Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Robot_Teacher]

I just found out this morning that I get Friday May 1st through May 5th off work so I want to go check out Tokyo so I called 1330 for all the relevant bus schedules and then called 6 travel agents. OK, I took a job in Korea to base myself in the center of Asia to have access to take trips to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and other places during long weekends.

Can you believe they are telling me nothing is available????
Well, Unique Travel quoted me 630,000 won!!! For Korean Air. Wow! Crazy!

Globally airfares are cheap and readily available right now. I get all these emails from airlines in America I've flown on as well as travel sites I've been using over the years and the deals are super cheap this year just like in 2002 through 2005. New York to Paris return is $400. Even less for London. St. Louis to Miami is $230 return. St. Louis to La to Honolulu is only $480 return. LA to Tokyo or Hong Kong or Bangkok is running less than $600 return. LA to St. Louis is only $120 one way and $220 return. These are total costs; not this pretax BS I'm seeing in Korea. Heck, my sister who has never flown is going to Jamaica this Summer, becuase it's so cheap! Kansas City to Montegro Bay, Jamaica is easily had for $300 return. Cheap.

What's the deal with crazy high airfares, high taxes, and the lack of airlines operating. No budget airlines?

WTF? Why no seats in Korea? Even during western holidays air service is still availabe at reasonable rates. I've even done last minute and got fair prices. And 1 week is not last minute, but it's not 1 or 2 month advance notice like we all would like to have. I feel I should be able to have access to air services. For such a rich country, it's lacking much.

[kiknkorea]

You're trying to find a deal at the last minute in Korea. The result is never pretty.

You need to book further ahead. I know this wasn't feasable in your case, but that's the rule here.

EDIT: and 1 week does constitute last minute here. Sucks I know, but true.

[Otherside]

Robot, almost all schools have a long weekend of some sort for that weekend. (And it's in the school schedule, so if you knew were too look it was available on the 1st day of the Semester). So this is a VERY busy travel weekend and you are trying to find something last minute.

My GF and I decided to go to Jeju for this weekend, and we booked our tickets over a month ago and even then, the Friday flights were full.

This is perhaps a good opportunity to visit somewhere in Korea AND time to ask your co-teacher for the school calendar, so you'll have time to plan for next time (Heads up, my school gives an extra 2 days for Chuseok in October, might wanna look into that)

[Robot_Teacher]

Make that another double please. Yes, I've asked several times since mid March for a school calendar, but told it's not available so I really don't know when I have to and don't have to work. I just know I possibly have a nice assload of paid time off coming at some point. I hope.

[Robot_Teacher]

I just got a text message from Shoestring quoting 440,000+tax 65,000
for a total of 505000.

That's a bit steep. I was expecting 300,000 after tax. It's only a 1 hour and 20 minute flight to my understanding. This is a tiny regional hop we're talking about. If it were land to bus from Seoul to Tokyo, it would take like 12 hours going 100km per hour. It's 1150 km from Seoul to Tokyo or 717 miles. This is about 100 miles shorter than Rome to London and those flights are cheap running 34 to 50 Euros each way. Commerical jet's typically fly at 550 miles per hour.

I understand Yangyang airport near Gangnueng near me used to offer flights to Tokyo and Jeju, but shut down to became a damned airplane maintenance repair center. Wonju aiport doesn't offer anything, but limited service to Jeju on only one airline.

Now I understand one major reason why little international tourism comes to Korea. People are discouraged from paying more to see less of the world. It appears Korea is not playing in the free market world economy, but is operating in a vacuum.

[Otherside]

[JJJ]

It's also Golden Week in Japan so tons of Japanese will be flying back and forth during that week and weekend to shop, so of course, since there is very little competition, the price doubles and triples (like during Christmas and New Years and Chusok).

I started my new term on March 2nd, got my school calender on my desk, sat with my co-teacher to go over exam dates, camp trips, end of term and saw that unexpected 5 day weekend. Had my ticket booked for about 300,000 won all inclusive the next day. Gotta be on the ball when it comes to days when almost the whole country is off. Good luck.

[dean_burrito]

I got a great deal from China Air, 260k plus taxes equalling around 350k for Thailand. Book as far in advance as you can. They will list flexible dates as well so you can save quite a bit of money if you leave a day earlier or later.
Here is the link,
http://www.china-airlines.com/en/index.htm

[Robot_Teacher]

[dean_burrito]

You can go to the airport in person and try to get some type of standby deal. I've known people who've flown fairly cheap doing this. You might not end up in Tokyo though.

[Robot_Teacher]

Cor blimey, make that another double. Whasssup with this site? I'm going to get fat with all these double Big Mac posts.

[JJJ]

Yeah, that sucks about your school keeping you outta the loop. Also, flights in Asia, basically, are never really cheap. Of course you can get lucky sometimes but as compared to the 99 dollar Detroit to Orlando return type deals that we see when we are home, we are SOL.

Find out your summer vacation plans soon. Fares this summer seem to be pretty darn expensive getting home to Toronto for me as compared to other years.

[nene]

I just found out about this vacation too, and my first thought was also Japan. But 505k sucks, and as someone pointed out it's a big vacation week in Japan. Japan is expensive enough normally; I have no desire to pay double to triple prices.
So maybe Jeju-do. Or maybe Gwangju and Jeonju, never been over there. Anyone have any ideas for that part of the country? Or anything else?

[Robot_Teacher]

What about Guam? I'm going to call about it tomorrow.

It's only hard, because we're foreign and don't understand how to navigate the local market. You need Korean help to get a fair deal or to get something not available any other way. I'm getting a clue that being able to use Korean sites is the key; not this small limited number of English speaking travel agents you call for quotes who don't have enough inventory. The problem is these sites like NextTour are not equipped to accommodate foreigners, but a Korean might be able to do it. Koreans can get air service just as easy as we can get at home or in many other countries seeing significant foreigner traffic. I believe you can shop in this market and score, even last minute at a good price, if you speak and read Korean and are Korean citizen or have a Korean doing it for you. Korea is simply not very well equipped to accommodate foreigners residing in Korea. Every foreigner needs a business partner, good co-teacher, or Korean friend to help accomplish business matters. In business college classes, they always said you have to have a local partner to do business in Asia.

[nene]

Let us know what you find. I may ask my coteacher to call around on Wednesday, see if there are any last minute deals to be had. Too bad Chinese visas are so difficult, I'd love to skip over there for a few days. BTW, Robot, Shoestring quoted me 378k to BKK a few days ago. My interest in Thailand doesn't much include Bangkok, so it's not for me, but in case you're interested....