I have admittedly not flown Korean Air in about a decade, personally. However, I had some wonderful memories of kind flight attendants who ushered me as a young child into the arrivals area of the airport where my family was waiting. So this recent expereince with Korean Air was all the more disillusioning as well as disappointing.
Because my mother, who is in Korea, wanted to visit me, in New York, and wished to fly Korean Airlines because she also had the impression that the level of service was of a different par, I gladly paid what is actually an exorbitant price on the market for a round trip ticket. Your tickets were marketed on Kayak, an international site which showed the ticket prices in dollar amounts. This is where I ran into my first problem.
Your website does the conversion into Won, which in and of itself would not be a problem, but you make paying with a foreign card near impossible. I was told that I just had to verify that I was the holder of the card. I was purchasing a ticket for my MOTHER! I understand that in this age of identity theft and flight safety you must do your due diligence. However when you make your only branch office located at the Airport which is another 2 hours away from me AND none of your Staff at said Branch pickup or return calls THIS IS THE PROBLEM. I was surprised to learn that what I thought was a major airline was actually a disorganized and disjointed megalith that is less interested in real service and more interested in the outer trappings of "high class". Not one of your "customer representatives" called me back despite several messages I left on the phone, and despite a message that specifically said, "please leave your name and number". When I finally got one on the line by calling an office your supposedly have in Manhattan, she flippantly indicated that I would have to go to the airport. A two hour trip without verifying that anyone would be there.
I had purchased the ticket so I went. There was no one at the desk. In Terminal 1 of JFK in an entire strip of desks that were indicated under Korean air, at the front desk there was no one. I had to ask a neighboring airline how to reach your representatives. I called in an finally one elderly woman shows up and asks me to sign something and that is it. For this I traveled two hours there and two hours back. I asked this disinterested woman, who looked as though I had interrupted something important in her day, if I could establish a skypass card, so I could accrue mileage. She spoke to me as though I were slow and indicated that only the person flying could accrue miles, not the person who was paying for the ticket. Okay, that might be your company policy, but I did not know; and when paying over 1300 dollars for a plane ticket you would think it would be okay to ask. But I suppose not, afterall what do I think I am anyway, a customer?
Has no one ever purchased tickets for their elderly parents through Korean Air before? Exactly what day and age is Korean Air operating in? I am ashamed to be associated with a country, which is supposedly on the cutting edge of technology, who has a national airline that is this behind the times. I cannot be the only person who has ever purchased a ticket for a loved one or friend who is overseas.
Fine. I chalked it up to experience and moved on. Today 6/25 my mother was supposed to fly into JFK. She made it all the way to the Incheon international airport, dragging luggage before she was stopped at the check-in desk. They told her she didn't have a visa. When purchasing the ticket FROM KOREAN AIR, I HAD ASKED WHETHER ANYTHNG ELSE WAS NEEDED, including VISAs. I was quoted that Korea took part in the Visa Wavier program and nothing else was needed. Not even my mother's passport number.
Now she has called me from the airport. A woman nearing seventy, with all of her bags. I am a bad daughter for not checking on what paperwork she needed. However your staff at the call center are negligent for misinforming me and callous for making sure that when I put on the phone to discuss my options you just wanted to make sure I knew I was paying a 200,000 Won Fee to get a refund of the 15,000,000 Won you charged for an economy seat.
Furthermore, when calling in the request the refund I was asked to put the passenger on the phone. AFTER I had said that I was in New York and the Passenger was in Korea...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
You know what? Keep the fee, even for the lack of service, the running around you made me do, and ultimately the fact that my mother was turned away at the airport that she went to despite your county people walking around in masks fearing MERS. I have learned a valuable lesson, that sometimes the media is correct and that perhaps an airline that values warm nuts over customer service is not one worth flying.
I look forward to telling people about my experience with Korean Air.In the future, I will be sure to remember this disgusting episode as the ending of my exp read more