cebu pacific fouls up again

during the last piso fare craze, susie and i were able to purchase cheap tickets to puerto princesa. we were pretty excited about the trip, and have already figured out our itinerary, until we received bad news today:

CEBU PACIFIC would like to inform you that your flt 5J640 for PPSMNL ETD 1615H on MAR 10,2008 is cancelled. For inquiries or rebooking,pls call 02-7020888

it's definitely not a good way to start the day, but what can i do? so i dialled the cebu pacific hotline, waited for 15 minutes, realized it's going to take longer, hung up, and took a shower.

after that, i tried calling again, and it took 15 minutes before i got hold of an agent. i was informed that cebu pacific is taking out the 415pm flight from their timetable, and the only flight left that day was the 1015am flight.

to cebu pacific, it was just a matter of taking out a flight schedule. to me, it meant saying goodbye to our city tour, because we had allotted our other days to see the subterranean river park, honda bay, and other attractions. a 1015am flight meant we were basically just staying there for two days, instead of almost 3 days. while i'm sure seeing the subterranean river park would be memorable, it's a total waste of time and money if we don't get to see the city.

and what made the situation worse was the way the cebu pacific travel agent, MC, handled the whole thing. when i asked him to just rebook me for the 10am flight, he had the gall to tell me, in a threatening tone, "okay, i'll rebook this flight for 10am, but next time you change it again, you will pay for rebooking charges."

*deep breath*

was it my fault that you cancelled the flight? i was fine about my original flight until you told me i had to change it. i never wanted to change it, but you gave me no choice, and you're making me sound like i'm being inconsiderate for rebooking my flight.

if he just found a better way to say it, i wouldn't be seething this much. i think i hated the way he handled my call more than i'm hating the fact that i'll be leaving at 1015am instead of at 415pm.

but going back to the cebu pacific foul-up, i don't understand why they have to cancel flights that are already sold. if the route or the schedule wasn't profitably viable, then they shouldn't have offered it in the first place. but since they have, they could have at least just pushed through with the flights that have been sold, and gradually "phased out" that specific schedule.

now, i'm inclined to think that they only offered that flight schedule to make the route more attractive to buyers. now that they have my money, they have no problems changing the schedule.

but what makes this situation even sadder is that i know i won't stop taking cebu pacific flights. they're the only reasonable choice budget-wise. i live to travel, and if it means being inconvenienced like this, i have no choice but to swallow it all.

all i can do is hope that cebu pacific will one day wake up and start thinking about the quality of their service. never mind that your flight attendants can't speak proper english, never mind that i don't have much legroom on the plane. just please, get me to my destination at my preferred time.