Wow what a rush! Let me tell you, I have never in my life, had to cut this close to catch a plane. And its all thanks to the slow check-in counter & tedious tax refund process!!!
We started our day on schedule. Although we had 5 luggages, my helpful sister was sending us off so she helped us with one luggage and we could take train from Seoul Station all the way to the Incheon Airport. This convenient train journey only took about 45 minutes and we were at airport by 8:30am, almost 2.5 hours before departure time.
Oh dear, the Vietnam Airlines check-in counter was extremely slow and inefficient, that we had to wait 1 hour to check in. Arghhh
Anyway, if you purchase more than 30,000 Won in one single receipt, you can request for tax refund receipt, be it from cosmetic shops or shopping centre or even supermarkets. Thus, its advisable to combine your purchases with your friends' to hit that minimum 30,000 Won value. However, there were different tax service providers so not all the businesses will be partners with the same company. The most common were Global Blue Tax Free (Blue), Global Tax Free (Orange) and KT Tourist Reward (Red).
Most of the items that we wanted to claim tax refund were in our check-in bags, so after getting our boarding passes & baggage claim labels, we had to bring everything to the customs officer for goods inspection. Due to the long queue, officers don't really check all your items but you still have to wait in line to get that "all goods exported" stamp. After officers stamped our receipts, we left our luggages with them to be sent to our plane. We wasted another 30 minutes there!
It was already 10 am and we were just done with step 1 of tax refund process. Our flight departure is at 10:50am.
Step 2 is at the tax refund machines. We requested the staff there if it was possible to process our request first as our flight was leaving in less than an hour. She was so rude though, she told us everyone has a flight to catch and it was our fault that we didn't come early. But hey, the advice was to reach at least 2 hours in advance and we were than 2.5 hours before departure! We were so annoyed but, what could we do. I was contemplating forgoing all the refunds but the rude attitude of that woman made me want to collect every single cent, just to spite her!
So at step 2, the staff would scan and key in your passport as well as tax refund details into the touch screen machines. If you didn't get a stamp in step 1 or didn't key in information in step 3, then you can forget about collecting your refund.
Finally at 10:15am, we were going though security check and immigration. Usually, there tends to be a line at immigration but for once that day, luck was on our side and we breezed through these steps in 5-10 minutes.
Now at step 3 of tax claim process, we had to go to Gate 28 where Global Blue Tax Free (Blue) and Global Tax Free (Orange) counters were located. There was another set of touch screen machines which would scan your receipts and issue you cash. However, if your receipts cannot be read / recognised by the machines, you have to queue at the counters for your receipts to be verified by the staff. We were done with our tax claim and it was 10:35 am.
We couldn't breathe a sigh relief yet as we still had to take a shuttle train to our gate! Gates for all non-Korean carriers were not in the main terminal but at a extended terminal, a shuttle train away.
From Gate 28, take escalator down to basement, catch a shuttle train, take escalator up and look for your gate.
With 15 minutes left to spare, both of us sprinted as fast as we could with our backpacks and cabin luggage. We didn't have to wait for shuttle train and made it to our gate with 5 minutes to spare. An airport staff was looking for us and she rushed us to board. But surprise surprise, we were not the last ones, there was another lady boarding the plane just after us. Phew, we made it and the plane departed without delay (or maybe just 5 minutes?).
So a word of advice, if you have tax refunds to claim, go there at least 3 hours before departure time. 3.5 hours would be a better take if you have refunds from more than one service provider, in case you have to queue at the counters in addition to the machines when you are at step 3 to collect money.
We wish everyone an enjoyable journey with a pleasant ending, unlike ours, which was so hurried and with a downright mad scramble to catch a plane :D
Adios!
xoxo
Miss N
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