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Flying with Cebu Pacific

cebu pacificCebu Pacific

Once you are in the Philippines you will be spoilt with beach destinations. Mostly the only way to get to these places is by air and the  biggest domestic service is Cebu Pacific. They offer competitive fares but do not expect flights to be trouble-free, especially when flying from the Manila hub. Congested airports and airspace make it a very difficult journey.

Air companies here do not have the best-trained staff and this leads to huge frustrations and tempers from the international travelers.
Customer service is poor and customer complaints, mostly are ignored.
Take a look at some of the customer complaints online about Cebu Pacific.

I have a booking for our helper on Cebu Pacific from Singapore to Davao via Manila for Nov. 7, 2015. I wanted to change the Manila to Davao segment of the flight and move it by a week. There is a manage booking function in the Cebu Pacific website and I was able to make the change. Unfortunately, after I have made the change and paid additional $120.99, the Singapore to Manila segment was canceled and only the Manila to Davao was retained. There was no prompt given before making the payment that the original booking of SIN-MLA-DVO will be canceled by the change.

When I called the customer service, that’s when I learned that their website doesn’t have that capability of rebooking a multi-city flight. I asked if I can reinstate the old booking. It can be done but I have again to pay $194 as a penalty. I asked if there is a way they could help reduce the penalty to reinstate the original booking. None was given. The customer service has no power to make or given any accommodations and only gives an apology that I felt is really not sincere.

The other thing I want to highlight is the website usage. You have to really be detailed in reviewing the items you pay for, from the baggage allowance, seat, food, and insurance. For seat allocation, the website will default a seat for you but at a cost. The option to remove a seat allocation, the text itself, has a gray color. If you missed it, you will be a charge for the seat. You have to make sure to unselect each seat allocation if you have multiple flights. The website also defaults a food choice for you. But this time, the text to change the meal is highlighted in blue. so you can easily notice this and change or remove the food item. Insurance is again preselected for you.

There are two ways to manage this. One is to click “No thanks” which is in light gray. The other is to choose “Manage by guest” which is in blue. Then you have to make sure if there are more than one in your booking. You have to check/review for each passenger. At the end, you just need to review the whole booking again to make sure that what you are paying for is what you need or choose. The experience of using the website is stressful. I always feel that if you are not careful, you will end up paying for something that you may probably not choose if you have been informed clearly about it. The whole experience with Cebu Pacific, even the recent flights I took, are not satisfactory of a regional airline whose passenger volume has increased tremendously over the years.

PAL to UK

Manila to London

Manila to London

The PAL Airlines was allowed to reinstate direct flight from Manila to UK in late 2013. This followed many years of being banned from 2010 and its safety ratings were downgraded by the US Federal Aviation Authority, from a category 2 to a category 1, in 2008.

In lifting the ban, the EU transport commissioner decided that the airlines had shown a “commitment and capacity” to implementing international safety standards in a “sustainable manner”, Reuters reported. This was an important announcement as many carriers had pulled out of direct flights from UK to Manila following arguments about Manila airport costs and services. Of course less planes from Europe means less holidaymakers and does nothing to assist tourism in the Philippines. Not everyone can get on a plane for a few hours like those from Australia. The Philippines really needed to get Europe travelers,but at points in the past greed made it unprofitable for many European carriers to come to the UK. The likes of KLF, Lufthansa, Quantas and British Airways all pulled out of the route.

PAL travels several times a week and although the Economy has no private entertainment systems it does have leg room for us over 5ft 5″.

I flew recently and the number of passengers accounted for less than a third of capacity allowing me to stretch across three seats and sleep and snore like a baby. The question is why are people not filling these flight?

Here are a couple of reviews I have found online.

PR721, London to Manila, 25 October, PR720 Manila to London, 12 November. A340-300 both ways. 2 hours late laving Heathrow but we arrived in Manila on time. The flight was only about 65% full and my son and I were lucky as we had all 4 seats in the middle section to ourselves. Seat recline seemed limited. The A340 is clearly an older plane – no seat back videos but passengers are issued with iPads for the duration of the flight which are pre- loaded with games and films. The staff were friendly and helpful. The catering was fine – 2 full meals and a snack. Getting to Manila non stop is a real selling point for PAL. Return – big plus point is that PAL uses Terminal 2 at NAIA which is a dream compared to Terminal 1. Again half empty flight and I had 4 seats to myself! Again, 2 meals and a snack. Staff were good, no complaints. I was a bit wary before I travelled as I had read some poor reviews of the PAL flight from London and I had always used Emirates / Cathay / Singapore / Thai before. The lack of seatback videos is solved by the iPads. The staff didn’t come round with water that much. So long as the price is right, I would certainly use PAL again.

I flew from Manila to Heathrow on a 777, my return was on an old Airbus A340. To say the airbus was substandard would be an understatement, in an age of carriers using modern up to date planes, this was a great disappointment. London is a prime capital city. To look to increase passengers especially from the west you really have to up your game. There is no personal screen (the replacement was a small iPad to use which meant holding it while viewing it, not easy hour after hour on a long haul flight), my fold down table was broken, the seat was really uncomfortable, the toilets were not kept clean. I have flown China Southern and even this carrier had a better plane. I am not in a position to use business class but still expect a certain amount of service for my ticket money.

 

 

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