Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - travel agent cancellation fee, is this for real?

Recently, I purchased an international korean Air ticket from US to VN.

Since I cannot make it. I want to cancel. The Korean Air told me that if I buy from them, the cancel fee would be $150 and I can cancel anytime before the departure day. If I buy from travel agent, I have to deal with that travel agent.

I called my travel agent, and he told me $375 for cancellation, and I have to do it soon within this week. Well there is still more than 1 month and half for the departure day. Is that a joke here?

I email Korean Air see if they can cancel my ticket, they told me they cannot find my record (I guess due to the matter that I bought it from travel agent). And they told told that if I bought it from travel agent, I would talk to that travel agent to process.

Now, I'm out of my mind. With this, I'd lost another $200 ($375 - $150 = $225) to the travel agent for nothing.

What do you suggest to get my money back and only pay the real fee which is $150 or around that point?

Thank you very much.

You're pretty much SOL. You can try talking to the TA and state that KE said it would only be 150$ but you chose to use a Travel Agent and when you purchased that ticket you not only agreed to abide by the rules KE has but that the TA has.

Recently, I purchased an international korean Air ticket from US to VN.

Since I cannot make it. I want to cancel. The Korean Air told me that if I buy from them, the cancel fee would be $150 and I can cancel anytime before the departure day. If I buy from travel agent, I have to deal with that travel agent.

I called my travel agent, and he told me $375 for cancellation, and I have to do it soon within this week. Well there is still more than 1 month and half for the departure day. Is that a joke here?

I email Korean Air see if they can cancel my ticket, they told me they cannot find my record (I guess due to the matter that I bought it from travel agent). And they told told that if I bought it from travel agent, I would talk to that travel agent to process.

Now, I'm out of my mind. With this, I'd lost another $200 ($375 - $150 = $225) to the travel agent for nothing.

What do you suggest to get my money back and only pay the real fee which is $150 or around that point?

Thank you very much.

The matter is that , when he sold me the ticket, he didn't tell me the cancellation fee.

If he has a website take a look to see if it's posted on it. You could try contesting if it isn't but I think you're SOL. It's kind of standard to know that TA have their own set of fees you pay them for the service. This is why Orbitz and Hotels state that "We have no cancellation fee, but the airline/hotel/operator charge a ......"

The matter is that , when he sold me the ticket, he didn't tell me the cancellation fee.

The matter is that , when he sold me the ticket, he didn't tell me the cancellation fee.

Did you ask what the fees were to cancel or change the ticket?

If you asked and they said there was not a fee to change or cancel that's one thing, but if you didn't ask you really can't blame them.

Ask him if you can get a credit for a future flight from him. He may be willing to negotiate the fee if he knows you'll be flying again soon. Remember that Korean Air would have probably given you a flight credit as well, so if your travel agent is refunding you in cash then that might be a better deal.

As others have said, it's your responsibility to check on the cancellation fee before booking.

The TA booked your flight. Now you want him to cancel your flight and process a refund. He doesn't work for free. $225 seems high to me. I wouldn't have booked with that TA. You must have had a reason for not booking directly with the airline.

The TA doesn't want to deal with customers who are wasting their time. I agree with the pp. See if all, or most, of the $225, can be used as a credit for a future booking. Make sure whatever you book isn't costing $300 more then if you booked direct.

OP probably bought a consolidator fare through a TA. These have different cancellation/refund rules than published fare tickets.

We might be able to help, but OP should post the fare code. Airlines often have better consolidator fares to highly ethnic markets like Vietnam.

Thanks everyone a lot for your help.

I'm not sure what the code is. it is internet ticket. It is economic ticket, Q class.
Thank you.

When I was a travel agent we would make up whatever cancellation fees we liked and put them on the clients confirmation - even sometimes selling a flexible fare as non-refundable, meaning that if the client cancelled we could keep the money. I suspect many travel agents do this. It was one way to make money when so few airlines offer commission to agents. I'm no longer in the travel industry.

Hi, I am a travel agent in th US and I just had a charge back on my merchant account because a customer asked me to reserve a car in Cuba for him, so I did and he paid me a $25 fee for the service provided, but when he got to Cuba, the rent-a-car there did not give this guy the car probably because they did not have it available, so he came back and disputed the charges, including mine saying that he cancelled both services. I know this is not the same case but the point I am trying to proof here is that booking thou a travel agents sometimes works a little different than booking directly from the suppliers, most of the time TA get special deals or discounted prices that we are able to pass on to our customers, but yes this is subjected to higher cancellation rates from the suppliers, and also the TA needs to charge something because he/she was the ones making all the work for his/her customers. But, yeah try calling your TA and see if there is something that can be done to use some of that money as a credit for your next trip.