Korean Air has come up with a new fee, a penalty for not using an already paid-for ticket. That’s on top of losing the money paid for the ticket.
Passengers often abandon tickets when the change fee is too high (with change fees at around $200, that happens often on U.S. domestic flights). Korean Air wants to resell the seat you paid for, and it’s using the fee or the fear of it to force passengers to notify them.
The fee is $120 on long-haul flights, $70 for medium haul and for short flights $50. For tickets bought with award miles, there are penalties of 12, 7 or 5 thousand miles.
Let’s hope this one goes no further!
Sadly it seems that the only thing limiting some airlines from charging another fee is their imagination. However, I have faith that they will think out of the box and try to suck more from their passengers.
If you do call the airline to cancel your return ticket you get no refund. They will probably sell your seat for more than your two-way ticket cost. If you try to reschedule your return for another day they will charge full price with no discount for being polite and doing the right thing. So you just walk away and find another airline.
The Philosophy of W.C. Fields. “Never give a sucker an even break”