Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hockeyguy109]

I'm one of two new teachers who were told that in order to receive our airfare reimbursement for coming to Korea, we had to provide them with our boarding passess (that little piece of paper from the flight). Neither of us saved them - nobody told us to. It's not in our contract either. We still have our receipts and flight info, but they said they HAD to have the boarding pass. Is this some kind of GPIK scam? Has anyone had this happen to them? If it is legit, it sure would have been nice to be informed about this beforehand.

Isn't the payment info from the airline with our credit card info and the flight itinerary enough?

[moosehead]

public schools get audited - maybe yours has had problems and that's why they're asking.

first call the airlines and see if they can come up w/some assistance. if not, ask them to explain to the school and/or provide some other kind of proof you were on the flight.

[hockeyguy109]

Yeah, thats wild. I hope the airline will help. I wish I had known that little piece of paper I threw away at the airport was worth 650 dollars. lol

[CentralCali]

Don't panic! You can contact the airline and have them send you a letter on their corporate letterhead stating that you did, in fact, board the aircraft for your flight over. I've had to do that once or twice in the not so distant past.

[hockeyguy109]

Thanks CentralCali. I was really worried about it. I was just thinking "Man I'm glad I work at a Public School. If it was a Hagwon that said that, I might be in real trouble.

[ChinaBoy]

Obviously your school is going to be a pain in your butt all year. Good luck!

[suki]

Yeah, I called Dain Bae on this one. The reason I called them out on that, is they give you that information AFTER you've already signed the contract. It's only in that booklet they give you after you've received your final papers signed by the school. Pretty lame. But, they tell you they're covered because you are given that booklet prior to arrival in Korea.

Dain's response was they can't include EVERYTHING in the contract, or it would be forty pages long. To which I said, so what if it's forty pages long, you can't throw in extra details after we've signed. Seems policy and contract are two different things with her.

They'll give it to you if you don't have the boarding pass, you just gotta prove you were actually on that flight somehow. But it really isn't a good precedent. How many other policy things will they try to shoehorn in when we're not noticing, that could be used against us arbitrarily?

[Otherside]

Suki,

I agree with Dain on this one. The information was there, you just didn't look at it. They say they will re-imburse you for your flight and they will, they just want to be sure you were actually on that flight?

It isn't hard to book the most expensive ticket, get the receipt/e-ticket and then cancel and book another cheaper ticket.

This is why I'm in favour of GEPIK adopting the entry/re-entry allowance like EPIK. Basically, they give you 1.3mill in lieu of airfare. This is better for the majority of teachers as it:
A. Gives teachers who are already in country a choice whether to take a flight or not. Also gives a benefit to teachers who are close to Korea.
B. Teachers who find a better flight can pocket the difference, (if you book a round trip ticket, rather than 2x 1way tickets, you'll almost always come out ahead)
C. No hassles with re-imbursement.

[lifeinkorea]

If the school has to pay for your flight, then why are they playing games asking for anything? Did you magically fly over the Pacific with your wings? Did you swim across with your luggage?

Common sense would tell you that the person TOOK A PLANE!!!! HELLO!!!

[farrepatt]

OP, I lost my boarding pass before I started at my first GEPIK school last year, before I knew they would ask for it. They made a big stink at first, but since I could give them everything else they wanted, they eventually gave me the airfare. I think I might have done the same at my second school.

[CentralCali]

It's not that they think you flapped your arms and made it here that way or had the NC-1701 crew beam you over. It's to ensure that you're getting reimbursed for the actual amount of the flight you really did take.

[lifeinkorea]

[suki]

that's fine - they should still have that info for us up front, not as an afterthought. and I agree - the Epik system is much more straight-forward.

[Otherside]

LifeinKorea

The boarding passes would prove you took flight BA123 on Jan 10th 2009 (for example). And your reciept/e-ticket that you are submitting would show how much you paid.

Otherwise, you could have bought a really expensive flight, cancelled it, and came over on a cheaper flight, while submitting the expensive flight and pocket the difference.

[lifeinkorea]