Wednesday, April 23, 2008

should i still fly cebu pacific?

should i still fly cebu pacific?

do a search on "cebu pacific bad service," or "cebu pacific sucks," and google will churn out 6,070 results about people's bad experience with the airline.

my friends and i booked tickets to bangkok for november, and we're all pretty anxious to find out how we're going to be treated the day of our flight.

i did a simple search on "cebu pacific cancels flights" today and the first result was about cebu pacific cancelling a flight to bangkok.

as if delayed and cancelled flights weren't enough, cebu pacific also fails in the customer service department, with agents that are just downright useless and rude. take a look at this response regarding her complaint about her destroyed luggage:


and with all these stories and bad experiences, i have yet to hear any explanation from the airline. it's this blatant disregard that pisses me off, because they're not doing anything at all to address the issues.

most of the "victims" of cebu pacific's appalling service are calling for a boycott, but i'm going to be honest and say that as disgruntled and disappointed as i am about their performance, i know that at one point or another, i will be forced to book a flight with them again. as much as i would love to teach them a lesson by not supporting their products, at the end of the day, i don't really have much choice. i am someone who wants to travel without burning a hole in my pocket.

it's such a shame that budget travel here in the philippines is suffering because one airline wouldn't even try to rectify their mistakes. they just let the complaints pile up, thinking it would go away.

and to think i was pretty pleased with john gokongwei's speech in last year's ad congress, where he said,

...my son Lance and I had a vision for Cebu Pacific: We wanted every Filipino to fly.

Inspired by the low-cost carrier models in the United States , we
believed that an airline based on the no-frills concept would work
here. No hot meals. No newspaper. Mono-class seating. Operating with
a single aircraft type. Faster turn around time. It all worked, thus
enabling Cebu Pacific to pass on savings to the consumer.

How did we do this? By sticking to our philosophy of "low cost, great
value."

you read right, folks.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

diorella, another thing I discovered with Cebu Pacific...

Last Feb, I had to cancel my Boracay flight...so I went to the Cebu Pac office to process my refund for cancellation...Since I paid thru my credit card, all they can do is reverse the amount that was already credited...

They said that I will be able to get the refund in 60-90 days...that alone was a bummer...since Asian Spirit was able to do a similar thing in just a week...But the real surprise was...they warned me that it was highly likely that I would be waiting for up to 8 MONTHS before the money gets debited!

The airline is really a mess...ang gulo na nga ng mga flight skeds nila...ang tagal pa makuha ang refunds kapag magpapacancel...

jey-aiy said...

makes me think more than twice now about booking my next flight through cebu pacific.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you!

I used to be a great fan of the airline since they used to be "on time" and that is very important specially if you fly with kids. However, things have changed.

Last October, I went to Bacolod and I could not believe that we were 2 hours delayed! It never happened to me before! So I thought it was just one of those freaky times.

But last april, my family and I went to Davao on seperate flights and we ALL had delayed flights too! going and coming back!

That was when I realized that the airlines had indeed gone to the dogs.

Sayang talaga! kaya lang, ano pa bang magagawa natin? Perhaps that is why they turn their ears and attention away from all our complains.

Anonymous said...

i never had a problem with cebu pacific, but i hate PAL with a passion for the same reasons you don't like the former. could it be true, what they say, that if you paid for peanuts, you'll get peanuts? and is that the airlines' excuse for not addressing issues brought forward to them?

here in the US, the horror stories are not very different. budget carriers like alaska air and southwest also suffer from long delays and frequent plane malfunction. but at least they get more points for customer service. they give free miles, discounts, free meal coupons, free flights, free vacations, etc to their poor victims. i hope the airlines back home would follow suit.

Anonymous said...

Yes JE, same here, my refund has been on the pocket for more than 60 days now. Probably they hold on to my money longer so it can help them on the interest that it may generate, hahaha......

One thing for sure, I will flood them with follow-up emails

Ronnie Gozun
Hewlett Packard Co.

Anonymous said...

Cebu Pacific is not really advisable for international trips. You'll get bored with the long flight without watching anything, you'll get hungry since they'll charge you for the food and the seats are really uncomfortable especially if the flight takes more than 3 hours. I went to Shanghai last year and the worst thing about the airline was that we were suppose to leave for Manila at 10pm Shanghai time. Instead, we left around 2 or 3am the next day and had no other choice but to sleep in the airport. Their plane fares are very tempting but if you're after the comfort, I suggest that you take PAL or other airlines.

Anonymous said...

read this guy's experience. inconsiderate and cebu pacific.

http://bultokachi.blogspot.com/2008/12/do-not-fly-cebu-pacific.html

Shadysmurff said...

Their fQin Hot Rice Topping Meals are trash and they priced it at P350 each i bet those meals just costs around P100 pesos more or less, and they used the other half to fuel the airplane, or what else can i guess? in their pockets of excess money, ive already booked online many times before without meals and my dad said howbout i check out their "new scheme" for Hot Meals so i did booked for 4 pps with P350 meals round trip and its about P2800, coz i always book my planes in advanced time slots, already booked to Singapore, Hongkong, Thailand, Malaysia, Seoul, Tokyo, China, Guangzhou, Shanghai without those meals until when just this 2013 we booked for meals for cambodia, then we realized their serving was sooo late like we ate at 10:00PM oclock and the flight was already on the air on 7:00pm and i asked why cant we have meals yet? they said they still have to cook for 1 hrs each guest? wtf? and they are so disorganized that they gave those who didnt pay on the webcheck in meals too... i was shocked when someone told me he didnt paid for the meal and they steal gave them 2 sets of meals (maybe they too dumb to forget coz she said she already tossed away her tray and they gave them another since they saw the girl's plate is already gone, and not only that, when you wated for like 5 hrs for your meals you discovered they dont follow what you ordered online which was chicken rendang and black chicken pepper for way back, they start saying we run out we gonna cook a dif dish now no choice, (yeah right ofcourse coz you guys already gave the non paid webcheck ins for free... thats why it runned out and we have to wait for fQin 5 hrs for our meal to be cooked which is not our choosing and we all paid for it!, then the time comes when i opened their meal, its a Shi77y rice toppings with no tates for P350 each? never again am i gonna buy their shi77y meals again for P2,800 pesos, i could get better meals before i ride the plane or after the plane arriving id rather buy from the country i arrived from or at manila before taking the BS flight, and i bet their meals cost only about P100 more or less and i dont know where the other half goes, for their fuel or in their pockets of go kong way, damn i can get better mucn scrumpicous meals on the streets of the country im visiting or even before take off, NEVER AGAIN.

Shadysmurff said...

Just to mention i previously booked for local flights aswell, like Bohol Aloha Beach, kalibo aklan first Boracay, Caticlan 2nd boracay without the "new scheme" for Hot Meals before, i ate much better foods weather landing or before take of at manila for P350 less

Shadysmurff said...

ok technically i was exagerating for the 5hrs, its really a 3 hours flight but we got the meals atleast 1 hrs and 30 minutes before we got our meals, but that doesnt excuse their service and lame coordinations, never put something on at a high price tag that wont even satisfy the customer.