|
Beware of Consumer Damages from Airline Services!
In light of the summer vacation season, the Korea Consumer Agency (President : Myung-Hee PARK) reminds consumers to be careful when using airline services as consumer damages and complaints involving airline services are being increased as follows;
Consumer Claims involving Airline Services
(Unit: Case)
|
Classification |
2006 |
2007 |
2008. 6. 30. |
Total |
|
Consumer Counseling |
1,374 |
1,201 |
617 |
3,192 |
|
Damage Redress |
162 |
148 |
100 |
410 |
Major Damage Types
(Period : 2006.1.1 ~ 2008.6.30)
|
Type |
No. of Claims |
(%) |
Remarks |
|
Delayed Flights, cancellations |
112 |
27.3 |
|
|
Commission issues for ticket changes or cancellations |
63 |
15.4 |
|
|
Postponed refund of cancelled flights |
54 |
13.2 |
|
|
Complaints related to baggage services |
35 |
8.5 |
Breakage, Late delivery, Loss etc. |
|
Ticket issuing travel agency’s faults |
34 |
8.3 |
Failure of acquiring flight ticket, Errors on flight tickets such as wrong date, wrong airport name, and wrong destinations. |
|
Lack of information from airline company |
14 |
3.4 |
|
|
Overbooking |
12 |
2.9 |
|
|
Others |
86 |
21.0 |
Damages related to mileage program, loss of flight ticket and physical injuries |
|
Total |
410 |
100 |
|
According to the Korea Consumer Agency’s analysis of consumer complaints involving airline services from January 2006 to June 2008, flight delay and cancellations accounted for the largest proportion with 112 cases (27.3%), followed by cancellation charges with 63 cases (15.4%), postponed refunds with 54 cases (13.2%), and baggage claims with 35 cases (8.5%).
(Consumer Complaints by Airline Companies)
( Period: 2006.1.1 ~ 2008.6.30) ( Unit: Case)
|
Classification |
Airline Companies |
No. of Complaints |
|
Domestic Airlines |
Korean Air |
669 |
|
Asiana Airlines |
362 |
|
Jeju Air |
47 |
|
Hansung Airlines |
61 |
|
Foreign Airlines
|
Garuda Indonesia |
46 |
|
Northwest Airlines |
36 |
|
Lufthansa |
48 |
|
Air France |
71 |
|
China Eastern Airlines |
40 |
|
Thai Airways |
80 |
※ The above claims were received by the Korea Consumer Agency regardless of the airline companies’ revenue.
Related Cases
◣Departure Delay ◥
|
The consumer, Mr. Lee purchased a round trip ticket for Incheon-Switzerland-Rome via a travel agency. On the date of departure, he waited for the flight at the airport, however, the flight departed 8 hours later than the scheduled departure time. The airline company provided him with one night accommodation with a dinner at Russia. Nevertheless, he was late for the training schedule and he missed his Rome city tour. Besides, the airline company replied with a voucher of KRW 100,000 in responding to Mr. Lee’s compensation request of delayed departure. |
► According to the compensation criteria for consumer damages, the company is required to compensate 20% of the air fare and actual expenses when the flight delays over 4 hours due to the company’s fault
◣ Baggage Loss ◥
|
The consumer, Mr. Kim purchased a flight ticket for Incheon-Seattle and he found that his golf club (purchasing price : about KRW 6.5million) was lost when arrived at Seattle. He had to buy a new golf club and used it in U.S. He asked the compensation to the airline company, however, mutual consents were not properly reached. |
► According to the compensation criteria for consumer damages, the consumers shall be compensated based on the terms for carriage of goods by air upon baggage loss or breakage. Recently Korea started to apply the rules of the Montreal Convention.
* The Montreal Convention : It is an international treaty adopted in 1999 and Korea joined in December 2007. Under the Montreal Convention, maximum liability of airlines for lost, broken or damaged baggage to a fixed amount 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) per passenger and 17SDR per KG excluding specially declared items.
* SDR : SDRs(Special Drawing Rights) are used as a unit of account by the International
Monetary Fund. SDRs are defined in terms of a basket of major currencies used in
international trade and finance. At present, the currencies in the basket are the euro, the
pound sterling, the Japanese yen and the United States dollar.
※ SDR 1 = Approximately KRW 1,637 (as of July 29, 2008)
◣ Destination error on the flight ticket ◥
|
A month ago, the consumer, Mr. Park reserved 2 persons for the destination of Delhi, India and settled the payment of KRW 1.8 Mil through phone. When receiving the flight tickets, he found that the destination was written by mistake as Bali, Indonesia. He visited the travel agency and he received new tickets. However, there was no direct flight but only flight via Singapore. Besides he had to pay extra KRW 200,000 since peak season tariff was applied. The travel agent promised to compensate the differences. Nevertheless, only partial amount shall be compensated excluding exchange commission. |
►The consumers should pay attention to the following destinations because of similar pronunciations;
* Frequent error occurring destinations :
Bali(Indonesia) / Delhi(India),
Dallas(Texas) / Dulles(Washington),
Oakland(U.S.A) / Auckland(New Zealand),
Santiago(Chile) / San Diego(U.S.A)
◣ Delayed boarding process ◥
|
The consumer, Mr. Chung purchased a round trip ticket for Seoul-Tokyo and waited for his boarding process 30 minutes prior to scheduled flight departure. At that time, airline staff told him that there were no more seats available on the flight. According to airline staff, his reserved seat was assigned to another passenger who was waiting there since he was not appeared 30 minutes prior to departure. Thereby, he came back to Korea the next day after paying an extra 10,000 yen. |
► Consumers are advised to remember that there is a check-in close time since consumers can experience some disadvantages because of their late arrivals.
◣ Dissatisfaction with Family Service ◥
|
The consumer, Mr. Kim applied for the Family Service provided by ‘A’ airline company for his daughter (15 years old) and he decided to send his daughter to the U.K. alone. However, his daughter missed her flight in transit and her luggage arrived 5 days later due to the airline company’s miscarried service. |
► Airline companies offer various supports for unaccompanied minors or seniors, female passengers with children, transit passengers who need language services. Contrary to their advertisement, it is possible for consumers to have embarrassing experiences because of disappointing services. Therefore, it is advised to go over Family Service details carefully with airline companies.
1. Due to flight delay or cancellations, it is recommended that consumers arrange their travel schedules well in advance.
- It is required to confirm quite often flight reservation and departure in the event of unscheduled flight delay or cancellations.
2. Confirm passenger’s details when purchasing flight tickets such as name in English, arrival/departure date & time, and destinations.
- Make sure to check all details of the purchased flight tickets to prevent following cases; Failure on board due to wrong spelling in English name, miscalculation of arrival/departure time ignoring time differences, wrong cities or wrong airports.
3. Keep high-value items or fragile articles in the carry-on baggage at all times
- Airlines assume no liability for loss or damage of high-value items such as laptop computers, cameras, jewelry, precious metals, and cash etc. Restricted items differ from countries. Therefore, check the details on baggage services with airline companies.
4. When canceling the flight, request a refund to the travel agency or airline company that the consumers purchase a ticket, and check the commission details.
For refund charge, various refund-related regulations exist according to airline companies. It is recommended to check the cancellation charge based on the terms of purchase that apply.
5. Consumer counseling for more inquiries
- Korea Consumer Agency (www.kca.go.kr / ☏02-3460-3000 / Fax: 02-3460-3180)
|
