Korea Life Blog - Discount Air Tickets!


Shouldn't this be be illegal: You need to make a trip abroad for a visa run and you open the newspapers and see these ads that say, Fukuoka 210,000 Won! Osaka 250,000 Won!, then when you call them up they quote the price at least 100,000 won higher. Why don't they just lie even more and say "free tickets!"

This is getting frustrating. I just want to fly there, zip! bang! boom! and get it over with, and not monkey around with the train and boat again. I was considering trying to do the whole trip in one day, but doing it that way would involve a great deal of stress if things don't go perfectly. Doing the visa run in that fashion can be risky and fail if there's even a long line at immigration/customs. Anyone done it that way lately? I'm trying to plan this trip for some time next week. Anyone else going then? I'm going to either Fukuoka or Osaka, possibly Taipei, whichever is the cheapest.

Hopefully I won't need to go through this hassle for a year now that I'm getting the E-2 visa again. This is the price I got today at one travel agency I popped into near Songnae Station: 410,000 won to Fukuoka. Add that with 50,000 for the visa, at least 50,000 for a hotel, plus all sorts of miscellaneous fees and that adds up. And I have to pay for it all because even though I'm getting a full time visa, I'm not technically working full time. I wonder how much money I've basically thrown away on these trips. It used to be something to look forward to, now it's just a nuisance.

Update: I booked a ticket for next Thursday for Fukuoka, return on Friday afternoon. They really did have a cheap ticket, but it was on JAL (Japan Airline), which would be fine if the return flight wasn't at 9:00 in the morning. I wouldn't have enough time to pick up my visa and get to the airport.

So I paid 300,000 for an Asiana Air ticket plus a whopping 43,000 airport tax. Oh well, that is about average, I guess. I had planned on about $500 US total for the trip, anyway, and looks like that's about will I'll be paying. If anything interesting happens, I'll be sure to update my Japan page.