"I Feel Bad Asking My Children Again"... Seniors Blocked by an App While Trying to Book Chuseok Train Tickets [A Chronicler of Life at the Margins]

[Financial News] The concourse at Seoul Station on the morning of the 18th was bustling. With the Chuseok holiday approaching, passengers moved hurriedly while checking display boards and their phones. At the ticket window, travelers waited their turn to buy tickets or check their reservations. At the ticket vending machines, others checked train times and remaining seats.
Around the ticket window, some elderly passengers held their phones while asking employees how to use the service or checking for available seats. A man in his 70s, referred to as Mr. A, said he had first tried to book a ticket from home for a trip to North Gyeongsang Province. Although his children had installed the Korea Railroad (KORAIL) app for him, he became stuck at the login stage. He said he stopped after moving through several screens because he could not remember his username and password.
Describing what happened, Mr. A said, "I opened it, but I didn't know what I was supposed to tap. It told me to enter some ID or something—how am I supposed to remember that?"
He sometimes asks his children to book tickets for him. However, he said he felt uncomfortable relying on them every time he needed a train ticket. "My son could do it quickly, but he has a job, and it doesn't feel right to ask him to do things like this for me all the time," Mr. A said. "That's why I thought I'd try it myself."
This year's Chuseok train ticket reservations took place from the 3rd through the 11th. Advance reservations for transportation-vulnerable passengers—including people aged 65 or older, people with disabilities, people of national merit, and pregnant women—were held on the 3rd and 4th. General reservations for everyone, including those groups, were conducted from the 7th through the 11th. The tickets were for trains operating over five days, from the 23rd through the 27th.
Main Chuseok ticket reservations were conducted remotely through the mobile app KORAIL+ and KORAIL's dedicated holiday webpage. KORAIL shifted Chuseok ticket reservations to a 100% remote system beginning with the 2020 Chuseok holiday, when COVID-19 was spreading. On-site sales were eliminated, and reservations were conducted primarily online. This year's main holiday reservations were also handled remotely.

Although train tickets can usually be purchased at station windows, holiday tickets are subject to separate reservation periods and procedures. General reservations were also conducted through the mobile app or website during a designated period. After accessing the app or website, users had to log in with their membership account and select the departure station, destination, and date. They then had to choose a train and complete the reservation and payment.
This was the first holiday reservation period since the integration of high-speed rail services, so users also had to check whether they had an integrated membership account. Existing KORAIL members were automatically converted to integrated members, but users who had registered only with SR had to complete a separate membership registration and conversion process before booking tickets.
A woman in her 70s, Ms. B, said her child had installed the KORAIL app on her phone, but she still struggled to buy a ticket on her own. She had no trouble using the phone for calls or text messages, but login information, identity verification, and payment were unfamiliar to her.
Explaining where she became stuck, Ms. B complained, "My daughter installed this for me. But when I open it, it asks me to enter a password, and then something else pops up. I don't really know what to do after that."
Once she moved to another screen, it was also difficult to find her way back to the original one. She said she sometimes became stuck after checking the verification code sent by text message and returning to the app. "I press this and that, and if something goes wrong, I just turn it off," she said.
Ms. B had generally relied on her children to obtain holiday tickets. She tried to book one herself this year but struggled to figure out how, eventually visiting Seoul Station to check for remaining seats. "When I come here, there are people I can ask. I just find it easier to ask someone in person," she said.


An advance reservation system is also available for older adults and others who are not familiar with online booking. KORAIL provides a separate reservation period for transportation-vulnerable passengers before general reservations begin. This year's Chuseok advance reservations were held over two days, the 3rd and 4th, for people aged 65 or older, people with disabilities, people of national merit, and pregnant women. Pregnant women were included in the advance reservation program for transportation-vulnerable passengers for the first time this year.
The number of users was also significant. According to KORAIL, 183,000 tickets were sold out of 423,000 seats offered during the advance reservation period, for a reservation rate of 43.2%. By user category, older adults accounted for the largest share at 57%, followed by people with disabilities at 22%, pregnant women at 19%, and people of national merit at 2%.
However, some older adults interviewed at the station said they did not fully know the advance reservation schedule or exactly how to use the system. Even when they knew the dates for holiday ticket reservations, some still needed help from their children or visited the station to confirm the process.
Some passengers also sought help from employees while checking their mobile tickets after completing a reservation. In the Seoul Station concourse that day, one elderly passenger showed an employee a ticket screen sent by their child and asked which screen they needed to display when boarding the train.
Several elderly passengers were also noticeable as they studied the screens at the ticket vending machines. One passenger flipped through the screens while searching for a destination, then stepped aside when another passenger stood behind them. After the area cleared, the passenger returned to the machine.

After the main reservation period ended, some passengers visited stations to check for remaining or returned tickets. More than 80% of all seats offered for this year's Chuseok trains were reserved.
According to KORAIL, 1.8 million tickets were sold out of the 2.14 million seats offered from the 3rd through the 11th, bringing the overall reservation rate to 84%. By major route, the rates were 91.3% for the Gyeongbu Line, 87.9% for the Honam Line, and 90.6% for the Jeolla Line. KORAIL said holiday ticket reservation rates had remained around 60% over the past three years and analyzed that demand had concentrated this year because of the shorter holiday period.
After the main reservation period, remaining tickets became available from 3 p.m. on the 11th through the mobile app and KORAIL's website, as well as at station windows and ticket vending machines. Tickets purchased during general reservations had to be paid for by the 15th, while tickets reserved during the advance period for transportation-vulnerable passengers had to be paid for by the 18th. Tickets that were not paid for by the deadline were automatically canceled and assigned sequentially to applicants on the reservation waiting list.
At the ticket windows that day, passengers checked whether trains available during the Chuseok holiday remained. When no seats were available at their preferred time, some checked trains at other times or searched again for remaining seats at the ticket vending machines.
Some of the older passengers who visited the station to check for remaining seats also struggled with online reservations themselves. A passenger in their 70s who visited Seoul Station said they had first searched for tickets on a phone but came to the station because the process was unfamiliar. "I tried to do it on my phone and computer, but I couldn't figure it out," the passenger said. "I can ask someone if I come here [Seoul Station], so I just came here."

[email protected] Han Seung-gon Reporter