Fyfan

So my university totally, utterly, colossally screwed me.

I got into summer intensive subject at Korea University. The program included a scholarship, that covered the accomodation, food and promised to partially reimburse travel costs to and from Seoul.

The program explicitly required us to book an "economic" airfare between Melbourne (MEL) and Incheon (ICN). And claimed we would be reimbursed for the ticket later.

So despite qualifying for the scholarship, that has all been thrown out the window.

I have three options:

1) Cancel outright

2) Keep the ticket to Incheon anyway, have a layover and try to find a return ticket on to CPH for the summer.

3) Ask the other professor nicely if I can be let back in to the study program at Hokkaido University (CTS). I got into an alternate intensive there but rejected it as the Korea University subject came with a scholarship, whereas the latter does not. IF I get let back into the Hokkaido University program I have two sub options.
a) Keep the original OZ ticket to ICN and find a flight to CTS anyway
b) See if my home university/its travel insurer will refund the OZ ticket for me. And find an alternative ticket to CTS.

So much is still unknown and in flux. But what I do know is I now have an OZ ticket in booking class E. These are the booking terms.

Fare Type
E

Max Stay
1 Year from departure date

Outbound Date Change
Permitted with reissue fee. 

If conditions are changed, fare difference and reissue fee will be applied.

Inbound Date Change
Permitted.

If conditions are changed, fare difference and reissue fee will be applied.

Routing Change
Not Permitted

Reissue Charge
AUD 150 per ticket

Refund Charge
AUD 250 per ticketFare Type
E

Max Stay
1 Year from departure date

Outbound Date Change
Permitted with reissue fee. 

If conditions are changed, fare difference and reissue fee will be applied.

Inbound Date Change
Permitted.

If conditions are changed, fare difference and reissue fee will be applied.

Routing Change
Not Permitted

Reissue Charge
AUD 150 per ticket

Refund Charge
AUD 250 per ticket

Fyfan

Just clarifying of course the university cancelled the subject. Due to "unforeseen circumstances", classic PR speak for "we aren't telling you why it has been cancelled"!

steveholt

I'm sorry you went through this. Have you confirmed that Seoul university will not cover the costs of your airfare despite cancelling the program?

Fyfan

Korea University won't have anything to do with the costs as they aren't running the subject. They are just the host institution where the subject would have taken place on their campus. I will have to contact my home institution (Unimelb) and it will be a matter for them.

Good news is I got into an alternate subject hosted at Hokkaido University (but again its an overseas subject run by unimelb).

My hope is to just be able to select new dates with OZ as I will have to postpone my departure (MEL -> ICN) and return (ICN -> MEL). And now I need to figure out a new connecting ticket to Sapporo (CTS). So now I have some certainty that I will still be travelling, but its still going to be a nightmare to sort this out.

Fyfan

Now the university is asking if I "applied" for their travel insurance. Of course I didn't - ugh its university travel. I'd have applied if they told me I needed to formally register. But since my enrolment was confirmed I thought it was implicit that the university would have my back in this mess...

Fyfan

Update, went to the university sign up link for travel insurance. It specifies

"If you’re studying overseas through an Exchange program, a Short-term program or Study Away for graduate researchers, you will automatically be registered for travel insurance."

What is this kafkaesque clusterfck?

sol95

While your situation is unfortunate, I'm not clear as to what your hoped for resolution/advice from the OZ forum is....it's not really an OZ issue, and you're aware of the conditions of your ticket purchase, so you just need to make a decision on what to do once you have clarity about courses/locations etc.

At the moment, it seems like a series of stream-of-consciousness posts about a problem that really is not of OZ's making, nor has any direct relevance on a forum about OZ or airlines in general.

Fyfan

Fair enough...

I'm still trying to work it all out and I don't know what is best. It says no re routing so I assume to keep the ticket I will ultimately need to fly to ICN. It is "stream of consciousness", because I literally have no idea what I am doing. I'll call OZ later this week and hopefully will be able to keep the ticket, change the dates and then book another return ticket from ICN to CTS. There isn't a direct question as I at this point am so uncertain about what is best or what I will end up doing.

Feel free to ignore my stream of consciousness though, plenty of other forum posts that are seeking simpler solutions to their own dilemmas.

Gasolin

What is your concern though?

If you need to change dates, it's 150 AUD. If you need to change route and would prefer a direct route to CTS, then the refund with 250 AUD will apply.

If the travel was insurance, you would get the remaining 250 AUD I suppose and can book again.

If you just want to book a ICN or GMP - CTS, then you can add that to the journey, however, you will have to go through customs and potentially change airports.

Fyfan

Yeah the change fees aren’t a concern for me.

What I am unsure about is whether I can book onward flights on OZ ICN -> CTS and connect them to my original ticket so that it is a single itinerary. But I guess I’ll just sort it out later in the week.

irishguy28

No, you cannot.

If I were you, I would allow a lot of time between tickets for both the outbound and the return. Plan an overnight in Korea and see some of what you're missing before heading onwards the next day.

Fyfan

Sounds good!!

I’ll do this.

Fyfan

Final update to my series of stream of consciousness posts.

Cancelled my ticket on OZ. Will now fly JL to NRT instead and fly onward to CTS.

And my university will reimburse me for OZ's refund fee.

Thank you to everyone who replied here.

Gasolin

You can, but you need to call OZ to put them on the same itinerary I think. They may not allow/do it if it was not bought directly from OZ for both tickets. Where did you buy the first ticket from?

Edit: I just saw the question is irrelevant now.

SilverChris

That would just be rerouting the original itinerary to make CTS the final destination. But from what the OP posted, rerouting was prohibited as per the fare rules.