By Let’s hope this is the end of plane ticket-gate:
The U.S. Embassy Association Business Center must pay an American family about $1,500 in a lawsuit over an airline ticket mix-up, Judge Cho Mi-ok announced Friday in Seoul Western District Court.
Marine Col. Thompson Gerke and his wife, Catherine, sued the contracted business center for $11,054 in connection with a March 2006 incident in which they thought they were buying first-class, not business class, airline tickets.
Cho also ordered the Gerkes, who left South Korea earlier this year, and the business center to split all court fees. Court officials were unable Friday to provide an estimate of those costs.
Business center representative Bruce Lee said Friday that he didn’t feel he had won or lost the case.
Catherine Gerke did not respond to an e-mail query and her lawyer, Lee Su-hwan, was unavailable for comment Friday.
During earlier sessions, the judge recommended the business center pay a $4,000 settlement.
Business center personnel have admitted there was a translation problem when the tickets were sold to the Gerkes in 2006 and the center has since stopped selling travel tickets. [Stars & Stripes]
Judging by the ruling I would have to say the Gerkes lost out because they did not get back the amount of money they paid for the tickets in the first place. As usual the people who really won in all of this was the lawyers.
HT: Chickenhead
7:00 pm on November 7th, 2007 1
[...] read more here [...]
11:20 am on November 13th, 2007 2
How is it possible the judge changed the awarded amount of $4000. to now $1500. ? This is strange! What purpose to lower the amount? (did someone 'get' to the judge mmmm pondering…)
The business center has admitted making a mistake in ticketing first class for the Gerkes, who were traveling home to attend Catherine's Mother's funeral. She had recently had surgery for her back, and was on a Dr.'s order to lay flat as possible for the 15 hour flight.
It is my understanding that Ms. Gerke did respond with an email to the Stars & Stripes article – but as of today, I do not see her comments yet printed.
It seems to me, there is some suspicious practices going on around this situation.
And why have the Gerkes not been notified what the 'court costs' amount to… wouldn't the Judge know these costs immediately.
Keep tracking this story, you may unravel some shenanigans goings on.
3:44 pm on November 13th, 2007 3
Kate,
I'm with you.
See my previous post (click the HT: Chickenhead at the top).
This all makes NO sense. Where is real reporting?
This type of situation has the potential to affect other members of USFK. It is important to know the correct course of action if this happens to someone else… no… WHEN it happens. Korean businesses make these kind of mistakes all too frequently… and it would be an excellent service for S&S to explain the situation clearly enough for readers to decide if they should go to court, bend over and take it or roll on the floor kicking and screaming.
It is important to know if the Gerkes are freaks or if they have been dealt a great injustice.
If they got screwed, S&S should bring attention to it… so USFK will take care of a hard-working servicemember (as they can bring a lot of pressure on a local business which is treating a GI unfairly).
If the Gerkes are freaks, it needs to be made rather public… to serve as a warning to all the other potential freaks which might wish to bring discredit on USFK and America.
As usual, Stars & Strips is bordering on worthless. This leads me to believe the Gerkes are freaks and Stars & Stripes is covering for USFK… as they have done in the past.
This story was Reporting 101. Both parties wanted to get their side of the story in public… no secret informants, no career-risking snitches. Just listen to the stories and ask a few questions to make things clear. Easy.
It is S&S duty to report both sides. It is also their duty to bring objective attention to places where the stories can't be forced to line up after asking intelligent questions. Stars & Stripes: FAIL.
Further, after the dust clears, a good reporter will write a follow-up which clears up anything that might seem odd to the readers… such as the greatly-reduced award.
As of now, it is hard to determine who the bad guy is here.
Shame on Stars & Stripes for writing several filler articles yet never truly reporting this story in a clear fashion…
…but then they never fully reported the Ving Her story either… and, of course, Colonel Edwards… who walked away with an Article 15 and a ten thousand dollar fine… whoosh, under the rug.
…and there is LOTS more they don't even mention.
J!
7:46 pm on April 17th, 2008 4
I was awarded much more than $1500. What horrible lying has gone on in Korea. Shame on Stars and Stripes for not confronting the Business Center for their blatant lying. Also I was never on the floor yelling and screaming – it simply never happened. Just one more lie. It is so sad.
8:54 pm on April 17th, 2008 5
Catherine,
It is excellent to hear from you. It is very rare to have any sort of follow-up in Korea.
Please tell us the whole story. Stars & Stripes failed to report the story correctly and failed to follow up… which left everyone confused as to what exactly happened, why it happened and who was wrong.
Please give us the details here. Feel free to answer the questions in my previous post.
http://rokdrop.com/2007/09/18/judge-recommends-40…
It might be interesting to see if Stars & Stripes will still refuses to write a follow-up based on your story (and further interviews of the Business Center).
4:15 am on April 18th, 2008 6
I would like to second ChickenHead. If this is the real Catherine Gerke I and everyone else that reads this site would love to hear what the full story of what really transpired in this case.
8:04 am on April 18th, 2008 7
I third. Give it up Cathy.