Due to a schedule change by Korean Air, our flight path changed and so did our experience. Our great deal in business class was apparently too good and a one vigilante lounge agent personally tried to stop us from flying the ticket. I’ve never been so disrespected in my life.
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We Got A Great Deal, But Not A Mistake Fare
I have written plenty about mistake fares. I typically know a mistake fare before I book it, very few are genuinely ambiguous to me, though affordability and competitiveness of the carriers have made it less clear.
Hotwire (owned by Expedia) ran a promotion last June on flights from New York City and Washington DC to Bali with Korean Airlines. In coach, roundtrip flights were under $1,000 – fairly standard for the route, but fares in business class started at just $1870. While the price is excellent for a paid business class fare, it’s certainly not a mistake fare and there were a few reasons why this was clear:
- Trans-Pacific business class fares can be as low as $1400. In fact, I have booked several fares out of Washington DC in paid business class to Hong Kong for between $1800-2200 without a special promotion.
- The deal was only available through Hotwire and not on any other OTA, including Expedia-owned entities or through the GDS.
- The deal lasted for several days, uncommon for many (though not all) mistake fares.
- There was never any statement acknowledging a mistake occurred (because it was a promotion), no cancellation, alteration or voiding of my ticket of any kind (not any others that I have seen.
It was not a mistake, it was a promotion and while it was a good fare it wasn’t unbelievable.
Korean Schedule Change
My itinerary, DCA-ATL-ICN-DPS, and DPS-ICN-JFK-DCA were fine until just four days prior to departure. A schedule change shortened our connection in Seoul from 45 minutes (already the minimum legal connection) to just 25 minutes. While I was excited to try Korean’s 747-800 for the first time (and fly upstairs with Carly and Lucy on the Queen of the Skies), Korean’s single daily flight to Bali meant we would have certainly misconnected and spent an unplanned full day in Seoul.
Hotwire alerted us to the schedule change four days prior to departure and we acted quickly, contacting them by phone. I used my Expert Flyer membership to find other Korean flights with at least three seats in “C” inventory for sale. The JFK flight showed nine seats available (the maximum, there could have been more) in the fare bucket.
We called Hotwire and they offered to book us on the next day with a layover in Seoul at our own cost, predictably. I’d rather make the original connection or misconnect and have Korean Air handle my layover than willingly agree to drop a day of vacation in Bali and a couple of hundred dollars because Korean decided to change the flight times.
Ticket Issues
I outlined in another post the tremendous issues we had reissuing our tickets. However, after multiple calls, checking online, making corrections we had three final confirmations that all was right in the world. I received an email confirmation from Korean at their behest which clearly outlined everything as it should be.
The ticketing and re-ticketing took a lot of effort. The switch from Atlanta to Seoul to New York’s JFK to Seoul was something any airline would have allowed, Korean was no different, but along with several other anomalies as a result of doing business with a third-party travel agency complicated matters.
Nonetheless, on the day of travel, Delta still hadn’t sorted it out properly and gave us pause as we checked in. However, we pulled up the reservation following our checkin encounter and found that our tickets were exactly as they should have been. We had coach seats domestically to and from JFK and DCA on Delta, and the rest was ticketed as “C” space as it should be, key for our mileage and status earning as well as the seat we booked.
Vigilantes In The Lounge
We arrived at the Korean Airlines lounge at New York’s JFK just before they opened, and were the first guests as they opened the door. The first of two lounge attendants clarified that it was only for business class passengers (obviously). Despite wearing business casual attire, Moral Code luggage, and a Rimowa Topas carry-on it was incredulous to her that we qualified. She asked to see the tickets before allowing us further to checkin, then sweetened once we revealed them.
We submitted our boarding passes at the desk and were told we were not permitted entry because we had economy tickets by the second of two lounge attendants. Perplexed that agents hadn’t seen a mixed-cabin ticket before (two domestic segments in coach, four long haul segments in business class) we redirected to our boarding passes which plainly showed our seat assignments in Prestige Class and pushed back.
“No, Delta must have upgraded you. We have seen this before. It’s not your mistake, it’s their mistake, but this is not a business class ticket.” Said the second, older lounge attendant.
“It is. We’ve booked it business class, it has always been business class. The ticket in front of you shows business class and I can produce my receipt.” I said back, my wife was becoming upset and she is not one to lose her temperament in situations like this.
“Please.” the second seated agent shot back indignantly. She crossed her arms and sat behind the desk waiting for us to see our error or retreat.
With pleasure, we retrieved the receipts from Korean, then logged into Hotwire from their desk and confirmed our claims again. This was unsatisfactory to both of the agents, each terse. Their response was surprising considering my other experiences on Korean have been of the very politest in the business – they called the station manager and said we could sit and wait until he got there. We welcomed the move as we had shown three pieces of evidence that we had business class tickets, plus their own system which reflected “C” fare seats.
My mind was absolutely blown at this point. I had an original ticket receipt from June showing C class inventory, I had three calls direct to Korean, four to Hotwire, a checkin at Delta, and a live look at the Korean website all showing the correct seat with receipt. Over the course of the next two hours, I was asked to sit, then to come back up to the front to speak to Hotwire reps the agent had called to try and prove me wrong, only to be told that my tickets were, in fact, correct. She remained doubtful and the Hotwire rep offered to transfer to Korean directly, which she did who confirmed to myself and the agent the same thing.
As I stood at the desk as a second-class citizen, laptop opened but certainly unworthy to be there, it dawned on me that there was nothing wrong with the ticket. Over the course of the morning, one rep had suggested that the reason there was an error with our ticket was that “maybe someone else had been assigned our seats.” That obviously was not the case either.
I asked one of the agents to print my boarding passes as it shows in the system, they had since backed down from their answer that the seats were misassigned and had stated that the ticket was mispriced. They refused to print me a copy of my itinerary which would have shown the full itinerary as I outlined because they doubted its veracity. I asked then for them to print the boarding passes as they were in the system. They stated this could not be done which was an outright lie (later proven to be a lie as I watched it happen.)
Finally, a Korean call had gone on for more than 30 minutes while the older lounge agent pursued her vigilante course and I was asked to go sit inside the lounge. I indicated that the agent had asked me to call them on my phone and I wasn’t leaving it there. I was told that I should just hang up the call while they wait for an answer.
“I paid for business class, I have shown you receipts for business class, I am not flying in coach. You have business class boarding passes with our names on them in your hand.” I was steadying my voice but had become upset, boarding was set for an hour twenty minutes from then, the ordeal had gone on for 90 minutes to that point.
“You bought an economy ticket. This isn’t business class. Maybe there was some mistake, but this is not a business class ticket. This isn’t enough money.” She said back to me making it very clear what the problem had been all along.
“Now, you’re being disrespectful.” She had suggested that we had not paid enough money for our ticket, that we were too stupid to understand how much business class costs, that we were somehow tricking them. Little did she know that I have written tomes about mistake fares so (and quoted occasionally) even if that were the case, I am rather confident she would lose that battle. She finally asked for me to print off copies outlining the promotion from the web. I did so, including this piece from GSTP and my own on the matter.
Then my phone rang
“We must have gotten disconnected.” The agent from Korean Air called me back. She explained that she had fully researched the ticket, that there was no issue and that I was flying business class as purchased. I kindly asked if she would instruct the agent in front of me and she obliged.
“But this is economy fare. So I just leave it as it is? I don’t do anything, just check him in?” The vigilante turned toward the wall to clarify the situation, embarassed. She didn’t realize I had put it on speaker phone for her convenience.
I had the phone back in my hand shortly thereafter and tickets printed moments later. Nothing from our original seats assignments had changed. There was a non-apology “I’m sorry, I don’t want you to have trouble because this is economy fare” never letting go of her misconception.
Conclusion
On the way out the door, no eye contact was made with the younger of the two agents, the one that first assumed we didn’t have business class tickets because of our daughter in a stroller. But then, through the airport we found Madam “economy fare” and she refused to look at us or acknowledge us despite me being pleasant and wishing her a good day. She acted as though she could not see or hear me despite being directly in front of her and speaking to her.
We have booked plenty of mistake fares before. In fact, my very first blog post six years ago was the first time my wife and I flew business class together, it happened to be on Korean Air. But this ticket was no mistake and I had exhibited such to her nine different times using several different pieces of evidence, many at her own request.
The fact of the matter is this “former ticketing agent” had seen the price we paid, decided that we had not paid enough and we should not be allowed to fly in business. All of the facts, evidence, and receipts were just a case of our confusion, not hers. She was rude and disrespectful to myself and my family when we had done nothing wrong. She was a poor representation of her company.
A genuine apology would have been nice, even the station manager failed to reappear and was sheepish when we saw him at the gate. How expensive are apologies at Korean Air?
Have you had something like this happen to you before? Have you ever had to prove that you are in the cabin you have purchased? What would you have done if you were in my position? What could I have done differently?
The Korean lounge at JFK is a joke! Too bad, I’d like to fly their B747-8i again 🙁
“Wow” is all I have to say. Not only were they way off base but the audacity to treat a customer in that manner is completely uncalled for.
I had a similar occurrence with SAS a few years back. I snagged a one-way Business class to CPH from IAD on the SAS website at like $1200.00. Just a few days before departure. At the airport the check-in agent handed me my boarding pass….in coach. I explained this was a business class reservation and even showed her the email confirmation of my original seat reservation in business done through the SAS website, etc. She insisted that it was a mistake and I was downgraded. As well that I should have known better that Business Class would never be priced as such, suggesting that this was all my own doing and I cheated SAS. I refused to budge and three more staff got involved. My argument, if it was a mistake they should have notified me prior to check-in which would enable me to book elsewhere and cancel. Finally, the station manager relented and said “fine, we will upgrade you.” LOL. I never got properly credited for Business though as far as miles.
I realize that your fare was not a mistake. Nor would I argue was mine as it was just a few days before and I was never contacted as such. Like you I was made to feel like an idiot.
FWIW, we flew the ATL>ICN route through the hotwire deal the other week and had an approx 30-min connection, but had no issues in ICN (we did land early). I was nervous at the short connection as well, but did some research, and it appears KE doesn’t mind keeping short connections in ICN…and will hold flights for tight connections. My theory was, if the airline thinks it’s not an issue, then it shouldn’t be an issue, esp if you are flying in a premium cabin ex-ICN. We had about a 90 min layover, in the end, so I’m guessing you would have been fine going through ATL.
That said, I’m genuinely curious how they were able to see the “mixed cabin” once you were in JFK. Showing the JFK>ICN Prestige class BP somehow enabled them to see the whole Hotwire itin with the KE “E” domestic leg and that caused the issue? We did not have any similar issues in NYC/ATL/ICN, but did get the ticket reissued on KE stock when we used some miles to move from J to F on the ATL>ICN leg, so maybe that helped, but I dunno…seems very odd, overall. Hope you enjoy Bali.
Maybe she had been told you where coming on this mistake fare and was waiting for you. Was told to cause trouble with you. But then they would have caused trouble for you at the checkin area. Koreans.
Do not want to sound racist but was this older lounge attendant Koreans? Koreans have this age thing. Older Koreans can be rude and talk down to younger people then them in a very disrespectful way. They go on power trips.
@Mike Jones, for someone who doesn’t want to sound racist, you absolutely do sound racist. Why does it matter if the lounge attendants were Korean? They worked for Korean Airlines in JFK. I did not read anything that implied that they were ethnically Korean. I fly out of JFK all the time on CX. CX hires contract workers for their JFK airport staff. Perhaps Korean Airlines does the same. I am not excusing the bad treatment but I generally find the contract airline staff are not well trained. And one more thing, almost every culture has a saving face/age thing, not just Koreans. Sheesh!
As a long time Republican supporter I am astounded by the entitlement in this post. Corporations are always right. Always. Which is why we give them more powers.
Corporations please shaft my fellow Republicans more. They will enjoy it and I will support you.
Corporations > people. Always.
Well… actually the corporation was right in this case. The ticket was issued correctly, displayed correctly on the system, printed correctly on the boarding passes. It was the [person] at the lounge that decided we hadn’t paid enough, so Credit, I agree with you. The corporation treated me better than its people.
If you’re trying to make it more political than that, I think you’re going to have a hard time.
I mean lets see what Korean actually does. My bet is basically nothing. With de-regulation and a basically powerless DOT I doubt anything will come of this. I am sorry Kyle but that is a political point and only one party supports gutting regulation for the benefit of corporations
In the end, I flew the cabin that was booked, I was just treated like garbage. I have never, ever been treated that way after plenty of paid business class tickets (and awards). I don’t believe that has anything to do with deregulation, especially since Korean Air would not have been party to those domestic US policies as a foreign carrier.
This was pretty black and white as what should have happened. By your own account you were fundamentally wronged and distressed by the actions of these employees. In this circumstance, a regulatory body should be allowed to intercede on a passengers behalf if needed. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, Korean shouldnt have the be-all end-all say on how this is handled. Corporations for years have argued against any kind of regulation and one party (to debits original point) has gladly obliged.
Are you separating corporation from the people that work for it? Pick and choose huh.
Please, Kyle, escalate until these two people get fired. If there’s one thing I hate more than incompetence (and I do hate that) it’s rudeness & arrogance towards customers.
I have submitted a complaint, but I also gave them an opportunity to handle this via Twitter, for which we have heard… crickets. It’s not right and I fear others are going through this too. What should have been a pleasant, relaxing experience before a long haul flight turned into a heart-racing, embarrassing incident.
I completely agree. Airlines frequently retain scum as employees. We see this everywhere. They must be taught that the assumption should always be that the customer is right until proven otherwise. They work for us, not the other way around. If they can’t be polite and deferential then they can take a hike.
LOL at talking about your petty in-flight bag. Somehow you felt that was some sort of a status symbol? Your insecurity makes me laugh.
It’s just to say that we didn’t show up in stained sweat pants and there was no reason to assume that we could not afford the tickets. Interpret as you wish. If I leave it out, there will be comments that I was not dressed appropriately for the lounge, if I leave it in, then I am petty. I can’t win.
Before all the chismoso, which I empathize with you btw, you did write that ‘She asked to see the tickets before allowing us further to checkin’ and indicated offence. Why? Of course they have to ask for tickets/boarding passes to show proof before allowing anyone to enter their biz lounge. Eva Air did that with me, and I did not get my nose out of joint, and I was a full fare paying biz class a passenger, not an upgrade, etc.
Eduardo, that’s a fair point and one I can clarify (I chose to leave it out of my already long post but perhaps should not have.) The lounge entrance from the terminal opens to stairs and an elevator as it is on a floor one level up from the main concourse. At the door to the lounge as one agent opened it for the day and we started to walk in, she clarified it was for business class only. There was no checkin on this floor and had we waited another minute, we would not have had the exchange with her. We told her at this point that we were in fact business class customers and started shuffling our stuff inside with our family. Before hitting the elevator, doubting we were business class as we had stated, she asked for our boarding passes before even allowing us up in the lift. We produced them and got in the elevator, proceeded to cross a bridge to the checkin counter where we met her counterpart, Madam “economy” class.
Korean is not really user-friendly unless you are Korean and like bi imbap
I had a worse experience with American airlines when on a biz ticket the agent created a furore because I was carrying one small bag, my laptop and a suit. And has checked in only 1 bag where I was entitled for 2. Klm was worse in economy as the attendance refused to give me water after the second time on a 5 hour flight saying ” if you keep drinking like this others won’t get water”!
So racist. What does liking bi bim bap have anything to do here.
Korean Air is the most friendly airline I’ve EVER flown…and I’m not Korean…
Seriously, I would be complaining to Korean airlines and getting them fired/reprimanded.
This is an airline that has fired someone and dragged them through the mud over not putting nuts on a proper dish in first class. I imagine they can do something to educate their staff on how to treat customers.
This is an airline that required a court order to fire that entitled piece of garbage. She continues in the company following her release from prison.
You really should contact Korean Air about this. You’re unlikely to be the only one in this situation, and other people may not be able to fight as effectively. The company needs to know that there’s a problem of this magnitude.
For once, Debit is spot on! MAGA !
I am also curious what made the agents think it was an economy ticket. Did Delta issue all the boarding passes in DCA and I’m guessing the KE portion was on a Delta boarding pass? I’ll admit as a skyteam flyer I’ve flown on KE several times from JFK and never had an issue but then again I normally spend my time at the Air France lounge since it’s so much better there (even if I’m flying KE F).
Delta issued Y tickets for their segment DCA-JFK (as booked) and JFK-ICN C tickets (as booked) with no ICN-DPS tickets which happen with some airlines. Good note on the AF lounge, they were shooing Priority Pass customers over there. We should have joined them.
How was the on-board service. Often times with those foreign carriers the lounge attendants send word to the crew about a passenger (good or bad) in the lounge – like a birthday or something more sinister…
Service was fine, in fact, their onboard service was very good we found. Our daughter is well-behaved and people, especially staff, love her onboard. Our reception was rather good once boarded. The rest of the brand seems to be a shining star outside of this lounge attendant.
turned in to a battle of “face” for them?
Perhaps, but then for me too. We wouldn’t have booked a $2000 economy ticket nine months in advance and canceled a business class roundtrip to take it. For them to suggest that it was us that were too stupid to know the difference in the fare classes or the cost of the ticket became an important issue for us too. And we certainly were not going to take a 14-hour flight in the back because an agent (with no proof of her own) thinks she is right.
So, Kyle, have you filed a complaint with Korean? Will you wait until the trip is done? You spent a lot of time in conversation with the two agents, so you must have noted their names. One hopes they will be mentioned in your scathing complaint.
Just logged the complaint, rest assured it was scathing. We have our blood boiling all over again. I reached out to Korean Air on Twitter days ago – haven’t heard peep.
Thought #1: Kyle misspelled “vigilant”.
Thought #2: No, he didn’t!
Thought #3: Get ’em, Kyle!!!!!
Wow. HUGE reputational black eye for Korean. If this is how they treat families flying premium, in front of small children no less…its when you can least afford to deal with vigilante discrimination. I’m hesitant to ever fly any discounted business fare on them now. They should send the agents back to ‘revenue management’ since that’s clearly where they want to be.
I’m glad you were able to see this through in completion. Yay!! Sorry I wrote too much here, I flew them recently & was unimpressed with their robotic & sans common sense/non-logical thinking style of customer service toward non-Korean travelers.
This a blatant case of “some form” of inherent discrimination or bias, whether you believe in it or not. I live these actions on a day to day basis in work & in NYC & I’m beyond frustration, that is why I just keep my mouth shut to most (for fear of folks thinking I’m a disgruntled person) and just keep going forward. I’m am just burnt out from the bureaucratic BS that exists in any form & having to be the one to resolve it (thru paper trail actions or efforts) to never receive any type of apology for a simple mistake. All I can say is I’m smiling broadly that you have triumphed in the matter. I have Korean friends who are “Westernized” now (been in America too long…I guess) and they tell me how discriminatory their own folks can be, not only against other Koreans or races, but there is an inherent/generational caste system still in place among a few of their many beliefs that is slowly changing in the 21st Century. You have just experienced it from another race/culture (not the company per se since the KA rep supported your argument) bcz you & family spent way less $$ than those who can afford to spend way more for a Korean Air plane ticket. In the end…this is what most feel when they are discriminated against for no apparent reason (w/out trying to go psychologically deeper here)…thanks for sharing.
1st world problems! 🙂
Sure. But you knew that from the title. I think respect is an any world problem, is it not?
I’m incredulous you and Matthew keep using incredulous as a synonym for incredible. It’s not.
I had a somewhat similar case. I was flying an AF issued Flying Blue RTW award in C. When checking in for my LAX-ICN leg, lounge and later checkin agents tried to find reasons why I couldnt fly with them. ‘I had unflown legs’, though I’d started that particular leg of the ticket in SEA and had boardingpass for a flown DL flight in my hand. ‘I hasn’t paid enough miles’. ‘The ticket was not correctly constructed’. As it was a connection, I went straight to the lounge, Where after taking one very brief look at my boarding pass, they told me to back through security to the checkin desks. Only because of a very helpful KLM agent, Who reissued my ticked, which then started in LAX, had they run out of excuses and was I ‘allowed’ to fly… horrible experience.
You should have just started yelling. That is what Koreans do.
Btw, Koreans are rude. It is their modus operandi.
Not true in total. Some of the friendliest, kind hearted, respectful people I have ever met. Some certainly are vocal when treated like that but that shouldn’t be a blanket statement. I have lived and worked in Korea for the better part of my adult life and many of the foreigners here are extremely rude and obnoxious toward the locals, including my counterparts.
As an SOBFf (older black single female flyer), who travels first class a great deal, I have had my seat changed, airports changed, and attitude from desk agents and flight attendants, as to the authenticity of my tickets and seats.
Many passengers are shocked when I know that my tickets are paid for with my hard earned money, and not upgrades or tickets from airlines’ employees.
Why should someone be upset, when research and knowledge affords you the ability to read, understand and book tickets, at a cost advertised by the airlines, or booking sites? My ability to purchase tickets that become available, should not put someone’s nose out of shape because you are a smart, well-versed, traveller!
See it at a great price, purchase it and have the time of your life enjoying the benefits. Bon viage! Bon voyage! Happy travels!
Respectfully, the demand for racism in America is much, much larger than the supply. See the Jussie Smollet hoax hate crime case.
The rest of us are treated like cattle too, and yes, I fly long-haul int’l business all the time.
I have a sneeking suspicion that had you been sans child, this would not have happened.
Some years ago before I was more savvy about codes, a Northwest agent at LAX downgraded me from first to business. I was on a special promo fare where if you paid for business you were upgraded to first. When I checked in, the agent said there was a problem with my ticket and I explained the promo ( it was Beijing-LA return) I heard them talking about J and O and finally someone said issue in business and ignore the O. I complained then and after the fact but this was many years ago and I would know better now!
I’m not siding with the employees lack of knowledge or behavior, BUT the *classy* thing to do after being refused repeatedly, would be to say “ok then, thanks,” and turn around and leave. You could have later submitted an official complaint to the company. The tone here does come off as entitled and someone that isn’t very kind to service workers. Whenever you get bad service, pick up and walk away. Don’t berate employees, like you did by approaching her later in the terminal (perhaps while she was on break). Rule number one, to get good service from people in the service industry, be polite. Even if she was wrong about your ticket, you won’t prove anything to her or anyone else by getting agitated or combative with employees.
I spent a decade in the service industry on the front lines, I’m not sure how you’d like me to pick up and walk away. They had our boarding passes would not print onward ones. I wasn’t flying coach, I paid for business class. Your method makes sense if someone doesn’t let you into a club you wanted to get into, but not ahead of a two-week trip with boarding passes confiscated.
Hard disagree with the walk away part. Yes you should remain polite at all times, and not seem to blame the employee -it is their training that is to fault after all – but in situations where you cannot get want you want from anyone else – ie HUACA is different because you can get a new agent – backing down doesn’t solve anything. And going for a meal in the airport terminal and then faxing them the receipt would be a very brave strategy.
Tell the agent to bring it up with revenue management. Don’t care as a pax if the ticket is 1/4 of what it should be. That is revenue management’s problem. Front line agents should never ever ever bring these issues up with customers. Just scan their ticket and let them in.
I think this is the most important takeaway for the airline to improve processes. There are people whose job it is to worry about how much one paid for a ticket; this should not be a concern of an airport agent.
That’s funny. I’ve been upgraded on other airlines and been allowed lounge access. haha. Another reason to avoid korean, i’ve never seen an airport worker be so confrontational before.
Absolutely ridiculous. Those situations are the ones where my wife walks away to avoid the hurricane that may come.
The big problem with these stories is that you had all your ducks in a line and could argue for yourself and still only got in after 90 minutes.
Imagine the other 99% that don’t know all the rules and tricks.
Smaller eg but my family of five had front two rows chosen in exonomy plus on American from Ord to Cancun on Saturday. Plane upgraded to a 787 and we all got split up and no more exonomy plus,… not a huuuge deal but agent (who was pretty aloof and quite rude) said it was because of an equipment change…. but to a much bigger plane?!
Unfortunately being loud, pushy and knowing every argument is the way to get ahead when dealing with airlines (not saying you were rude).
All these “you should have” comments are killing me 🙁
You did the right thing here and I hope Korean makes this right somehow.
Agreed!
The same thing happened to me at JFK this past week. I was on the same deal as you DCA-JFK-ICN-DPS and back. I got to JFK and tried to switch my JFK to ICN seat when they insisted that it should be an economy ticket. I booked through Amex so they asked me to call Amex so that they can speak with them. The KE agent was insisting that it was an economy fare to the Amex agent. The Amex agent said she would look into it. My battle was more with Amex than with the KE agents. The Amex agent called me back and said at this point the only way I could fly in business would be to rebook me and have the fare difference be held on my card, which was $9,000+. She said she would then put it through to Amex who would research what went wrong. If it was Amex’s fault the $9,000 would get refunded to me. I said that was ridiculous – basically making me eat $9,000 for their mistake – if it was a mistake. I fought with the Amex agent who ended up bringing in her supervisor. They called KE and came to the same resolution as you. To me it seems that the JFK KE employees are just incompetent and don’t know fare rules. Overall though, the KE agents were apologetic/cordial to me during this process but this might be because I was speaking to them in Korean vs. your language barrier. The agent said he noted everything and would make sure there would be no issues on the later flights. The Amex supervisor basically apologized to me and said that the fare was a discounted business class fare in which if there was an operational issue (like a cancellation) KE had the right to rebook the next day to economy.
Wow! I’m gobsmacked by the behaviour of the lounge attendants. I have come across a few (thankfully. 99% of the agents I have encountered are polite) agents who think they are the owners of the airlines. This kind of behaviour is more prevalent among the staff who are in charge of upper class travel. They are suspicious of anyone they are not familiar with, assuming they cannot afford such higher class travel!
Shame on you Korean Air!
Clearly she didn’t want the likes of you grazing on undeserved macadamia nuts ( regardless of plated or still in the packet). This is the kind of case that should be pursued unrelentingly, for it is certain that this dragon has terrorised others before you , and will strike again in the future, as a serial offender, if not dealt with.
This is really sad. I love Korean and have had nothing but good experiences, but the concept of ‘face’ as mentioned and their conception of fairness is an issue here…
Makes me rethink flying them going forward, as much as that pains me.
Wow. The audacity of the lounge agent is mind boggling. You deserve a formal apology from the airlines for hiring dimwits like her.
Kyle,
I lived lived in Korea for 2 years. As such, I flew Korean Airlines a lot. You did the right thing. Stand your ground. Show and provide your evidence. File a complaint with names. Post the issue online. They will be reaching out to you soon once they see they have been shamed in public. Those agents were rude, uncooperative and failed to think out side the box. I wish you well and thanks for sharing.
It’s been days and we haven’t heard peep. Email, Twitter, is anybody home at Korean Air?
“and a one vigilante lounge agent personally”
And a 1 and a 2!!
Sorry, I must have had a typo in my rage-induced 2,000-word rambling. My sincerest apologies.
Hi there,
Good for you standing your ground! I can’t believe that they treated you like this! At a minimum even if the ticketing was difficult to follow (no excuse) they should have just let you in vs. embarrass you. And, common sense should have told them that you would not continue to insist if you did not have a business class ticket. I love that you wrote this article, hopefully, this will make it to Korean! Please tell me you filed a complaint against the attendant? She needs re-training on tickets along with customer service skills!!! Great read, thanks, Nikki.
You were spot on in how you handled this and I commend you for maintaining your cool. I’m not sure I would not have blown a gasket given how long it went on. The ticket nazi agent and the manager should both be fired. They clearly have zero concept of what their job is. The other agent that met you at the door needs some serious retraining.
Whats especially interesting is that they were looking at your fare in the first place. Why would that have come up during verification? Why would they need to know that at all unless they were rebooking you? Checking you in should have been nothing more than a scan of your boarding passes and should not have opened up to the agent what you paid and allowed them go down that rabbit hole in the first place.
It seems from the comments that some others have run into similar problems which begs the question of how to avoid it in the first place? How do you prevent counter/lounge/gate agents from looking up what you paid so that they can then decide if it was enough? It may not be possible but that might make a good future blog post. And is there a faster way to get past someone who has decided your fare was too low for your class of travel and they therefore need to put a stop to it?
WOW! This is so unlike anything I’ve ever experienced with Korean Air. I fly them a lot and I am not Korean (but I do LOVE Bi Bim Bap for those who think that somehow matters). They have always treated me with the utmost respect and courtesy regardless of which cabin I’m flying. I have flown out of JFK to Korea a few times and have never noticed anything this rude ever, though the lounge certainly leaves a lot to be desired. I’m sorry that happened to you and hope they make it up to you. FWIW my co-worker had an issue with them on a connection they booked for him. He complained and they did indeed respond to him and gave him an apology and several biz lounge vouchers, which for him was worthwhile since we use ICN often.
I think there are many people going through JFK with fuel dumped tickets.
I think Korean air told the attendants to look at the fare paid for the class you are flying.
Conjecture.
@Debit,
What do you mean “fuel dumped tickets”?
Yr, yq charges dumped.
I can’t wait to read the resolution of this. Please continue chasing and following up with Korean Air!
Just wondering, if you got your peanuts on the PLATE or bag?
Bag.
So sorry that you had to go through that. It is unbelievable to me that a lounge agent (employee) of the company would care to go out of her way to embarrass the customers. I never really understand why people who are working for a major corporation would go out of their way to bat for the company. I, myself, work for a huge corporation and find that the best policy is to always “believe the customer.” After all, good customer service leads to more business. The company can always absorb a small loss whereas the customer can’t. And it’s win-win when the employee works on behalf of the company to be the “bigger person.”
This may speak to a larger, systematic issue with the company culture. Don’t forget, the CEO of Korean Air, Cho Yang-ho, had to fire his own daughters after a series of “nut rage” embarrassing scandals. So sorry you had to endure such public embarrassment, and this is after spending a few grand! That’s no small chunk of change no matter what the product is.
I would not have waited 90mins. No lounge is worth that much of my time. If they couldn’t have gotten me in the first 10-15mins, I would have gotten their names, taken their photo with my phone and headed to the PP lounge.
I have had to ditch the airline lounges MANY times when flying business because they are either too packed, or the stuff they offer isn’t as good at the PP lounge in the same airport. (Talking to you KL!!!)
I’d rather just sit in a restaurant than be in a bad or packed lounge, so that tells you how long I will sit and wait to get into a lounge. 90mins…and with a small child. You really should have moved on…
My wife and daughter sat in the lounge (uncomfortably) while I stayed at the front fighting for our tickets, supplying evidence and speaking with various phone agents confirming the information. They held our boarding passes and would not return them (because they showed business class and could not reissue them as coach.) We really couldn’t just pick up and move or we would have no passes for the flight and the few folks that should have helped us were the ones causing the dilemma.
There wasn’t really an opportunity to move on and there would have been no resolution even if I had snatched them off their desks and left.
Kyle, your rage at Korean Air should be directed to the original booking agent — HOTWIRE. FYI and you already know this, but Hotwire did not find you an incredible deal or provide a promotion that know other OTA had.
Instead, HOTWIRE incorrectly bundled air tickets in different classes and different booking codes to offer a “discounted” ticket. No one else offered this fare because it was going to fail and it did. However you direct your rage to everyone rather than yourself for booking a ticket and HOTWIRE for selling the ticket.
When the booking failed as it was designed to do you start calling everyone. HOTWIRE pushed you off. But you get Delta (not their issue) and Expedia (not their issue) and Korean Air (not their issue) to finally issue another ticket. Because the ticket was a combination of one ways the new ticket was issued the same and most likly someone did upgrade a portion to business because the original fair ticket was a mess by HOTWIRE that again did nothing for you.
Someone along the line did something that they should not have done and reissued a bad ticket because of your insistence and mostly likely your blog. Also the person that did your NEW ticket was not HOTWIRE — yet, your rage is not against the original offender but instead an airlines that attempted to fix your bad ticket which they were not required to do. This was a HOTWIRE ticket….
Next time book direct – which you know. And next time if you don’t book direct — write your blog on the real problem which was HOTWIRE that sold you the ticket. Hotwire that sold you mixed cabin, mixed booking codes and too tight connection that a real ticket would have never allowed.
The airlines will not defend themselves because of corporation image and Hotwire will just push off their bad fare to the airlines leaving us all to believe Korean Air was the big bad boy!
Just a single question — your credit card statement showed Hotwire as payee on original transaction? Yep, thought so….
I will continue to book Korean Air. I will book business the correct way and will pay the correct price. I will book direct. If there is a problem I have only one number to call, Korean Air.
@Stephanie
Spot On
Excellent, excellent post! I couldn’t agree with this more.