Failed to book a budget airline ticket online—passenger overcharged 200 yuan in airport tax

▲ Air Busan. (Photo / Reporter Chen Ziying)

Reported by Reporter Chen Ruizhong / Taipei

One of the ways budget airlines cut costs is by requiring passengers to book tickets online themselves. However, if travelers are unfamiliar with the booking rules or overlook system notifications, it can easily lead to consumer disputes and concerns.

ETtoday News Cloud recently received a letter from a reader surnamed Weng, stating that at around 22:00 on April 30, he attempted to make a payment and issue a ticket on the Air Busan official website. Although the payment was successful, the ticket could not be issued due to system maintenance. He then emailed Air Busan’s customer service requesting assistance with issuing the ticket.

From May 1 to May 3, Air Busan’s customer service was on holiday. At around 9:00 a.m. on May 4, Air Busan’s customer service called to inform the reader surnamed Weng that the transaction had been canceled and requested him to re-swipe his card to purchase the ticket.

The reader surnamed Weng believes the core issue of the entire dispute is that the airport tax had increased from 300 yuan to 500 yuan on May 1. Air Busan unilaterally canceled the April 30 transaction instead of issuing the ticket directly. He suspects that perhaps Air Busan did not want to lose the 200 yuan in airport tax, so it chose to sacrifice the passenger’s rights by canceling the payment transaction, forcing the customer to re-book in May and naturally bear the extra 200 yuan in airport tax. This has made the reader question the fairness of such a practice.

Regarding this incident, Air Busan stated that when passengers book tickets on the official website, a reminder pop-up window appears each time during checkout, informing customers of the system maintenance schedule (daily from 22:50 to 23:10).Additionally, as each transaction requires both the “issuance of the ticket” and the “completion of the payment” to be considered successful, if a customer is informed of a transaction failure due to system maintenance, it cannot be regarded as a successful purchase.Also,because the airline does not have authorization details from the customer, it is unable to assist with issuing the ticket.Therefore, the customer service staff canceled the transaction and asked the customer to re-purchase the ticket.

As for the “airport tax” which is a concern for consumers, Air Busan explained that this amount iscollected by Taoyuan Airport from consumers, not the airline, and since the reader’s transaction on April 30 was unsuccessful, the amount must still be collected according to the rates set by Taoyuan Airport after May 1..

Although this case is an individual incident and Air Busan has explained the situation to the customer via phone, Air Busan still reminds consumers intending to purchase tickets that when booking online themselves, they must carefully read the terms of purchase, reminder information, and other relevant details. They should also not ignore the information in “pop-up notification windows,” and must confirm whether the transaction was truly successful. Only then can they ensure their personal rights and enjoy a pleasant journey.