June 3, 2020
Hello Everyone,
Well, the bad news came out yesterday. Korean Air will not be flying us to Thailand next month. It made me sad yesterday, so I didn't make the post until this morning. The airline will be flying to all of southeast Asia next month, but will not be coming to any city in this country. We didn't do a good enough job of getting Covid 19 under control here I guess. Sad times.
You now have two options:
Option 1: Get as much back as possible- Korean Air is currently saying that because we bought the non-refundable tickets, they will refund our money, but they will be keeping $175 (+$23) total of $198 of the ticket price. This is per ticket. (I personally have 3 tickets on this flight and have to pay this for each one.) This can be had from the airline as soon as I have all the responses. I'll then begin the school process of refunding all of the money you have deposited. This will differ depending on how much you sent in for each person and how many people you had traveling.
Total cost to you $198 per ticket. Total money back All - $198 per ticket.
Option 2: Plan again for next year. As you know, we were ready to do this. I'm still ready! I know that some of you are seniors and may not wish to plan for summer of your Freshman year of college, but for those that do, we can parlay the tickets into new ones for what would be an early summer trip next year. (Probably about a week after school let out. June 1 or so.) The airline would change your ticket date to the date we pick out and you would already have your ticket for next year. This would not cost you any additional money nor would they take the $198 from each ticket.
Total cost to you $0 Total money back $0
I would like to have the travel agent haggle with the airline about the cost. I'd like to offer her $50 per person if she could get ALL of our money back. That would mean $50 per ticket instead of $198. This is a win/win in my book as it would only be $50 per ticket for us and it would get her what is probably some much needed income as travel agents are not in high demand at the moment. If you would like to try this (no guarantees that it will work), just list Option 1 in for $50 on your reply somewhere and I'll put you down for that as well.
Honestly, I will be asking for Option 1 in for $50 right now. This is not because I don't plan to go next summer, it is just because I can't afford to have Korean Air hold almost $3,000 of my money for a year. I'll get another job (like my pizza delivery this year) and re-raise the money for next year.
I know that this is depressing. I'm sorry to have gotten your hopes up and then had this pandemic crush them. I just hope that we are in a better position by June of next year. Thailand is awesome and I'd like you to have that experience. Let me know what you would like to do: Option 1, Option 2 or Option 1 in for $50 and I'll get on that as soon as I have all of the responses.
I hope you are all safe and healthy. I'll be in touch as soon as I have a reply from you and an answer for you.
Sadly,
James Mills
919-884-6268 cell
jmills@voyageracademy.net
