Last month I bought a Korail ticket for R/T travel between Seoul and Gyongju for travel on October 1. I will be arriving in Seoul on September 30. The terms and conditions for the ticket sale seem to say that the purchase must be completed some days before I arrive or I risk losing the reservation. Yes, it sounds like I'm saying I only reserved and did not 'purchase', but I did give them my credit card number and there had been a hold put on the CC by Korail.

Has anyone recently bought a Korail ticket in advance and subsequently arrived at or near the day of departure to find that the ticket was still available?
Is there some way or need to more fully complete my purchase?
Thanks in advance.
Peter

Sorry that I cannot give a direct answer but here are some possible contact numbers to call: http://info.korail.com/2007/eng/etr/...w_etr02100.jsp

Did you purchase a KR Pass or round-trip tickets? If you got the KR pass, not much to worry. There are terms/conditions blah blah, but it seems to me that they do not really enforce. While I cannot assure, that was the case few years ago. If you purchased regular round-trip tickets, I believe there is a deadline for ticketing. You need to provide more information to get some more help on this.

I did not get the Korail pass.

I did complete the online forms and enter my credit card information to purchase tickets for two reservations.

I have received e-Ticket booking confirmations.

---
I went back to the Korail site and recreated the ticket purchase to verify that I'd done all I could to specify that I wanted to 'purchase' (and not just reserve) tickets. I subsequently canceled the added test purchase.

The tickets were waiting for me at the railway station.
My credit card was finally charged about five days after the trip.

The trains were very comfortable in first class and completely
adequate in second class.

Has anyone ever try to buy a Korail pass online rather than through a travel agency? I'm trying to buy the pass online but I can only get as far as the page where you enter your personal information, the length of the pass you want, and the passport number. Clicking on reservation doesn't get me anywhere. I need to buy this pass soon so any comment would help a lot.

I've purchased few online in the past, and did not have any problem. Just did a dummy booking here http://www.korail.com/kr_pass.jsp and it seems to be working like before. BTW, make sure to use Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows. Korean websites seem to be extremely unfriendly with non-IE or Linux.

Thank you so much for your reply. I guess the problem was the internet browser. I was using Firefox before and it didn't work. I switched to Internet Explorer and was able to purchase the pass. Now I can travel around Korea !

Does anyone know if I purchase a KR Pass and then use KTX services between Seoul and Busan, is there actually a charge?
According to http://info.korail.com/2007/eng/etr/...w_etr02100.jsp

it says that:
Foreign clients can freely use all trains managed by KORAIL including KTX

but then it says:
Seat appointment
appointed at any station in the whole country, without separate fare(in case of using KTX, Saemaeul luxurious room or Mugungwha bedroom, 50% of exising fare is charged separately)

Assuming that I have to reserve a seat prior to boarding the KTX train, this means I only get 50% discount on KTX with the KR Pass, instead of being able to pay for a KR Pass and then have the freedom to roam around Korea for free using KTX?

I've used few KR Passes a while ago. At that time, there was no charge for reserving seat assignment on all KTX trains. They charged 50% of premium fare for first class seating only. Note that fare is broken into two categories; base fare and premium fare. Base fare is what coach class pax and first class pax both pay, and premium fare is what first class pax pays in addition to base fare. Assume that one-way base fare is KRW40000 from Seoul to Busan, and one-way premium fare from S to B is KRW10000. Coach would cost KRW40000 and first would cost KRW50000. For KR pass holders, coach would be free and first costs KRW5000 because they get 50% discount on premium fare. However this is a while ago probably around 2004-2005, so I don't know if they have changed the rules.

Just in case if they charge 50% base fare for coach seat assignment, you can take any seat in car 17 and car 18, which are designated as non-reserve seating cars.

What about express bus service in Korea.

More frequent than Korail. Cheaper

Easily accessible from subway in Seoul. (Orange line line 3 & line 7, Express Bus Terminal Station) very clsoe to JW Marriott Hotel Seoul and Shinsegae Department Store

http://www.kobus.co.kr/web/eng/index.jsp

Seoul-Busan about 50 daily service (less than $30 one way)
200mile 4.5hr

Bus is not bad if you take deluxe coach as opposed to regular coach. Deluxe coach has three seats in a row and regular coach has four seats in a row. To be more accurate, Seoul - Busan is about 250mi, and it takes 4:20 including 20min stop at a random service station.

KTX one-way full-fare from Seoul to Busan is under 50,000 won (US$40), trains leave every 15-30 minutes, and this cuts almost two hours from your journey time -- surely that's worth an extra ten bucks?

Sure.. of course it is worth $10.

Let me give more detail about this (I spent more than 20years in Seoul)

KTX takes 2.5hr - 3hr ( it was planned to make it close 2 hrs, but local politicians wanted to make a stop in their districts)

You need to book KTX on weekends and morning & evening hours

But you can go and get a seat on Express bus without booking except long holidays.

Price general 20,900won delux 31,100won /34,200won

Express bus terminal is very close from subway station, compared to Seoul station(not many KTX), Yongsan station or Gwangmyeong station

Well, I think it depends where you stay. IF you stay near Seoul city hall, KTX might be better for you, if you are in Gangnam area, express terminal is might be more convinient.

And Express bus covers more cities (limited rail line).

Yep.. it is 384.3km - 240mile.

In korea, there is bus lane in expressway (interstate highway in US) and also major arterials in Seoul. So relatively punctual in terms of travel time (of course rail is more punctual)..

Be careful.. you need to remember your bus number if you take a break at service station. There will be dozens of similar buses in the parking area.