Comments on: Philippines Airlines Review

By: Cess

Cess — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:21:58 +0000

I had a flight on September 9 from Coron (Busuanga), Palawan to Manila, Philippines. This was our return flight after a three-day vacation in the islands. The flight was scheduled to take off 2:10PM. It was past 2:10PM when they announced that the flight was delayed to 2:40PM. At around 3:15PM, exactly while a plane from a different carrier was landing in front of the terminal, they announced that the flight was cancelled due to “bad weather” in Coron. The terminal was quite small, and because of the noise from the landing plane, not everyone heard the announcement. Everyone who had heard rushed to the counter. The Cebu Pacific people were as unhelpful as they could be. No, there would not be another plane coming in on the same day. No, they would not refund anyone’s tickets. No, they would not be paying for anyone’s accommodations, food or transportation for the extra night’s stay because the cancellation was due to bad weather. Bad weather??! Another plane of the same size landed right in front of us exactly while they were claiming bad weather! In the end, some passengers transferred to another airline and paid for the added expense on their own, because they had connecting flights to catch that Cebu Pacific would not pay for if they missed. We stayed another night in Coron because we didn’t have any connecting flights, and we paid for the expense on our own as well.
The next day, our re-booked flight was at 10:10AM. This turned to 10:40AM, then was moved to 1:50PM, but the announcement was made 11AM already. Then the 1:50PM flight was further delayed to 2:05PM, and finally, cancelled again (but the announcement for this was made at around 3:00PM already). When the harrassed passengers surrounded the counter (turns out Cebu Pacific cancelled their only 2 flights that day), the Cebu Pacific representatives treated people quite badly. No one would attend to us even if we were already in front of the counter. All the Cebu Pacific people just disappeared and ignored the passengers.
In the end, what they told us was that they would not allow refunds or airline transfers. All they would offer was the extra night’s accommodations and transfers to and from the airport, and this was only grudgingly given because they had to concede that the weather wasn’t the reason this time, what with the two Air Philippines planes, one Zest Air plane and three chartered planes that landed and took off with no problem. We weren’t even sure if the rebooked flight for the next day would take off, what with the three cancelled flights in a span of two days! For those who would miss their connecting flights on different airlines, they would not compensate for anything. For those who wanted to transfer airlines, they would not cover for the expense.
They would not accept refunds. They were unapologetic, rude and unhelpful. One passenger had reached the end of his patience with the treatment, and in his frustration, snapped and tried to storm the counter. Instead of trying to calm him down, they yelled at him and threatened to have him removed from the airport.
Some foreign passengers had no more money and were trying to borrow from locals in order to reach Manila in time for their connecting flights, as the other airlines which were still accommodating last-minute passengers in their flight could only accept cash payment. One couple had to split up so that at least one of them could make their connecting flight home. They used all the last of their money and had to borrow just to pay for a ticket on the other airline. Another couple was on their honeymoon, who I’m sure had had a great time in Palawan until they met with Cebu Pacific’s incompetence.
We were lucky enough to know someone who could lend us the money at the last minute, as we also lacked the on-hand cash. Thus, we were able to reach Manila on that day. No thanks to Cebu Pacific. This is the worst airline EVER. I’m writing this not only on my behalf, but also on behalf of those other passengers who were left behind to deal with the unresponsive Cebu Pacific staff. After this harrowing experience, I think I can say for certain that none of the passengers will fly again with this airline. I sure won’t.

By: edward

edward — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:23:54 +0000

btw, the cebu pacific ground and air staff mercilessly enforce their boarding procedure and i have seen elderly and senior passengers made to walk down the stairs from the tube, through the ground and up again the stairs to the rear door of their plane.

By: edward

edward — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:19:03 +0000

Cebu Pacific Air has this no-brainer idea of how to ‘load’/boards its passengers onto its planes. claiming that their ‘procedure’ hastens boarding time, passengers who have the misfortune of being seated at the aft portion of their planes are made to go down the tarmac and board through the rear door of the plane. and this despite the presence and convenience of walking into their plane through a tube. one of the many stupidities that this number-one-airline wannabe does.

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 03:45:32 +0000

I’m lucky, I fly in from Singapore on Silkair, Direct flights Singapore to Cebu, I can avoid Manila. I’ve flown PAL a number of times and all flights have been quite good. Fly with Cebu air once. It was late departing, but service was ok.

I’m very luck as Bohol has easy access via HongKong and Singapore. I’m hoping that expansion of Cebu airport takes place and we see more international airlines fly in direct.

By: rosa

rosa — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:57:27 +0000

i have been a traveller myself and i do use cebupac since budget is one of the main thing that i need to consider and just like you ryan, if money is not a concern, i would prefer PAL at any given time.

So far, im good with cebupac but i have experiences with them that initially made me swear that i wouldnt book from their airline if alternatives would exist. I have the same experience like what you had, i suffered for 6 mo. with constant follow up and stress galore since you wuld feel like you are a pingpong ball being passed from one department to another just to get the money back on the flight that i cancelled.

I swear i was able to get wrinkles from that incident due to the stress that they had given me.

also, i experienced not getting confirmation reciept that i was able to purchase the online ticket successfully. so thats why before closing everything, i would try to make sure i was able to print the receipt first and so on and so forth.. thats including not seeing if the transaction was successful or not due to their screen turning white when you process the transaction.

anyhow, my love for travel is and would still be the prime importance in my mind so with bated breath and crossed fingers, i would still patronize cebupac.

By: ellen

ellen — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 00:11:42 +0000

I would say PAL is still the best , speaking about domestic flights of course. First class seats comfortable , service is good and most importantly , on time arrrival and departure. Only problem is they dont accept my frequent flyer miles and more costly.

By: beej

beej — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:03:11 +0000

i say sue Cebu Pacific… i have.

it’s comforting to know, i’m not the only one with the bad experience. anyone want’s to issue affidavits attesting to their experiences with Cebu Pac?

By: Tim J.

Tim J. — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:52:25 +0000

You need to F-O Peter and let him say waht he wants to say. I ‘ve been flying around in all of these Philippine carrier and I have not experienced bloody mess and drama in all of them except for Cebu Pacific.

This airline company rips people off. When you arrive 45 mins before time, they say you’re f*ck*ng late when in reality they had sold your seats to chance passengers.

They have never been on time, at least, for more than 20 times I flew with them.

They would never refund your payment.

They have very rude ground and inflight service crews.

Damn, they’re not even that cheap.

I would prefer Zest Air over this ripper Cebu Pacific anyday, anytime.

Very good article Ryan, tells the truth

By: Edz

Edz — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:20:47 +0000

I flew with Zest Air twice, though their service is good, their carrier is not good enough for me, I’m only 5’6″ but my knees touches the the back of the seat in front of me if I slouch a little, good for me, I sat up straight the whole flight from Manila to Kalibo and back.
Since then, I have chosen to fly with Cebu Pacific to Cebu, Dipolog and Zamboanga since the ‘space’ provided for my knees is enough. I have flown with them at least 6 times this year, so far the problem that I had experienced is the delay in the confirmation to my email, and yes, it took 8 minutes before an operator answered my call. Too bad I used my skype credit to call them since I’m not using any land line here in the Philippines. I just hope that they can have a mobile number from Globe, Smart or Sun to call.
By the way, flying from Hong Kong to Manila is about 1 hour 40 minutes, I just noticed from the ticket that the difference between ETD and ETA is 2 hours, we were delayed for about 15 minutes, and when the plane reached Manila, they proudly announced that we are few minutes ahead of schedule… oh yeah?
Another thing, the last time I flew from Hong Kong to Manila two weeks ago, that was the most unpleasant trip I had, there were 3 babies on board and all of them had been crying and screaming the whole flight.I just hope that parents or companions of babies would be considerate enough to prepare to pacify these little angels in case they throw tantrums during flights. Like having toys, candies, bottled milk, pacifiers within reach. The father (I assume) of the two babies (1 infant and 1 toddler) in front of me (lucky me, the other 1 is several seats away) has reached for their bag in the overhead compartment several times to get their babies’ needs.
I’m going to have a 3 days break from my work and will be going to Dakak on the 5th-7th. Yes, we will be flying with Cebu Pacific. I always wanted to fly with PAL, but their ticket price is a lot more expensive. My experiences with Cebu Pacific is tolerable so far and I can use my savings to buy pasalubong.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:46:52 +0000

Well, I hope your experience is different from the most of us. Just make sure to check in on time (even if they aren’t). Check your credit card bill just in case for double billing. My parents refuse to fly any airline to aside from PAL.

*cross fingers