Cebu Pacific

A friend emailed me the following, which he saw on an online bulletin
board:

Just last week I had to fly to Hong Kong on business so with
Philippine airlines full on that day and Cathay Pacific having 1
flight full and another cancelled (don't know why) I reluctantly chose
Cebu Pacific..here is how the story goes...

I'm booked on the 4.40pm flight Manila to Hong Kong.. ok no problems
so far.. I arrive at Manila airport Sunday April 29 at 2pm to check in
only to be told..."sir we are sorry but our flight is 50% over booked
and we are going to have to divert the remaining passengers through
Cebu to Hong Kong..

ah..ok not too bad I guess..extra 2 hours flying..i can live with
that..so at our own cost..(Cebu Pacific refused) we all made our way
over to the domestic terminal to board our rebooked flight to Cebu at
5.40 pm which is due to arrive in Cebu at 6.50 pm and the flight to
Hong Kong departs Cebu at 9.15 pm...plenty of time in a normal country
with a normal airline. Well I'm checked in at the domestic terminal
awaiting to board at 5pm when it reaches 5.40pm and still no
announcement to board..its now 6pm and still not boarding and no
announcement so I wandered over to the control room where they make
announcements and asked "what's happening with the Cebu flight?"...I
get this reply from the girl ""my god I forgot to announce the
delay...Im in trouble now..i will do it now sir..sorry for that".
(ugh..she FORGOT!) The announcement is now being heard - "We regret
to inform u that the 5.40 pm flight to Cebu will be delayed and
boarding will commence at 6.20pm" ..ok so now our arrival in Cebu is
7.30pm..

Still no problems..plenty of time to make the connection..tick tick
tick...well u guessed it 6.20pm passes and NOTHING WALA..over to the
girl at the control room again and this time she is crying..I ask her
about the further delay with the Cebu flight and she starts
whimpering...I'm too shy to announce a further delay sir..Im sorry."
Between tears and sobbing I was able to get the information from
her..the scheduled 5.40 pm flight to Cebu will now depart a 7.40pm.
ummm ..that only leaves 25 mins to transfer and connect to the Hong
Kong flight..not enough time..so I go in search of a supervisor...

Now if any of u guys have ever attempted to locate a airline
supervisor in the Philippines when there are flight delays u will know
its virtually impossible as they go underground or if they are
actually a supervisor, they will not admit it, thats exactly what was
happening here..bingo..I find one..Mr JUHN AGRILLO..airline ramp
controller for Cebu pacific in manila...I tell him my dilemma that I
need to connect with the Hong Kong flight from Cebu following the
overbooking of the manila - Hong Kong flight at the directions of Cebu
pacific and after he views my new ticket issued over at the
international terminal he swings into action...well at least I thought
he did..he was on his two way radio and then frantically on his cell
phone for about 20 minutes then he reaches for his ball pen and makes
some notes on my ticket..he stated to me that there will be no problem
with the connection as the aircraft being used for the Manila-Cebu
flight is the same aircraft to be used for the Cebu- Hong Kong flight
and with that he made arrangements for my 2 bags to be re-tagged to go
direct transfer to Hong Kong and gave me the luggage tags..in addition
he said a airline representative will meet 17 passengers in Cebu and
escort them through immigration and back onto the flight in Cebu..

Well I'm impressed and very professionally done, so I thought.. I WAS
SO VERY WRONG! One thing I forget to remember was where I was..The
PHILIPPINES where telling lies are a past time...u will understand
what I mean soon.

Ok, we are now boarding the flight and arrive at Cebu at 8.45 pm and
was told the Hong Kong flight was to be delayed until 9.30 pm as its
required, for safety purposes that a 45 minute turn around for a
aircraft is required by aviation law..ah..ok 45 minutes should still
not be a problem as the international terminal in Cebu is right next
door to the domestic with only a glass door separating them..ok out of
the aircraft and u guessed it - nothing ..no one to meet us and no one
knew anything about 17 passengers connecting to Hong Kong and being
diverted by the airline itself due to the overbooking of the manila -
Hong Kong flight...no one contacted anyone..it seems our little
supervisor in Manila was talking to himself on his cell phone when he
was supposedly arranging the connecting passengers to be escorted to
the Hong Kong flight out of Cebu and nothing had been arranged and no
one contacted in Cebu about this. Frantically, we had Cebu Pacific
staff running in all directions until finally at 9.15 all 17
passengers had been issued boarding passes and all luggage (as I said
before) was in transit transferring direct to Hong Kong so there would
be no delays to all of us as we would be whisked away to
immigration..RIGHT? WRONG! Remember that glass door I mentioned that
separates domestic from international? Well its only allowed to be
used by airline staff so we had to be escorted out of domestic, walk
up the ramp and in through to the International terminal..

We reach the front door to the International terminal to find no one
at the xray screening...seems they went to eat..so, more time was
wasted until an x-ray guy was finally located..asleep, in the room
beside the x-ray machine..ok we are all through the x-ray and up to
immigration..everybody is relieved a little..but wait...whats
this...Immigration is closed as it being the last international flight
out all the immigration staff had gone home.. well now its total chaos
with all Cebu Pacific staff including the head supervisor yelling and
screaming at everyone until finally an immigration officer appeared
from a room dressed in street clothes...luckily for us he was getting
changed and ready to go home...ok, we are very quickly through
immigration when all of a sudden some dick head filipino passenger
yells out.."Hey we haven't paid our Filipino travel tax and there is
no one at the counter" ..all stop .. now this is the
Philippines...right? We all know that money is paramount here so it
was decided that the head supervisor would collect the 1620p from the
Filipino passengers and pay it tomorrow..now this should not have
affected the 4 foreign passengers as we are not required to pay that
tax and when I mentioned this to the supervisor so he could allow us
to go straight to the plane..he abruptly said "NO..everybody stays
until the money is paid!"..Ok its 9.35 pm..5 mins past departure time
and we are finally being escorted to the air bridge where the plane
SHOULD BE only to find the air bridge operater and a official of Cebu
Pacific walking towards us with a surprised look on their faces.. yes
guys... u guessed it...the plane had already left and was taxiing out
onto the runway... a heated argument started between the 2 head
airline staff to a point of almost a fight... meanwhile there are 17
passengers all standing here watching the greatest debacle of this
century unfold..apparently the head supervisor who was with us through
the entire check in and Immigration process FORGOT (there is that
magic filipino word again) to inform the air bridge controller and the
other head supervisor of the connecting 17 passengers so he cleared
the plane to leave..

Can u believe this so far..im sitting here ****ing myself laughing
about all this now but wait...its not finished yet,,the saga
continues..

After everything calmed down I asked the supervisor who cleared the
plane for departure...."did u not notice 17 passenger names on the
flight manifest were not on board when u had the captain and the head
flight attendant sign off on the passenger manifest...of
coarse....just a blank stare and no comment. I further asked..."are u
aware that there is unaccompanied luggage on board that aircraft?"
Now his eyes light up and he immediately contacted the control tower
and the tower contacted the captain who at this point was still
waiting to take off when all of a sudden the two way radio lights up
and the guy in the control tower relays the captains response..this is
unbelievable.. the captains response was.."thats bad luck for them
passengers...this flight is already delayed and I'm not coming back to
the terminal as I want to be on time for the return flight from Hong
Kong..I will notify ground staff at Hong Kong and have the luggage
held there.." now the captains name was obtained by me for follow up
legal matters along with a detailed complaint to the airline..the
captains name is:

CAPT. VINCENTE.G.CASIBANG II
A320 CAPTAIN
CEBU PACIFIC AIR

Ok - plane gone...nothing could be done and we have two supervisors
tearing each other apart..what a nightmare..ok it continues..so now
its calmed down a little but many problems still exist. Walking back
towards Immigration I realize that we all have already been stamped
out of the country and as I was right that the Immigration officer had
left already..so the cell phones of both supervisors go into overtime
trying to find out what to do about all this...and while we were
waiting for a Immigration answer the funniest thing I have seen for a
long time was 13 Filipinos trying to get their 1620p travel tax back
from one of the supervisors...no Filipino wants to part with money
already in his pocket and I was certain that money was never destined
for the travel tax department...eventually he gave in and handed back
all the money when along comes a well dressed Filipino in a suit and
takes the two supervisors aside for a little heart to heart
chat...yeah right..the supervisors, under the instruction from this
guy, left and were not seen again that night..

ok this guy seems to be from the top of the Cebu Pacific food chain
and starts apologizing and says we have all been re booked on tomorrow
nights flight and told us to all go and come back tomorrow night...
so ok ....I ask who will pay for our accommodation tonight as all of
us had flown from manila on request from cebu pacific,, his answer was
no surprise - "that's your problem sir..we are not responsible...now
everyone must leave the terminal or security will be called"... ok
fine with me I say but...now you are instructing people to enter the
Philippines illegally as we have not been processed by immigration to
re enter the Philippines..his answer...again.. "not our responsibility
sir...now will u all please leave and come back tomorrow night" ....
with that he left. Now picture this.. 17 passengers inside a
international terminal with no sign of any staff anywhere... I just
had to laugh as I left the terminal and headed for a bar to get
drunk... what everyone else did... I DONT KNOW..

Anyhow, to finish off....yes I got to Hong Kong the next night but
wait...where is my luggage?.. hehe...u guessed it.. they sent it back
to Cebu on that same return flight...and yes it was there when I
returned...Now I ask u - could anyone dream up such a story?..

My complaint was issued to the management of Cebu Pacific yesterday
morning and the return email response I got was just as I expected...
It was a copy of the terms of carriage of the airline..