⌛ Buying Cebu Pacific tickets online

nah, definitely can't be... an airline won't pay my tax plus 100 extra plus transport me for free ... bought an all fee included outbound ticket for 1,600 php... it just comes down to some Cebu Pathetic offices ...

 

If you fly from Cebu to an international destination with Cebu Pacific you will see a long line of people at the left of CP-Check in who are paying their traveltax. I guess this are people who bought their ticket online.
PS/ don't confuse traveltax(1620 P) with airporttax (550 or 750 P depending port of departure)

 

It is not only the Cebu Pacific sales office, that mistakenly add travel tax to all international tickets sold in Dumaguete. The exact same thing happened to me, once I asked my girlfriend to purchase a ticket on my behalf through a local travel agency (the one inside Super Lee). They also added an additional 3.000 peso to the price of the ticket compared to the online price for their great ”service”.

The easiest solution to the problem is to just purchase your tickets online, and if the payment system of Cebu Pacific is not working, then just fly Philippine Airlines instead. If you choose their new ”Econolight” booking class, the price difference to Cebu Pacific is small, and its money well spend in my opinion.

 

Returnticket Hong Kong - Cebu - Hong Kong with return after 6 months.
Cebu Pacific around 150 Euro.
Philippines more than 300 Euro.
Small difference?
Buying CP tickets in Hong Kong (Kowloon) is the best option, same price as internet but most likely you will have to stay overnight and tickets might be more expensive de day before departure, if possible fly midweek.

 

You could also choose to fly Hong Kong – Manila and then on to Dumaguete with a domestic flight. This would reduce the price on Philippine Airlines from around 300 EUR to around 220 EUR. And save you the trouble and cost of traveling between Cebu and Dumaguete by bus or boat. And save you the inconvenience of arriving in Cebu at 3 a.m. in the morning.

Cebu Pacific can sell you the same Hong Kong – Dumaguete trip for around 120 EUR though, so its still cheaper, I have to admit that. But the saving is completely illusionary, if you can not purchase the ticket online well ahead of your planned travel due to their credit card problem bullshit thing, which has been going on for more than a year now.

Buying the ticket in Hong Kong the day before your planned travel, you might well end up paying more than 220 EUR for it. And its not so cheap to stay in a hotel in Hong Kong, if the only reason to do this is to fly with Cebu Pacific rather than Philippine Airlines. At least half of your saved 100 EUR is gone already on the hotel bill alone then.

Personally I don`t mind flying Cebu Pacific, but I do find the service of Philippine Airlines to be much better. And if Cebu Pacific for some stupid reason wont accept my credit card, well then that is really the same as them saying, that they do not want my business. In which case it is really an easy choice for me to take my business elsewhere. Even if that means paying another 100 EUR or so for my ticket.

And on domestic flights the amount of money saved by flying Cebu Pacific is not 100 EUR on a return flight, but rather 10 EUR or even less.

 

Cebu Pacific arrives in Cebu around 11.00 PM now.
Staying in Kowloon is not so expensive and a roundtrip busfare is around 5 Euro.
But after all i don't save any money because i don't stay ones but twice in Hong Kong on my trip.
But i see it also as a welcome break in a long flight to the Philippines and on a trip of six months this few days in Hong Kong will not make the difference.
But You are right if Cebu Pacific don't accept our creditcard (not one year but many years already now) we should spend our money on amother airline.

 

I agree that Hong Kong is an excellent transit destination, when travelling between Europe and the Philippines.

Breaking up the long and tedius journey is one advantage, but Hong Kong is also a very nice place to spend a day or two, and its an excellent place to do some shopping.

And finally, due to the far larger number of airlines flying between Europa and Hong Kong compared to Europe and the Philippines, quite often you can save money by travelling on two separate tickets via Hong Kong rather than on 1 ticket all the way.

Another possible transit destination is Shanghai, particularly for those nationalities, who have 48 hours visa free stay in Shanghai. The advantage of Shanghai is, that the city is cheaper to stay in than Hong Kong, and often tickets from Europe to Shanghai are even cheaper than those from Europe to Hong Kong.

The downside is, that there are far less daily flights between Manila and Shanghai than there is between Manila and Hong Kong, the Shanghai-Manila trip is more expensive than the Hong-Kong-Manila trip, and also the new PVG airport in Shanghai is pretty far from town.

On the upside though, you can sleep at an excellent airport hotel for around 45 EUR in Shanghai, which is not possible in Hong Kong. And which make the return journey to Europe pretty much ideal, if you travel Cebu Pacific on the way home, since you can then land in Shanghai airport around midnight, go directly to the airport hotel, and in the morning go directly from the hotel to the gate to check in to your next flight back to Europe.

 

There is only one airline in Europe that has direct flights between Europe and the Philippines, that is KLM with a pricetag of 935 Euro r/t incl valid for 6 months.
Now i did fly Britisch Air Bru - Hkg - Bru for 435 Euro r/t incl.
Plus the fare from Hong Kong to Cebu (or Manila)
The bus from the airport in Hong Kong to Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon) cost 55 HKG$ and i stay in Wonderful Inn (own website) for 320 Hkg $ a night so i think this is a good deal.
1 Euro is now around 11 Hkg $ i think.
Flights from Brussels to Shanghai are similar price as to Hong Kong but i don't know if this is also the case if You stay for 6 months.

 

There is only one european airline, who offers tickets from Europe to the Philippines, and that is KLM. However there are also a number of Asian Airlines, who offer such tickets, i.e. Cathay Pacific (via Hong Kong), Singapore Airlines (via Singapore), Thai Airways (via Bangkok) and some chinese airlines.

And unless you are traveling from Amsterdam, these routes might be just as fast and convenient as that operated by KLM. For some destinations in Europe, Cathay Pacific is usually the cheapest carrier, and in particular if you need a 6 month ticket.

British Airways and Cathay Pacific are both part of the same group, so it would also have been possible for Firefly to fly all the way to Manila or Cebu on the same ticket, since Cathay Pacific have numerous daily flights between Hong Kong and Manila/Cebu. But depending on the availability of "special offers" from British Ariways / Cathay Pacific, which might include Hong Kong but not Manila, it would perhaps have been a more expensive solution in this case.

 

Fundiver198,
I didn't say that KLM is the only European airline that offers tickets from Europe to Manila but it is the only airline that offers direct flights from Europe to the Philippines.
It is however a fact that this is only an advantage if you fly out of Amsterdam.
Flights from Brussels to Asia with an Asian airline are not that much available either, only the Chinese airline Hainan is flying on Brussels.
So for us it is always 2 stopovers to reach the Philippines.
Cheap flights in Belgium are not permitted to change airlines, this is only permitted if you have a fullfare.
And the cheapest fares from Cathay Pacific are only valid for a total travel of 6 weeks.