Korean Job Discussion Forums

[NYenglishteacher]

I will be finishing a year contract shortly, and was planning on doing some traveling afterwards. I was hoping to come back to Seoul after a month and a half or so of backpacking and fly home them. Only problem is, now my employer is telling me that the flight they book for me has to be for within 2 weeks of my contract ending.
Nothing in my contract says anything about this; all it says is that "Upon completion of the full 12-month contract, employer will provide the employee with an economy class ticket for passage from Korea to a destination agreed on by Employer and Employee."
I've been told by my recruiter that I can have them book me a ticket home and then I can cancel it and get the money, but another teacher is doing this now and was told that he won't receive the money until a month after the flight is scheduled, even if he cancels now. I'm a bit hesitant to do this, seeing as how teachers tend to get screwed more than anyone else here.
Any suggestions as to how to handle this? My school is owned by a large corporation, not a mom-and-pop hagwon, so I'm not sure if that changes things.

[alphakennyone]

Well, your title is a bit misleading. They aren't exactly refusing to pay for your flight home, they are just being inflexible with the flight date.

I can't be any more helpful than that because it seems technically they are not breaking the contract. It sucks, but a lot of schools (especially the big chain ones) like to be hard-asses and keep repeating the mantra "you're here to teach, not to travel."

[romano812]

First, once they purchase the ticket for you, you can go to the travel agent and change the date on it (costs about $50). Second, you can have the travel agent cancel and pay you in cash (minus a small fee). However, the schools are not required to pay the travel agent until approximately one month after the date on the ticket, or something like that. So, yes you would have to wait for the money.

[thoreau]

Is this a Visa issue?

Won't your Visa expire while you're backpacking?

[NYenglishteacher]

[okayden223]

Thought I was about to read about someone getting shafted again. I agree with alphakenny. They aren't jerking you around at all. It's not their responsibility to coordinate you travels after you leave. Maybe if you were really cool with your boss you could arrange it so he'd give you the cash when you came back, but how often does that happen here? I think romano's advice is golden. I didn't know you could do that. I may try that myself when my time is up...I'm planning on heading to Nepal for a few weeks to see Everest. Good luck and let us know if it works out!

[NYenglishteacher]

[romano812]

The school I worked for purchased my ticket for April, and I am just using it now.

[SharkDiver]

If the school buys the absolute cheapest ticket then you cant change the date even for a fee. My school did that to me. They purchased a ticket but when I went to use it to go home there was no room on any flights (the ticket was given to me last minute and when I went to book, everything was full) and Korean Air refused to change the date for any fee b/c it was such a cheap ticket. So make sure you negotiate with your employer to not do this if u want to travel. Make sure you can pay a fee to change the travel date.

[Carla]

[cruisemonkey]

[SharkDiver]

When I asked about the ticket back near the end of my contract the crapwon (OE DAE Language Institute (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) in Suwon run by Mrs. Ann (English First Name: Gloria) (Owner/Director)) presented me with some eticket and when I went to confirm I was told all flights were full. Korean Air said no date changes were allowed as the ticket was bottom of the barrel cheap. The crapwon of course wanted to save every penny. It was only good if someone cancelled from the flight. I don't know the details but the ticket was useless. The hagwon just pulled something sghay to save money.

[Carla]

[mateomiguel]

what was it a reserve booking or something? How can you get a ticket for a flight and all the seats are full?

[SharkDiver]

This was a couple years ago now. I "think" the school had booked the return ticket open for some time. When I asked about the ticket a month or so before leaving they said, to my surprise, that it was an eticket that had already been purchased. I never got a copy of it until the very end of my contract. When I finally got a hold of this eticket after contacting my recruiter (my school just totally washed their hands of it and offered no help) I tried to use it. Korean Air said "sorry we are full" and would not allow alterations of any type as it was a super el cheapo ticket. So I had to pay my way back thanks to cheap Mrs. Ann at OEDAE Language Institute.