Consumer complaints are growing over Korean Air's mileage reform plan announced last month.

Korean Air explains that it is a reasonable reorganization that increases the customer's benefits, but some have already made a collective move to request a review of the agreement with the Fair Trade Commission.

According to Korean Air and the Internet community, complaints about the SKYPASS system reform announced on the 13th with the pilot plan to introduce mileage redemption with cash and card payments last month.

In this restructuring, Korean Air has changed the criteria for redeeming award tickets and upgrade award miles from 'region' to 'operating distance'.

Until now, mileage was deducted for four international flights, including one domestic flight, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Oceania, but from April 1, 2010, the standard will be divided into one domestic flight and 10 international flights in proportion to the distance traveled. is.

As a result, 64 of the 125 Korean International flights operated on Economy Class have reduced bonus miles and 49 routes.

The 12 lines are the same as before.

Hawaii, which was previously classified as the Americas and deducted 35,000 miles on a regular one-way basis, has been reduced to 32,500 miles, while Japan's Fukuoka will be reduced from 10,000 miles to 10,000 miles. The description of the.

However, consumer complaints are mainly raised over long distance routes.

For example, to purchase a Prestige seat between Incheon and New York as an award ticket previously required 62,000,500 one-way trips, but 90,000 miles were required for the revised plan.

Buying the same segment first class extends from the previous 80,000 miles to 135,000 miles.
During peak seasons, a 50% premium is paid for the deductible miles.

That's why consumers who have been planning to purchase award tickets based on the existing deduction tables are virtually impossible to realize.

Korean Air has changed its mileage accrual rate, and there are also many complaints that the first and prestige classes have greatly increased their earning rate to up to 300% and that the discount rate of discounted classes, such as travel agency promotions, has been reduced to 25%.

This is because the six booking classes of Economy Class maintain a 100% earning rate, but you will not be able to earn mileage accrual for special tickets.

In response, Korean Air said, “The result of 19 years since 2002 is a result of partial realization of long-term cumulative changes such as the external mileage accrual environment and the trend of overseas airlines.” Is not the primary fare, so it's hard to generalize that a large number of economy class buyers belong here. ”

However, we declined to disclose the figures on the percentage of purchases by class of economy class.

The aviation-related Internet community has been constantly complaining about "rich profits between member classes" and "refining the mileage and getting the benefits with money rather than buying air tickets."

Lawyers of one of the law firms have been recruiting participants through the joint lawsuit 'Angry People' since the 2nd of this month to accuse the Korean Fair Trade Commission about changes in Korean Air's mileage benefits.

They argued that the mileage credit for the Economy Classes used by the majority of customers was significantly reduced and the mileage deduction rate for long-distance routes increased due to changes in the mileage deduction criteria. .

In addition to the claim for review of the mileage changes, they are also considering the overall uncertainty of the high season standards and improper transfer of costs to consumers.

Citizens' Association for Consumer Rights Citizens also issued a statement earlier last month, accusing Korean Air's mileage measures are not just for consumer rights but for evasion.

On the other hand, Korean Air said, "Because it entails a huge change of system, the existing member's experiences may vary depending on existing usage patterns, but overall, it changed to increase customer benefits." We will communicate with our customers through various channels. "

(Photo: Korean Air Homepage Capture, Yonhap News)