schedule and the evening departures before the break sell first. Check the airline's own site again a week out rather than assuming.

8. 8

   Book the way back at the same time

   The trains on sale run from 23 to 27 September, and the return crush is Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th, because Monday the 28th is a normal working day. Whichever route you take out, hold a seat back before you stop looking. A one-way seat out with no seat home is how people end up on a seven-hour bus on Sunday night.

The Korean words

예매yemae, advance booking

The word on every booking button, for trains, buses and cinema seats alike.

통합회원tonghap hoewon, integrated member

The single KORAIL membership since the merger with SR. The only account the holiday page accepts.

잔여석janyeoseok, remaining seats

What goes on open sale after the member window. Also a menu item in the app.

예약대기yeyak daegi, waiting list

Apply on a sold-out train and a returned seat is offered to you in order. Pay by 18:00 the day it is offered.

매진maejin, sold out

Shown in red on the train list. It is not final while the waiting list exists.

취소표chisopyo, a cancelled ticket

A seat that came back. After the 15th, most of them came from unpaid bookings.

고속버스gosok beoseu, express bus

Long distance with few or no stops, sold on KOBUS. 시외버스, intercity buses, stop more and are sold on Tmoney GO.

귀경gwigyeong, the trip back to Seoul

The direction that fills up on the 26th and 27th. Going home is 귀성.

Easy to miss

• ·Treating the English booking site as a way into the holiday window. It is not. The window is Korean and members only. Your entry is the open sale that started at 15:00 on the 11th.
• ·Waiting for the member booking page to open again. Every line's member window had closed by the 11th, and what is open now is the leftover seat sale and the waiting list.
• ·Reserving a seat and forgetting to pay by the 15th. Those bookings were cancelled without a warning and went down the waiting list; what is left is the open sale and the waiting list.
• ·Waiting for a standing ticket. None are sold on the holiday trains this year, and neither is free seating.
• ·Buying a ticket from a stranger online. KORAIL sends staff to buy those tickets, cancels the seller's membership and refers cases to the police.
• ·Finding a train and forgetting the bus you booked as a fallback. Two days before departure it refunds in full. The day before it does not.
• ·Counting on a rail pass or a discount fare for these five days. KORAIL is not selling discount products for the holiday trains, so check your pass's own terms before you plan around it.

You can skip this if

• Staying in Seoul over the break means none of this applies. Subways and city buses run as normal.
• If you already hold a KORAIL membership, booked in your window and paid by the 15th, there is nothing left in this guide for you.
• Driving out of the city is a different guide. On 1 September the government announced that expressway tolls are waived from 24 to 27 September, over the Chuseok holiday.
• This guide is written around the 2026 Chuseok dates and this year's KORAIL notice. Next year the days, the lines and the rules can all move.

Where this comes from

• KORAIL press release, Chuseok holiday tickets on sale from 3 September, 14 August 2026
• KORAIL press release, Chuseok ticket booking starts tomorrow, 2 September 2026
• KORAIL press release, 1.8 million Chuseok tickets sold, 11 September 2026
• KORAIL holiday ticket booking page, per-day line list (KORAIL)
• Missed a Chuseok train ticket? Join the waiting list first, Segye Ilbo citing KORAIL, 7 September 2026
• KORAIL and SR integrated membership conversion, KORAIL press release, 30 July 2026
• KORAIL English booking site (KORAIL)
• KOBUS express bus booking, cancellation fee table (KOBUS)
• Chuseok booking on Tmoney GO, Tmoney, 28 August 2026
• Expressway tolls waived from 24 to 27 September under the Chuseok measures, 1 September 2026 (Korea.kr policy news)