Economy class 100 thousand, business class 200 thousand？ A shady investigation on the increase of high-priced air tickets for returning home

　　March 29th is the first day when the Civil Aviation Administration of China requested to implement the policy of "one airline, one country, one route" to cut international flights. This week (March 29th to April 4th), the number of international flights in China will be reduced to 108, with a decrease of 85.3%, only equivalent to 1.2% before the outbreak.

　　With the sharp reduction of return flights, return air tickets continue to climb without accident. In various WeChat groups, the prices of return air tickets in Europe and America are 100,000 in economy class and 200,000 in business class.

　　However, if you check the airline app or ota platform yourself, it is difficult to find any recent tickets, especially if you want to buy a direct flight ticket to return home in recent days.

　　On March 28th, China Eastern Airlines directly announced the news in its official Weibo. During the period from March 29th to May 2nd, China Eastern Airlines’ flights from new york, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland, Seoul and Manila to Shanghai Pudong were all sold out.

　　On the one hand, airlines say that the tickets have been sold out, but on the other hand, there are still people selling more than 100 thousand high-priced return tickets in the circle of friends in the next few days. Who is behind this?

　　Who is raising the price?

　　Like domestic air tickets, the pricing of international air tickets has strict rules.

　　According to the Notice on the Provisions on the Administration of International Air Freight Rates issued by the Civil Aviation Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), in order to establish, adjust and modify international air freight rates, after the Chinese (or foreign) airlines and the foreign (or Chinese) airlines agree, it is necessary to declare the freight rates to be implemented to the Civil Aviation Administration.

　　Therefore, like domestic air tickets, international air tickets are limited by the amount of full-price economy class and full-price business class. However, when the supply and demand are not so tight at ordinary times, airlines will publish the price of discounted cabin on the basis of full-price tickets.

　　When the demand for air tickets on a certain route exceeds the supply, the fare will naturally rise, but it cannot be higher than the full-price ticket of this route. The notice of the Civil Aviation Administration requires that airlines should adjust the international air freight rate, and the Civil Aviation Administration will decide whether to approve it according to the relevant national policies, the international air freight rate at that time, the market situation and the changes in the currency exchange rate.

　　According to the reporter’s understanding, in recent days, with the surge in demand for returning to China on international routes, the three major airlines that are basically empty have indeed applied for raising the full-price tickets of relevant international routes one after another.

　　For example, on Air China’s flight from London Heathrow to Shanghai Pudong, the full price of economy class ticket was 16,710 yuan before March 20, and it was raised to 29,860 yuan after March 20, and the full price of business class ticket was also raised from 34,170 yuan to 41,690 yuan.

　　For the flight of China Eastern Airlines from London Heathrow to Shanghai Pudong, the full price of economy class ticket was 25,980 yuan before March 20th, and it was raised to 26,460 yuan after March 20th, and the full price of business class ticket was also raised from 35,420 yuan to 42,880 yuan.

　　However, at present, most passengers can’t buy tickets for returning from London through the above prices. In recent days, they can also buy direct flights from London. It is lucky that the economy class does not exceed 100,000, and the business class exceeds 160,000, which is comparable to the single seat freight rate for returning from business jets.

　　Many insiders revealed to reporters that from the full price of more than 20,000 economy class to the actual transaction price of 100,000 yuan, there have actually been many changes of hands behind the price increase, and even the price increase parties are not necessarily ticket agents with formal licenses, but scalpers with customer resources.

　　Some people purchase, some people distribute, and increase the price layer by layer. The return ticket is pushed higher and higher in this interest chain.

　　However, according to the notice requirements of the Civil Aviation Administration, it is absolutely illegal to continue to increase the fare on the basis of full-price tickets in economy class or business class: "Chinese and foreign airlines should ensure that their own companies (or their offices) and their sales agents implement the approved international air freight rates, and may not reduce or add additional fees in any name (except airport fees or taxes and insurance fees collected according to relevant regulations), and the collection fees shall be indicated in the corresponding columns of the tickets."

　　Who is occupying a seat?

　　In addition to the distributors who increase prices at different levels, there are also many ways for buyers who can get first-hand seat resources.

　　In normal times, air ticket agent is an important channel for airlines to sell air tickets. By purchasing the configuration from China Airlines, they can see the remaining space, fare and other information of an airline route in the background. By inputting the passenger’s ID card or passport information, they can book an air ticket and then issue the ticket within 24 hours.

　　What is said here is the operation of a regular air ticket agent. 24 hours is not a fixed time limit for issuing tickets, and each airline will have differences, and it is 24 hours in the peak season, and the time limit may be relaxed for a longer period in the off-season.

　　However, this time difference between booking and ticketing gives many unscrupulous agents (even scalpers who have rented the agent configuration) the opportunity to "exploit loopholes": select the flight with few seats left, book the ticket of this flight with any passport information, and then cancel the virtual reservation until a real customer comes to buy the ticket, and at the same time buy it with the passport information of the real customer, and then sell it at a higher price than the background fare of the airline company.

　　With the increasing scarcity of return air tickets in Europe and America, the operation of "virtual seat occupation" is becoming more and more "rampant". Even a large-scale airline ticket agency mobilized employees to collectively "occupy seats" and collected a large number of remaining seats on different European and American routes.

　　The airline company is not ignorant of such a "loophole" way. A few days ago, China Southern issued a penalty notice for illegal agents, saying that agents illegally occupied a large number of seats on flights, blocked the configuration of airmail for 93 agents who violated the rules recently or stopped selling China Southern’s authorization.

　　More airlines began to narrow the time difference between booking and ticketing, some required that tickets must be issued within three hours, and some even shortened the time difference to 20 minutes. However, this requirement gave birth to a new way of purchasing tickets.

　　Agents (or scalpers) began to collect customers’ specific needs for returning to China in advance, including departure place, destination, intended departure time, acceptable upper limit of air ticket price, etc., and required customers to pay a deposit ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 (if they can’t get a refund, they won’t get a refund if they buy it), saying that once there are tickets that meet the needs, they will not be notified to issue tickets immediately.

　　A number of airline ticket agents who have worked in the industry for many years revealed to reporters that with the airline company’s stricter control over "false occupancy", it is not easy to grab seats now, either by using the time when everyone slept after the early hours of the morning to brush in the background to see if anyone has refunded tickets, or by colluding with the relevant personnel of the airline company to leave the remaining seats to the designated sellers.

　　Who should be punished?

　　In the face of increasing illegal fare increase and seat occupation, airlines have also begun to increase their intervention.

　　A few days ago, China Eastern Airlines issued a notice, requiring agents to follow the price and conditions of use of company tickets, and it is strictly forbidden to increase sales, otherwise they will be punished for violating agency behavior. However, similar situations are still repeated.

　　Air China, on the other hand, made up its mind to suspend the release of all its international/regional flight information in all booking systems around the world and ota flagship stores in China, requiring passengers to purchase tickets through direct sales channels.

　　Subsequently, Xiamen Airlines also issued a similar notice, which cut off the sales source of unscrupulous agents from the source, but it also affected the normal sales of regular agents with long-term fixed customers.

　　"The full price increase of air tickets should be reported to the Civil Aviation Administration. If the sales price exceeds the upper limit, it will violate the civil aviation regulations. If it does not exceed the upper limit, it will also violate the sales policy of the airline company." Lin Zhijie, an insider in the civil aviation industry, pointed out to reporters that passengers who bought high-priced return tickets can complain to the relevant departments or airlines about the difference if they keep the ticket number and payment records. By comparing the ticket price corresponding to the ticket number with the actual payment price, they can know how much the ticket they bought was added and by whom.