① Airline Non-refundable Income of $500M
Have you ever missed a flight at the airport? Many people think they can’t get a refund if they miss a flight, so they don’t claim it. People often believe that most airline tickets cannot be refunded even if canceled.
However, if you miss a flight and can’t board, you can receive a partial refund, such as airport usage fees, according to the regulations. If you cancel your airline ticket before the flight departs, you can receive a refund, excluding the penalty. Even if you missed the flight due to personal circumstances, you can get a partial refund of the airline ticket price.
The airline ticket price includes airport facility usage fees and departure taxes paid to the airport corporation and the government in addition to the fuel surcharge. This is the cost you can get back if you don’t board the plane, excluding the fare set by the airline. These amounts exceed 110,000 won ($92) for Tokyo and 150,000 won ($125) for Bangkok.
Recently, SBS News exclusively reported that airlines have pocketed over 600 billion won ($501 million) in the last 10 years from unclaimed refunds that passengers didn’t know they could receive. The airlines have been incorporating this money as ‘miscellaneous income.’ Over the past 10 years, the profits of 10 domestic airlines exceeded 620 billion won ($518 million). From 2013 to 2022, Korean Air pocketed 240.8 billion won ($201 million), Asiana Airlines 238.2 billion won ($199 million), Jeju Air 57.4 billion won ($48 million), and Jin Air 35.7 billion won ($29.8 million) in non-refundable income.
An airline official said in an interview, “If you request a refund, we will immediately give it to you, and it is also possible to change the date within the statute of limitations, which is one year.” He added, “It seems this happened because the airlines can’t afford to contact each customer individually to give a refund.”
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it will prepare improvement measures and investigate the refund situation.
② Excessive Fees for Airline Ticket Cancellations
The Korean Consumer Agency warned of steady consumer damage to airline tickets in September and October, including the Chuseok holidays. As the travel demand increased, consumer damage also surged. The representative type of damage was excessive penalties for airline ticket cancellations.
There were also cases where the airline refused to compensate even though the flight was delayed or canceled, causing disruptions to the travel schedule. Mr. A purchased three round-trip tickets to Hawaii through a travel agency and paid 5,382,000 won ($4,500). A few hours later, he realized the reservation was wrong and requested a cancellation through the travel agency. The travel agency stated that only 1,246,200 won ($1,042) could be refunded according to the airline’s cancellation policy.
Like Mr. A, many people are confused due to excessive fees when canceling airline tickets booked through online travel agency sites. They believe that the airline ticket cancellation policy announced by the airline is the same because of the phrase ‘fee imposition according to airline regulations.’
However, the cancellation policy for airline tickets booked through a travel agency differs from that for airline tickets booked directly through the airline. When booking airline tickets through a travel agency, cancellation fees are usually set based on separate conditions agreed upon between the airline and the travel agency.
In this case, you must pay the travel agency and airline three fees when you cancel your ticket. You must pay cancellation and ticketing agency fees to the travel agency. The cancellation fee to be paid to the airline differs from the terms and conditions of each airline’s direct sales airline ticket disclosed on the airline’s website.
Travel agencies apply separate regulations that are different from the direct sales regulations of airlines.
Therefore, if you book an airline ticket through a travel agency, you will be charged more fees when you cancel.
③ Need to Check Cancellation Fee Before Payment
Airline tickets sold by travel agencies are cheaper than those sold directly by airlines. However, when you cancel, the fee is higher than the airline’s. Some argue that it is difficult for consumers to check the cancellation fee. Therefore, it is necessary to recheck the cancellation fee before payment.
Each airline provides information on airline ticket refund penalties through its website. Airlines provide refunds without cancellation fees within 24 hours after booking. However, ticket cancellation is impossible outside business hours in some travel agencies. Even if you cancel your airline ticket within 24 hours, your request may not be processed immediately. If the travel agency processes the cancellation after the weekend on a business day, the consumer will have to pay more fees. Since the fare regulations differ for each airline ticket, it is necessary to check, not just buy, because it is cheap carefully.
By. Kim Minjae
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