Korean Air · CX evidence review

METHOD & SCOPE

How this study was run.

52 scored pairs: 37 exchanges across 20 virtual-user chats plus 15 fixed-question attempts. The report records 56 messages in 38 chats including four unscored pre-study messages. Questions were shortened to fit a 300-character input box.

These are hypothetical policy conversations, not completed customer transactions.

Unused ticket within 24 hours: A KE-operated JFK–ICN paid Economy ticket was booked and ticketed directly by card 10 hours ago; departure is in 10 days. It is unused and not reissued. Is a penalty-free refund available? Expected against saved policy: State the 24-hour penalty exemption for these facts. Have the policy owner approve how any separate refund service charge should be described. Observed context: Attempts 1, 2, 3 and 5 gave the input prompt; attempt 4 answered. These prompts are coverage observations, not wrong refund decisions. The test-entry method may have contributed.

Unused ticket after 30 hours: The same unused, not-reissued JFK–ICN ticket was bought 30 hours ago and departs in 10 days. Is a full refund without penalties guaranteed? Expected against saved policy: Explain that a full penalty-free refund is not guaranteed by the 24-hour rule. Avoid implying every fare necessarily carries the same fee. Observed context: Attempt 1 gave the input prompt. Attempt 5’s main outcome matched, but its flat-rate-fee statement “regardless of when” needs review; it omits the separate 24-hour exemption.

Reissued after the original window: An unused JFK–ICN ticket was originally booked and ticketed 30 hours ago, then reissued 10 hours ago. Does reissue create a new 24-hour exemption? Expected against saved policy: State that the 24-hour exemption does not automatically apply. Use the correct departure-region fare rules for any fee explanation. Observed context: All five core outcomes matched. Attempts 1 and 5 also imported a higher-of-original/reissued-fee rule that the saved page lists under departures from Korea; the tested trip starts outside Korea.

LIMITATIONS

What this does not establish.

• The USD 30 service-charge claims are unresolved policy questions, not confirmed wrong amounts or real charges.
• Eight scored input-prompt replies were not policy answers. Their cause may lie in the chat service or the test-entry method; customer incidence is unknown.
• Fixed questions ran A then B then C; input prompts clustered early, so the case split does not establish a wording effect.
• The fixed runs used an older sending method without the pre-send counter check recorded for three adaptive prompts.
• The saved amount table showed KRW, not the USD tab; the purchase currency was not stated.
• Virtual users, shortened hypothetical questions and at most two exchanges do not measure real customers or failure rates.
• Backend session independence, model, retrieval and root causes were not verified. Expected answers have not been approved by Korean Air.
• No booking, refund, charge, customer account or before-and-after improvement was tested.