How do foreign residents book Chuseok KTX tickets on the Korail Talk app?
I work in Daejeon and want to travel to Busan over the Chuseok holiday. I installed Korail Talk but could not confirm whether an alien registration number is accepted at the sign-up stage. Holiday tickets apparently go on sale separately from ordinary ones, so when does that open, and is the app usable in English?
1 Answer
Yes, Korail Talk accepts an alien registration number at sign-up, and the app has an English mode.
Set the account up before booking opens rather than on the day. Identity verification can require a mobile phone registered in your own name, and sorting that out while tickets are selling is exactly the wrong time to discover it.
Holiday tickets are sold separately from ordinary tickets, and this is the part that catches people. Chuseok seats are released in a dedicated advance sale some weeks before the holiday, not through the normal booking window, and much of the inventory is gone within minutes of opening. The exact opening date and time are announced by Korail in advance, so check their notice and set a reminder — anyone who simply opens the app a few days before the holiday finds nothing on the Daejeon to Busan route.
Three things help on the day. Be logged in before the sale opens, since signing in at that moment costs you the seats. Search departure times either side of what you want rather than a single time. And if nothing appears, check standing-room tickets, which are sold on many holiday services and are a reasonable option for that distance.
If you miss the advance sale entirely, cancellations return to the pool continuously as the holiday approaches, so checking the app repeatedly in the days before travel does work. Express buses are the practical fallback for Daejeon to Busan, and they are less prone to selling out completely. Fare and schedule details are on the Korail site, and the app carries the same information in English. The Korail customer centre is 1544-7788 if the app will not verify your identity.