"Chuseok Train Tickets for Sale" Premiums of 10,000 Won or More Demanded on Secondhand Trading Platforms

Reselling Tickets with a Premium of 5,000 to 10,000 KRW Each
Clear Illegality, Subject to Punishment... Korail Conducts Special Crackdown

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Ahead of the Chuseok holiday, train ticket reservations have ended, but tickets for some popular routes are being resold. These are ‘unfair transactions’ conducted secretly to evade surveillance despite special crackdowns.

On the 30th, when searching for ‘KTX’ and ‘SRT’ on the secondhand trading platform Danggeun Market, numerous posts appeared attempting to trade tickets for the Chuseok holiday period. Most were tickets traveling between major cities such as Seoul to Busan or Seoul to Gwangju.

Among these, some were listed at face value, but many had selling prices not clearly specified, such as ‘12345 won.’ In such cases, it is generally understood in online secondhand trading that buyers are silently pressured to propose a price first.

According to Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), out of 1.65 million seats available for sale during this year’s Chuseok holiday, 799,000 seats were sold. Suseo High-Speed Railway (SRT) also sold 217,000 out of 295,000 supplied seats. This means that over one million people are traveling by train during the Chuseok holiday. Especially, tickets for popular routes such as Seoul-Busan, Seoul-Gwangju, and Seoul-Daegu are mostly sold out on both KORAIL and SRT.

On the 23rd, when the reservation for Suseo High-Speed Railway (SRT) tickets operating during the Chuseok holiday began, information related to Chuseok ticket reservations was being provided at SRT Suseo Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. This year's Chuseok ticket reservations will be conducted 100% non-face-to-face to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Sellers are exploiting this situation by reselling tickets at a premium. For example, one seller posted on September 12 that they were selling one KTX standard seat from Busan to Seoul at 65,000 won. The regular price for this ticket is 53,500 won on weekdays and 59,800 won on weekends and holidays, so a premium of 5,200 to 11,500 won was added.

Another seller was offering a ticket from Seoul to Dongdaegu on September 9 for 49,900 won. The regular price for this ticket is 43,500 won, so a premium of 6,400 won was added. This seller even included a phrase saying ‘Only selling until today’ to induce urgency among those needing tickets.

Such unfair ticket transactions are clearly illegal. Purchasing a large number of tickets through abnormal methods and distributing them unfairly online can lead to charges of obstruction of business. In fact, last year, a court applied obstruction of business charges to an online scalper and imposed a summary fine of 5 million won.

KORAIL has also been conducting special crackdowns on unfair transactions since the start of Chuseok ticket reservations on the 16th. They track abnormal purchase histories and access using macro programs in real time and report them. During last year’s Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays, KORAIL requested investigations into eight suspects suspected of illegal transactions using macros.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.