<Anchor> The
service to easily get credit card points back in cash has gained great popularity, and within one month of its introduction, 170 billion won went to the cardholder.
There is a growing demand for airline mileage tied to coronavirus to do this, but airlines are in a position that it is difficult due to regulations.
This is reporter Kim Jung-woo.
<Reporter> With
Corona 19, the sky road became tight, making it more difficult to write airline mileage.
[Soo-min Choi/Dalseo-gu, Daegu: I was planning to go overseas, but I couldn't.
Corona 19 may be terminated, so.]
Airline mileage is held as a debt in the airline's account, and if it is used by the customer or expires after the deadline, it is treated as profit and forfeited.
It is estimated that Korean Air has accumulated over 2 trillion won worth of mileage and Asiana Airlines has accumulated 840 billion won worth of mileage.
Airlines stipulate in the terms and conditions that mileage cannot be converted into cash, transferred or sold as an additional service provided to customers free of charge.
It means that mileage cannot be used as property. Last year, a civic group raised a problem with the Fair Trade Commission saying that these terms and conditions were unfair, and the review is underway.
[Park Soon-Jang/Consumer Sovereignty Citizens' Council Team Leader: All the methods that can be used like cash are restricted, and the property rights that consumers have accumulated through economic activities are denied.]
It turned out that even though it could not be used as a property to customers, airlines gave credit card companies a mileage accrual for only three years from 2016, and made a profit of 1.8 trillion won.
[Kim Onyu/Gyeonggi Hwaseong City: I think it is natural to compensate with cash.
I think we have the right to take it too.]
Airlines are trying to appease customers by extending the expiration date of mileage, which expires this year, to the end of next year, but the demand for monetization of airline mileage is expected to grow more and more.