KORAIL's Special Measures to Prevent 'Don't Ask Reservations' during the Lunar New Year [Y Record]

■ Host: Anchor Lee Jung-seop, Anchor Cho Ye-jin
■ Starring: Professor Chae Sang-mi, Department of Business Administration at Ewha Womans University

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News START] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Now, people look for transportation to their hometowns ahead of Lunar New Year's Day. Representatively, KTX reservations will begin today, but the penalty for refunding train tickets will increase significantly this Lunar New Year?

[CHAE SANGMI]
Korail announced that it would double the refund penalty during the Lunar New Year special transportation period, which is the special transportation period from the 24th to the 2nd of next month. In the meantime, it has been pointed out that the penalty for refunding train tickets is low, and because of this, there are many cases of "don't ask" reservations or "cancel after preoccupying seats in large quantities." In order to solve this problem and reduce the inconvenience of actual users, Korail has decided to double the penalty during the holiday. For example, based on three hours before the train departure day, 5% of the amount used was usually paid as a penalty if canceled three hours before the departure time, but 10% was paid as a penalty if canceled from three hours before the departure time. During the holiday special period, it was announced that 10% and 20% would be doubled, respectively.

[Anchor]
I also use Korail KTX a lot, so if you could explain it by comparing it with the actual train ticket.

[CHAE SANGMI]
For example, the KTX regular seat ticket price between Seoul and Busan is 59,800 won. Normally, if you cancel within 3 hours before departure, you only need to pay about 6,000 won, which is 10%, as a penalty, but you have to pay 12,000 won, which is twice as much during the special Lunar New Year transportation period. Korail hopes this measure will minimize so-called no-show damage during the holiday season. Among the tickets released during the Chuseok holiday last year, 2.25 million tickets, or 45%, were refunded. Among them, 240,000 seats, or about 5% of which were not sold again, were operated as empty seats, so it is expected that this measure will minimize the inconvenience of citizens who want to use Korail.

Excerpted from
: Song Eun-hye, editor of the digital news team

#Corail #New Year's Holiday #TrainPurchase