Local airline stupidity

I was booked out yesterday morning Monday on Philippine airlines but was not able to take the flight.. My return was scheduled for today... anyway went to change my ticket since the return portion was not used and said instead change my ticket to depart Dumaguete on Wednesday with return on Thursday.. Now it gets seriously ridiculous. Yes sir with penalties and missed flights your new price is 8,000 peso's +- to use the old tickets and update. Wow how come so much?,,well your return ticket is not valid since you missed your departing flight and both tickets are booked under the same ticket number??? Ok and then---- bla bla bla. Can you book me a new flight for Wednesday and return on Thursday, Yes sir,, ok how much is it.. 6,200 sir round trip.. Ok sir, but this needs to be paid before 1 PM today. No problem..Sir are you sure you just don't want to rebook your old tickets.. Anyone who says there is common sense here doesn't get out much at all..or must think that foreigners here are all completely stupid.

 

To be fair to the girl, I think she was probably just repeating the mantra she was taught - and that is partly because rote learning is the method in schools and learning to think for themselves seems unimportant (dangerous even!).

When I was new here, I told a waitress I did not want rice and asked if the price is cheaper without the rice. She told me it was and so when I asked the new price it was the same as the original price (with rice). I gave up asking such 'difficult' questions in the future and just shrugged at the processes here.

The important point is that we are not stupid - and that is our savior.

 

The airline industry here does not accept responsibility for the problems caused by other airlines during your trip. Case in point: Flying overseas from United airlines, there was a delay during our stopover on Beijing. Since we had to fly to Dumaguete from Manila, our late arrival in Manila caused us to miss our reserved tickets from Manila to Dumaguete by about an hour. So, we had to get reticketed in Manila. As far as Philippine airlines was concerned, we were “no shows” AND subjected to high penalties. Usually in the West, airlines will, as a matter of courtesy, forgive the no show because it wasn’t the passengers fault. Be aware that the same as not true with either PAL or Cebu Pacific! Not unless you booked the whole flight together, which is not usually the case with Philippines domestic legs. And when your luggage is inevitably delayed in these cases, the passengers are responsible for dealing with it with no help from PAL or Cebu Pacific. Delays are fairly common on international routes so it is good to know this ahead of time. In our case we will in the future always look for flights to Cebu and just hire a van to Dumaguete from there. This is not to complain, just realize that the domestic airlines here will take advantage to profit from other airlines’ delays, unlike the type of service you may be used to in the West.


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NEVER NEVER EVER get upset with a customer service rep who is only adhering to the company policy. I was once talking to a woman at an event who said she changed jobs after several overseas callers made her cry by yelling at her. preposterous. Ran into the same as andiflip trying to change a Cebu flight by two days. Also cost thousands extra, baffling....

And do I understand that stopping or changing planes in china even before corona requires you to get off the plane, go thru immigration, go thru emigration, and thus miss your flight by a few hours of standing in line ??? Why would anyone go thru this to save a few bucks. The stress will cost hundreds in medical costs...

 

Agree, never argue with airlines reps at the airport or especially in flight. They have all the power, they know it and they will not think twice to exercise it against passengers. However, once you get home you get all the power back when you inform their customer service in writing of your issues. Not sure what you mean about going through immigration in China. If your do happen to go through there you will be in transit and go through security just like most airports.


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Sorry, I had someone say to me, or maybe it was some youtube vlog, that they specifically had to go thru immigration in a Chinese city airport just to continue on an overseas flight, even tho "in transit," and spent hours doing it, within the last year. 2% chance my memory is kaput, I'd love for someone to confirm. I've done in-transit on a PAL mnl to jfk thru Vancouver, and did a quick check-in in a transit lounge. There might have been a security gate in the lounge, but nothing major and certainly less than one hour for getting off to getting back on the aircraft.

 

100% correct. One time I was annoyed with Cebu Pacific so I read the Terms and Conditions. No sense getting in an argument with them if I didn't know the rules.
In there terms and conditions is states (paraphrased), Any hostile or threatening passenger can be blacklisted forever. Since there are only 2 airlines flying out of Dumaguete it's good to keep that rule in mind.

 

Right, and “hostile” can be interpreted in different ways even depending upon their mood, especially given cultural differences, when one makes a “spirited” argument to make one’s point. By definition they will always be right if your are on their turf. True not only for airlines in the Philippines.


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i had an almost identical experience with American airlines over the thanksgiving holidays. it cost me about four hundred dollars for a one way ticket from okc to la that was listed at about a hundred and fifty. failing to to it their way would mean they would cancel my entire international trip for being a "no show" on my departure as booked from okc. this was even tho i was making the change a week before my departure from okc. its blackmail. in my case the culprit was Orbitz; thats O-r-b-i-t-z!!!! i will never use them again