Cancellation and refund policies for international airline tickets vary depending on the airline and fare type. Since penalty fees also differ based on the timing of cancellation, it is often difficult for customers to understand the details on their own. Yellow Balloon announced that it developed this AI-based refund guidance service to address these difficulties in accessing such information.
The “AI Refund Calendar” is a service that uses AI to analyze cancellation and refund fee provisions within international flight fare rules in real time and display them in a calendar format. When customers select a date, they can view the number of days remaining until departure and the estimated cancellation fee in both Korean won and foreign currency. There is no need to check the English fare rules directly or consult a representative. Customers can also immediately see how much the fees will change in the coming days, allowing them to use this information to determine the optimal time to cancel. For multi-ticket bookings (one-way combined fares) where different airlines are used for the outbound and return flights, the service displays the cancellation fees for each leg separately in the “Itinerary” tab.
The service is available not only on the Yellow Balloon website and mobile app but also to customers who arrive via external flight comparison platforms such as Naver, Skyscanner, and Kayak. An “AI Refund Calendar” button has been added to the reservation information entry screen, the “My Page” section, and the 1:1 online consultation feature.
The same AI Refund Calendar has also been implemented in the refund tab of the internal sales management system. Previously, whenever a customer inquired about cancellation fees, a customer service representative had to manually check and calculate the fare rules; now, this information can be verified directly within the system.
The AI is designed to automatically display a “Cannot Verify” message in cases where there is a potential for error—such as when calculation criteria are unclear, currency standards are mixed, or there are exceptions specific to certain airlines.
A Yellow Balloon representative stated, “Airfare refund policies are among the most confusing pieces of information for customers,” adding, “We developed the AI Refund Calendar to help customers easily understand complex regulations and make reasonable choices without incurring unnecessary costs.”
