Get What You Pay For

AirAsia Zest, which is headquartered in the Philippines.
AirAsia Zest, which is headquartered in the Philippines.

 

There are increasing amounts of complaints related to the service of foreign airlines.

On Oct. 30, the Korea Consumer Agency reported that complaints related to airline services had increased every year by 55.3 percent on average from 2010 to 2013, and for this year, 510 cases of damage were received from January to September, which increased by 24.7 percent compared to the same period last year.

Among 1,038 cases of damage received from last year to Sept. this year, 927 cases, which could be identified by airline name, were analyzed, showing that foreign airlines produced more complaints with 678 cases (73.1 percent) than domestic airlines (249 units, 26.9 percent).

By analyzing requests for damage relief per 100,000 airline users, AirAsia Zest (30.95 cases) had the most complaints, followed by Scoot Airlines (13.67), and AirAsia X (13.43).

Among domestic airlines, there were a lot of cases of dissatisfaction from the low cost airlines such as Eastar Jet (1.01 cases) and Jeju Air (0.76).

The major types of complaints from airline services are as follows: “refusing to refund or overcharging for cancellation of tickets” (424 cases, 45.7 percent) ranked first, and “cancellation or delay of flights” (321 cases, 34.6 percent) ranked second. However, the cases of being refunded from the contract cancellation reached only 30.1 percent.

An official at the Korea Consumer Agency said, “Although promotional airline tickets are cheaper than general airline tickets, purchasers should check the cancellation charges, since promotional tickets have many constraint conditions for refunds. They should also check the flight schedule through the airline or travel agency before departure, in case of changes.”

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