Customers irked by air mileage programs

Airplanes at Incheon International Airport

Not enough seats available, say travelers; airlines say they are losing money

Lee Hyeon-seon, 30, an office worker who enjoys overseas travel, is thinking of canceling her credit cards designed to accrue airline mileage. While the cards sounded like a good idea at first, Lee has become frustrated at the difficulty of using her "points" to secure an actual plane ticket.

Lee tried to reserve a seat using her mileage program five months before her vacation, but ended up having to purchase a regular ticket instead. Benefits for mileage holders have shrunk, and reserving seats has become more difficult, Lee said.

Consumers have increasingly raised complaints about airline mileage programs. As of November 28, 873 cases have been reported to the Consumer Protection Board (CPB), a 28-percent increase from the 683 cases filed last year. Since Korea's adoption of the five-day workweek from a six-day week two years ago, demands for mileage-based tickets have risen rapidly, but the airlines have not increased the number of seats that qualify for such programs.

These programs differ depending on airline, but in general all such tickets to the U.S. and Southeast Asia during high travel seasons are booked about four months ahead of time. An executive of a large company complained that in the case of foreign airlines, it is possible to get free tickets a few weeks prior to departure, but domestic Korean airlines such as Asiana Airlines and Korean Air have been busy gathering mileage-program members while neglecting to offer enough mileage-based tickets.

In response to this criticism, domestic airlines said that they have offered more favorable services to consumers than overseas companies. An official of Korean Air (KAL) said that during peak travel seasons, all airlines without exception try to raise the ratio of passengers that cannot redeem mileage points for tickets. An official of Asiana Airlines said, "The mileage offered by a considerable number of foreign airlines disappears after a certain period of time, while consumers can use the mileage provided by domestic airlines even after 10 years.''

Airlines and customers have been embroiled in debate over mileage programs for the past several years. Mileage credit, while a bonus for customers, represents a debt for the airlines. Currently, the debt from customers' accumulated mileage for KAL reached about 145.3 billion won (US$150 million) in 2005 from 77.2 billion won in 2003, and about 37.5 billion won from 17.2 billion won in 2003 for Asiana.

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