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No more opportunities to buy air tickets for Tet flights?
It’s nearly impossible to book economy class air tickets for the
flights on Tet holiday, though Tet comes only in two months.
The representatives of airlines all said that under the new policies, air
tickets have been sold via Internet. Booking agents and individual passengers
are all passengers who need to access the Internet to book tickets, and “first
come first served.”
Air tickets for Tet flights have been selling very quickly since the day the
tickets were put on sale. In an effort to prevent the speculation, airlines have
decided to sell tickets in different sale campaigns, while passengers are
required to make payment as soon as possible.
On normal days, the seat reservation duration allowed could be 48, 36 or 24
hours. However, as for the Tet flights, passengers have to make payment within
one hour after they successfully book tickets or the tickets would be canceled
to be sold to others.
However, it’s really very difficult to book tickets via the Internet. Analysts
have commented that speculation still can be made even when the transaction
mechanism and payment method are made public.
The national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines began selling air tickets in the
first campaign on November 1, 2012. However, passengers complained that they
could not buy economy class tickets on that day.
Booking agents have confirmed that the tickets for main domestic routes have
nearly run out, while the offers to buy tickets have been on “pending” status.
Those, who want the tickets of the flights from HCM City to Hanoi on the 26th of
December of Lunar New Year, or four days before Tet, now have the only choice of
buying business class at 5.1 million dong.
A lot of passengers complained that in order to buy economy class tickets, they
have to pay higher than the price levels announced by airlines, because they
cannot get tickets directly from airlines, but from other individuals, agents or
travel firms.
Under the current policies applied by the airlines, passengers would have to pay
300,000 dong for every ticket canceled. The modest sum of money has prompted not
only booking agents, but individuals to speculate tickets.
Right after airlines launched sales campaigns, the speculators would book
tickets in large quantities, accepting to make payment within one hour after the
successful booking, and then re-sold to others at the prices which are 500,000
higher than the original prices. The fat profit is high enough to offset the
compensation money for refunding tickets.
Thuy Hien, an office worker in Phu Nhuan district said that it is too difficult
for office workers to book tickets via Internet, even though they have to work
with computers everyday. It takes them too much time to hunt for air tickets on
Internet. Meanwhile, Hien cannot buy tickets from booking agents, which always
require overly high prices.
A speculator has confirmed that in order to obtain the tickets for the flights
they want, passengers have to pay an additional fee of 500,000--700,000 dong,
because the sellers also have to spend time to hunt for the tickets for
reselling.
Some passengers, who cannot book tickets directly from airlines, tried to
contact travel firms to buy tickets from them, even though the tickets from the
sources are 1-2 million dong more expensive than the original prices.
Source: Nam Phong |
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