Korail to Prevent No-Shows... Increased Cancellation Penalties for Lunar New Year Tickets

Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) announced on the 5th that it will implement special measures, including adjusting refund penalties, to prevent mass ticket hoarding and reservation no-show damages during holiday periods such as Lunar New Year and Chuseok.

Citizens are moving at Seoul Station in Jung-gu, Seoul, to board the KTX Ium train on the Jungang Line extended to Seoul Station. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

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KORAIL will double the ticket refund penalties during the special Lunar New Year transportation period from the 24th of this month to the 2nd of next month. Based on the train departure time, a minimum penalty of 400 KRW will be charged up to 2 days before departure, 5% of the ticket price 1 day before, 10% up to 3 hours before departure on the day, 20% from 3 hours before departure until the departure time, and 30% up to 20 minutes after departure. For example, for a KTX standard seat on the Seoul?Busan route, if a refund is made within 3 hours before departure, the penalty used to be 6,000 KRW, which is 10% of the 59,800 KRW fare, but during the special Lunar New Year transportation period, the penalty will be 12,000 KRW.

During last year’s Chuseok special transportation period, 2.25 million tickets, accounting for 45.2% of tickets sold, were refunded, and among them, 240,000 seats, or 4.9%, were ultimately operated as empty seats due to no-shows, causing significant inconvenience to the public. Lee Min-seong, Head of Customer Marketing Division, said, "Since this measure is implemented to allow those visiting their hometowns during the holidays to ride trains more comfortably, we hope it will serve as an opportunity for everyone to reaffirm their responsibility regarding reservations."

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