Shenzhen Airlines has agreed to refund the price difference for a woman who bought the wrong plane ticket because of the booking agency's mistake.

The booking office had refused a refund for the Jan. 17 ticket, which had expired when the woman tried to board a Feb. 17 flight to Shenzhen from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province. The woman, surnamed Chen, had to buy another ticket to fly to Shenzhen the next day, one day late for work.

Chen, 51, said she could not read the English on the ticket. She complained the flight date printed on the ticket was in English and asked whether every air passenger was expected to know English, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported. She said it would be easier to understand if the date was printed in Chinese or simply in Arabic numbers.

A spokesperson at the complaints division of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said the details on the ticket were printed in accordance with International Air Transport Association regulations and the language would not be changed. Some details, such as the place of departure and destination, are printed in Chinese and English, and some in English only.

The CAAC spokesperson said the English problem was common worldwide and urged passengers to make themselves familiar with the rules.

Chen booked the ticket at a ticketing office in Shenzhen on Jan. 14.

(Shenzhen Daily February 24, 2005)