Shipping packages from Korea to the US with EMS Premium

  • 2024-09-25 (Wed)
  • 5-minute read

Recently I needed to get a phone shipped from South Korea to here in Indiana, US. My plan was to purchase the phone online and get it shipped to our house, then ask a family member to ship it over via the post office. Sounds simple enough, right?

For starters, the local post office (EMS) refused to send the phone because it contained a lithium battery. I searched this up, and it seemed like the alternative was to use a much more expensive service like DHL or FedEx, or use something called EMS Premium. It was an option being offered by UPS Korea in conjunction with Korea’s post system, and the price seemed pretty reasonable.

To ship a phone with EMS Premium, the family member had to fill out a bunch of forms. One of them asked for the phone’s IMEI, the model number, and serial number. They also asked us to sign a form saying that they were not responsible for any damages caused to the phone. (We were allowed, however, to purchase insurance, in case the package itself was lost during transit.) So in case you try something similar, make sure to use plenty of bubble wrap and other soft materials.

All in all, it cost 54,000 won (about $40.62 as of writing this post) for the base shipping price, along with 10,000 won (about $7.52 as of writing this post) for the added lost shipping insurance.

Here’s the timeline, with local time specified for each event:

  • 2024-09-11 10:31 - Package is received by the local post office in Korea
  • 2024-09-11 13:22 - Package leaves local post office
  • 2024-09-11 14:36 - Package arrives at central hub in the eastern part of Seoul
  • 2024-09-11 15:31 - Package leaves the central hub
  • 2024-09-11 19:59 - Package arrives at the international post warehouse at Incheon Airport
  • 2024-09-11 23:21 - Package handed to 3rd party courier (UPS in this case)

For some reason, the package info didn’t update for a very long time after that last entry. I got worried, but it turned out that there was a changeover from the tracking code that EMS Premium used to the UPS one.

The changeover itself took like two days, which was a bit annoying but not the end of the world. Once the new tracking number had been generated the EMS Premium site started to redirect me to UPS’s website with the new code:

  • 2024-09-13 12:19 - A label is created with UPS, but they don’t have the package yet
  • 2024-09-13 13:54 - Package arrives at UPS facilities at Incheon, Korea
  • 2024-09-13 13:59 - Package leaves UPS facilities
  • 2024-09-13 14:04 - Package arrives at another UPS facility at Incheon, Korea
  • 2024-09-13 15:06 - Package awaits final clearance from customs

Again, another long wait. I was rather nervous, because it was Friday, and Monday marked the start of Chuseok, a national holiday in South Korea. I thought that maybe UPS and/or the customs at Incheon Airport wouldn’t operate during holidays or weekends, but it turned out that they did, because the package started to move once more:

  • 2024-09-15 01:30 - Package leaves from the facility
  • 2024-09-15 05:52 - Package cleared by customs and is being transported

At this point, I was pretty sure that the package had made it onto a plane. I looked online, and it seemed like all packages leaving Korea headed for the US passed through a UPS facility in Anchorage.

Unfortunately, for cargo flights, it’s hard to track exactly which flight it is, as some flight radar sites online disagree on the exact schedule and positioning of each route. I then found flight 5X6099 on Flightradar24, which seemed like it had departed at 1:30 AM, exactly the time listed on the tracking page. Sure enough, the flight landed at 3:35 PM in Anchorage, and the tracking resumed:

  • 2024-09-14 15:52 - Package arrives at UPS facility in Anchorage
  • 2024-09-14 17:51 - Package leaves UPS facility

Another time zone change, this time to Kentucky.

  • 2024-09-15 04:13 - Package arrives at UPS facility in Louisville, Kentucky
  • 2024-09-15 10:29 - Import scan at facility
  • 2024-09-15 14:43 - Package leaves UPS facility
  • 2024-09-15 17:10 - Package arrives at UPS facility in Indianapolis, Indiana
  • 2024-09-16 07:17 - Processing at local post office
  • 2024-09-16 08:54 - Out for delivery
  • 2024-09-16 12:42 - Delivered

In summary, it took 6 days in total for the package to arrive from Korea to the US. While the box was looking a bit squashed, the actual contents inside were undamaged, right down to the glass screen protector that I’d included.

The downsides are that the package contents aren’t insured for damage, like I mentioned previously, and as your package grows in physical dimensions and weight the price balloons exponentially. Even if you don’t opt for EMS Premium because whatever you’re sending doesn’t contain lithium batteries, it would’ve cost nearly 100,000 won (around $74 as of writing this) to send a box filled with tools like calipers and Korean snacks.

Still, it’s cheaper than a round-trip flight. So unless you or someone you know have a scheduled flight coming up, perhaps this is the best and only way to get packages with potentially flammable goods inside across the globe.

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