The short version
Holiday train booking runs through one Korean-language page, for KORAIL members only, on a day fixed by your line. Seoul to Busan is Friday 11 September, and anything through Suseo is Thursday the 10th. If you have no membership, your date is the 11th at 15:00, when whatever is left goes on open sale to anyone, station counters included. Express buses have been on sale since 25 August and keep selling until an hour before departure, and cancelling one two days ahead costs nothing.
Last verified:
Deadlines that matter
KTX on the Gangneung, Gyeongjeon, Donghae, Jungang and Jungbunaeryuk lines from Seoul and Cheongnyangni
By when: Tuesday 8 September, 07:00 to 13:00. Closed
If you miss it: Some of these routes also run through Suseo, which opens on the 10th. Otherwise the open sale on the 11th and the waiting list.
Honam and Jeolla Line KTX from Yongsan
By when: Wednesday 9 September, 07:00 to 13:00
If you miss it: Trains to Gwangju, Mokpo, Jeonju and Yeosu that run through Suseo open again on the 10th. After that, the open sale on the 11th.
Any KTX that starts or ends at Suseo
By when: Thursday 10 September, 07:00 to 13:00
If you miss it: Suseo trains do not come back on the 11th. What is left of them goes on open sale at 15:00 that Friday.
Gyeongbu Line KTX from Seoul Station
By when: Friday 11 September, 07:00 to 13:00
If you miss it: This is the last member window. Two hours later, at 15:00, the open sale starts for everyone.
Paying for a booked ticket
By when: From midnight on 12 September until the 15th
If you miss it: The booking is cancelled and the seat goes to the waiting list in order. A reservation you have not paid for is not a ticket.
Cancelling an express bus ticket with no fee
By when: Until two days before departure
If you miss it: From the day before until three hours before departure the fee is 10 percent. Inside three hours it is 20 percent. After the bus has left it is 60 percent this year.
Right now
- 1Find your line's day before anything else. Seoul Station to Busan, Daegu or Daejeon is Friday 11 September. Any KTX that starts or ends at Suseo is Thursday the 10th. Gwangju, Jeonju and Yeosu from Yongsan is Wednesday the 9th.
- 2No KORAIL membership and no Korean phone number? Skip the member window. Open sale of whatever is left starts at 15:00 on Friday the 11th in the app, on the website and at station counters, and non-members can buy.
- 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
Each line has its own day, so start from your destination
- Where:
- The KORAIL+ app or the holiday booking page linked from the KORAIL website
The member window runs from 7 to 11 September, 07:00 to 13:00 each day, and the day depends on the line, not on how early you wake 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 covers Gangneung, Pohang, Andong and the trains that reach Dongdaegu by those lines. The 9th is Honam and Jeolla Line KTX from Yongsan, so Gwangju Songjeong, Mokpo, Jeonju and Yeosu. The 10th is every KTX that starts or ends at Suseo, on any line. The 11th is Gyeongbu Line KTX from Seoul Station, which is 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 can be booked again on the 11th on Gyeongbu Line trains.
- 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
Without a membership, your day is Friday the 11th at 15:00
- Where:
- The KORAIL+ app, the KORAIL website, or any station counter
- How long:
- Open sale of leftover seats, from 15:00 on 11 September
Two hours after the last member window closes, every seat that nobody reserved goes on open sale. KORAIL sells it through the app, the website and station counters, 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 becomes a real option from this hour. Do not expect the departures everyone wants to survive until then.
- 4
Booked seats come back when nobody pays for them
- How long:
- Payment window opens at midnight on 12 September
A member booking is a hold, not a purchase. Payment opens at midnight on 12 September and general bookings must be paid by the 15th, priority bookings by the 18th. Anything unpaid is cancelled automatically and offered to people on the waiting list in order. Read that from the other side and the days after the 15th are when seats reappear for everyone who missed the first round.
- 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
Buses have been on sale for two weeks 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
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
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 come 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 on the 11th.
- Booking on the wrong day for your station. Suseo is the 10th and Seoul Station on the Gyeongbu Line is the 11th, even for the same city at the other end.
- Reserving a seat and forgetting to pay by the 15th. It is cancelled without a warning and goes down 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 and booked in your window, the only step left is paying between the 12th and the 15th.
- Driving out of the city is a different guide. Whether expressway tolls are waived this Chuseok has not been announced.
- 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.
When it is time for a person
- If the holiday also lands on a lease ending, a visa running out or a job starting, the train is the smallest item on the list. That is the week when one person who can see the whole month with you is worth more than any booking trick.
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 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
Rules, fees and deadlines change and depend on your exact case. Please confirm the details with the official sources before you act.