Buying plane tickets for Tet, have to pay more money

Near Tet, although airlines announced to increase flights, passengers still have difficulty buying tickets because this is the season for ticket hoarding to make profit for agents...

Buying plane tickets during Tet is not easy (illustrative photo). Photo: Gia Khanh.

Regular customers also... slash

This year, the airlines are selling Tet flight tickets in multiple batches and the selling method is also stricter (for example, each batch is sold for about half an hour). Therefore, small-sized agents (level 2 and above) often accept pre-booked lists (full names) from customers and when the airline opens ticket sales, the employees compete to operate.

Under these conditions, passengers who buy tickets often accept unwritten rules, such as paying additional fees (percentage) in addition to the ticket price to the agent (even though they have received a percentage of ticket sales from the airline).

In recent days, at many airline ticket agencies in Hanoi, most customers who asked to buy tickets only received uncertain promises. Due to the scarcity of airline tickets during peak season, many agencies even overcharge their regular customers. The more scarce the tickets are, the higher the difference in the price outside the ticket.

An airline ticket agent in Hanoi revealed that there are several peak travel periods throughout the year to make money, so even regular customers have to pay more because in reality, getting a ticket on a good day is not easy, customers have to pay a few hundred thousand dong more than the airline's price.

A ticket office manager said: “Airlines are increasingly tightening the rules of ticket hoarding, so they mainly use personal connections. Only large agents can take advantage of group ticket purchases to be able to hoard tickets.” Accordingly, because there is a separate policy for group travel tickets, name changes are also more favored. That is, under the name of booking tickets for tourists, but agents can change names for individual customers (accepting ticket change fees).

There are airline ticket agents who frankly explain to customers when collecting a difference of hundreds of thousands of dong per ticket: "This money must be spent on the gates, not just for themselves."

Where is the gap?

On the afternoon of November 24, Deputy General Director of Jetstar Pacific (JP) Ta Huu Thanh said: “If agents hoard JP airline tickets, they will have to pay a very high price. The tickets will be upgraded, and the price will increase to the maximum. Only those with real needs will choose this method. Normally, our tickets will be canceled after 48 hours of booking without payment.”

A representative of Air Mekong (AM) said they are developing a plan to sell tickets for Tet. “We only have 4 planes, and we expect to increase the number by 30% compared to the regular flight schedule. We expect a new regulation to prevent agents from hoarding tickets by requiring customers to pay immediately after 4 hours of booking.” When asked what if the agent uses personal connections, an AM representative said: “The AM ticket control department only has a few people, so it is unlikely that this will happen.”

So where can the smuggling of tickets to agents happen within the airlines? That is the Airline Ticket Control Center. This is the place that governs the purchase, sale, refund, name change... of tickets for agents and customers.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport and Director of Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam Pham Quy Tieu, the ticket control center of airlines receives the most attention during peak travel season. Every year, Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam issues a document reminding people to avoid taking advantage of local scarcity to do business.

Vietnam Airlines (VNA) currently accounts for more than 80% of the domestic air transport market share, so it is the most expected by passengers during peak travel times. This airline avoids hoarding tickets by dividing sales into many batches and strictly handles officers and agents who violate the law. This year, although Vietjet Air is preparing to launch flights, the number of aircraft is still modest.

(According to Tien Phong)