Korean Job Discussion Forums

Oreovictim · Joined: 23 Aug 2006

This Thursday's my last day of work. On Friday, I'm flying to Thailand, and then from there, I'm going home. (Chicago, IL). I don't know how long I'll stay in Thailand, so I had no problem accepting cash instead of a ticket. But now my boss is screwing me over.

The last teacher went back to Canada and received $1,400.00 to book his own flight. I thought that I'd get the same. On Wednesday, my boss said that he saw tickets for $800.00 and he told me to look for prices and talk to him. Plus, he said that he's flying in the new teacher for that price, so I should get that price, too. So I look online, and the cheapest tickets I saw were $1,600.

I talked to him today, and he tells me that that's too expensive because it's a busy time of year. So I show him the price online and it's the same for the next five months. I then mentioned the last teacher, and he first told me that 1. Canada's more expensive. 2. The last teacher had a farther distance. I told him that Canada isn't more expensive, and my distance is a lot farther than the old teacher's. He kept changing his story, and said that he gets a good deal from a travel agent.

That's when I said that online tickets are usually a lot cheaper, but he disagreed. He said that he can get buy me a ticket from now until Dec. 8th from Incheon to Chicago or he can give me $800.00. (He knows that I wont' fall for that ticket by Dec. 8th because it would mean 1. I'd only spend a week in Thailand, and 2. I'd spent money coming back to Korea just to get a ticket to Chicago.

He said that he'd call me after work for my decision. I called a different former teacher, and he said that he didn't go back to Canada; he just went to Thailand and got $700.00. I called my boss and mentioned how one teacher gets $700.00 for Thailand, yet I get $800.00 for America, but he tried to feed me some B.S. about how there are many factors to consider besides distance.

So the only thing that I could do was to get his travel agent's number and have a Korean friend call the travel agent at 9:00 tomorrow morning. But my boss is coming over to check out the apartment tomorrow at 11:00, then before work, he's going to give me my last paycheck, my severance, and my plane ticket money. Once I get this, I have to hurry and transfer it back to America. So it's not like I have time to argue or refuse. My boss is completely taking advantage of me.

What would you do? I argued about it (never raising my voice, by the way), but my boss won't budge, and he knows that I don't have the time at all. I can't just say no and refuse to leave until I get more money. I won't have an apartment, and I'll lose my $415.00 I spent for my ticket to Thailand.

I would be tempted to get my money and just not show up on the last day. (They really need me for this important test that the kids are taking. Plus, I'd like to say goodbye to the kids. But most of all, I don't want to do something so immature.)

My boss (at least I thought) has always been a great guy and has been there for me, but now that money's involved, he's turned into your stereotypical bad hagwon director.

Any ideas? It's not like I have many options to choose from.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Is it direct, or does it have a stop in Japan?

Get the full money for your trip to Canada. Tell him you aren't staying in Thailand. Once you get to Japan, hang out and get your ticket modified to fly to Bangkok.

Hanson · Joined: 20 Oct 2004

Once you have the ticket, couldn't you just call the airline and re-work it? I'd be calling around to find out if that's possible with the airlines first.

Perhaps you could also get your ticket to Thailand modified to make it a return trip to Korea (open three-month ticket) and then chill in Korea after your trip for a few days, see friends one last time, with your director then paying your trip home to Chicago.

Good luck.

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

ontheway · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 9:32 am Post subject:

Why should you get $1400? You should get the price of a ticket home. If your home is Chicago, that is the ticket price you should get in cash. If your home is somewhere in Canada, that is what you should get.

What does your contract say?

What is the cost of a ticket from Incheon to Chicago? $1600?

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

What you could do is call his bluff. Say, "Ok then. Get me the ticket." See what he says then.

But actually the cheapest one I just found with a quick search is $1262. I would imagine his travel agent would be able to find one much cheaper. They know the ins and outs better than anyone. That's not far off from 800, really. 1262 bucks is 1.17 million Won.

If he gives you 800,000 Won, that's getting close to 900 bucks (862). We're talking about a difference of 300 bucks. Not small by any means.

Why don't you ask him what travel agent it is. Get a Korean friend to call. Or just negotiate something with him like 1200 and see what he says. Don't go any lower than 1000 and cut your losses.

Kind of sucks to be screwed out of even 1 dollar though. Hate it. It's not the money in some cases, it's the point.

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

You mentioned 1600 bucks. I don't know. I did a search on Yahoo: "flights from seoul to chicago". Right at the top of the page they do a search for you. Just click the enter button. On the following page it gives you all the flights starting with the cheapest. Those are return. I was wrong before in thinking one way are about the same price. Don't know why I thought that. Anyway, you have to click on "Modify Search" and change it to "one-way" and search again.

1200 bucks.

And flights to Canada are much more expensive. The cheapest to Vancouver I found is $1461. And that's a lot closer than Chicago.

800 does seem pretty low though.

I don't know.

lowpo · Joined: 01 Mar 2007

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

Have you tried Japan Airlines? They are usually a bit cheaper.

mj roach · Joined: 16 Mar 2003

star alliance ...ana (japan) eva (taiwan) etc sell connecting flights usually around 1/2 of kal.

american a/l has (had?) a flight sold by ana.. korea - tokyo - chicago

eva has a flight inchon - taiwan - vancouver for 1/2 of kal

sounds like the problem is 'peak' season...but most k/travelers don't want connecting flights with changes (8-2-8-2!)

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

There is a chance he is finding that price. A lot of Korean websites have some pretty cheap tickets (www.whypaymore.co.kr, www.travelocity.co.kr) that English travel sites don't have. I found a much better ticket on travelocity.co.kr than travelocity.com ...

crazy_arcade · Joined: 05 Nov 2006

Not getting ripped off.

I checked some Korean sites. One way from Incheon to Chicago in December is running anywhere from 700,000-900,000.

I'd say it's fair...that money will buy you a lot of beep in Thailand.

MarionG · Joined: 14 Sep 2006

1) Make sure that the prices he's quoting include taxes, gate fees, all that nonsense...I had a 310,000 won ticket to Beijing that ended up being 590,000 won because of taxes and fees. Big rip off over Chuseok

2) you might (if you want to play hardball) ask him to delay for an hour his inspection of your apartment because you "eel you need to go to the Labor Board to get all of this straightened out..." See what happens.