Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lsucpolk]

I agreed to renew my contract with my hogwan on a few conditions, one being that they allow me to go home to the states for a certain amount of time. They agreed. The woman who handles all issues with us foreign teachers is now trying to book my round trip flight, and she is insisting that I take the cheapest one, which is 400 dollars cheaper than all the others, but the return flight has a twelve hour layover in San Francisco, and another 12 hour layover in Denver. Other more expensive flights don't have the ridiculous layovers. Am I wrong for insisting on a more reasonable, yet more expensive, roundtrip flight? And how do I leverage a more reasonable one in negotiations? Thanks in advance.

[Ibsen]

Why not try splitting the difference with them? Doesn't seem unreasonable that they would want you to take the cheapest flight, but it's also very reasonable that you don't want 24 hours of layovers in random cities. Splitting the difference sounds like a fair compromise.

[matthews_world]

It's all dependent on the deemed start date by your boss and what it will say on the contract.

You may score some major penalty points and lose face with your employer if you miss classes by coming back late.

Find out when your contract start first and then buy the appropriate ticket.


Not so hard.

[rowdie3]

Try finding a cheaper flight yourself and then printing out the info and showing it to them. I am having a lot of luck these days finding good deals on www.onetravel.com. Splitting the difference also seems reasonable if they won't change their mind.

[jrwhite82]

There is a great opportunity for you to get what you want, and for them to also save money or not spend a dime more which allows everyone to get what they want. You have many options:

Take the price that they are willing to pay for the cheap ticket with 2 12 hour layovers and try to beat it on your own and show them the site. This will save them money and you time. Win win.

Try to match the price on a different site. They lose nothing, you win by saving time.

Try to come close to match it and you pay the difference. They lose nothing, you lose a little money but don't have to suffer the lay overs. Everyone is even.

Book your own flight choice and pay them the difference. They pay what they agreed to. You don't suffer the layovers.

I don't think what they are doing is too unreasonable. When most places calculate the value of your airfare they do it by the cheapest ticket available (regardless of schedule). If you want to change the schedule or upgrade to business or first class then you should pay the difference.

They didn't promise you first class or a non-stop ticket right?

But I hear you that 2 12 hour layovers is a terrible flight. (One I wouldn't book for myself) But it is a flight. I would pay the difference.

[nathanrutledge]

I disagree with jrwhite on this being reasonable. I'm willing to bet you're flying United and you're going to somewhere in the midwest and those 12 hour layovers are overnight layovers. Am I right on any of this?

If so, I'd tell them that they need to provide a hotel accommodation for those layovers. Also, IF I'm right on my guesses, you should be able to fly the same route without the layovers for the same price. I just bought tickets from ICN-SFO-DEN-home and then back, and there were 5 or 6 combinations that were the same price; the only differences were the departure times and the final flight. The SFO-ICN flight was either a late night one or an early morning one the next day.

ANYWAY, any layover that requires finding a place to sleep for the night would be unacceptable to me. The number of airlines that fly from Korea to the US, and the number of flights per day - there is no reason that a comparably priced ticket cannot be found

[jrk888]

Have them pay for your hotels and check those cities out.

[bbunce]

They will only pay for the cheapest roundtrip flight. Probably says that in your contract or something like "one-way economy". So what they've told you is normal. Do what jrwhite suggests and my guess is you'll be at least happier with the outcome. Good luck.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Best advice in this thread is jrwhites'.

Asking for the school to pay for hotels on the 12 hour layovers will likely backfire.

Doing some legwork and finding a better route at the same or at a lower price is far better.