CONCERNED CEBU PACIFIC PASSENGERS SPEAK OUT!
CEBU, APRIL 23, 2007 (STAR) INSIDE CEBU By Bobit S. Avila - Let me point to our readers that we have been critical of Cebu Pacific Air in the past month because of the numerous problems that they were facing. A month ago, I began writing these problems as I am a frequent flyer of this airline and it seems that whenever they have problems, the management team of Lance Gokongwei doesn’t seem to care to fix them. Thus, the problems have become a daily routine where passengers get irked every time. In response to our article last week, we have here two e-mailed commentaries about Cebu Pacific Air, which show that their problems have become endemic and need to be addressed right away for their own sake."Hi Bobit, I’m your avid fan here in Jakarta. Although my father is a Boholano and I grew up in Bicol, I always like to act as a native Boholano and am fond of being a Bisaya. We’re glad that there is a budget airline servicing from Jakarta to Manila, which happens to be a Pinoy flag carrier called ‘Cebu Pacific Air,’ and we are very proud of it.
"But I was really turned off by the service rendered by its booking office in Philippines (Robinson’s Place Malate and Edsa), which is very poor, without any international taste. It seems that I’m getting a bus-line ticket going to Bicol during the Holy Week season. The queues were so long which took me four hours to get the re-booking and the staffers were not approachable; they were arrogant and sarcastic. I’m an OCW taking my precious time in my beloved homeland, but the time is just wasted in the re-booking process of Cebu Pacific. Why not just put the re-booking on their website? Same as what Air Asia, Tiger Airways and the others did. Or is this just a ploy in order to generate employment for their arrogant staff? Can you please search an answer for me. Best regards, Carlos A. Redulla, Cp # +6221816995089 Jakarta, Indonesia"
Here’s another e-mailed letter-complaint about another incident involving Cebu Pacific, this time in Boracay. The letter is self-explanatory.
"Hi Bobit, Read your article on ‘Cebu Pacific delays: From bad to worse!’ I couldn’t agree more... actually it’s not the delays per se but how they disseminate information internally and to their customers that starts the problem. I hope you don’t mind me sharing my ill-fated experience with Cebu Pacific as well. I assume that after the article you wrote, a number of people might have e-mailed you as well. Hehehehe.
"This article brings me back to last December when my friends and I went to Kalibo for Boracay and unfortunately we were there when a storm hit Boracay. And the flight leaving Sunday got cancelled. Ours was on a Monday so all the while we thought we were in a much better position compared to those who were in the waiting list. But we weren’t. Our flight was the last flight out for Monday so you could only imagine the volume of people really waiting since the day before. The plane that we were supposed to board was coming from a Manila-Kalibo flight as well… so we got puzzled why the plane didn’t arrived yet a few minutes before our ETD. And yet the crew was already checking in those wait-listed people for vacant seats available in our flight.
"So a friend of mine back in Manila started calling the Cebu Pacific office. They said that all flights going to mostly the Visayas area had been grounded and cancelled due to the bad weather. So we went and asked the check-in counter and they said that the flight had just been delayed. So, in good faith we hoped that their information was more up-to-date. Minutes passed our ETD, and they announced that due to sunset restriction in Kalibo the flight had been cancelled. Chaos erupted literally; there were a lot of more frustrated people around us waiting since the previous day and they only announced it really late at 6 p.m.
"To appease us they gave us tickets for Iloilo flights leaving the next day. We had better chances in Iloilo than Kalibo, since a total of three flights were already waiting in line for the Kalibo tickets. But they refused to pay us damages and would not shoulder our expenses going to Iloilo… To Iloilo we went at our own expense… It’s a different story in Iloilo when all the while their terminal was not prepared for the sudden flood of people (really short of patience I might add). I mean the Kalibo terminal could have at least been forewarned that they had moved tickets from Kalibo to Iloilo. Right?
"But NO, not even a single piece of information on the re-booked flights was relayed to them. Worse is the Kalibo terminal said the flight was leaving at 7:45 a.m. We got there at around 6:30 to 6:45 a.m., thinking that we had more time. Oddly they were already making last calls for the flight. It turned out the plane’s ETD was at 7:10 a.m.! My gosh, it was a simple information that they couldn’t even give out right. That flight got delayed because of the sudden rush of people wanting to get tickets. Pity the Iloilo passengers who were a few seats behind us; I could hear them saying that they could miss their connecting flights because of the delay.
"See how these things could cascade to other people, causing them more misfortunes. Well just thank God (a gazillion times) that we got back to Manila safe.
"So I guess that’s my sob Cebu Pacific story. Our biggest mistake probably now is we didn’t complain directly to Cebu Pacific about it… I just blogged about it in the hope that my friends won’t experience the same thing. Now it’s sad to read that delays and misinformation like this still happen.
"Well, I do hope that people who read your article would know better. And Cebu Pacific would read about it. I still do like Cebu Pacific because truly everyone deserves to fly; it’s just that things like these shouldn’t be overlooked, right? Well, thanks for taking the time to read my reply. Jeng <bluepurpleposh@yahoo.com."
As of press time, I got word from my good friend Charles Lim, Cebu-based consultant of Cebu Pacific Air, that I have a confirmed meeting with a top Cebu Pacific official (though he is still unnamed) in Cebu tomorrow. What can we expect from that meeting? I dare not predict.
But mind you, this is not the first time that I will be meeting with Cebu Pacific officials. A year ago, also in response to our columns, Cebu Pacific sent Marjorie Valiente, their corporate communications manager, and I even showed her the e-mails that were sent to me that I didn’t publish. But then, such meetings would be meaningless if there is no real effort from the management to fix whatever problems they are facing today… and which have caused massive inconvenience to their paying passengers.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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