Korean Job Discussion Forums

firstsong · Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Location: Korea

Greetings -

We are wondering if it is possible to have our hagwon fly us to a destination other than that of our original departure. It seems many contract are worded as ours is below:

"Upon the completion of the contract the school will provide a return ticket to the teacher's point of origin."

Can we request a flight elsewhere or are there immigration laws involved.

Thanks for your input.

cruisemonkey · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:24 am Post subject:

There's no law precluding you going anywhere you want when you leave. However, whether your boss will pay for the ticket (or not) is strictly up to him.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

here's what I did.

I bought a refundable one way ticket from Korea air and gave the boss a copy. Then I went and cancelled the ticket. Cost 30k, but so worth avoiding the hassle.

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

Maybe if it cost less.

nomad-ish · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:56 pm Post subject:

MarionG · Joined: 14 Sep 2006

I dont know about what "most" bosses do, but some are rather uncaring about the times and other hoops the teacher may have to jump through in order to make the plane.

Recently a teacher here was going home and his director bought him a ticket leaving Incheon at 6 am...and expected him to teach until 10:30 the night before. Doable perhaps, except there's no bus to Seoul late enough, and by bus he was effectively 5 1/2 hours from the airport anyway. They worked it out.

nomad-ish · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:47 pm Post subject:

chickyabroad · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Location: Seoul

I and my co-worker just asked our boss to give us the cash instead of a ticket, since we were both planning to travel after our contracts. It wasn't a problem. My boss just made me write out something saying that I had received x amount of money instead of the plane ticket he was required by my contract to give me, and sign it.

sojourner1 · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:00 am Post subject:

chickyabroad · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Location: Seoul

Well, my boss is unfortunately (in this case) very organized and started thinking about this back in the middle of August. He did a search for ticket prices to America for October to get an idea of how much they would be. At the time, and using Korean travel websites that I don't know, he got an estimated price of $800, including tax. He showed me the website, so I know he did look up ticket prices, but I haven't been able to find any tickets for near the price he found.

So maybe you can be proactive and look up the prices yourself and print them out to show your boss. But if you're leaving in December, the prices will probably be more expensive anyway, so around $1000 should be about right. Good luck!