Cebu Pacific – “YOU’RE SO DAING!!!”

202 Responses

1. I’ve had so many good experiences with Cebu Pacific. The flights I took are either on time or even earlier than schedule. Booking online was easy especially those one peso tickets which I just used going to Zamboanga last weekend. And re-booking flights was easy as well. I had to rebook my one peso ticket to Davao and they explained to me clearly the extra charges if ever I re-book. And paying for the re-booking was easy since I could do it two hours before the flight. Really convenient.

2. I hope you are much better by this time.

   I have never read a post of yours as irate and angry as this one. And you are so right, a lot of aggravation could have been prevented. Businesses that are in the service industry should take better care of their customers.

3. I can totally understand how you feel, Mr. Marketman. I was online trying to book a round-trip flight from Manila to Tagbilaran last Monday night, only to get an error after entering my cc info. For fear of being charged again, I called their call center at 3am Tues, only to be put on hold for 20 mins b4 a live agent took my call. I was told the same crap, that their system was unable to capture my credit card information. The agent took my cc info again, and I was told I will get my e-ticket on my e-mail that same day. No such email when I checked that night. So I called again at 3am Wed, same hold time and the agent insisted that it would be faster to have my tickets faxed to me instead of emailed. Duh! Finally got my tickets Thursday morning, only because I had it faxed to my cousin’s office. Makes me think twice about flying Cebu Pacific again when I go home to the province every few months.

4. Whew, Market Man, tell us how you REALLY feel!

5. Marketman I so know where you are coming from. My husband and I took Cebu Pacific last year to Cebu and the two hour wait from Manila to Cebu was inconvenient but tolerable. But the seven hour delay on our return flight was just too much! to make matters worse ,every fifteen minutes they would announce we would be boarding, then take it back! The people at the counter finally admitted that the planes were all defective and couldn’t take off. The crowd was getting ugly and i think that scared them into giving everyone a free Jollibee and unlimited C2 dinner—after 5 hours!I personally gave them a mouthful, told them they could keep their dinner and that I would never ride Cebu Pacific again! I hope someone from Cebu Pacific reads your post and will actually CARE to do something about their crappy airline!Thanks for a great blog!

6. I can hear your teeth grinding and see your ears smoking with anger through my screen. I understand your frustrations. I am with you on this. I hope you feel better and got over it now. Whether it is company’s expense or not, they should not make any misrepresentations on putting you in an old plane. They know well when they put in writing – on your issued ticket that your plane is a new one. It is one of their agents, clerks or employees who issued the ticket. BIG MISREPRESENTATIONS!!! Cebu Pacific will not tell the public/passengers how they maintain those planes. When you boarded their plane you sealed your faith in Cebu Pacific. Let us reach out to the management of Cebu Pacific to improve their service and avoid misrepresentations to the public that cause severe inconvenience, frustrations and anger to us – the paying passengers.

7. Cebu Pacific Airlines sucks bigtime…. Buti na lang di ko na sinubukan yung service nila nung umuwi ako sa Laoag… Thanks again MM for the “raNting”… hehehe

8. I had my run in with Cebu Pacific as well. I’ve been getting my tickets at the Quirino (Pasay) office, which has very limited space. Because of all the pakulo, people flock there, and the wait in the afternoons is hours…

   The airconditioning was insufficient for a Manila summer. I stood and waited for my number to be called for more than an hour already, when the whole staff had halo halo delivered and some of the staff ate in full view of all the waiting people, who were fanning themselves with anything they can lay their hands on.

   I told the security guard in a not so low voice, that surely the manager has seen the standing crowd everyday, it would have been prudent to add more plastic monoblock chairs for them to bear the waiting with…considering the thousands that we pay for tickets , surely we deserve chairs to lay our bums on, if we have to wait for hours everytime. Eh, ang mura mura ng mga upuan, ano? And, certainly, we are not cattle that can stand for hours on end?

   Ang diperensya kasi sa Pinoy, kahit ano isubo mmo, hindi nagrereklamo. Kasi ba sanay na sa mga kahirapan sa buhay, kahit palengke-type na pang-asikaso sa mga tao, puede na?
   As it was, I voted with my wallet, and left for the Centennial PAL office.

9. Wow. And I thought the US carriers were horrible.

   :)

10. Our family stopped riding Cebu Pacific about 8 years ago when my dad placed his phone in the pocket in front of him where it (unknowingly) swam in soda for the duration of the flight (He was in the front row so the pocket was leather). They wouldn’t even replace his phone. Suffice to say, we changed airlines (he traveled Mla-Dvo every two weeks at that time).

11. Good luck on your credit card charges. I wouldn’t believe what CP’s call center agent told you. My friend booked on-line a flight going to tagbilaran early this year and in the middle of his transaction the system “hanged” making my friend “re-do” his transaction. He called the number posted in the website to check whether he was charged for only one transaction getting an assurance that it was. Upon receiving his credit card bill he was charged twice. After weeks of telephone and e-mail exchanges (with letters to the manager and lance gokongwei) he was able to convince that he only made one transaction. Up to now he is waiting for the reversal of the charge in his credit card. Efficient no?

12. I’ve had the same problem with cebu pacific. i tried their online booking and paid thru credit card. i even booked 4 persons altogether and the website keeps on having an error message. so i had to call the reservations number, i waited for almost an hour before i was able to talk with a human voice. only to find out that i should be the one to call the credit card company to inquire if the transaction got through. it was really a wasted time on my part. i booked 1 person to the other airline, also did online payment. it took me only 5 minutes with no hassles. btw, my flight was going to roxas city.

13. I almost died on a Cebu Pacific flight. Well, that’s an overstatement but that’s how it felt. Going for our holy week vacation last year to Bohol, we flew Cebu Pacific. Just after take off, black smoke came out from the ac! We became dizzy and we were asked to bow down on our knees. Pretty scary! We circled over Manila bay for an hour and landed right back to the Manila airport. We changed planes right after and that was it, no apologies or anything at all…

14. yikes! i knew it. i hate flying. and whenever i have to, i always make sure that it’s a big and somewhat new plane. i don’t like turbulence. i don’t even like to take the 320 plane of PAL to cebu…much less DC-9??? simbako! although the prices of Cebu Pacific are tempting, no way jose. thanks for the info, MM.

15. Hi MM!
    I used to like Cebu Pacific too, BUT not anymore! Even in their ticketing office at the Manila Domestic Airport, I got so inconvenienced when I intended to buy a ticket for a same day morning flight. As I entered the ticketing office, the guard issued a number, mine was 38. So I dutifully sat down and waited for my turn, the ticketing person called out the number 5(haysus!) but being the civilized person that I am, I waited,and waited, and waited,and waited for 45 minutes before they called out the next number! In the meantime, there was a lot of activity going on in the counter. Suspecting something “daing-y” going on, I approached the counter and found out that the personnel were entertaining just about anybody who came in WITHOUT THE BLOODY ASSIGNED NUMBERS!!! Of course I promptly blew my top, and they got to hear a lot of invectives from this most patient person! You’re so right , Cebu Pacific is so DAING! Never again Cebu Pacific!

16. Whoa!!!

    I have never tried Cebu Pacific before and come to think of it, they are also now offering budget/economy fares to Singapore.

    Though I have suffered the same frustrations on experiencing delays on flights, and can totally understand the angst one feels. From now on, I will try to bear in mind the experiences MM and the others have gone through before even considering buying from Cebu Pacific.

    What really bothers me is that it seems that they do not readily acknowledge their shortcomings and wouldn’t even bother giving an apology just like in ana’s case. That to me speaks a lot about how you run your business.

17. Three years ago the hubby and i were at Mactan airport, Boracay bound, checked in, waited at the departure lounge, then five minutes before the scheduled flight, they announced the flight has been cancelled. Just like that. We only got a lunch coupon. We booked for the next day (luckily i was the first to stand at their counter) and instead of going back to the city, checked in at the Waterfront. We paid for it ourselves. unfortunately.
    We did the same route last February, but flew with Asian Spirit.

18. so I guess I’d better stick to PAL for domestic flights. I promised this year will be domestic travels for me. So far, so lucky with PAL for Manila – Cebu – Tagbilaran and back.

19. friendly advice para sa mga na-bad trip,
    literally and figuratively,
    sa online booking:

    just book through a travel agent,
    usually, only a token P50 service fee is charged,
    and you avoid all the stress.

20. yes to everything said above, plus the fact that you have to contend with a super-crummy terminal (if coming from/arriving in manila), and also the fact that you don’t exactly know what to expect with the service: sometimes thay have newspaper, sometimes not; sometimes they have snacks, sometimes not. i mean, how hard is it to maintain minimum service standards? also, i consider it SOOOO MEAN to change planes without informing the passengers a day before, because i take pains to choose flights with the planes of my choice (the newer models, the better, siempre).

21. just wondering… have you been contacted by cebu pacific offering an apology for the bad service? if not, then they might not just be ‘daing’ but already dead!

22. Grace, I sent an email to their reservations group, an email comment on their website re: the problems, and an email directly to Mr. Gokongwei at his JG Summit address…I’d give them the weekend to mull this over and see if they get back to me Monday…from the sound of it, they have their hands full fighting fires…

23. Mm,

    Fascinating read. thanks for sharing. Guess have been lucky so far, on my last trip to Singapore, PAL was expectedly late but they did offer food plus (with a little demanding) making up our lost time by paying for an extra night’s in our hotel room. KLM gave 10 euro food vouchers plus contact means (cellphone or email) to inform of late those at home. Ditto with Cathay Pacific.

    I notice that a good number of industries in the country have mediocre services (not just the airline industry). I once took an Asian Spirit to Basco and had to wait about 45 mins inside the plane in the middle of Manila’s scorching summer heat (w/out AC!) before the plane took off!

24. One of the major factors of the delays to all carriers in the domestic terminal is the closure of the Manila domestic runway til December of this year. This causes a huge bottleneck in Manila and unfortunately, the big losers are those who use the old domestic terminal such as Asian Spirit, Airphils and Cebupacific. Imagine they get delayed 10-20 mins everytime they depart Manila.. this delay just builds up throughout the whole day.. Cebupac has rescheduled its flights because of this, but I think the gaps between flights still aren’t enough so delays still persist… it’s a real shame.

25. Hi Jade, Air Phil was transferred to the centennial airport sometime last May.
    Air travel has been an inconvenience since the Britain bomb scare (check in all liquids even if you don’t have any luggage to check-in!)

26. The tag line of yours – is hilarious!!

    That’s one for the books (for me!).. :)

27. POST UPDATE

    Today I received an email from the CEO of Cebu Pacific in response to the email that I sent him last Friday. I am grateful for the rapid response and the attention given to the issues raised. It seems one of the commenters above is correct in that runway repairs are impairing on-time departures (though 3 of my flights were early morning flights that should not have been affected by cumulative delays)and I suppose one can conclude that flights will remain delayed in many cases until the runway is finished or unless the flight schedules are changed (which is not so easy to do). It raises the simple question though why Cebu Pacific staff simply don’t come clean and give that as the reason for the delays… On the website glitch, they acknowledge there were problems last week at the exact time that I and several other readers were trying to book flights. They report that all of those issues have now been corrected. As for refunds, they are working on speeding those up. As I told the CEO, I am glad they are being quite responsive, but I will now shift my business to PAL until the time that the runway is completed, and Cebu Pacific’s flights have achieved a more impressive “on time” departure record. Considering that the runway may not be done for say another 2-3 months, that’s still another couple of thousand flights out of Manila that are going to be affected… Many thanks to Cebu Pacific’s CEO. Two thumbs down to Cebu Pacific reservations staff and the website contact point that informed me they would get back to me in 24 hours and from whom I have heard nothing. I am on a PAL flight tomorrow morning early, let’s hope it’s on time… And finally, just so you see that a single passenger now has another venue to post their service experiences so that others are aware, if you Google Cebu Pacific delays, CP problems – this post comes as the #1 article identified. For a Google on CP service, this article is # 5 or so and for just plain old Cebu Pacific, this article comes out in the Top 20. I do hope Cebu Pacific service does eventually improve and I would be more than happy to write about it when I experience that for myself.

28. I agree with you Marketman.

29. Hi Marketman, I heard that Cebu Pacific has temporarily suspended their “on-time” guarantee because of the runway repairs at the Manila airport, which has left them with only two(?) usable runways for both domestic and international flights. If the runway repairs are the reason for the delay, I think it would be unfair to blame them for the delays.

    The useless online reservation thing, however, well, that IS their fault and you are right to blame them for their inefficiency.

30. Also have the same problem with Cebu Pacific.. I flew with Cebu Pacific for 8 times since May and 6 out of the 8 flights are delayed!!!! I don’t think the closure of the runway is the only problem, the problem is the airline itself… If the problem’s really with the runway, then Asian Spirit and Seair passengers would also experience the same thing….There’s really a very big problem with Cebu Pacific, they are trying their best to compete with PAL, but in the end PAL still leads the game. I don’t believe in the saying that PAL is Plane Always Late for if there are any delays in PAL flights, its mostly the late afternoon flights… I experienced a 40 minute delay in a PAL flight from Manila to GenSan last month but it was because we’re still waiting for some passengers and the engine won’t start after push back, but after 20 minutes of waiting, everything’s ok… unlike Cebu Pacific, what really causes their delays???

31. haha!!! that is how consumers/clients should react if you have been dissatisfied with service etc. How could companies ever learn if “we” (the clients/consumers) don’t complain or just even comment. . . you know, it really helps a lot if you let them hear your voices and they should really know how to respond to complaints and other inquiries, i think this is whats lacking in service people here in Philippines, THEY LACK “PRODUCT” OR SERVICE KNOWLEDGE that is why they can’t or could not even respond to what you need to know. . . sorry but I think before you should employ staff, they should undergo EXTENSIVE training and also test them to know if they really understood what they need to do and what they should say. . .

32. Whew! with respect to all the grinds brought out, Cebu Pacific has been very accommodating especially the customer services. They personally handle special cases that may be beyond the call of duty. Yes! flights have been delayed lately, and i was a victim of that. But let’s make it more constructive this time. Delays are normal, after all, they are now a bonafide Low Cost Carrier. It was your choice to try Cebu Pacific, not them! What can you expect!?? The reservation agents sucks too bad!! Please train your people to speak at least straight English.. C’mon!! I know you can do better than that!!

33. Johny, delays are NOT normal. An airline with more than 25% delayed flights has serious issues. Delays on a regular basis suggests other problems, though in this case, CP explains recent delays are partially caused by runway repairs. However, in a service business dependent on timing, delays should not be a normal part of your experience. And LOW COST has nothing to do with whether they are prone to delays or not. Cost and on-time performance should hopefully have a low correlation. Yes, it was my choice to try them and I am now voting with my wallet by taking business elsewhere until delays are brought back to a minimum.

    As for criticizing their (presumably CP’s staff) English, I would have checked my own more carefully if I were to leave a comment so filled with grammatical, usage, capitalization, punctuation and subject verb agreement issues…as you have above… I am not an English major either, and often write sentences that are less than ideal, but I think you’re fair game given the content of the comment above… The deterioration of English appears to be a national malaise…

34. Oh my! Thank you sooooo much for the review (rant?) of Cebu Pacific. I am going back to Manila in January and am contemplating on trying them out (after seeing their advertisement in Philippine Star) for a couple of flights to different vacation destinations. I only have a couple of weeks to spare and I’ll be damned if more than an hour of it will be spent waiting for outbound flights. Thank you so much for sharing this piece with us.

35. Mr MM –
    I was really scared out of my wits after reading all the posts above. Seriously, I almost backed out of my Palawan trip after the “scary stories” …esp since I am a bit worried re: booking my full name incompletely. On hindsight, better to have a flava of what’s happening too since it put me on a longer patience limit.

    My angst with the delay however is the “WAIT” for late comers. I presume it’s not isolated to CP but to all domestic carriers?? It’s quite irritating actually. These people are like freaking late – all people waiting for them and they have the luxury to STROLL towards the plane! Mahiya naman sila sa balat nila! The policy of reinforcing the latecomers-no boarding should be CONSISTENT and UPHELD. As if the plane delay is not irritating enough, this practice is the bomb!

    Anyways, back to CP – I had been on the slowest line on earth – stood like an hour for my turn. The thing is they see that the line has really snaked till the airport entrance yet they NEVER EVER thought of opening another counter for it?! This is despite the fact that we are CLOSE to take off time?! I don’t think that it’s acceptable that the rationale behind the delay was bec of this. This is CLEARLY something w/in their control and they didn’t work on it. It’s quite a big PISS especially the fact that the flight sked after mine got ahead in boarding and take off.

36. you are so selfish. you think of nothing but your self.

    think of this: turn around time of cebu pac is 30 mins. then the domino effect that if one flight is delayed, all the rest of the day’s flights utilizing the plane will be in some way delayed. then the closure of naia’s 13-31 runway. meaning all the plane taking off and landing will be using just the one functional runway. think, 1,300 flights landing and taking off using just one runway. and the lengthy taxxiing of planes because cebu pac is using the old domestic terminal which is a mile away from the runway.

    the next time you rant on something… think first…

37. raymund,

    I would suggest that it is you who should consider the facts and THINK objectively before you leave a comment for the public to see and dissect. But let me begin with my thoughts first:

    1. Cebu Pacific chose to make its turnaround time on its flights 30 minutes. So yes, I agree that if there is a delay at one or more points during the day, it IS likely to result in delays all throughout the day. That was an operational decision management took and they are therefore responsible for its consequences as far as on-time departures are concerned. Just three days ago I know of several engineers on the 650 am flight to Cebu that were at least 2.5 hours late. However, this DOES NOT fully explain why several of the early morning flights I took from Manila were already an average of 1 hour late considering that the aircraft was on only its first or second leg out of the Manila airport that day. I also note that PAL chooses to schedule an hour turnaround time and in the past two months they have had a much better on-time departure performance as far as my personal experience is concerned and I fly roughly 2 times a week, every week.

    2. As far as the runway/taxiway closure is concerned, I agree that it is beyond Cebu Pacific’s control, however, it is a KNOWN operating condition and has been known for several months and for another month or two to come. As for your assertion as fact that the 1,300 flights at NAIA are affected, I beg to differ (unless you mean only Cebu Pacific has 1,300 flights per day? per month?). Perhaps 70+% of the plane traffic at NAIA should have no need for the closed runway/taxiway as they are located in terminals closer to the main runway. Thus, PAL, Air Philippines, and all foreign airlines should not be affected as you suggest. It is only Cebu Pacific, private planes, some cargo planes and SEA-AIR and other small carriers that should be affected. And I note that SEA-AIR flights for early morning departures the last four times I was taking Cebu Pacific were ALL departing on-time as opposed to the flights of Cebu Pacific. And worse, your logic simply doesn’t follow. If the runway repair results in CERTAIN delays then it would beg the question why some late afternoon flights of Cebu Pacific ARE in fact on time while many others are not…that suggests that the runway is NOT the only reason and it is not a CERTAIN factor in causing delays.

    3. As for the CP terminal being far from the main runway, this is also an ILLOGICAL argument for their problems as this is a KNOWN operating condition and therefore airline management should take that into account when they schedule their flights. It sounds a bit ridiculous that they would set such short turnaround times when you have to taxi 5 or so more minutes than PAL on each leg into and out of the airport and when you add that all up during the day you have phenomenal delays even without a runway closure!

    As opposed to you, I do think before I write a rant. In fact, I have only written a handful of rants since this blog was started. I do try to focus on the issues, I do try to get the facts and I do try to get to the right people in the company with which I have an issue.

    If you read the post carefully and objectively and the many comments that follow, you will notice that it raises several critical issues:

    1. Why are the flights so consistently late? In my experience, only 16.7% of flights took off on time. All of my morning flights out of Manila on 8 segments were late. And why do they not mention the real cause of the delays, the runway repairs being a major one.
    2. Why did they have such a massive failure in their reservations systems that had thousands of folks waiting on phone lines and unable to book online? And why did they not put a simple notice on the website that could have saved everyone a lot of wasted time?
    3. Why are refunds taking so long (an issue raised by a reader, not me)?

    And if you read further, no less than the CEO of Cebu Pacific has responded and basically, in answer to the issues raised above, the airline responds:

    1. They acknowledge that there are in FACT departure delays and they assert mostly due to the runway issues (though they do not address the fact that many early morning flights were already late). They hope that when the runway is re-opened soon they will be able to recover; though with the 30 minute turnaround and distant terminal as you point out that is a target I want to see actually met. They have taken my suggestion and are asking cabin crew to announce the reason for the delay being the runway closure.
    2. They acknowledge that they had a serious glitch in their reservations systems for about 4 WHOLE days and they did not put a notice on the website and they did have a surge in customers calling on the phone lines as a result. They have fixed this problem.
    3. They acknowledge a problem with slow refunds and are working to correct this issue as we type.

    So, in conclusion, I seem to have raised VERY VALID ISSUES in fact and so much so that the CEO felt it necessary to respond rapidly and comprehensively. No, I do not consider this post to be selfish; in fact, considering the thousands of customers who are probably flying late on CP lately, I consider this to be just one voice among many who do not have the time or energy to raise these issues to the right people. After all, Cebu Pacific is in a SERVICE BUSINESS and ANY service company should be closely watching their SERVICE LEVELS or risk obvious consequences to their bottom line. I consider my post to be factual and an actual representation of a service experience on several flights with Cebu Pacific. As you can see from the resulting comments, many other readers have voiced both positive and negative views. I consider this post to be useful because it has identified critical issues that are now being addressed. If customers all over the Philippines simply swallowed BAD SERVICE and did not complain, then we would all have increasingly poor service to contend with.

    As for the motives for your comment, I am not sure whether you are connected to Cebu Pacific or not, but regardless of affiliation, I would suggest that it is you who should think objectively about any rant that I choose to write about on this website. Since you are a first time commenter, I would guess that you came upon this rant while specifically searching a Cebu Pacific related topic. Instead of excuses, ALL service companies should focus on improving their service rather than trying to come up with lame excuses for poor service. And as for your specific comments, isn’t it funny how some people who cannot carry an argument with solid logic attack an individual’s person instead rather than sticking to the facts…

    As for impartiality, I would write a similar post if I experienced something similar at PAL or any other airline…

    Marketman

38. If CP has a systemic problem in the form of delays then they should make adjustments para naman di sila nakakaabala sa mga tao. Or, inform everyone ahead of time that delays may occur.

    If they refuse to do that then that means wala sila pakialam sa mga clients nila after taking the latters’ money.

    Let those who are willing to wait indefinetly in return for cheaper fares wait, but they should be informed about that bago sila bumili ng ticket.

    As it is, hindi ako sasakay sa CP in the forseeable future. Kahit 1 peso lang ang pamasahe doon.

39. Hi MM,

    I had a pleasant flight to CDO two weekends ago. My flights (to and back) were not delayed (maybe because i took the first flights – my favorite). In fact they were 10minutes earlier than scheduled. We even had a fun trivia game during the return flight to manila. BUT they did not take the time out to inform the early bookings on the change in sked. I only found out after I was able to get a live person from their hotline after an entire night of calling. Ugh. The calling was such a bad experience plus the long line for baggage check because their x ray machine was broken in CDO. Ugh.

40. Me too still waiting for the refunds of our on-line booking. Im waiting til my October billing pagwala pa talagang susulatan ko sila, like what you did, blah,blah, blah! Kainis sila ano? Pasensyosa pa ako nyan.

41. kainis talaga! i booked a flight, sept 5 around 6am MNL-SIN-MNL and i was charged PHP7,971…tapos, 6 hours later, when i checked the website, the exact same flights for the exact same dates now cost PHP5,971… there is a PROMO according the website if you purchase between Sept5-12 and travel dates are between Oct 2-Dec… so i called, sabi hindi raw nila pwedeng ibigay sa aking ang promo rate kasi when i booked my flight yun daw ang binigay na price ng website…. ano klaseng excuse yan???!!!

    from https://www.cebupacificair.com/aboutus/vision.html
    Our equipment, facilities and systems enable us to ensure consistent highly efficient levels of operation.
    —YOU’RE JOKING, RIGHT???

    from https://www.cebupacificair.com/aboutus/culture.html
    Accountability
    We take responsibility for what we say, decide and do.
    We own up to mistakes we make rather than blame others.
    We make decisions in a timely and effective manner.
    We meet our deadlines so that others can meet theirs.
    We protect the interest of Cebu Pacific.
    — ONLY THE LAST ONE IS TRUE!!!

    Excellence
    We strive to be the best we could ever be, in any situation
    and in any undertaking.
    We set high standards for ourselves.
    We are untiring in our efforts to improve our capabilities.
    Multi-tasking, volunteerism and out-of-the-box thinking are a
    way of life to ensure that each task is done in the best possible manner.
    We are relentless in our efforts to improve cost-efficiency—the best possible choice for the least cost.
    We are not content with the status quo.
    We aim to consistently meet and exceed our customer’s expectations.
    We go the extra mile.
    We are trailblazers in our drive for continuous improvement.
    Our service is impeccable.
    — OWS TALAGA??? NONE OF THE ABOVE are TRUE!

    from https://www.cebupacificair.com/aboutus/index.html
    “The Cebu Pacific Spirit is defined as a compelling passion
    to treat all customers and each other with a true heart and soul for service. ”

    HELLLOOOOOO???? Check your english dictionary, u got the wrong words!!!!!!!!!

42. I’m from Cebu. Booked a flight online with CP for Manila-Cebu-Manila. Can you imagine, after 5 hours of the transaction, I didn’t get an email confirmation that my ticket had been booked. When I called the reservations office in Cebu(which took me half a day to get a real human), do you know what they told me? They told me to call the manila office to check with them if my ticket had been booked. Isn’t that stupid? I have to pay extra to make that long distance call to inquire if my ticket was booked. All the agent in cebu could tell me was payment was already taken from my credit card. Wow! How convenient. They take my money and then “bahala ka na” if you get your ticket. Usually daw, it takes 10 mins after you hit the “confirm” button online before you get an email confirmation. But 5 hours which later became 3 days. I called again to speak to another agent and this time, the agent told me that he would fax me the “e-ticket” Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of having an “e-ticket”? When I told her that the passenger is coming from Manila and asked her why I have to be the one to fax the copy to Manila, she said, that’s the only way that I can get a copy of the ticket. They don’t have outgoing email daw? Are they stupid or what? They can offer online ticketing but they don’t have an outgoing email account? Anyway, getting back to my story…not everyone has a fax machine and the only reason I booked online was so that I could email the “e-ticket” to my uncle who is coming from the US. Guess how long it took them to email me? 3 days after my transaction online. Talk about convenience with their e-ticketing service. I wrote them an email on the day I made the booking and until now(1 week has passed), I have not received a single reply or explanation from them. They may offer cheap fares but my goodness, the aggrevation you have to endure to get reasonable service is outrageous. Good luck CP! At the rate you’re going, you’re going to lose more customers with your type of “non-existent customer service”

43. Thank God I always take PAL for my domestic travel!!!

44. Flew with PAL on my MNL-DVO-MNL flights last Sept 28 and oct 2, all flights were on sched, in fact ahead of schedule… I just noticed that a cebu pacific flight from Davao to Cebu that is scheduled to depart at 6pm is delayed and its new departure time is 8pm… was the flight delayed because of the runway closure in Manila???? or just because of the lousy CEB service??? I took the same CEB-DVO-CEB flight last June, both Leg was delayed for more than an hour…

45. I would definetly agree ” Cebu pacific air sucks”.
    I only tried them once last sept. 7, 2006 MNL-HKG-MNL and i will never try them again. last sept. 3 i was super happy for it’s my first time flying to hong kong and the supposedly departing time was 7:00 pm… but ofcourse they were 2 hours late and we left manila around 9:00 pm.
    It was ok probably for i was kinda excited atleast i will be in hongkong for a few hours. But i got hungry while on board and guess what they have for dinner… C2 Ice tea…. i asked them if they have a coffee for i was so sleepy … they said they don’t have ” they only have hot water incase i have a 3 in 1 sachet of coffee with me… hmmm…. and they are selling cup noodles too for 10$ hongkong… too much but since i was straving, i grabbed one.
    I was at the exit row and i don’t know why all the time during the flight i feel uncomfortable. why i was thinking of bad scenarios and all that…. maybe because of the plane crashed that they had before and also their plane was super old…
    while in hongkong on the way to manila, They forced my husband to buy a refundable return ticket to manila but until now we haven’t refunded it for their customer service doesn’t want to do some help with us… they were telling us to refund it at hongkong…. God, i will not be flying back to hong kong just to refund a ticket. i will just call our bank and cancel that ticket if with in a few days i still didn’t get any response from them..
    I will not use cebu pacific anymore.
    i will try PAL or any other airline next time. :-)

46. Mr Marketman,

    I sooooo agree with you. I too have a bad experience with Cebu Pacific the last time I was in the Philippines. They changed my flight schedule from 10 AM to 3 PM without even informing me. Bloody people.

    I would think twice about taking this airline again.

47. Aloha MM,

    Once again you have saved the day for me. I live in Hawaii and I’ve planned a trip to visit folks in Naval Biliran for Christmas and New Years. I was going to purchase tickets on-line with CP, MNL TAC MNL, but was holding off doing so until November. Now I’m convinced to forget about CP and go with PAL which I originally fly in to Manila on. CP’s low cost had me sold at first, but reading these posts has steered me back to the PAL.

    Thanks again and great job!

    James

48. James, I think PAL may even be nice to you if you book tickets together (international and local segments) as they will probably give you the larger baggage allowance. Otherwise, excess fees will apply. By the way, when did Biliran become a separate province? I know I was in grammar school decades ago but I only realized Biliran was a province when my daughter was studying for a test a few weeks ago! Duh… Also, while I am NOT a great fan of PAL either, my last dozen flights or so only had one delay… let’s see if they can keep up that record towards the busy holidays.

49. MM,

    Biliran became a province May 11, 1992. I’m having a ball reading these posts! :-)

    James

50. My Dad will be celebrating his 75th Birthday on 1st November. I cant afford to fly to UK for this, but suggested he visit us here in Cebu. He last visited 3 years ago with my Mum to attend our wedding.

    With only pension income, the cost of a return flught UK to Cebu is significant. It was with interest that I learnt of a new airline – OASIS HongKong, that started flying daily service beteen LGW and HKG. Tickets are available at £75 or HK$1,000 (+Taxes). This meant my Dad to fly for £261.05 Total.

    He still needed a return flight HKG-CEB however.

    This is where I looked into CebuPacific since they are now operating flights direct to/from HKG and CEB.

    Thir posters say this will be using their new Airbus and the Fare is only Php2,499 one way (+Taxes), so I thought I woul;d give it a go, using their on-line booking to get an E-Ticket that would be sent to my Dad directly.

    It started off OK with their Reservations showing the availability and Fare prices.

    The earliest available date with a one way Fare HKG-CEB was 7th November on 5J239, Fare HK$423.14 + Tax of HK$237 making HK$660.14 Total.

    I wanted to book it as a ‘single’ flight, since me and my asawa intended to fly with him back to Hong Kong, spend 5 days there before he flew on to LGW on Oasis, and we returned to CEB on Cebu Pacific.

    That was the plan, and I sorted out a schedule and confirmed Hotel avilability in Hong Kong.

    So time to go ahead and make the On-Line Booking.

    Everything went well, with selecting flight and entering my HSBC Premier MastCard details, but when I submitted this, a problem occured!

    “An error has occurred processing your payment”.

    Invalid Digital Order
    W5005-10122221: Invalid Merchant ID

    This was from MasterCard. My MasterCard had not been debited since it has MasterCard SecureCode enabled and CebuPacific display the SecureCode Logo ojn their website. I would have to have seen the automatic SecureCode window with my personalised greeting and a prompt to enter my unique SecureCode. this did not show, so the problem occered between the CebuPacific on-line system and the MasterCard Authorisation logon.

    The message generated by CebuPacific system said –

    “Warning – Payment Error.

    Sorry but an error occured during payment. Your booking is confirmed so please contact our Call Center at (632) 70-20-888 quoting the reference number ITD00285183CEB. They will confirm with you if payment has been successfully received or not. Please do not book again as you may be charged twice”.

    I dont have to state the problems I experienced, and the cost of PLDT National Trunk Calls, trying to het through to that 02 70 20 888 number!

    What’s more when I finally did get an operator to answer (after many repeated attempts to get a line, then delays on hold for nearly 15 minutes), she asked me to “please hold for a few minutes whilst I check into your problem”.

    I waited more than a few minutes – then got DIAL TONE!

    So I had to repeat that frustrating, time consuming and costly (Trunk call) to get the CebuPacific Call Center again in Manila (I tried Cebu, but they said it HAD to be the Manila Office!). When the operator came on line again, and asked “..and how may I help you?” I replied “By taking a note of my phone number so you might have the consideration to call me back if I get cut off like my first attempt”.

    The operator perhaps did make a note of my phone number, and again said “Please hold for a few minutes whilst I check into this”. At least I did NOT get cut off this time. She eventually came back and informed me the booking for my father, was on the CebuPacific system. She told me to go to a Booking Office to pay for the ticket.

    So I went along to Cebu Pacific Office @ Robinsons, Cebu.

    After a 40 minute delay, I was able to go to the counter. I showed the girl a print out of the Flight booking and the error messages with the ITD Reference No. that I was asked to quote.

    The girl then asked “Can I see the Passport for the passenger, please”. Now that was going t be a problem since the passenger was my Dad, who is in the UK, so I do not have his passport with ME here in Cebu!

    The girl did not suggest my showing her a copy of his passport. Pity as I could have got my Dad to e-mail me a copy of his passport and I then print it out to show CebuPacific staff.

    Even if they had accepted a copy of his passport, the girl said this would NOT be an ‘E-Ticket’, but a ‘convential’ one. I would then have the hassle and expense of sending it to my Dad in the UK via secure, fast, delivery service.

    All she suggested was “Try Booking on-line again sir:.

    My Dad tried this from the UK and experienced the same Credit Card Authorisation problems that I did. You can also imagine how much his International phone call to Cebu Pacific Call Center cost, with same delay problems once connected!

    Do you happen to have the CEO of Cebu Pacific contact details?

    I have sent in an e-mail with my complaint, much like i have given here. If they ignore this complaint and acknowledge ther is a severe problem with their on-line reservations system and its interface with the Credit Card companies authorisation system, not only are they going to lose money, with potential passengers not being billed for the flights, but it screws up the available seats allocation, AND frustrates and anoys would be passengers so much they go elsewhere.

    I am now checking into alternatives for my Dad’s visit to Cebu, and perhaps just give up on the idea of him visiting us after his 75th Birthday, if we cant find any we can afford.

    Best Regards,
    A frustrated and annoyed, potential Cebu Pacific passenger,

51. David, I totally commiserate with you re: Cebu Pacific experience. I do have the CEO’s email but unfortunately it was not given to me publicly so I do not think it is appropriate to pass it on. However, I suggest you call the trunk line of JG Summit Holdings 02-633-7638 according to the Manila white pages, then ask to be connected with Mr. Lance Gokongwei’s assistant and nicely ask her for a facsimile number… that usually works for me when I can’t find the number of the key person… Good luck!

52. This is the reply that I got, aftr finding the e-mail to

    Cebu Pacific HR
    caihr@jgsummit.com.ph

    Tht I found on the http://www.jgssummit.com.ph website:-

    —–Original Message—–
    From: CEB Customer Service [mailto:customerservice@cebupacificair.com]
    Sent: 14 October 2006 19:01
    To: David Whittall
    Cc: caihr@jgsummit.com.ph
    Subject: RE:

    Dear Mr. Whittall,

    Good day. Thank you for writing Cebu Pacific.

    We apologize for the inconvenience you have encountered with our website. Please let us explain our side.

    We have verified to our ticketing supervisor that we can only issue e-ticket through the website for Hong Kong flights. However, for ticket purchase over the counter / ticket office, we issue paper/conventional tickets. There are still internal configuration within our organization that needs to be enhanced for us to be able to issue an e-ticket for Hong Kong. We strongly suggest to please try again using our online facility available on our website.

    Again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

    Regards,

    Yendie
    Customer Services

53. I flew Cebu Pacific last month. Unfortunately, my domestic flight also with Cebu Pacific was cancelled. The junior staff were pleasant but could not offer much help. On my return, I wrote to Cebu’s customer service twice and ten days over, I have not got any reply.

    Can someone please give me the e mail address of its CEO, because I believe that he deserves a chance to put something right.

54. Thanks for the helpful data and updates, MM. They help us a lot in plotting our forthcoming trips – esp this coming holidays. Keep it up.

    To raymund, as to your objectives, you didn’t define them well. Your labelling, logic, and way of reasoning does not speak well of you. The next time you react on something… think first…

55. I have flown cebu pacific from zamboanga to manila, zamboanga to cebu and zamboanga to davao. since now, they always use there new 319. its still good.

56. Cebu Pacific promises 95% On-Time Performance is a TOTAL LIE.

    My last 3 flights were.. ALL LATE!

    Legazpi-Manila last January 28 was supposed to leave at afternoon, but we left the airport at 6:30 PM.. I’ve never seen a plane leaving Legaspi Airport later than.. And I understand why.. It’s because the airport runway doesnt have enough runway and tarmac lights to support night operations. I’m telling you that take-off was really scary. In addition to a bumpy and rough landing at Manila.

    My next flight was Manila to Cagayan de Oro the following day.
    I had an intuition that my flight will be late again, but I still went to the terminal on-time and alas! malas! we board the plane about 30 minutes late to the scheduled departure time. The check-in counter was talking about some american guy was playing prank jokes on the other plane which causes disruptions on the airport operations.

    My flight back to Manila was not delayed.. just 10 minutes late. but it’s OK.

    My last flight Legazpi to Manila was again late.. we left 1:30 hours late.

    Is this what we get from cheap tickets? cheap service?

57. I agree with all of the negative comments. I’ve been trying to purchase a ticket online for someone else to come from Manila to Hong Kong. It keeps saying: “We apologise that your transaction cannot be processed at this time, kindly retry your transaction using another credit card.”

    I experienced the same long holds on the phone, etc. The people were clueless. I called them 2x and my credit card company 2x.

    Initially this was going to be a $130 ticket. I’m having similar problems with PAL too (“Sorry. We are having difficulty in validating your credit card. You may wish to enter details of an alternative card and try again. (M009)”), so I may have to get a $500 ticket from Cathay Pacific!

58. Same problems for me with Cebu Pacific – the online payment system will not take a UK Visa card, but you only find that out at the end of the process, after wasting your time filling in the details. They do have flagged on the website (not very prominently) that they are not accepting US Visa at present but otherwise nothing. In addition, impossible to get through on the phone to any of their numbers and no reply to emails. They would go bust if they didn’t have a captive and long suffering Pinoy clientele. Probably will anyway if this level of service continues. HOPELESS!!!

59. I get the same error message, “We apologise that your transaction cannot be processed at this time, kindly retry your transaction using another credit card”,when I use my Norwegian Visa card. Have never had any problems book tickets with my card online at cebupacific before. I have sent two emails to Customer relations without any answer.

60. Hello this is my answer.

    Greetings from Cebu Pacific! We regret to you inform that any credit card issued outside the Philippines is not accepted for online payment.

    Please be advised that we have a 24 hours ticket office located beside Domestic Airport ( Philippines ) and you can purchase it right there. You may call our reservation @ 02 7020888 or mail at ceb.reservation@cebupacificair.com.

    Thank you and Godbless!

    Joei
    Customer Service
    Cebu Pacific Air

61. ……i encountered same problem with a german VISA Card…..it seems they not accept any foreign Creditcard….but today is June 25 , 2007.

    Promoting 99P flights…..it takes no wonder for me that they try to sale flights…..coz nobody can book it online….
    maybe cebu pacific will be soon faced by bancrupty and no foreign CC-Company accept their billings anymore…..

62. Once again, Cebu Pacific screw up by not accepting UK VISA cards – or indeed any credit card issued outside of the Philippines.

    We’re frequent travellers with them and we have noticed that their service has deteriorated rapidly over the past 12 months.

    Planes are now usually delayed, check in queues are getting slower and now no payments by VISA are accepted. Getting hold of a human on their helpline is like waiting for aliens to reply to messages beamed into outer space.

    There is no way am I going to give Cebu Pacific another chance until the get their act together and sort out the basics of air travel aimed at satisfying paying customers.

    As soon as I have written this, I’m visiting the Asian Spirit website to book with them.

    Two fingers up to Cebu Pacific!

63. Does anybody have the email ad of Lance Gokongwei or any other Gokongwei for that matter? I simply cannot get hold of any call center agent, my emails to them are being read (I get return receipts but after my 3rd email I think they disabled it) but I’m getting no answers at all! Their website states that rebooking of etickets via credit card is 45 days. It’s been 60 days and no news from them yet!

    Thanks in advance.

64. I TRIED TO MAKE A FLIGHT BOOKING SEVERAL DAYS AGO.
    THIS AIRLINES FLIGHT BOOKING SERVICE IS AN ABSOLOUT SHAMBLES
    AFTER 3 DAYS OF TRYING TO BOOK A FLIGHT FROM MANILA TO HONG KONG I FINALLY GAVE UP……
    I FOUND A WEBSITE THAT LETS YOU BOOK CEBU PACIFIC FLIGHTS ONLINE WHICH ACCEPT ALL MAJOR UK/US CREDIT & DEBIT CARDS.
    GIVE THEM A GO THE SITE IS CALLED
    https://www.alternativeairlines.com
    I BOOKED & PAID FOR MY FLIGHT HERE & IT TOOK FIVE MINUITES WITH NO MESSING AROUND

65. I found this blog entry when looking for an alternative way to cantact CP customer service.

    Currently, I am on the phone listening to their annoying ads while waiting for someone to pick up again! just 30 seconds ago someone answered, asked what she can do for me, then I don’t know what happened but the ads started to play again.

    I only flew via CP a couple of times. The first one was two summers ago, a flight to Kalibo and back to Manila, and I don’t recall any delays whatsoever. The second time was just last may, a flight to Bangkok and back, and the flight back was an hour late. (Update on my call: I just received a busy tone.)

    For the Bangkok trip, I booked everything online but I had to change my return flight and they asked me to pay the re-booking fee in their ticketing office. I decided to go to one in Galleria because it was the nearest to my house. I was there about just an hour after the mall opened and already the place was so full people there wasn’t an empty seat. Since I was already leaving the next day, I just decided to get a number stick it out. My friend and I ended up sitting on the floor waiting for several hours before our number was called. (I do not know why on earth their service is so friggin slow!!!)

    The reason I’m calling them now is to follow-up on the reimbursement of a canceled flight. I need to free up credit in my one and only card (I just graduated last March and only have one supplementary card) for my trip to Sri Lanka two weeks from now. How long did it take for some of you to get reimbursed?

66. Hi there switchico. I booked a flight for my ‘rents to SG. Unfortunately they had to cancel. I called their customer service number in Manila. No answer, just ads. I was able to talk to somebody from the Cebu hotline number. I was able to cancel the flight bookings right away. The agent told me it will take 30-45 working days before they can credit back the money. But first, I have to wait for the email confirmation of the cancellation. It took them 2 weeks to send me that email (after I called and sent emails to 2 of their customer service emails). Today is exactly one month since I cancelled the flights and I have yet to see the credit back in my account.

67. i’m just waiting for their bad karma. i have this refunds more yhan 90-days ago and still not credited back to my credit card. dapat may interest na yun. bwahahah.

68. have just receive an email from CP customer service that they have just transmitted the refund.although the info given is not that clear that I need to follow up again for the bank details kung saan nila pinadaan ang refund. The total days I need for them to do this started from March 2007 until today(Aug 2007) which took me almost 6 months before they od a refund. I emailed them everyday and am thinking of filing a complain to the proper authorities/news channel to expose this very very long process.

69. My friend had to rebook his Hongkong Manila flight due to bad weather. He was so pissed off that he had to pay HK$750 fine!! Looks like Cebu Pacific will pull their prices all the way down but kill you with their rebooking charges.

    And have you heard lately, they are no longer Cebu Pacific. The more appropriate name for them will be Cebu PATHETIC.

70. hi, i’m a korean citizen.. i really had a bad experience getting a refund on our ticket.. we bought the ticket last march 30, 2007 but until now, 5 months has passed no refund from cebu pacific yet.. what a bad immpression from aliens like us..

71. I am also waiting for my Cebu Pacific credit card refund. It’s been more than 70 days now since I initially asked for a refund. Looks like i will not be getting the refund in the near future unless I go to the CEO directly. Very very poor service – I’ll never fly Cebu Pacific!

72. oh my! i just book myself and my mom and my bestfriend with Cebu Pacific for this coming Oct for a round trip from Manila- Hongkong…reading all those things in here….it makes me wonder if i did the right thing or if i will be ending up experiencing what you guys just had.

73. actually, Cebu Pacific is not the only airline who is suffering from customer dissatisfaction. i work as a customer svc rep for an online travel agency and i can say that the “inconveniences” that you have all experienced is the negative side of low cost carriers. lucky for CP pax b/c CP fares are refundable and most low cost carriers in the US/Europe/SEA offer non ref fares.

    in justice to CP, they have started the low fare revolution. w/o them, PAL could have monopolized the airline industry in the US. i myself flew from CDO to MNL via CP and our flt was delayed by 30mins. i do think it’s better to be late than sorry when it comes to flights. aircraft turnaround could be b/c of CP making sure their planes are fit to fly, hence the delays.

74. and by the way, im not an endorser for CP but they fly to more domestic destinations in the phils so let us just thank them for flying more Filipinos to places that could have been “remote” for people in MNL or CBU b/c no airline is flyint to those places. ;-)

75. yeap! my question is if they accept credit card for puchasing ticket through internet, because i tried to book over the internet and it never get through so i’m frustrated.

76. hmmm…actually, based on my job experience, using the credit card to buy plane tkts over airline websites maybe a bit risky if ever when making the reservation the website just went down. normally, there will be a soft charge on your credit card. that is a temporary charge on your credit card that will fall off (in NORMAL conditions)within 1-2 biz days…so better yet, book the tkt via a/l tktng office…;-) better safe than sorry.

77. I have been applying for refund since the first week of March. Until now no refund was made… upon calling Cebu Pacific Customer Service. Refunds takes up to 6 months.

    So their 60 days refund processing days is a hoax, it should have been 6 months processing date.

    This is sooo frustrating, better to stick with other airlines. Cebu Pacific isn’t worth the Peso savings compared to the hassle and frustrations it will provide you.

78. i tried to use my visa card(it function always), but get the same error message, “We apologise that your transaction cannot be processed at this time, kindly retry your transaction using another credit card”,when I use my Austrian Visa card. Have never had any problems book tickets with my card online at cebupacific before. I have sent two emails to Customer relations without any answer.
    what a nonsense!!
    ingat to all
    hans

79. I definitely agree with you!
    I am so pissed off with that friggin airlines!
    In the past 3 mos I have been calling and emailing them regarding my refund complaint. I was told that the refund would be given to me 30 to 60 days after the flight cancellation. Well guess what, I have canceled the flight last December 2006, called their reservations hotline (and each time I call I have to wait for about 30 to 40 minutes before someone answers) then I was asked to call the Accounting department, then I was asked to email their customer service and 10 or so emails later, still nothing happened.

    I really want to go directly to Gokongwei if that’s what it takes to get a response from these people. Its actually not about the money anymore, it’s about the frustration and emotional distress you get from dealing with their employees.

    Right now, I am composing a consumer complaint letter to DTI.
    Im not sure if that would work but if any of you can give me advise on how to get hold of Gokongwei’s email add, I’d very much appreciate it.

    Thank you.

80. Been waiting almost 1 year for my refund. I paid cash.
    All I get is lies, excuses, and ignorance.
    This airline will never make it big if it does not improve it’s customer service.
    Why do they have refund supervisors when refunds seem to be non-existant. What is their policy, if someone complains long enough… a year or more, then they might give a refund. Otherwise, they will just pocket the money after people give up on receiving their refund. It is a SCAM.
    I hear they will try to fly non-stop flights to the U.S. starting in 2008. Puuuh-LeeeZ, give me a break.
    I wouldn’t trust this airline to put enough fuel in the tanks to make the entire trip.
    I had much more to say in an earlier post, but it was never posted?? Is that because I named names within the refund department of Cebu Pacific? Those were the people who have constantly lied and given excuses to me through their delayed emails in which they never answered my questions directly.
    CEBU PACIFIC SUCKS and they will never again receive one single peso of my money. I’d rather swim.

81. I can understand how you feel. I applied for a refund with Cebu Pacific for over six month and still can’t get any status. I phoned 24 hours a day 7 days a week on the telephone number they provided, but no luck for any Human to answer me, instead I can only hear inane trite longplaying verbal repition. I don’t think the number exist, or if it does I don’t think Cebu Pacific had somebody actually assigned to answer that number. I tried sending them the same email everyday but still can’t get any reply. Same as you, am just so pissed off with that Airline!

82. wow, looks like you get what you pay for. i’m considering CP for a vacation to macau, but they have not uploaded any rates nor will they answer the phone. i think i’ll pass this one.

83. I found your blog in the internet while waiting in the Singapore Budget Terminal for a delayed Cebu Pacific flight.
    To think your blog was written in August 2006, Cebu Pacific should have done something to improve operations today, more than a year after. Sad to say, Cebu Pacific is still LATE, as of now, my flight is already two and a half hours late.

    Earlier, the ground staff said it will be an hour late. Then an hour after, they revised the “official forecast” to two hours. As of now the “official forecast” is ETD 3:35AM, three and a half hours delayed from the original 12:05AM flight schedule.

    How I wished I have done a bit of research in the internet before I booked this flight. Well, I am not taking Cebu Pacific ever again. My plan in taking this flight was to catch a very important business meeting in Manila, scheduled at 8:00 AM. Now I am totally pissed off!

84. I don’t have any personal experiences w/ Cebu Pacific (and I’m not planning to have one because of your shared stories, guys/gals =D… My family prefers PAL, we cannot risk our lives/ any important business matters, in exchange for small amount of flight charges/ fees!!!); I just want to share my employer’s experience, he has his own story to tell (but I’ll tell you now =D). His major concern is the refunds from his canceled flights; he has been told that in 90 days, they’ll be able to grant the intended amount. It has been 4 months now and yet there are no feedbacks or whatsoever. We have tried every means possible but to no avail, of course. I even joked to my associates that I might apply to Cebu Pacific solely for the position of Customer Service Agent/ answering their phone calls; we even doubted and still doubting if they do have a Customer Service Department/ Staff on these matters. With their ads over the phone, that’s really irritating; specially when you’re in a hurry to hear from them & they keep on promoting their other services. Good luck People!!! =D

85. I’m been calling your office for quit sometime regarding your low fares promo, but your listed phone number is alway busy.Please improve your service if you want to be No.1 ???

86. Reading on this subject. Not only makes me shake my head in despair and discontent, its just disgusts me on how CP Air Does Business, its a Business entity after all sounds like a mom & pop shop Airline Company. Shouldn’t it had been kept to a minimum system hiccup? 30,40, up to 2 hours hold common?? that is just ridiculous, 3,4 months turn around for refund Damn!! are they using chissel and machestes still? its just unacceptable. Sure would make many people’s blood pressure rise, with all the good hearty food philippines has to offer!! “no pun intended”

    Unethical way of doing business if you ask me. Mr MM, you are right on every aspect, of this argument. imagine if you have an important business meeting? a tight time schedule, i know the system doesn’t always work %100. At least get close to it if not outstand it, you always wanna have a good reputation specially to the patrons..

    Thanks for the heads up. Next time i visit Philippines. I, for sure wont be boarding a CP flight, Air Philippines planes are old scary looking as well. They looked like they came from World War II era “tora tora” a BIG NO NO…

    Lastly “D” They Are DAING, ohhhh mann you made me CRACK!! that might be a good marketing logo for them hee hee..

87. it is just easy to have a booking in cebu pacific but then when you want to change your booking it is very very difficult very very hard to connect the hot lines of cebu pacific as well as the given telephone numbers in manila and cebu my phone bills increased. is there really a chance for me to rebook my tickets?

88. I couldn’t agree more with this article. I will *never* again be tempted by Cebu Pacific’s low advertised fares. I did once and I got burned…bad.

    I was going to fly from Chicago O’Hare to Hong Kong with Korean Air, then transfer to a flight with Cebu Pacific from Hong Kong to Manila…however Korean Air denied my boarding because I did not have a copy of my itinerary of Cebu Pacific.

    To make a long story short, since I could not purchase the ticket online, I had to call an agent on the telephone. They misspelled my last name and I never received my eTicket via email. I later called to have this corrected, but again, I never received it. So I was stuck in Chicago and had to cancel my other flight and rebook a different flight, all because Cebu Pacific sucks! It cost me over $600 USD in extra fees!!!

    Never fly Cebu Pacific again! I’m glad this web site exists.

89. ALL our Cebu Pacific flights from starting from cebu to manila to xiamen to manila to legaspi to manila to cebu were all delayed that made our vacation a great nightmare instead of a nice leasure trip,,,never again Cebu Pacific,,nakaka dala,,hope you improve BIG TIME para ma gain back ninyo ang trust and loyalty naming mga pasahero who were so disappointed by your services and delays,,….

90. Had to call the call center all the way from California ,I’m about to take a vacation to Thailand, Staying there for 7 days but let me tell you the hassle I have to go trough just to get 3 round trip tickets from Manila to Bangkok. Let me set up the scene for you. 1rst of I had to make a phone call to the call center to Cebu since the Manila center was busy for about 20 minutes. So I finally got a hold of an agent over some choppy voice over IP connection. Blah, blah BLAH ! got most my info credit card number ( US based Master Card that prompted the phone call / can’t book on-line ) 30 minutes had pass my lunch break was done I had to stay on the phone to give the rest of my info to complete the ticket purchase. 10 Minutes pass by and the agents finally tells me we can’t call you back at the international number so we will email you if there are any changes or call you provided number in Manila. For the mean time 2 days have passed I’m going to be flying to the Philippines via Korean air ( PAL sucks the hairy one ) in 5 days I will be in Manila so I’m at a panic here. To top it off my hotels in Bangkok/Cha am are booked but I have no flight number to give the airport limousine service so that they can send a driver to pick me up. Now I’m hearing about his old airplane mess that’s got me worried. I’ll give them till tonight to send me my e-tickets before I try to call them again. I hope all goes well, this is the 1rst time my daughter is traveling out of the US and I want everything to run smooth as possible. I’ll be putting up a report on how the whole ordeal when I’m back home..

91. I have always had issues with Cebu Pacific and the frustrating thing is that they do not accept American Credit Cards. I am an American Living in the Philippines and I cannot book through them because I have an American Credit card? That is crap. When I finally was able to fly I got a ticket for 2200 PHP but I had taxes worth 2500 PHP so 4700 PHP for a one way ticket.. that is just wrong. How tan a tax be worth more than the product?

    Now, I was mis-booked for my next travel dates and I I cannot get ahold of them to change my ticket because their lines are busy, I am going to demand a refund or they change me to PAL.

92. This website fits exactly what I need to be able to rant about the BAD service that I got from the Customer Service People of Cebu Pacific. I admit that they give you low fares. But, if it takes a lot of hassle to book a flight, especially if you are going as a group or make changes, it is not worth it since all promo fare tickets are non refundable including the taxes that you pay. Also, the supervisors in customer service do not even know how to deal with customers. they have a very haughty attitude that is designed to intimidate the customer rather than accommodate. If you are planning to take Cebu Pacific, take them if you really do not have a choice or else you will regret it. The only good thing I can say about Cebu Pacific are that the pilots are more skilled than PAL, since the flight I had with Cebu Pacific had a very smooth take off and landing as compared with PAL wherein you felt every bump that the aircraft encountered. But PAL customer service is better. :)

93. thank you for creating this link. my brother has recently encountered a verrry baaaad experience with cbu pacific. does anyone know the email address of mr. lance gokongwei..? just would like to make sure our letter of complaint reaches him directly and would not be filtered out by those below. thanks..
    p.s. still waiting for permission from my brother if he wants to share his story here. if he doesnt get an immediate response and remedy from cbu pcfc management, he might be filing a case.. (just to give you an idea of how bad it is…)
    thanks again. hope you can send me the email ad info. really urgent.

94. I went to the Office of CEBU PACIFIC in the NEW BACOLOD SILAY AIRPORT today to request for a print out of my online reservation with CEBU PACIFIC. However, before the girl printed out the ticket, she told me i had to pay P 50.00 to print it out for me. I asked her why? She told me their office is a GENERAL SALES AGENT OF CEBU PACIFIC, and not the organic office of the airline. I THINK IT IS RIDICULOUS, that it is not CEBU PACIFIC’S OWN OFFICE that is in the NEW BACOLOD SILAY AIRPORT- and with such an arrangement, their General Sales agent would charge P 50.00 for a print out.
    I am really pissed…CEBU PACIFIC SHOULD MAINTAIN A TICKETING OFFICE MANNED BY ITS OWN PERSONNEL IN THE AIRPORT…

95. I had a VERY BAD EXPERIENCE with CEBUPACIFIC. I purchased a ticket online bound to Singapore. And so, I have to rebook it, for some reasons. When I clicked the button for booking changes, i was shocked for it says…”For changes in your booking, please contact our 24/7 Call Center at (632) 70-20-888.”. I said “WHAT! HOW COULD THEY OFFER INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT AND YET THEY DO NOT ATTEND ONLINE REBOOKING!” It was very frustrating, so i tried calling them but sad to say, sobrang hirap maka-contak sa kanila. Ang mahal kaya ng tawag from Singapore to Manila. So I called my friend and ask him to ask whether they have an international toll free number so I can call them and I could rebook my flight. Kaso wala daw, haay naku! uminit na lalo ang ulo ko…sa susunod CEBUPACIFIC, DO NOT ENTERTAIN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS, KUNG GANYANG PALPAK ANG SERVICE NYO. FLIGHTS WERE ALWAYS LATE AND YOU WERE ALWAYS HAD OVER BOOKING ENCOUNTERS!

    IT WAS A HASSLE AND INCONVENIENT EXPERIENCE! I AM VERY ASHAMED! AND SO I PITY THE OTHER CUSTOMERS ESPECIALLY FOREIGNERS IF EVER THEY WOULD EXPERIENCE YOUR KIND OF SERVICE!

96. Back to the USA, and Cebu Pacific was not so bad. Just wish the international flights out of Manila weren’t so late at night or early morning. One word of advice if you are going to Hong Kong or Thailand in my case. bring some food or your own snacks. It’s ether that or be subjected to buy the sorry little triangle things they call Ham sandwiches. Oh you have to buy the food. Other than that it was all good. Happy flying people.

97. Well being a foreigner in this country i always thought very high of the service standards of all the service industries in this country, but unfortunately Cebu Pacific was a terrible experience. I don’t even know where to start. I booked a flight from Bangkok to Manila to come back here after a vacation in INDIA. I had to get the ticket cancelled and re-booked for the next day due to some reason. There is where it started getting terrible. It takes atleast 15-20 mins to even get to a live agent and specially when u are making int’l calls it doesn’t please you. They cancelled the ticket and promised me that my money would be refunded in 60 DAYS. More than 90 days have passed and there is no sign of my money getting refunded. Numerous calls to their call cantre have only resulted in frustration as u can’t get through and even when u do agents keep putting you on hold or giving you other numbers 1 after the other to call. No one can answer whats the status of the refund. I finally lost my patience and decided to send an email instead, days after my email where i requested for a registration of a formal complaint i have had no response at all, forget it being addressed in a professional manner. SWEAR NEVER TO FLY THEM

98. I am just as pissed as all of the guys who left their comments here. Yesterday, I booked a flight for next week via Cebu Pacific’s online booking. I guess their system still has its glitches. Yep, everything was a breeze from the start but when I got to the last part for payment, my card was also denied. So, I then tried calling their call center and after several attempts, I was finally able to talk to one of their customer service reps. She assured me that my card wasn’t charged for the online booking that I made. Hmmm…well let’s just see about that then…I then proceeded to book and pay the transaction via phone which I find weird because you’re giving out all personal card info to someone you don’t even know. I was wondering of the possibility that the agent might use that info for her own. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that one. Anyways, kept waiting for an e-mail but up until today, I still haven’t received any. And so, I had to push some buttons AGAIN and wait for some miracle to happen that I might be able to get thru immediately their VERY busy line. Up until now, I’m still waiting for someone to pick up the other end. Hmmm…might as well get some sleep first…

99. TO MARKETMAN:

    With regards to their online booking, it is STILL not working. They still give you that error message when you click on the CONFIRM AND PAY button. I don’t think it’s just a 4 day server glitch. As per your post which is dated last August 10, 2006, it’s more like a 1year 6months 2days AND running glitch. hmmm…i thought they have repaired it already…That is just plain BULL$#!%!!! Arggggggg…

    TO CEBU PACIFIC:

    Where is the “excellent” customer service there? I had to spend a couple of hours staring at the computer screen and had several attempts to book a flight but all it gives you is an error message at the end. Geez!

    To top it all off, I would already call it a miracle if my call to your call center gets answered within at least 30 minutes by a HUMAN. And as for that HUMAN, I have never encountered any customer service agents as rude and as ill-mannered as the ones in CP. Talk about finally heaving a sigh of relief coz my call has already been answered only to be put on hold again for like eternity.

    I had a bad experience before with CP. Imagine, I was scheduled for a 5:45pm flight from Cebu to Manila last July 2007. With a 1year old toddler in tow, we waited for like 4hours more coz our flight was delayed. My daughter and I were supposed to take that 5:45 flight for Manila coz we had to bid goodbye to my husband (a seafarer) who was in Manila at that time and was already bound to take an international flight the next day to catch up on his vessel. A toddler that was already getting irritated by the minute and a mom who was just fuming mad as the clock slowly ticked by were only given a Jollibee meal for dinner and no explanations whatsoever why our flight was SOOO delayed. Well, at least the free COKE appeased my daughter for awhile…geeez! We were only able to depart at around quarter to 10 in the evening. We would have wanted to spend more family time before he departs for work for another 6months. But nooo…CP’s fucked up “on-time” schedules ripped us all…

100. I’m so glad I stumbled onto this blog. It will be my first time to fly CP internationally. (So far, no complaints for domestic flights yet).

     I was thinking of having our tickets refunded since another airline has offered a more reasonable package. But after hearing all the complaints about not getting their refunds back, I know it won’t be a wise decision to cancel our booking. I just hope everything will go well. I saved up for this vacation and hope it won’t get ruined.

101. hindi lng dyan may prublema..
     pati sa ticketing ofis..
     4hours bago ako na entertain.
     last month naman i have to wait for 2hours…
     sobra dami ng tao sa ticketing ofis nila sa robinson manila
     sa sobrang dami hindi na kasya sa kanilang opis ang tao
     yun iba sa sobrang inip hindi na nakayanan mag intay..
     umalis na lang…
     kulang sila ng tao sa ticketing ofis kaya sobrang bagal..
     sana sa next flight ko sana on-time na…
     yun huli kasi late cya ng 1hour 15minutes.
     tapos yun stewardes pa mga suplada at di man lang ngumiti at bumati man lang ng “good evening” at hindi nag sorry..
     i think kulang sila ng eroplano dahil dami nilang additional flights.. kaya kapag na late dating ng eroplano late na lahat ng departures..

102. I have just been reading your site. Thank you for the info. I tried to book 2 tickets last year from Manila to Hong Kong online. It took me 2 days to finally find out that the site would not accept international flights by credit card. I was told on the phone that i could buy, pay for and pick up my tickets in Kalibo airport. I also asked if i could pay by by credit card at the airport. I was told that i could. I live on Boracay Island. So to get to Kalibo is a 2 hour journey including, boats. When i arrived at the Cebu Pacific office at the airport, the girl behind the desk looked up my reservation on their ticketing system. It was confirmed, but when i produced my card to pay for it, i was told that they did not accept credit cards in their office as they were not equipped to take them.
     I was, as you can imagine, furious, and let them know how incompetent they were.
     I finally booked my tickets at a local office on Boracay, but had to pay an extra 3000 Pesos to book.
     I am trying to avoid using Cebu Pacific so your site has further convinced me not to.

     Thanks.

103. I have been trying to make a reservation on a flight less from one month from now – Gaungzhou to Manila – since the last 5 days I have found that there was a seat, at the special rate, after two days, it became a higher fare…but my credit card was rejected. It was a card with a US bank. They asked me at Cebu Pacific to use another card – I did, this time another card, which is perfectly valid, and the account has enough money – this time from Germany…again, try another card…so I tried a Hong Kong bank’s Visa card… I am pretty mad now – all my cards, from three different continents, all with good accounts, are refused, which is an insult, but worse, I cannot schedule my trip, as I cannot book a ticket. When I tried to use online help, “The page cannot be reached”… emails to Cebu Pacific are ignored… I am desperate, as there is no Cebu Pacific office where I live, so I am forced to use the Internet for booking – why on earth don’t they read their emails, when I asked for an explanation and help? and why do they refuse customers, that are willing to buy their tickets and pay the fare? Does anybody have an email address to management??? I do want to go to Manila, and don’t have many options. If there is anybody who can help, please contact me.
     Thanks
     Brigitte

104. I have to say, I think Cebu Pacific have the worst customer services of any airline I have ever dealt with. I have been trying to get a ticket refund for 5 months now and it has cost me a fortune in phone calls, since their call centre take at least 10 minutes of being on hold to reach – and when you do they’re bloody hopeless. I’ve been promised so many callbacks I can’t remember and sent so many emails that never get answered.

     So anyone who has Lance Gokongwei email address, I’d love to know it…… I for one will NEVER fly with Cebu Pacific again!

105. Our flight from Zamboanga to Manila was delayed for 7 hours. Although ground sterwardes was apologetid and in fairness to the airline they attended the passengers very well food were served during lunch and even before the flight. We understand the situation because the delay was due to safety issues. They even gave one way free ticket voucher for each passenger… No question asked on this as they will still earn on the ticket that we need to purchase for the return flight after using the free one way ticket voucher. What Cebu pacific need to inprove are the check-in baggage when flights are delayed. It is a common knowledge that zamboanga has a lots of sea foods. Curacha, lobster,alimango, shrimp and the so called panga were all fresh when I place it in the ice chess box.AS advices no ice are allowed in the ice chess. Thinking that it will only take 1 hour and a half to fly from Zambo to Manila, food stuffs will still be okay. However to my dismay all the sea foods are all spoiled. It was hot and most probably all the others experienced the same situation.The free ticket did not do any justification to me as I have spend almost 6,000.00 for the sea foods..Hopefully the management can look into this kind of senario and do corrective action…

106. I want to share our really bad experience with Cebu Pacific….

     March 22, 2008 (HK-Manila flight) while we were checking-in our baggages, the Cantonese check-in personnel of Cebu Pacific suddenly tell us that we should pay HKD1563.00 (1-way) fare for our 2 year old daughter. HKD 1563.00 is the rate of Cebu Pacific if you get your ticket in HK airport, rate is same for child and adult. They are asking us to pay the fare because we booked our daughter as an infant and now, 5 days after her birthday, she is already 2 years old. According to the Filipina who seems to be the station manager (Liza Anarete – if I spelled her name right), 1 day or 5 day is just the same, my daughter is still considered a child and not an infant.

     Apparently, Cebu Pacific’s online booking system has a problem, they calculate the passenger’s age based on the booking date and not on the flight date. When my wife booked our ticket a few months ago, the system wont accept my daughter as a child and only accepted her as an infant which means fare is free. When we left Manila last March 19, we were not asked by check-in personnel to pay for my daughter’s fare.

     I tried to explain all these but to no avail, worse the Cantonese check-in guy, plus an Indian and the station manager told us we better leave our daughter or cancel our ticket if we cannot pay. They even threatened us by trying to cancel our ticket if we don’t pay immediately.

     Obviously I paid for the fare since I don’t have any choice, all flights to Manila are fully booked during that night.

     Yesterday when we tried Cebu Pacific’s online booking system, the problem is already fixed. I guess they learned about this problem way before and my daughter’s name was actually marked so we will be asked to pay for the fare before we go back to Manila.

     You pay peanuts you get peanuts….

107. I’m glad I chanced upon this blog.

     Last October, I cancelled a flight that I was going to take from Singapore to Manila (with return) and I opted to refund my ticket fare which I paid for online.

     After countless hours of being on hold in their customer hotline, I finally got through and I received an email last Oct 29 2007,confirming that they are processing my refund.

     5 months later, I have not received the refund yet and have heard from them. I tried endlessly to ring their hotline to follow-up but it’s just a waste of time! This is absolutely unacceptable!!! I am counting the months that they are not paying me until the cost of money is big enough to merit a lawsuit.

     Anyway, I’m sorry to bore you with my story but as a fellow consumer, I share your plight to let other consumers know about their utterly POOR SERVICE.

     I hope other people will share their experience too hoping that their management will try to at least do something about it. I hear that they are doing very well and is already the leader in the local airline industry – what an irony!!!

108. Folks – don’t even try the new Manila Caticlan route. This is our first time to book Cebu Pacific because they have new planes going to Caticlan. We booked our flights last Oct 2007 for our March 28 vacation to Boracay. A week prior to our trip, we were notified by text that our flight has been moved an hour later. Our friends return flight was cancelled and moved to Kalibo. A real bummer. The reason why we chose Caticlan is we wanted to avoid the long trip to Kalibo. When checking in, we found out we were the more fortunate ones because other Cebu Pac passengers were not even advised that their flights were cancelled or moved. It took us almost 30 minutes lining up because the family in front of us was arguing with the check in attendant that they were not advised on the cancellation. Since the check in is manned by 1 lady, the queue grew longer by the minute. They should have placed more people to attend to the customers. Finally we flew out on time. But coming back was the nightmare. Since our flight was moved from 330 to 430, we arrived at the airport at 330 only to find out that the counter is already closed and our flight was already fully booked despite our holding confirmed tickets. Unlike other airlines where you are assured of seats when you have confirmed tickets, in Cebu Pac if the flight is overbooked, they can bumped you off if you’re late. What was irritating was the ground personnel knew as early as in the morning that the 430 flight will bust the required 41 seat and did not do anything until we started arguing and raising our voices. they offered to fly us via Kalibo and we said no because we had children with us. The supervisor even refused to see us until we told the ground crew to call her out. finally seeing that we will not budge, they checked with Asian Spirit whether there were extra seats. Good thing there was still room for us. There were 16 of us in this incident, equivalent to one small plane. So lesson learned – never again fly via Cebu Pac. For those who still dare, tip is to be at the airport 8 hours before your flight less you get bumped off owing to overbooking.

109. Am truly glad I found this site as I really needed a venue to vent – esp since you know as well as I do it is no use to talk to Cebu Pacific. I also wanted you guys to know that I have decided to escalate matters to the Dept of Trade and Industry where you can file Consumer Complaints.

     I invite everyone to also submit your complaints as the more people who have consistent stories of Cebu Pacific’s dreadful performance, the more attention it will get. You can post this at https://www.dtincr.ph/complaint.php Please feel free to pass this on to your friends and relatives.

110. As for our dreadful Cebu Pacific experience – here it goes..

     Last Dec 2007, my family booked online round trip tickets to Cebu for Dec 14, 2007 – this was to be 5J 581 leaving at 1:45 PM. As per our practice, we got there around 12NN to make sure we had enough time, but as it is – it was turning out to be an ill fated day. Not only was our flight delayed, but we got bumped off to the next flight – AND not only did we get bumped off, the next flight was delayed as well only finally allowing us to leave Manila just before 6PM.

     We were told that we have been bumped off (having waited more than 3 hours already by this time), when the Cebu Pacific representative approached us and told us we will be given travel vouchers instead. I was actually going to refuse it as we had no immediate plans for another family trip to Cebu and we really wanted to go as the kids were already very anxious at this point. However, the rep by the name of Kenneth Anne Uy told us that instead of the usual practice of just one travel voucher for the disrupted flight – we will be given round trip vouchers that can be claimed for any Cebu Pacific destination. We figured this was a good offer so we took it.

     To put this in context, allow me to tell you about that day – Dec 14, 2007. We noticed that the Domestic Airport was packed especially when we got to the Departure lounge, hardly no seats available and people were already sitting on the floor. One after another, it was being announced that Cebu Pacific flights were delayed and not just to Cebu – it was Cagayan, Davao, etc. In fact we got a bit worried so we asked to find out if there was any emergency going on. We also noticed that roundtrip vouchers were being given to passengers and also privy to the Anne’s response that it was for ANY Cebu Pacific flight. In fact, the same case happened to an officemate of mine who travelled the weekend before – they were also offered round trip travel vouchers to any Cebu Pacific destination.

     I thought that was the end of it, however our saga continues. Now that I am claiming the vouchers for a trip to Singapore with my family, I have been repeatedly declined and informed that the vouchers can only be used in the same route as the disrupted flight i.e. in this case Cebu. I cannot begin to say how disappointed I have been the past week, I’ve been talking to over a dozen Customer Service representatives at this point and none have been able to help thus my last resort of filing a Consumer Complaint.

     After long discussions with numerous Customer Service agents, we are told that Kenneth Anne Uy claims that we have misunderstood her. As per Dennis Ang of Cebu Pacific, when there is conflict – they revert to the policy of Cebu Pacific that vouchers can only be used on the same leg as the disrupted flight. I filed the complaint to DTI on the grounds of:

     • As customers who were inconvenienced, we were not informed of this policy at the time of the offer
     • The policy was not stated in the voucher or any document during the offer, there is no proper documentation
     • Kenneth Anne Uy was negligent by not specifically indicating in the voucher what route can be taken (no marks in any of the check box) nor did she make a comment that it can only be used with the disrupted leg
     • I specifically clarified with Kenneth Anne Uy if we can use this at any flight, and with her answer as yes – I was certain that we could take any leg
     • We would have not taken the offer if it was just for Cebu, I would have not attempted to book it for Singapore if I had known it was only for Cebu

     As a Customer Service professional, I am quite appalled at the way they handle their customers. In this case, insinuating that we were lying? My only hope is that Cebu Pacific realize that they’re actions are going to terribly affect their business and hopefully, they clean up their act soon.

111. hi guys! i came across this site when i googled cebu pacific refund. and it shocked me that there are so many complaints about them. If i’d only known I wouldn’t have been patronizing the airline. Here’s my story.

     Last January, I purchased tickets for my two sisters. On my first attempt, the site said something like the transaction can’t be completed because there’s a problem contacting my credit card provider. So I thought the transaction didn’t occur. I tried again, this time with another card, and everything went smoothly until the part wherein they will e-mail the ticket. Because even after 24 hours of waiting, no ticket arrived in my inbox. I decided to call the number on their website. After probably 20 times of dialing and 20 minutes of being on hold, I found out that the two transactions were actually recorded in their computer and billed to my two different credit card accounts. We’re not talking about their 1peso fare here but 2 transactions of 10+k each! I was assured by their call center agent that they would request for a refund for the second transaction and the amount would be debited from my credit card bill but give them 60 days.

     Call me stupid but when the bill arrived, I paid for it thinking that I’d get it debited on my next bill. Besides, I don’t want to talk to another call center agent and explain the reasons why I’m not paying the bill and the credit card company doing nothing about it except charge interest (because it already happened before). My january, february and march bill already arrived and CEBU PACIFIC HASN’T GIVEN ME A REFUND! I’ve been calling their number given on the website and the call center agent would tell me that the request for the refund has already been forwarded to their accounting office. I asked for a direct contact number and I was given one but when I try to connect to the supposedly local number of their accounting office, the line disconnects. I tried their supposedly operator (the one wherein the recorded voice says if you know the local number, press it now or press 0 to talk to an operator) but the line again disconnects. I’ve tried calling the number a hundred times and it’s the same thing. I called their call center but I was told that it was the only number they know. I’m more pissed off because its as if they don’t even care to have a decent customer care and just give us bogus numbers.

     I’d be actually willing to go to a local office and ask for a refund but unfortunately they don’t have one here in davao. What they have is a sub-contracted ticketing office that does not even accept a credit card.

112. I’ve been contacting Cebu Pacific hotline number for more than 3 years and guess what only a single call has reached to their agent. The good thing is they have ticketing office at Robinsons Galleria and expect to be entertained for at least 4 hours waiting on the queue. The worst service I ever had! This management need to study Customer Service 101. My nephew knows it and he can teach them for free.

113. Another venue to post your Consumer Complaints – just go to https://www.dtincr.ph/complaint.php

114. Hi,

     I find too difficult to contact Cebu Pacific Refunds Section. Since our flight schedule last December 2007 was changed because of un-avoidable circumstances, we decided to cancel our flight and booking and informed 2 weeks before our flight to Davao and the reservation office gave us the number to be contacted just in case a refund of tickets on my credit card was not credited back.

     Wow, grabe… walang sumasagot sa mga emails ko sa kanila. They never answered their phone numbers. Ang galing lang ninyo mag charge sa credit card and it took for you 1 minute to deduct tapos pag nag refund ako, until now wala pa ring resulta? Samantalang ang refund ko sa PAL it took 2 months lang binalik nila ang bayad sa akin sa credit card ko?

     Does anyone experienced like this?

     Salamat

115. I’m truly disappointed with what happened with my Cebu Pacific booking for my April 12, 2008 flight confirmation number K6BHXM. I have booked this weeks before my flight and I already gave my credit card details on this website. I am attending a meeting that day in Hong Kong and I’m also going back home the day after. My husband and I have been using this website in buying our tickets for local and int’l destinations and this is the first time this happened to us. Upon check-in at the NAIA, check-in crew told me that my name is not in the confirmed list. I showed them a CONFIRMED BOOKING and they said that it really isn’t there. They told me to just wait for everybody else to check in and they will just sell me a ticket on the spot. So I had to go to the airport bank to withdraw cash coz the credit card machine at the check-in counter is not working. It was such a hassle ! I have allotted just enough U$ for my HOng Kong trip and I did not really bring that much Peso. So I had to really budget my money now just because of this! To cut the long story short, I was able to go on with the flight BUT my return flight has been moved to a later time coz the one I booked for is already full! HUH !!!! WHAT THE … !!!! I told my husband (who is in Manila) to call up your office and asked what the #$@#$ happened. Somebody told him that it was computer error coz they changed their system. Is this reason enough? If this happens to Mr. Lance Gokongwei, what will you do? No offense to your boss. I have high respect for your brilliant boss. But you guys working for him should really do your jobs and not disappoint your customers. I hope you know where I’m coming from. It is just so disappointing!!! What if we have an emergency and I don’t arrive to my destination on time. Maybe I’ll understand if it happens to everybody on that flight because of a huge computer glitch. BUT NO!! IT’S JUST ME !!! ‘Come on !!!!

116. It’s now over a month since I last posted an entry here and – surprise, surprise – no refund and it is now 6 months. Thanks for posting the DTI complaints page… I have just registered a complaint against Cebu Pacific and will see what happens. Watch this space……

117. Do you have any email addresses or better phone numbers for them. I am trying to collect a refund and have tried calling all the numbers on the site only to get the busy signal or to be put on hold. I am calling from the US so this is beginning to get expensive. Is there anyone else I can try to contact?

     AND everyone I talk to from Cebu always gives me a different story of what can and cannot be done. I’m sooo frustrated!

118. (T_T) I shud have search the net about Cebu Pacific before going thru all the trouble of booking online and calling their office. It’s really really really irritating and a waste of time transacting with Cebu Pacific. We want to try them for they offer cheaper fares. We usually fly via PAL and TG. I think this will be the first and last time that we will waste our precious time with Cebu Pacific. We’ve deleted Cebu Pacific from list of carrier. Our company Travels abroad in different parts of Asia 2 to 3 times a month.

     HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF …. THEY NEVER LEARN.

119. Has anyone here been refunded by CebuPacific? It’s been 6 months since I applied for a refund and there’s still no sign of it on my credit card.

     Just earlier I spoke to 2 agents and both of them RELEASED the call. The NERVE. I was nice at first and the agent asked me to wait. I could hear her talking to another agent and after 30 minutes of waiting, the call got disconnected. I called again and got thru an agent. I asked for a supervisor right away and she asked for my booking record. I gave it to her and then, while she was talking, the call got disconnected AGAIN. HOW CONVENIENT. No one answers in their customer service hotline and no replies on emails sent to their accounting department. The only thing I got out of it is an auto-generated email from their customer service department. The airline has the worst customer service ever.

     DO NOT BOOK WITH CEBU PACIFIC!!!

     Unless you’re willing to wait for hours to get on a flight and if you’re willing to forget about your money when you ask for a refund.

120. STRANDED IN JAKARTA FOR OVER 1 WEEK WHILE TRYING TO CONTACT CEBU PACIFIC AIRLINES FOR A RESCHEDULE TO FLY BACK TO MANILA !
     I AM ABSOLUTLEY DISGUSTED WITH CEBU PACIFIC AIRLINES & I WILL NEVER USE THEM AGAIN.
     I HAVE BEEN IN JAKARTA FOR THREE MONTHS AND NEED TO FLY BACK TO MANILA ASAP.
     I RANG THE TRAVEL AGENT AND THEY TOLD ME TO GO TO THEIR OFFICE SO I TRAVELLED TO THE APPOINTED TRAVEL AGENT [$$$$$TAXI]—PT.ANDALAN USAHA CEMERLANG–THE ONLY ONE DEALING WITH CEBUPACIFICAIR IN JAKARTA — ONLY TO BE TOLD THAT THEY COULD NOT REBOOK MY FLIGHT BECAUSE CEBUPACIFICAIR HAD CHANGED THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEMS AND ALL TICKETS PURCHASED BEFORE 1st april 08 COULD NOT BE RESCHEDULED ONLINE.
     WELL RING THEM AND CHANGE IT I SAID— THEY REFUSED!THEY WERE NOT INTERESTED IN THE SLIGHTEST DEGREE TO HELP ME [REMEMBER I AM A FOREIGNER HERE AND DO NOT SPEAK INDONESIAN].

     YOU RING THEM YOURSELF- THEY SAID ITS YOUR PROBLEM OR BETTER STILL BUY ANOTHER TICKET AND GET A REFUND ON YOUR OLD TICKET WHEN YOU REACH MANILA!==why should I buy another ticket when i have a valid ticket here ??IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET THEM TO SEE MY REASONING SO I LEFT THE AGENTS SHOP IN A STATE OF ABSOLUTE DISGUST.
     [ITS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT THEY ARE VERY HAPPY TO TAKE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY BUT DO NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING FOR IT !!]BEWARE OF THIS TRAVEL AGENT !!
     ANOTHER [TAXI RIDE$$$$$$] TO MY ACCOMODATION AND I TRY TO CALL CEBUPACIFICAIR ON MY CELL FONE —AN IMPOSSIBLE FEAT TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY $$$$$
     SO ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE MY TICKET ONLINE AND
     ==========================================================
     IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE IT THRU A TRAVEL AGENT AND
     =========================================================

     SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTACT CEBUPACIFIC BY CELL FONE!

     OK I HAD FRIENDS IN JAKARTA WHO HAVE A LANDLINE [TAXI$$$$$] —-ON THE PHONE FOR OVER 1 HOUR WAITING TO BE SERVED AND THIS IS AN INTERNATIONAL PHONE CALL REMEMBER[$$$$$$$$] ONLY TO BE TOLD THAT IT WILL COST $130 DOLLARS TO REBOOK MY FLIGHT –[A NEW TICKET COSTS $150!]

     THE CALL CENTRE AGENT WAS POWERLESS TO TO HELP ME OR SEE REASON SO I GAVE UP IN DESPAIR REFUSING TO PAY $130 DOLLARS FOR SOMETHING THAT I HAD ALREADY PAID FOR!

     I AM TOTALLY DISGUSTED WITH THE WHOLE PROCESS NEEDLESS TO SAY THE CALLOUS TREATMENT AND INHUMAN DISREGARD CEBUPACIFICAIRLINES HAVE SHOWN TOWARDS ME AND MY SITUATION. AS WITH ALL CORPORATES THEY ARE DISTANCED FROM THE PEOPLE THAT GIVE THEM THEIR PROFITS ie THE CUSTOMER.IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE CONTACT OF ANY MEANING OR VALUE BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE SYSTEM IS OPERATED.

     THIS EXPERINCE HAS SO FAR COST ME ABOUT $300 — FOR TAXI FARES + NUMEROUS INTERNATIONAL PHONE CALLS + ACCOMODATION COSTS DUE TO EXTENDED STAY + FOOD + MISSED APPOINTMENTS IN MANILA –NOT TO MENTION THAT I WILL STILL NEED TO BUY ANOTHER TICKET TO GET OUT OF HERE SO IT LOOKS AS THOUGH ITS GOING TO BE A $500 DOLLAR EXPENSE DUE TO CEBUPACIFICS ABYSMAL SERVICE ! MORE IMPORTANTLY THE STRESS INVOLVED HAS BEEN ENORMOUS FOR ME
     I WISH I HAD SOME MEANS TO BRING THIS TO THEIR ATTENTION BUT ITS SEEMS IMPOSSBLE TO CONTACT ANYONE THERE IN THEIR AIRCONDITIONED OFFICES
     [NOT THAT THEY WOULD CARE ANYWAY] GOD HELP US ALL
     BUT I SWEAR I WILL NEVER FLY WITH THIS AIRLINE AGAIN UNLESS I GET SOME SORT OF APOLOGY AND REIMBURSEMENT
     SO IF ANYONE FROM CEBUPACIFIC WHO HAS ANY AUTHORITY READS THIS ACCOUNT OF MY EXPERIENCE YOU CAN ALL GO AND—–!!*#+====== YOURSELVES!!!!

121. HAVING HAD MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT MY RECENT BLOG REGARDING CEBUPACIFIC AIRLINES AND THEIR APPALLING CUSTOMER RELATIONS SERVICE == WELL THEY DONT HAVE ONE IN REALITY!
     AND THE APALLING DISREGARD THEY EXHIBIT TO THEIR CUSTOMERS I PERSONALLY CONSIDER THEM TO BE CORPORATE THIEVES
     AND THEY SHOULD BE EXPOSED AND TAKEN TO COURT AND SUED FOR THE HARDSHIP AND TROUBLE THEY CAUSE TO UNSUSPECTING CUSTOMERS

122. shit. reading the refund problems with cebu pacific make me cringe. i just had my ticketsrefudned (through credit card). the CEB woman told me my refund could be delayed by even a year!

123. Hi,

     After my bad experiences with CP, I have vowed not to take this airline again except for emergency purposes.

     I am a happy PAL Mabuhay Miler for many years now.

     Check with PAL. They have very competitive rates. Definitely much much much better service that CP. But not 100% though.

     The savings by taking CP flights may not be enough for the medical expenses in dealing with delayed flights, non-refund, bumping off, etc.

     Fly PAL. Its definitely much better.

124. as stated in d ticket: late check in will not be accomodated 45 mins prior to flight the check in counter closes!!

125. i was able to talk to an call center agent of cebu pacific regarding refund according to them usually it takes a year or more before it would credit back to your credit card account…hehehehehhe besides its true because it really happeneds some or i think most of the passengers who request it the ticket for refund experience it..not the usual process as they say 45-60 banking days???huh..huh

126. i was late just 5mins for alloted check -in time but the head of Dipolog CP didn’t and never show any concern or any words how will I settle such situation. there was heavy rain and i was new in that city, still NO FURTHER help. it was a shit that i almost failed to catch up my appoinment in Manila the next day night. i bought a ticket(PAL) Cebu city to Manila just to cope with it. i took ferry from Dipolog(huh 12hrs to Cebu city, check-in for 3hrs to wait PAL 11am flight. i utter cursed to that pregnant woman in Dipolog who withouth any consideration nor concern of my travel. ive asked apology and ask at the same time any alternative, still ALL STAFF were silent. i was forced to cath up Cebu city flight due to the non-flight schedule of CP on sat in Dipolog. with my expereince I TOTALLY DISCOURAGE EVERYONE not to fly with CP, till now no refund of my ticket, im almost convince to forget it instead of waiting nothing.

127. Hi Greggy,

     Showing up late 5 minutes is actually your fault. There’s nothing you can do about that, especially if a CP flight is overbooked. The only way you can be accommodated is only if the flight is not full. Even if you arrive 30 minutes before departure and the flight is not full, I am 100% sure they will accommodate you. In fact, your flight may be delayed because they won’t fly until its full. As another CP passenger commented, CP flies when the flight is full…parang jeepney :)

128. I won’t even try to voice my own opinions as I will obviously just be preaching to the choir here.

     Like many of you though, I have finally vowed not to fly Cebu Pacfic again. ever.

     HOWEVER, I refuse to let it stop at that. At the end of the day, they owe me (as well as many of you) over P20,000 supposedly credited back into my credit card within 60 days. Well, it’s been over 120 days, and that’s just wrong.

     As most of you know, it is close to impossible to reach their refunds section over the phone (as we’ve all tried), so I finally called the DTI complaints desk yesterday. According to them, this is issue is for the CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, and they gave me the numbers 852-8967 and 851-6911 to call. A very helpful woman named ALICE CLAVO (thank you again, Alice, for your excellent handling of my complaint) who advised me to put everything down in a letter and address it to:

     Atty. Carmelo L. Arcilla
     Executive Director
     Civil Aeronautics Board
     Old MIA Road, Pasay city

     I am unfortunately out of town right now and will only be able to send my own letter next week, but what I did like about Ms. Clavo’s advice, was that when asked if I should just take this up with Cebu Pacific Legal directly (I am fortunate enough to have a lawyer for a sister), she recommended I send my complaint to the Civil Aeronautics Board itself so as to protect other consumers.

     I hope this contact information will be helpful to anyone alse among you who are also at the end of their ropes. The more of us who speak out in a proper forum, the more likely we can protect not just ourselves, but also ensure proper business practices in the future.

129. got complaints? let them know what’s on our minds:

     Susan Adelman
     Navitaire Inc.
     +1 (612) 317-7284
     susan.adelman@navitaire.com

     Jim Finlaw
     Accenture
     +1 (917) 452-3249
     james.e.finlaw@accenture.com

     RG Orense
     Cebu Pacific
     + (632) 853-9277
     rg.orense@cebupacificair.com

130. Guys,

     I have read your complaints and I totally sympathise with you.

     I had the same issue occur 10 weeks ago where i had booked return tickets from Manila to Hong Kong but i loved Hong Kong so much i decided to stay another 2 weeks.

     I called CP from HK only to be on hold for 32 mins to reschedule the flight but they wanted to charge me more penalties than if i had just asked for a a standard refund. So i went with the refund and just booked seperate one way tickets for the return to phils.

     Last monday was the 45th day and still no refund so heres a tip of what i did to get a refund within 48 hrs from my bank.

     Basically I requested a chargeback from my cc provider – outlined that i cancelled the return leg and that I was still overcharged for double the service.

     I stated I was owed 16000 pesos, so what the bank has done is recalled the total amount of $42500PHP and placed a partial credit on my account for the nominated amount of 16000PHP. Until CP respond to the bank, the total funds will be under a stop recall.

     The bank have now issued me a letter confirming the credit and that they are now investigating the charge directly and the delay of the refund as per CP policies which states 30-45 days for refund as per my cancellation booking page.

     I assume if we all do the same thing, then CP will be inundated with invesigations from CC providers which might move their arses to ensure this refund issue does not arise again.

     Hope this info helps you all out

     Regards,

     Dave

     PS. CC companies generally will do a partial or full chargeback if the transaction occurred within the last 3 months.

131. I feel you pain with Cebu Pacific refund

     I booked 3 flights to hong kong (1 was booked separately on a different date and the 2 tickets booked together the following day) last january and i had to cancel it just because I typed the wrong name and they dont want to change it, so I did and they told me the refund will take about 60 days and a charge of 1500 each so since partly it was my fault I agreed and cancelled all of it and booked another. I have been waiting for 3 months but still no luck with the refund so I called the customer service and they told me that they don’t have control over refunds not even an info or update and they can’t even forward me to the refund dept. They gave me the number of the refund (8522328) which is always busy kung hindi fax tone( I realy think they hung-up the phone on purpose) since I was not successful in contacting them through the number they gave me I just went to there office in sucat just to know that the records were just forwarded to them 3 months after the cancellation bad trip talaga!!!!!! how incompetent and unreliable can these people be and the guy in the refund dept told me that they also require 30 days to process the refund whaaaaaaa, so I cooled down and politely said Ok basta ma process na this month so that guy said yes sir I do this personally. So my next bill came in and i saw that the fare wasn’t completely refunded they only refunded 2 ticket worth so i went to cebupacific office AGAIN this morning and I saw the same guy and he told me that the third ticket was not included, so asked why and he couldn’t answer me so i asked for a definite date when will it be credited back to me and he was un able to give a date so I asked him about the amounts instead, and I found out that the ones refunded was the first ticket and 1 of the 2 tickets that was booked together, so I asked the guy how can that happen when you were able to refund the 1st booking and one of the 2 tickets which was booked together, the guy said he could’nt find the record but during first time I went there he even showed me the dates of the flights I booked, then the “GAY” couldn’t answer me and started saying wag mo akong sigawan sir, sabi ko hindi ako sumisigaw malumanay kitang tinatanong, then when I realized this conversation is not going anywhere I just said sana for the second time ma refund na lahat then he said madami din akong trabahao hindi lang yan,,. sabi ko 5 months na ito wala na kayong dahilan pa I’m not asking you to do overtime just for this I’m only asking you to do your job so to end the discussion I politely reasoned out that mahirap kasi sa card kasi may interest ok lang sana kung wala I told the GAY, sagot ba naman sakin “alam ko sir may credit card din ako” I turned red and dug from the bottom of my gut for some patience left in me, grabe as in where does the management get all these people they are so unproffessional and visibly they don’t know what they are doing, I work in a large IT company and we encounter a lot of pressures and complains daily but still we handle things and people the right way. Instead of fighting fire with fire i just said to myself that I won’t lower my self for this stupid homo, so I told the guy to do the refund and I left.

     So for you guys out there Cebupacific’s services can really get in your nerves so book carefully in if not your patience will really be tested.

     cheers,

132. I waiting for a refund of a ticket since november 2007….they told me in 60-90 banking days it will be done..
     i still wait…….that my money will be credited back to my credit card

     ……the only thing their system is able to say:

     You do not need to book again. As part of the error, the system failed to issue the ticket/s online. ……

     but they capture the money…….and not refund it back even in 7 months……

     that is a scam!

133. ive also had one unforgetable experience with Cebu pacific.. my flight back then was scheduled at 6;20pm and i arrrived at the airport about 5;35 pm. the check in time ended at 5;30 so i was just about 5 minutes late..we got to talk with the people in charge at the check in area but they wont allow us so got to rebook my flight and pay another thousand of pesos. it was really so frustrating for them not to consider that one well in fact they would even let the people wait for 2 hours for a delayed flight! huh… well yeah, i hould have checked in earlier but i guess they shoud have at least put some considerations for that litle matter!..hmmp there was again another flight ive had with them scheduled at 6;20 i really checked in earlier that time and the last checked in time was 5;50 huh!

134. i was asked by my sister today to follow-up her application for refund dated 3/24/08. that’s more than a hundred days already but knowing CP has a whole mountain of issues, i googled “CP refund issues”. thankfully, i got to this page, so basically, i’m thankful for saving my effort and thankful that i didnt go and try contacting their “customer service’ as i have prevented a potential BP-increasing situation.

     note: on the application for refund form – they are charging Php336 as Refund Service Fee. the nerve.

135. My complaint is trying to book a flight from Canada. On the website, everything is fine, up until you attempt a payment. Then you discover your efforts are futile. So then I call Manila reservations, and after a 30 minute phone call from Toronto, everything is fine, except I have to submit photocopies of my recent statement and credit card, which I do. Two days later, I asked by email- “what happened?” I heard nothing. A week after my original phone call, I call again to be told they never got the emails. (Hmmm – they never bounced back!) So finally I was told I would get an email next day from the original agent. Guess what – it never happened. So I call a third time only to be told that the original booking has been cancelled. Ninety minutes of being on the phone with Cebu Pacific – and they are unable to issue a ticket. I rather expect this airline will be out of business soon – and not just because of high fuel costs!

136. hi,
     i bought a ticket in june. my creditcardcompany paid them immediately. but cebupacific still said, the CC is delined, which is 100% not true. so i wrote them (with copy of my creditcardcompany statement) around 6 mails. but so far, they did not answer. i tried to call them, no chance to get through. i tried mails direct via their website, but no answer also.
     so, my flight is confirmed, but – according to CebuPacific – its declined. i guess, when i want to fly, they just dont let me fly.
     1 month no answer. its not right what they do
     regards,
     hans@japan.com

137. Check this out!!! Cebu Pacific will stop flying Xiamen (China) and Hanoi next month (August 2008). I booked my tickets two months ago for Xiamen. Few days ago, I received sms & email saying flights for next month are canceled! That’s it! I booked for roundtrip and had already consumed the one-way..That means I have to book with other airlines now for my other way back. What the!!!! The price is now triple coz August is near!! Damn!! They should have issued a memo few months ago that they would stop flying these countries.

     What happens?? Well..As you’ve said.. email no one responses. I think it’s a dummy email they got there. I called their call centre.. hahahaha!!! funny part with these people who are answering the calls are .. they would say .. hold on.. then MUTE.. and will come back after few minutes (if you’re lucky coz most of the time they don’t).. they are so lousy when it comes to answering phone calls!! anyway, when i called they said they’re gonna refund the whole amount.. so i said.. ok.. that’s the least they can do..(i think if you’re a big company.. you should pay for the loss that will occur on your customers’ side..due to the inconvenience they caused…which they didn’t care anyway)..well..today..i got a call and they said only half will be reversed.. damn! what’s happening with cebu pacific!!!???

     At first.. I thought cebu pacific was good..but now.. i’m totally disappointed.. I’m so worried that they might stop flights to HK as well..which i’m booked end of next month.. SO SCARY!!!!!!

138. cebu pacific suspends their flights for hanoi and xiamen due to FUEL CRISIS!…

139. I’d like to share with you my traumatic experience at cebu pacific check-in counter:

     I checked in last August 5, 2008 for my 145pm flight to manila. I was advised that flight will be delayed & boarding time will be at 4pm. I thought I misheard it so I asked again. The Station Officer, Ms. Grace Tio, snapped, “boarding time at 4pm!”. I even raised my four fingers while asking, “boarding time at 4pm, right?” She was getting irritated at me but she still managed to nod her head.

     When I was about to go out from the Cebu Pacific office, I asked the guard on duty if he knew that flight would be delayed. Sensing that he was confused, I went back to the check in counter and asked again Ms. Tio. She retorted “boarding time at 4pm!”

     I was no longer surprised when I learned that flight would be delayed that long considering what I heard from the news the night before that flights in Manila were delayed by as long as 30 hours. I was also informed that the previous day flight from Butuan to Manila was cancelled yesterday due to bad weather condition in Manila.

     I was already exhausted and hungry at that time. I travelled all the way from Surigao and proceeded directly to airport only to find out that flight would be delayed . Since I would be waiting for more than 3hrs, I decided to go out of the airport and took my lunch somewhere. When I went back to the airport 10minutes before 4pm, I was devastated when I learned that the plane left at 2pm+.

     I confronted Ms. Tio about it. She raised her voice when she sarcastically replied, “What I said was, boarding time before 4pm!”. That’s ridiculous! If I had asked her only once, there would be a possibility that I heard it wrong, but I asked her many times! And she was consistent when she said, “boarding time at 4pm!”. Besides, if I heard the word “before”, common sense would tell me to stay in the airport lounge knowing that we would be boarding any time before 4pm.

     Ms. Tio then turned her back on me and instructed her staff, Ms. Evangeline Yami Maneja, to talk to me. Ms. Maneja offered to give me a free hotel accommodation worth a measly cost of P700 (without breakfast!) at Caraga Hotel. I argued that I could not stay in that old, messy hotel as it is a dangerous place to stay for a woman like me who is travelling alone. I preferred to go home to Surigao. Unfortunately, she could only give me P300 for my 2-way trip to/fro Surigao. My mother spent P2000 for the fuel cost alone for the 2-way trip and what Cebu Pacific could only give me is P300?! That is really ridiculous! I demanded for the travel voucher (free round-trip ticket) instead (as I’ve heard from a friend that Cebu Pacific gives out this to compensate for the inconvenience). Unfortunately, my demand was not granted.

     Not only that, when I asked if I would be provided with my meals considering that I did not bring enough money with me, somebody answered, “eat otap!”. And they laughed. Is that what you call customer service?!

     What I really want here is justice and just compensation for what I went through! I’ve never been so humiliated like this in my whole life. This is not to mention the fact that I was already absent from my office for another day.

     I’ve been promoting the low fares of Cebu Pacific through my blog at https://houseforsalebutuan.blogspot.com/. And what did I get? A tragic experience like this..

140. I like to share to you my bad experience in Cebu pacific, Im OCW working in China and first week of Oct.1-7 is holiday here so decided to book early online ticket to Cebu pacific because I know many people will travel to Phil. on first of Oct.
     I book Shanghai to Manila Sept.29 departure last June 27 2008 and it was confirmed. Last Saturday my family in Phil. received a call that my flight was cancelled. I don’t believe because I never receive written information, but I check my flight details on cebu pacific wed to be sure that my flight is not cancelled, I was surprise my flight is not cancelled but the departure date was change to Oct.2,2008 without giving me a valid reason or asking me.
     I know its low-end prices, you don’t expect high-end service but this is not a reason to violate my right and change the date I like to go home, I ask them to give me valid reason but until now I never receive answer from them, Now is only Aug.13 I check the website of cebu if pacific they have flight on Sept. 29, 2008.
     This is the second time I use Cebu pacific but first time I order online ticket. I travel a lot and use different airlines …Ngayon ko lang na experience ito sa buhay ko,nakakahiya Filipino ba may ari nito! Kailangan kong ireklamo ito para wala ng mabiktina at mag bago ang systema nila!!!Sa may ari ng Cebu pacific?sa government? Or GMA, kindly advice me kung anong dapat gawin dito.
     God bless you all..Adi

141. Hi, seeing the date of this post i’m not sure if my email is timely, but i’ll send it anyway. I’ve seen two of your posts regarding the infurating service of Cebu Pacific, and i am actually about to send them a scathing email concerning my refund. I’ve reached the end of my patience and have decided never to fly with them again. IM BURNING MY BRIDGES!

     Anyway, i just hope i could get your email so I can forward to you my email to them (it might make a useful reference), i managed to get hold of their marketing manager’s email address, but i wasn’t as successful in getting the top honchos’ emails. I was basically threatening to make a PR nightmare for them, and i do plan to push through with this plan. Hope you could email me back, that would be a small step for this customer, but a giant step for irate cebu pacific customers as a whole!

142. time to bring them down because of their bad business practice and horrible customer service. VISIT

     https://wehatecebupacific.webs.com

143. Damn i was writing a long rant about cebu pacific when i suddenly pressed something probably because I’m amazed with the no. of people who responded here and that CEBU PACIFIC PROVES TO BE THE LOUSIEST AIRLINE.

     I wasn’t able to attend my friends wedding because of one of their stupid staff, to be exact the guard in their domestic ticketing office. I was even with a 3 year old kid and a brother who’s a special child (who went with me the last minute so i was about to purchase a ticket for him since the reservation office told me over the phone that there are still a lot of available seats). I was begging to get inside the office because the plane will be leaving soon. He assumed that i belong to the canceled flight and refused to listen when i was explaining. He just said “may last flight pa naman mamaya na kayo” so i called their customer service only to find out that there’s no 6PM flight and that we missed our supposed flight because we stayed outside for sooo long considering my situation. I went up to him and really screamed at him and asked for his name and he said, “kunin nyo marami na kumuha nyan!” But it did not end there. The next day though everybody knew that there was a typhoon we went to the airport again this time my son is already complaining because it was very early. THE FREAKIN’ CEBU PACIFIC DID NOT CANCEL THEIR FLIGHTS! while all airlines did cancel theirs. They wanted their passengers to go to the airport first just to hear them announce the flight cancellation. At this point, not knowing that it was already signal no. 3 in kalibo i thought atleast their doing their best. Until i found out from my friends who were already in Boracay that the condition is really worst and that its impossible for us to go there. How come these cebu pacific people not know the real condition, both the airport staff and the call center agents. To cut it short we weren’t able to attend the wedding. Two weeks after that i refunded my payment and guess what?! they even have the nerve to charge me with a refund fee. I think they screw up most of the time because they dont value their customers. Cebu pacific felt that we passengers are lucky to have been offered with a low rate. They should keep in mind that they are a service oriented company and ALL OF THEIR STAFF down to the security guards are responsible for the welfare and satisfaction of their passengers. They should invest on hiring quality people and at least have a system especially for cancelled flights! You’ve been doing this for quite a long time already and you should no how to handle it. So for people flying with kids don’t ever fly with cebu pacific or you’ll definitely have a head ache and wished that you didn’t travel at all.

     I was thinking can this be brought to the attention of DTI or any government agency? Because with this kind of system,or better yet because they lack the system their not far from ending up like sulpicio lines.

144. How can I reach lance gokongwei directly (email or mailing address) so i can inform him of the horrible experience my son and his family experienced with cebu pacific when they had to return to qatar after a vacation in davao? Our complaint may not have reached him as the cp staff filter complaints. i am authorzed by my son to follow up and be refunded of the more than 100k they had been deprived due to cp staff negligence.

145. As of now around 2500+ People still in waiting line for a refund by cebu pacific, with an average of 70US $ of refund….
     Cebu Pacific will not refund anymore!nor they have done it before…coz its better for their business to keep the money in their pocket…

     If anyone really want back his money should directly complain by the president of the philippines…..

     or involve some Governeurs…

     i wait my refund for more than 8 months now…useless….

     its just the way how they finance their business….

146. goodness gracious!..now, i’m scared to use their ebooking system. i was gonna book online but after reading your rants, i changed my mind.

147. Our flight from Manila to Davao was delayed for 2.5 hours. We are suppose to leave at 6:30 pm but because of the delay, we have to fly back to davao at 9 pm. A lot of us passengers are already ANGRY and HUNGRY. We were all asking if they can provide us meals since it is not our fault that the flight is delayed but we were told that they will only serve meals if the flight is delayed for 3 hours! It was dinner time and all of us passengers were hungry – children, adults and even senior citizens. First, it was not our fault that the flight would be delated. Second, not all of us have enough money to buy those expensive croissant at the lounge, or buy their P50 noodles on board. We ask if we can talk to the supervisor but she never showed up not until 30 minutes before our departure. and guess what? she was escorted by a police. Why? are you afraid to pacify tired, angry & hungry customers? Cebu pacific customer service is VERY VERY VERY POOR! WE WILL NEVER FLY WITH CEBU PACIFIC AGAIN …. NEVEEERRR!!!!

148. https://www.dtincr.ph/complaint.php

     you can file a complaint in the above address. please pass and spread the word so that cebupac will pay attention.

149. Thank you for that email address, Clint!

150. true….it isn’t ever on time. specially since they moved the terminal to the new one.. my hellish story is this.. i booked my flight online with a debit credit card. that is equivalent to paying in cash.. i got the confirmation which served as a receipt and yet two days before flying, they sent an email that the cc was declined. (good grief if i was travelling and didn’t have email access i would have turned up at the airport being demanded to pay the thing when i had a valid receipt!) their stupid gateway failed but according to my bank, the money was deducted and that it was credited to cebu pacific. what cebu pacific advised me to do was pay for my ticket at the counter. so that means coughing up the same amount in cash! they didn’t give me a void slip stating that the transaction was null and void so i can give this to my bank. they just printed a sheet from their internal speed ticketing agent application which said that the money was refunded.. my bank said there isn’t any advice from cebupac and on my billing statement, it was clearly deducted.. i spent so much money calling up my bank overseas and calling up cebu pacific from overseas just to settle this.. why do they deduct instantly if their gateway can’t even issue the tickets? and why the heck can’t they return the money instantly as fast as they deducted it if it didn’t work??? geez, poor folks who didn’t get their refund after 7 months could have gotten a huge amount of interest.. i hate cebu pacific. their customer service is non-existent. this refunding thing is serious. some establishment should look into it. according to my bank, there have been loads of cases like this.. what a very bad airline.. it is cheaper than the usual airlines but hey, i demand commensurate service for what i pay for.. and money back for something i didn’t even purchase…

151. An open letter to Cebu Pacific Company

     Attn: Ma. Daphne G. Ty

     Cebu Pacific Air/ Customer Service Department

     We are really frustrated with the attention and poor service of Cebu Pacific. It took us 1 year to wait for a refund and after your company canceld our Hanoi trip, how long are we going to wait this time? Last August, we have voiced out our concerns and it was heard on deaf ears. You gave us numbers that cannot be contacted, no word from the progress of our refunds, and no effort of communication from you and your company. We are really getting angry with the kind of service, false promises and delays you and Cebu Pacific are giving us, We are your customers and we dont deserved to be treated like this. How many months and how much do we have to wait and pay just to get our money back?

     We just hope Cebu Pacific will wake up with a good light and not sleep and be contented on simply getting profit and providing inefficient service to the people!

     From:
     ex-customer

     P.S.

     check http://www.Complaints.com: the whole world wide web is disgusted with Cebu Pacific service( local and International)

     https://www.complaints.com/2006/january/9/Cebu_Pacific_Air_s_Poor_Service_13477.htm

152. i will fly cebu pacific next month, i will bring extra stress tabs and hypertensive meds hahaha

153. I didn’t received any refund from you guys after 60 days since march 2008 and I really frustrated about this situation.

     POOR SERVICE CEBU PACIFIC AIR

154. Hi MM,

     I am very pissed off with this cebu pacific. I have my ticket cancelled and requested for a refund since November 15, 2007, but up to now i dont received any feedbacks from them. I tried also their guest feedback form in their website and it say they will investigate and contact me within seven days but for gods sake its already 4 months and i still dont hear from them. i also tried calling their customer hotline refund section, they told me that theyre going to make a follow up to their accounting department, i have asked for a copy of thier email but up to now they could not provide me.

     I just hope that somebody could help us expedite our refund.

155. Hola! I have called cebu pacific this morning and I have Talk to Louie and Cris ( Customer Service Representative?????? ) of Cebu pacific..After giving my locator number he told me that it is not found anymore (???????????????? duh!) What happened I asked..He aswered he doesnt know, He just cant found it in their system…( Oh my god!!!!!) Maybe they dumped it already to the Trash bin ( LOL )….Well, what else can I do? I cant get my REFUND anymore because they cant find it in their system…What a fate I had…..WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

156. Well maybe your just have bad day on that particular day.
     My exp. with Cebu Pacific is just great. Last July 26, 2008 I brought a round ticket for Mla to Tac. with a sked. flight
     Aug. 20 to 27 and my flights vice versa didn’t delayed,and also with my previous flights with them, we just departed on-time and arrive at our destination on time.Yes sometimes their sked is delayed too BUT It Always happens to Philippine Airlines, Air Phils and with other airlines. All ground and flight attendants are very hospitable, beautiful, handsome, very kind and they immediately attend to
     the needs of their costumers and Most of All they offer the
     very lowest fare with still very good service. Thanks to Cebu Pacific because of their low fare policy, Now PAL and Airphils who once monopolized our domestic airfares will soon follow what Cebu Pacific did, brnging down their fares.

157. Since the renewed their fleet, I took them on 3 flights so far: Cebu to Clark and back and just two weeks ago, I had a connecting flight from Manila to Cebu after arriving from Europe. The first two flights were on time, only the last one, which was also the last flight to Cebu for that day, was 1 hour late “due the late arrival of the incoming aircraft. Plane was brand new and it was a very comfortable flight. No problem with the one hour delay, can happen to any airline. Nut I read all this articles about Cebu Pacific and I think, they should realy improve their customer service and information for their customers.

158. Glad to hear things are getting better at Cebu Pacific for some passengers. They even took out ads trumpeting their on-time performance last month… but the last time I booked office staff to and from Cebu on Cebu Pacific about 4 weeks ago, both their flights were late, one by half an hour, the other by 2 hours plus! So there is still some ways to go…

159. Nabiktima din ako ng CEBU PAC. Loyal customer pa naman nila ako. Last Sept 28, pagcheckin ko sa NAIA Terminal 3, decline daw payment ko sa credit card. So ako nagbayad ulet at that moment, tapos pagbalik ko dito sa Singapore, nacharge pala sa card ko. Ngayon pahirapan ako ngayon mag-refund. Ang kapal talaga ng mukha nila!!! Nauubos pera ko kakatawag overseas sa mga bobo nilang mga agent, na palaging sasabihin sayo eh pinaprocess na. Nakakainis talaga! Kailangan ko lang talaga mailabas sama ng loob ko sa airline na toh. Wag na kayong mag-CEBUPAC. Di worth it yung fare sa sakit ng ulo na binibigay nila.

160. I had the same bad experience on Cebu Pacific credit card transaction. Which happened to me 3 times but the good thing is I already knew why the situation happened. When you do transaction on there website you will get a confirmation once the payment through credit card is approved. Yes that transaction is actually approved and your bank actually approved the transaction. When I told at the counter that the bank declined my transaction, I have called up the bank and verified if they have declined any transaction from Cebu Pacific and then the bank’s explaination was really shocking.. They said that they have indeed approved the transaction but after an hour it was Cebu Pacific who requested for reversal of the payment. Then I remembered last time when I have a transaction dispute that no one can reverse the transaction not even the bank (ones the transaction was done) but its only the merchant who can do it although you can also request for the reversal but the bank will require you to have a reversal letter from the merchant. Then in this case there is really something fishy why Cebu Pacific is doing this (doing the transaction and reversing later on). Funny thing is that if you will pay the transaction through there call center number then you will have to pay additional call center fee for it. Hope this entry will gave you an idea about it.

161. I am a CP flyer and was lucky that I had not experienced delays on all my scheduled flights, except in one of my flight to Bangkok where unexpectedly on the very date of departure we had to cancel our flight because earlier morning my aunt died. I asked for rebook or refund. Since my ticket was a promo I was declined unless I pay more as a regular fare. I brought my problem to DTI but it was not within their department to act upon to this cases instead advised me to complain to ATO. Since transacting with a government agency which entails a lot of blabla I lost to a rich company a hard earned 24 thousand for 4 passenger. But it did not end there. This November 28 was flight back to Manila from 3 days stay in Roxas City. I boarded with 2 reinstated go lite baggages 1 carton consisting of 3 bags of 5 kgs each of live crabs while the other one is a bag consisting of dried fish and squid and 5 plus kgs of crabs. Upon arrival at the Terminal 3 we noticed that bag was opened but the plastic lock was still intack and the bag of the crab was opened, so upon arrival at home the crabs were only 4 kgs. I cant tell exactly where the takeout happened but that gives me the impression that your men are not honest and should not be tolerated. Those are worms to your business. Hope to hear from you

162. I was at Bangkok airport to return to the Philippines, when the demonstrators started showing up. I was also buying an onward ticket to return to Bangkok on dec.6th.
     I don’t know if my Cebu pacific flight was the last out of the Airport, but it must have been close.
     Upon landing I heard the airport was closed and my friends leaving going home to Hawaii were trapped for days.
     I realized I needed to put my return flight on hold or change the dates as nothing could be counted on happening as planned.
     As the day’s of occupation of the airport came and went I continually called Cebu P. asking to rebook and was informed I could not without penalties of p3,000+ until the flight was officially canceled.
     And they would probably know 3 days befor departure.
     For the last 3 days Cebu P. Has said they could not tell me until the following day. At the same time my son whom I am returning to Thailand to meet and spend a week with has his flight canceled from California to Bangkok. While I’m told to wait daily. Come’s to yesterday the 4th and they tell me to call back today the 5th which was canceled. I called this morning and they said the flight was a go tomorrow. I told them about the untolled amount of time they kept me waiting on landlines and cells (over a p1000). The fact that all potiential plans were wiped out because they couldn’t make a Judgement call for their customers sake. I needed to rebook and pay the p3000 plus. They informed me it will now be p9000+
     because I waited to within 48 hrs of the flight.
     I did this under their daily direction explaining my situation to all agents. The agents expressed that it was upper management policy and nothing they could do they seemed as frustrated as me.
     I will go to the airport in the morning not to fly but see if others have been screwed over like me by a double dealing airline. I consider this a real learning curve and now know cheaper is not better when it come to airlines.
     NO Thanks LANCE Gokongwei CEO of Cebu Pacific for you kind consideration for your customers stuck in a bad situation. You can keep the money, you must need it.

163. Well, I’ve been waiting since May 2008 for my refund. When I call Cebu Pacific they keep telling me it’s still being processed. Twice, they have advised their “accounting apartment” on my behalf.

     What I want to know is:

     Can anyone actually confirm that they eventually received their refund? How long did it take and what steps did you have to take to make it happen?

     Thanks,

     Another Dissatisfied Customer

164. That’s “accounting department”, not “accounting apartment”. Thanks.

165. Just now, my wife in Bacolod told me that their flight (with my kids) is going to be “approximately” 2.5 hours late. What does “approximately” mean !! I call the CP customer service number and was told that same day changes are not anymore advised to them and thus I must call the operations center instead at T3 – but the T3 tel. number is not available to them !!! She gave me an old number and told me in so many words “good luck” ! I’ve used CP quite a few times this year. This last trip I found out that PAL also lowered their rates after I finished purchasing my plane tickets. If PAL’s rate goes down, then goodbye CP !!!

166. hay!

     hi to all you didnt know that i and my boyfriend is a victim also in cebu pacific,ohhhhhhhh was so but at that time. because when the time that we cheack in they say is full,how come? we already booking the ticket 2 week before were flyt.they said we transfer to cebu,and my boyfriens was so angry.then after that,they give us a a voutcher.whata trip!
     hope that they not do it again.

     goodluck lanie

167. My dears, as of now, Cebu Pacific is a flop with regards to customer service. I booked a domestic flight with them last August. I cancelled it 5 days before my flight due to work schedule conflict. And guess what, I haven’t receive the refund for the ticket til now. I already called their hotline several times already, I made follow-ups every now and then, I even emailed them and complained about thier very unsatisfactory service. I hate Cebu Pacific!

168. Thank God I found this site. I was never this mad in an airport before but Cebu Pacific is really carp and full of it.
     They told I was late at Bacolod airport and did not board us ( 4 of us ) plus 10 or so passengers. I arrive an hr before the fligth and the plane did not even arrive yet, the electronic board says my flight’s boarding is still in process and there where no last calls and no calls for chance passengers to check in but low and behold the OIC informed us we cannot board because we are not only late but the plane is full! Full? how can that be when we still are here and there were no chance passengers? The OIC said they are allowed to over booked by 10% each fligth ( so assuming no one is late there are still people who connot board)what a crap and worst they will only rebook us if we pay 6K+(each. regular fare) for the next flight without any assurance if we can board. Never again Cebu Pacific!
     Is there another number to contact there customer service? The number ate there site does not work!

169. my sister booked a flight with Cebu Pacific, on her return trip to iloilo ( from cebu). she was assured that she will be flying in an airbus. it turned out the aircraft to be used is a propeller plane. something happened during their flight in the morning of december 24, 2008. for several horrifying minutes, the passengers felt the plane going down and the pilot declared that the plane was losing altitude.finally, the pilot was able to fix the problem and landed the plane safely to its destination, but not a word, nor an apology was made. just recently another Cebu Pacific plane figured into a near accident, when it had to return to the airport 10 minutes after take off. even if they’ve got the lowest fare, i will never travel via Cebu pacific again.

170. I’ve had two bad experiences with Cebu Pacific and some very uncomfortable flights.

     Got stranded in Manila on Mar 4 2007 when flight was canceled. Got put up in nice hotel in a very dangerous part of Manila and got free dinner and breakfast. We also received a voucher to fly anywhere in the Philippines of an equal or less value than the flight that stranded us. Now comes the kicker… We tried to use the vouchers, but were denied. Then they couldn’t find them. Then each different person we talked to had a different version of why our vouchers were no good. Bottom line is I’m going to write to as high of an executive I can find in the organization and stick those vouchers in a letter of complaint delivered signed receipt requested.

     If anyone know the exact address for the Chairman of the Board, send it to me in an email…. thanks.

171. We had a good experience with booking (online paid with visa card)and flying through CP last year’s trip(bangkok-manila-legazpi vv).
     Last week, we booked again for our upcoming trip in May – July. had 4 transactions/bookings since my husband and I would not be traveling on the same dates going out of the country. Online, we were able to book and confirm our flights. A day later, we received an computer-generated notice from CP treasury that our Visa card could not be authenticated and we were advised to do another booking. We called to verify our visa card with our bank and the bank/visa company told us that CP had already debited the transactions including the other charges. If CP could not authenticate our visa card, how could we make another booking using the same card? We had a dilemma. As far as we know, our tickets has been paid. We cannot make another booking since we know they have our money already. I called my brother in Manila and told him our predicament. He went to Robinsons branch but was told to the same (have our flights rebooked). He then decided to go to the Pasay office – accounting department. He was able to expedite our refund. Today, we inquired our visa company and was told that CP has given back our money. All this happend in less than 2 weeks. Thank goodness!!! We will never book online using our credit card again. We’ll just send money to my brother have my him book our flights there and pay cash rather than going through all the hassle again.

     from the land down under

     God Bless you MM and your family
     God bless fellow readers

172. If there is anything that would define a bad business company for 2008, it would be carelessness, incompetence and lack of care for clients. Cebu Pacific perfectly fits the bill. In my view, they are the worst company in the whole country all year long.

     Up until now, these passenger horror stories continue to happen: Very long delayed flights (up to 17 hours), unexplained cancellations, long delays of refunds, lost luggage, hidden charges, etc. Every month, there is always something bad that happens, and the victims are quite many.

     Just this past Christmas Eve, my ten friends and cousins from Manila were supposed to have Noche Buena here in Cebu and took Cebu Pacific’s mid-afternoon flight. Unfortunately for them, their flight was delayed by five hours due to “technical adjustments”, according to the much-criticized airline. All because of Cebu Pacific, our reunion and celebration got spoiled!

     The pathetic service does not end. It is also clear that Cebu Pacific’s corporate officials display arrogance and a lack of care for their clients. They simply dismissed every complaint without giving any detailed explanations at all. Even if you fax or send them via mail a complaint or letter of concern, they will never respond to you.

     Because Cebu Pacific’s service is often terrible and that their officials don’t really care about their clients, they gave us Cebuanos a bad image all over the nation and in some parts of the world!

     Luckily for us Cebuanos and travelers, we’ve got other alternative airlines to take when traveling by air. We’re also lucky that Cebu Pacific does not have a monopoly of flight routes.

     Could you just imagine how Cebu Pacific could take part in ruining our nation’s tourism industry? Could you imagine how Cebu Pacific’s poor services could turn potential tourists and investors away from Cebu?

     All in all, Cebu Pacific’s flights are cheap but not so much compared to other airlines. Just a mere few hundreds in difference. Worse, even if you pay low rates, Cebu Pacific often fails to live up to its promises. First and foremost, we pay fares not only to fly but also to get to our destination in due time. Cebu Pacific does not care about that because they are obsessed in profiting at the expense of the traveler.

173. To make the long story short, Cebu Pacific ruined my honeymoon.

     I called to book a Thailand tour and the agent advised me to book tickets first so I’ll have a booking reference number. I did just that and called them back, only to be informed that this package is not available (which was posted in their website btw and eventually was removed after a few days I was victimized). I had to cancel the tickets of course because I intended it for the Thailand package tour. To date, which is almost a year now, I still haven’t received the refund and I was advised that I get charged USD3,000!!! Seriously?! They have illegally held my money and they are supposed to make a profit out of it? Isn’t this illegal? And did I mention they ruined my honeymoon because they got a chunk of our budget?

     How many times does a girl get married? How many times can a girl have the honeymoon of her dreams? Since I married in the Philippines and I’m Roman Catholic, I guess I should answer just once.

     Thank you very much Cebu Pacific for ruining my honeymoon and enriching yourself with my hard earned money.

     P.S.
     Did I mention I work overseas and I wasted thousands of pesos for long distance costs just to reach a sad excuse for customer service?

174. I have the same experience with you guys. I booked online last year on CB for a trip to boracay with my friends but unfortunately some of my friends have to attend much important things. So I ask for a refund for 2 of my tickets and the agent assured me that the refund will reflect on my credit card within 60 banking days. It will be 8th month this coming Feb and I still not receive my refund. I was trying to call their accounting office but I cant reach them. Can you give me guys the address of their accounting office and directions on how to get there? My starting point is either in Baclaran LRT or EDSA station. Any help will greatly appriciated!

175. You guys and gals got off lucky. I am currently and indefinitely stranded in Thailand because not only does their website not work, their phone lines don’t either !! I am thinking of writing a very thick book about my repeated attempts to just communicate with these people. I have so far spent more than the cost of my ticket trying to change a departure date. Rather, would any of you people like to join in a mail campaign ? We’ll send Cebu Pacific’s CEO bananas in the mail.

176. Never fly Cebupac again!… and i join thousands of others to this campaign. Let everybody who reads this blog come to a cause against the incompetent Cebu pacific; and needless to say the horrible experience i also had with this Ariline.

177. I was so lucky to buy my ticket online on Cebu Pacific last Christmas day at 1am (Manila Time) roundtrip including all taxes at P56.02 Manila to Naga, traveling on Feb 17 and return the next day.

     Initially, I just wanted to try their new aircraft – ATR72 and to see Naga once again after 13 years.

     My friend is also a lucky fellow. Going to Iloilo at P56.02 as well. We are traveling on the same date for the outbound. His flight is departing at 4:45AM and mine at 6:25AM. We arrived Terminal 3 at exactly 3AM.

     Manila bound to Iloilo left on time.

     Manila bound to Naga will be delayed for an hour and will now leave at 720AM. Okay fine, that is pretty normal, what’s new with Cebu Pacific anyways…..

     Then here comes 720AM, another update – The plane is being fixed and hopefully we’ll leave at 8AM.
     So I decided to go and have a smoke at gate 119 (smoking lounge). I decided to wait there instead. There are numerous announcement about delayed flight of various destinations and I was trying to listen very carefully for any update on 5J521 and yet I did not hear anything at all. The time was 830AM.

     I was kinda freaky already because I did not hear anything. Went back to my boarding gate 116.

     Viola! There I found, passengers bound to Naga all screaming out loud with Cebu Pacific personnel demanding for an explanation on what is going on…..

     Some decided to cancel their trip and have their ticket refunded without penalty (I said to myself – GOODLUCK!)

     The funny thing is, I cannot make any move or complain because my ticket is technically free!

     They keep on telling us that the flight is still pushing, however they are just waiting for the aircraft – but the question is until when we are going to wait? Nobody from Cebu Pacific can give us a solid answer!

     Finally at 11AM the aircraft bound for Naga is here!
     I was so tired and exhausted waiting and I don’t know if i still have the energy to enjoy this trip! Knowing that I am returning the next day!

178. hi

     I have a similar problem now. We bought a ticket last July 28,2008 for a flight in November. Since the ticket was cancelled, we requested for a refund. I was told by the customer service agent last year that it will be reflected in the bill in two or 3 months. Well guess what? We have not seen the refund yet. I have to say, customer service wise, they suck. When we had a similar problem with Philippine Airlines, we got the refund back within 2 to 3 months.
     Anyway, here I am still waiting for the refund.

     In another blog site, the person wrote an email and someone from their office replied to him. So with that information, I emailed the person who emailed and sent a carbon copy to a few other addresses like the Department of Trade and Industry.

     I even tried to call their accounting department 5 times and no one answered the phone. I was put on hold and then the line went busy. How can they say they have customer service?

179. Got the confirmation on February 6, confirmed flight for 4 roundtrip tickets to Hong Kong and paid through visa card amounting to almost 39k+, and when I checked CB online booking, same flight, same date only arrives to the amount of P22,117K for 4pax and the flight sked still on April 6, a month away.

     My wife from Canada just called their hotline just to be informed by Ms. Gretchen Francisco that when we made the payment, it’s a regular fare and suddenly the P22K+ for 4 pax is based on their sudden promo. Somewhat we felt cheated. We’ll be traveling “Go Lite”, and my fellow passengers who paid less will get more privileges, considering I paid almost twice of the amount.

     Hotline informed me beforehand there will be no promo for the month of April and I was encouraged to book early to pay less. From Qatar, I made an early booking but after three weeks, the airfare was slashed into half. I felt I was just being grabbed of P17k and it’s really annoying. Just reading numerous complaints on web, to ask for refund is a suicidal option, if not a scam.

     My wife booked for P42k to PAL but I asked her to cancel, instead I booked Cebu Pacific for P40k Go Stress. As a frequent flyer, this is the only time I felt bad. If I have to pay more and feel good, then it will be much better.

     So it’s final, my kidz and I will be traveling on April 6 via promo airbus which I previously paid on a regular fare, and I have to pay more before checking in our luggage since I chose “Go Lite”, I already paid for our four seats and my 3 kids will definitely order and pay for their snacks onboard and I’ll be needing beers to cool my head too. My wife’s overseas calls from Canada to their hotline just cost her too, we’re planning a budget trip and we’re spending every minute, it’s a bad trip. I could land to a business class seat just accumulating all these expenses. It’s a big joke flying via Cebu Pacific and I’m expecting some clowns onboard too, at least, they’ve got the edge and my kidz will love their crews, hopefully. gorge qatar

180. I disagree. Cebu Pacific for me was timely (sort of) and was a good experience for only 0.00 PHP from Hong Kong to Davao!!! Go CEBU PAC!!

181. my fiancee is supposed to but they wouldn’t let her because they said she needs a return ticket, even thought she has a visa to come to australia. i had a ticket to singapore and a hotel booked, all non-refundable, and i took a week off work. just because one of ther staff decided to be important

182. i was currently inqurring for repund but as i went through your complaints against cebu pac i supposed the word ‘REPUND’ is not the way it MEANT to be.i symphatized to you guys….

183. wow!! i was really surprised with what i found in this site.. when i booked my flight to cebu pacific i have no idea that there were lots of complains regarding their services.. i hope this things would not happen to me.. this will be my very first time to fly with CB.. my scheduled flight will be on april 6 to 28 MNL-SG-MNL.. till i found this blog i started praying and hoping na sana alang hassle sa flight ko.. but i must be prepared too! i wanna canceled my flight din sana but as i was reading those irritating stories about the refund OH GOD! itutuloy ko na lang 2 kesa mas ma stress kakahabol sa refund!!! WISH ME LUCK GUYS!

184. I used to work in one of the GOKONGWEI’s owned company which is sun cellular and i myself can attest how incompetent the management is when it comes to customer service. Just after three months of working I resigned because not only do they treat their employees like trash but they let you work like you have no life after office. maybe that’s the reason why their customer service is so poor because their employees are not motivated to render the proper courtesy that they themselves do not get from their employer.

185. PAL has always been my airline of choice. However, i made the switch to cebu pacific ue to their “budget flights”. PAL isn’t great but Cebu Pacific is definitely not a winner! I was taking a Davao-Manila flight and i already had my ticket. I was not at the departure area but was within the airport. Lond story short, they gave my ticket to someone else and when i asked to speak with a supervisor the incompetent ground crew took their sweet time till it was too late to remedy the problem…forcing me to pay for another ticket. the Manager a Mr. CamCam is inept and rude. Never again Cebu PAC. Is there a customer service department to call?

186. Sometime last year, I also booked via internet but became frantic when it became inaccessible after i have logged in my credit card details and so no ticket printout came. I called their recommended number but was put on hold for like an hour that almost put me to sleep and made my ears reddish from the phone contact. The reason I patiently held on to the phone was the longer I waited the more I didn’t want to waste the long distance fee I have already incurred from the long wait. Even if it was already early morning and as a busy physician my time is soooooo precious, I decided to make a long letter to Mr Lance Gokongwei to let him know that if they advertise their flights and expect more passengers they should correspondingly increase their staff to answer calls because the length of waiting time they made me wait,I felt, could land in the guinness book of world record. But the management and owner of Cebu Pacific never answered my letter. And if they will not heed to all these complaints, they don’t deserve to be in this business at all.

187. Mr Marketman et al
     I have lived in Cebu for many years and also Manila and Pampanga. My wife and I quite often go to manila to see her family and friends.
     We initially flew CP as we were of course attracted by the cheap fares BUT have experienced most of the problems i have just been reading about.
     One of the problems was that we were waiting for a ‘late’ passenger to arrive- and when the Japanese couple arrived, they were ‘booed’ as they entered the plane. it was very embarrassing for them and I would imagine that noy only has it put them off flying with C- but probably the whole of the Philippines!
     However, the point is this. They were seated in the next seat to me and i asked them What had made them late and they said they weren’t late. They were early!!! They were booked on the next flight and had got to check in early only to be asked whether they would like to travel on our flight. They had no idea what was going on and were very confused as to the reception they got on entering the plane.
     that’s one for CP. Not only are they giving their airline a bad name, they’re also soiling the good name of the Philippines !!! And to top it off , the staff still insisted on playing their childish games of show and tell when we got in the air !!!
     I don’t write on these blogs or whatever they are called. I consider most of them to be whingers with nothing much else to do complaining for complaints sake. I came across this one by accident and was intrigued by so many people experiencing the troubles as us.
     We now ALWAYS fly PAL. The fares are now almost exactly the same and the food and drink is gratis. They’re not perfect, but the seats are cloth not vinyl and the seat space is more.
     Regards to you and yours

188. Whew! I think I’m the kindest person around. What happened to all these people is peanuts compared to what we went through. Not only were we bumped off on an overbooked flight, they refused us a refund. They informed us only by the time we got our turn in the line. They said we were late, but we weren’t. We were standing in line as early as an hour and a half before scheduled departure. No apologies, no nothing. From hereon, my family is NEVER AGAIN riding a Cebu Pacific plane

189. BEWARE OF THE CEBU PACIFIC “LOW” FARE PROMOS

     If you are traveling to the Philippines and going to any of the local destinations being serviced by Cebu Pacific Airlines operating out of NAIA III, be especially wary of the special promo rates or budget fares being offered because you may fall prey to a corporate trap that can ruin your trip or vacation.

     BE VERY SURE TO PRESENT YOURSELF AT THEIR CHECK-IN COUNTER WITHIN THE 45-MINUTE PERIOD ALLOTTED PRIOR TO THE ANNOUNCED EXPECTED TIME OF DEPARTURE. IF FOR ANY REASON YOU ARE A SECOND LATE, THEN THEIR COMPUTERS WILL AUTOMATICALLY SHUT YOU OFF AND YOU’LL HAVE TO PAY EXORBITANT RATES FOR YOU TO BE INCLUDED IN THE NEXT AVAILABLE FLIGHT AS A CHANCE PASSENGER OR YOU MAY HAVE TO RE-BOOK FOR ANOTHER DATE AND BE CHARGED REAL EXTRA ACCORDINGLY.

     SHOULD YOUR FLIGHT BE CANCELLED OR TURNED BACK BECAUSE OF BAD WEATHER, THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO GO AS A CHANCE PASSENGER OR RE-BOOK FOR ANOTHER DAY AND THEY WILL ALSO HIT YOU WITH THEIR REALLY “SPECIAL” RATES.

     UNEXPECTED DELAYS DUE TO TRAFFIC, BAD WEATHER, LATE CONNECTING FLIGHTS, ETC. “ARE NOT THEIR FAULT” WHICH IS THEIR OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A KILLING OUT OF THEIR PASSENGERS’ MISERY!

     BE SURE TO BRING WITH YOU A LOT OF CASH OR BE READY WITH YOUR ATM CARD (ATM MACHINES ARE CONVENIENTLY PLACED RIGHT AT THE BOOKING AREA!) BECAUSE THEY DON’T ACCEPT CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS, ONLY COLD CASH!

     We personally witnessed this callous business practice of offering seemingly low fares but hitting you hard when you fall for the trap. Last April 30, 2009, our family went on a trip to Coron, Palawan via Busuanga. We were barely a few minutes late for check in at the Cebu Pacific check-in counter because of the bad weather and the terrible traffic going to the airport. We were told by the booking agent that we have to go as chance passengers and we had to pay about P6,000.00 extra each just to be accommodated in the next flight. According to our companions who were able to board our original flight, many seats on the plane were in fact vacant.

     We were surprised to see a very long line of passengers at the Cebu Pacific ticketing booth who were re-booking because they were also late or their flight was cancelled or turned back because of bad weather. Some of the passengers were simple folks, small children and even elderly people and most were surprised to learn that they will have to cough up thousands of pesos in order to be re-booked for another flight.

     We got the following “fine prints” from the Cebu Pacific website. Mind you, these are not even printed in their tickets.

     “Changing a Booking
     “All bookings on Cebu Pacific can be changed subject to the following conditions.

Flight dates, times and routes may be changed subject to availability and upon payment of a rebooking fee of: for domestic – PhP600 + VAT if changes were made at least 2 days prior departure and PhP1,200 + VAT if changes were made a day prior departure or any day thereafter; for international – PhP1,500 (or local currency equivalent) if changes were made at least 2 days prior departure and PhP5,000 (or local currency equivalent) if changes were made a day prior departure or any day thereafter, per sector per guest plus the fare difference between the original total price paid and the lowest total price available for the new flight at the time the change is made. If the total price is lower on the new flight, no refund will be made and guest will only have to pay the change fee.”

     Unfortunately, for them “the lowest total price available” is always the almost P10,000.00 premium seat!

     BUYERS BEWARE!

     BENIGNO R. SANTI II, MD
     Capitol Medical Center
     Quezon City

190. i have too much to take with cebu pacific service….
     first :
     a friend who was on her way to australia with a fiancee visa, purchased a one-way ticket to singapore for a stop-over flight since there’s no direct flight from cebu to darwin australia. on the day of her flight, she was not allowed to board that particular flight because they required her to purchase a return ticket as well. she presented her supposed ticket from sing to australia together with the fiancee visa to argue that she doesnt need a return ticket for heaven sake, but to no avail. she was only allowed to take any cebu pacific flight to singapore when she purchased a useless return ticket…wasnt that an open day swindling ???!!!!

     moreover, a month 3 weeks after that horrendous experience, my sister used my crdit card to book a flight from singapore to the phils. my card was declined by cebu pacific online booking for unknown reasons causing another complaint i made to my card issuer but they assured me nothing was wrong with my card usage..to my dismay that declined trascation was charged to my card when i received the billing statement!!!

     worse, when we made a complaint to cebu pacific we were just given a lame excuse that their online booking system usually incurs such erroneous transaction.. its been almost three weeks now but every time we made a follow up to cebu pacific regarding the status of the complaint nobody will give us a specific/reliable reply..

191. I tried to book a flight with Shitbu Pacific. After 30 mins on the phone i finally got in thouch with one of their agents. She booked my ticket, but i couldnt use my credit card, so i had to go to the nearest ticketing office to purcase my ticket! After waiting for f…. 2 hours it was finally my turn. But i wasnt informed to bring the passports of the other passengers who i booked to. So i had to back to get the passport. To make sure everything was ok, i called the customers service again, she told me that i just had to bring the passports, OK. I explained her that we where two foreigners holding an ACR visa, she said no probs about that. So when i came back to the ticketing office, the told that my money wasnt enough because i had to pay filipino travel tax over the counter…. Grrr i shouted, how come your stupid agents didnt inform about that, cus i my rush i forgot my wallet atm and so… So i asked what to do know, she said sorry sir its our policy!!! Come !@?#! on SHITBU PACIFIC

192. Cebu Pacific blows rhino. We arrived at the counter 35 mins before departure. Well, the bastards say that you need to be there 45 min before ’scheduled’ departure.
     They essentially rip you off. They take your money and we had to book the next flight at double the cost after all the huge fees! A ‘rebooking fee’ + a ‘non-use fee’ + a ‘cancellation fee’. What a crock!

     Mind you this was not an international flight. All it was was a short leg from to Cebu to Manila. That is it! Crap company. Sadly it shows how corrupt the Philippino govt. is. The people are nice the govt. and companies are garbage. I will NOT travel there again. there are many other beautiful places to see and Philippines holds nothing special except scams. I hope the people revolt and clean house.

193. Cebu Pacific cancelled our flights…twice..April 14 and 15, we were on the return trip from Coron to Manila, they say it was due to weather problems, what the hell, all other airlines were operating on those days, they didn’t help with anything, basically after they announce that the flight was cancelled all personnel seem to vanish on thin air. On the third day, the extra flight scheduled for all the strandeds were 7 am, guess what, it came at a whopping 11 am. Basically we got stranded for 3 days on an island due to a wrong choice of airlines, what a hassle that caused us.

     I’m also currently running on day 200+ with my refund. They claim the refund turn around time is 60-120 days, bunch of false marketing to me.

194. I have been trying to make a simple purchase (Bangkok to Manila) on Cebu Pacific’s website for more than a week. I have tried using all of my credit cards, all of which are valid. They are declined, one after the other.

     Then I realize: Cebu Pacific does NOT want you to be able to buy a promotional rate ticket on their own website — They want you to come to the airport so you have to pay the HIGHER price!

     SHAME ON YOU CEBU PACIFIC — do us all a favor, go out of business!

195. CebuPac sucks. They really are more concerned about profit rather than customer satisfaction. Not only that, they f@#k you over with “rebooking fees”, “rescheduling fees”, and, here’s the kicker: a “REFUND FEE”… What the f@#k?!?!?!

     I was supposed to fly to HK with my family; unfortunately my passport was only a month valid before expiry. So they didn’t let me board. I said, ok, my bad then.

     Imagine my surprise when I called them to ask for a refund, the agent on the phone told me that I had to pay a “Refund Fee” in order for me to get my money back. Irritated, I asked them how much it was. It was 5k!!! Php5,000.00!!!! WTF?!? To top it all off, the ticket only cost me Php3.5k!!!

     So I said, I ain’t stupid,am not gonna pay your stupid fee, just rebook the ticket then.

     “Ok sir, upon payment of the rescheduling fee and the rebooking fee, we can go ahead and rebook you.”

     Wow…

     By the way, the “rescheduling” and “rebooking” fees? 5k total. All in.

     Hey Gokongwei, go f@#k yourself.

196. I’m with you Marketman, 100% I think I’m beyond angry and am now just plain old numb with Cebu Pacific’s blatent incompetency. I’ve emailed my cashed-up foreign friends in-country my current experience (refund taking over 8 months), and I really hope they forgo flying Cebu Pacific and take their money elsewhere. I certainly will be.

197. #@&%! Cebu Pacific! Call center agents are brainless idiots!!! We booked for a flight going to Caticlan, and requested for such and such date. We called to change the time since the route changed instead of Caticlan we will be landing in Kalibo. The #$@!& idiot agent, change the date of the return ticket (one day behind). When we asked for the help of the stupid manager in the airport after we noticed in the e-ticket that the flight date had changed and relayed the story, he said he cannot do anything about it, but go to PAL and buy a ticket from there!!! How poor and brainless damn idiots!!!! From the top authority to the smallest employee are nothing but idiotic crap! WIll never fly again thru Cebu Pacific! Cheap , no quality, poor service ..

198. nakow….pambihira..hindi ko pinapansin itong mga delays nila dati, kaso nabasa ko din yung mga ibang blogs tungkol sa cebu pacific, pati din ito…lilipat na talaga ako… sayang ang oras at masasagip pa ako sa sakit ng ulo

199. This was one of the comments posted :

     ana says:

     I almost died on a Cebu Pacific flight. Well, that’s an overstatement but that’s how it felt. Going for our holy week vacation last year to Bohol, we flew Cebu Pacific. Just after take off, black smoke came out from the ac! We became dizzy and we were asked to bow down on our knees. Pretty scary! We circled over Manila bay for an hour and landed right back to the Manila airport. We changed planes right after and that was it, no apologies or anything at all…

     August 11th, 2006

     Year 2009

     August 10, 2009 at 1:52 pm, my sister in law and my nephew was on BOARD CEBU PACIFIC flight 5j-597 bound for DAVAO (CEBU-DAVAO)…the flight schedule was 2pm…so we were amazed and even laughed to our surpised that at LAST CEBU PACIFIC flight 5j-597 was not delayed!!!!!after that, i went to the parking area of Cebu IA to check and perhaps see the plane flying..and it was….at exactly 2:46 PM my sister in law had called me, in a scared VOICE asking, my location and I answered directly WHY? What happened..and I started to feel nervouse because its less than an hour that the plane had take off and i knew that a flight from cebu to Davao was an hour flight.So then she answered, were on a BUS now, the Plane landed back because there was a HUGE BLACK Smoke inside, and not knowing where did it came from and im now shaking, i just dont know what to do.. WHY???????????????????????? Because,with in minutes, where the Passengers starting to notice the SMOKE, “THE CREW OF CEBU PACIFIC VANISHED in Seconds “. The passengers were left hanged, not knowing what was happening right now, until some have started to SHOUT, Some felt DIZZY already,and what about the kids who were on BOARD?…it took them minutessssssssssss to find an answer..but A ZERO CREW to find…until the CREW had simply told the passengers ” DONOT PANIC “……???????????was that a CEBU PACIFIC’s SOP? VANISHED if there are emergencies and later go out and would simply announce” DO NOT PANIC”?????they didnt even got the chance to ask the passengers “how do you feel?, are you OK? do you need something?so IMMATURE!!!!!! This adds to your DELAYed FLIGHT Issues!!!!it wasnt reported until today…August 11, 2009, maybe because they want to HIDE the Incident, much as the CREW had HID yesterday!!!!!until when you can resolve all your Problems.. YOU ARE NOT GIVING your customers convenience RAther you ARE giving THEM the hassles and the THREAT to flight with you again!!!!!

200. CEBU PACIFIC SHOULD HIRE INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS, IT PROFESSIONALS, EXCEPTIONAL SUPPORT MANAGERS AND TECHNICIANS!!!

     Looks like severe operational problem. Enormous constraints “bottlenecks” in all aspects of the company; service failures, inadequate maintenance system, and process process quality.

     Step up Cebu Pacific!!! The company should take this opportunity to turn things around.

     People complain – because they paid not just to ride from point A to B but they bought “expectations”. Cebu Pacific had failed to meet that expectation.

     Use it as a gauge to leverage your business model. What does your company value? Your objectives (obviously profit), continued failure does not make sense. How are you going to structure your operations-departments? What are your quality conditions? etc…

     Outlook of air travel in Philippines is still and will be positive, ika nga “In the Service”.

     Good Luck!

201. Cebu Pacific is an accident waiting to happen. Basing from the experiences of CP passengers in this blog, there have been near mishaps during flights. The CAB or other government regulatory agencies should do something to correct the situation.

     When will they do something about it? Only after a plane crash? Do they need a repeat of the CP plane crash in Misamis Oriental before acting? God forbid!

202. file a case!