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Korean Air is to introduce no-show fees for passengers who fail to provide advance notice that they no longer require a flight booking.
The Korean Air no-show fees will be applied to tickets purchased from Oct 1, for passengers who either do not cancel their reservation prior to the scheduled time of departure or passengers who do not board their flight after check-in has been completed.
Passengers who fail to turn up for flights to/from North America, Latin America, Europe and Oceania on long haul routes will be charged U.S.$120. Those flying to/from Southeast and Southwest Asia on medium haul routes (except for those classified as long haul) will be charged $70 and between Korea and Japan/China or between Japan and China on short haul routes $50. No-shows on domestic flights in Korea will be charged 8,000 won.
No-show passengers booked to travel on award tickets will have either 12,000 miles, 7,000 miles or 5,000 miles deducted from their accounts, calculated according to the length of the flight they have not turned up for. No-show passengers booked on award tickets for any domestic flight will have 500 miles deducted.
The no-show fees will be waived for infants under 2 years of age, not occupying a seat.
Korean Air has been charging domestic flight no-show fees since October 2008 and has been able to offer the cancelled seats back to waiting customers, minimizing seat wastage.
© Asia Travel Tips
8 Comments
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Azzprin
Normally if you fail to cancel in time you lose what you paid for the ticket.
So is this a charge in additional to what they paid for their ticket ?
Strangerland
Looks that way.
coskuri
I don't see why anyone would do that intentionnally as that would get you arrested and questionned when you try leaving the transit area. That happened to me once to miss boarding as transit time was too short (first flight late, bad organisation in old Seoul airport) and not only I did not pay but I demanded to board on another flight that day (as that was to a different airport I needed a Shinkansen ticket plus my luggage delivered at home the next day). And I have avoided Korea Air since that day because I had to shout really loudly during a lond time to obtain what was due. I fly Asiana.
Why would you pay it ?
lucabrasi
Ah, Korean. The airline that insisted via a monitor, "... there are no flight announcements. Wait in lounge until your flight is shown on the screen."
And then acted all upset when I arrived late for my flight when the screen hadn't registered any change for an hour.
Pukey2
I can understand why they'd penalize passengers who have checked in luggage and don't turn up at the gates on time. Not only does it delay the plane, but if they don't turn up at all, it can turn into a security problem - who knows what's in their luggage. It p*sses me off when I see passengers come on the plane AFTER the scheduled departure time.
But why are they charging passengers who have already paid for their tickets, as Azzprin asks? Let me get this straight - the airline gets the passenger's money for the ticket, they get more money from the fine, and they get yet more money from some stand-by passenger who eventually gets the seat. This isn't another way of trying to boost the airline's profit, is it?
bicultural
Great way to lose customers
DaDude
Korean businesses on a whole are quite ridiculous bout tardiness. I arrived an hour before my flight on 2 separate Korea-owned airlines with plenty of time to spare. One airline didn't let me on then proceeded to chew me out. The other one lectured me about how being early is important for my livelihood.
noriyosan73
Let's see, assuming the ticket is non-refundable. The person doesn't show up, from the total take off weight of the plane, subtract 65 kilos of personal weight, subtract 15 kilos/bag (usually two), subtract 10 kilos in a well packed carry-on and laptop, and 5 kilos for extra clothing that could not fit in the check-in weight limit. Round it off to 120 kilos because the personal weight may be a little conservative. If 5 people are no-show, that is 600 kilos. What is the fuel savings for a flight from Korea to San Francisco? In addition to that, the flight attendants have 5 less people to contend with, especially if alcohol is free, line is shorter to the toilet after a meal, and maybe a better seat for the fast moving passenger after the seat belt light goes off. If an additional fee is imposed and there is a stand-by fee paid for extra baggage handling at the last moment, it really is a win-win for the airlines, and the passenger who has to really, really, go.