Gone Gaga in the City

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IT’S TIME SOMEONE ACTS

(A Wake-up call to Mr. Lance Gokongwei)

Back to a time when flying was synonymous to having money, it was indeed a very welcome idea when Cebu Pacific re-engineered their marketing campaign. “It’s time everyone flies.” After the Philippine government suspended its operation in 1998, the airline re-certified their aircrafts and democratized air transportation with low-cost fares and promos, which hiked up its ridership and number of flights and destinations. Now claiming to be “the country’s leading domestic airline,” I am led to wonder whether leadership is measured in terms of numbers or how its customers are served. If so, then it is a sad hypothesis because 100% of the times I or one of my friends traveled via Cebu Pacific, our experiences left much, much less to be desired. In fact, it comes to a point when I groan “Oh no!” when the travel agent says, “PAL’s fully booked on that date, but we have plenty of open flights on Cebu Pacific.” Let me share with you my experiences, and you be the judge of it:

• In 2004, I was flying to Boracay and decided to try Cebu Pacific. At the ticketing office along
  
  Airport Road

  , I booked my ticket, and as I was paying through Mastercard, I was asked if I had another credit card. I asked why. “Because the system is declining your card,” was the agent’s curt reply with a raised eyebrow. I said, “How come? My credit’s clear.” She said, “The system can only take 2 swipes per transaction, and then the transaction will be blocked by the system.” I asked what they would need a second transaction for. She pushed her phone over the counter to me. “Call Citibank. The transaction’s void” Although I was thinking that it should have been her job, I dialed Citibank. After quite some time on the hotline, I finally reached an agent and found out that it was the ticketing agent who made a mistake and made 2 swipes instead of one. After Citibank got the report, I went back to the agent. She said “take a number.” I said, “Miss, I had a number. You asked me to call Citibank.” She said, “Come back after 24 hours so we can make your transaction.” I was really beginning to run out of patience by that time. I said, “Look, I know you made a mistake, but since I don’t have all the time to be coming back and forth here, here’s another card. I don’t have enough credit on that one, so I’ll pay the rest in cash.” She said, “No, we can’t allow that.” I said, “Why? PAL and every other establishment I know make split transactions.” Without apologies, she said, “We just don’t. If you want your ticket, come back after 24 hours.” I left. I went to Philippine Airlines, and bought my ticket there ON SPLIT TRANSACTION—no questions asked.

• Last December, I was desperate enough to come home that I bought 2 tickets (for me and my sister) via Cebu Pacific, as all PAL flights to

  Roxas

  City

  were booked. At the check-in counter, my sister said, “Can we have a FRAGILE sticker on this box?” The girl behind the counter replied, “Why? What’s in that box?” My sister said, foodstuff – ham, goodies in jars, etc. “What kind of ham? Purefoods?” Duh? Why should the brand matter? My sister thought, is there a ban on Purefoods in airports that we don’t know of? She said, “No. Take a look.” The girl said, “You can’t check that in. You need a styro (I think she means the one where vendors place ice candies and popsicles).” Since we didn’t have it, and there was nowhere in the airport to buy it from, we asked if we could wrap it in more newspaper since it was already wrapped thick. The girl said, “I can refuse to check that in, do you know?” That’s the time I cut in: “Miss, since you can’t give us any clear directions as to where we can get a styro container, can you at least give us options as to how to get this checked in?” The funny thing is that she sulked and shrugged her shoulders without saying a word. It was good that a utility crew from the airport offered, “Ma’am if you have an extra shirt or towel, we can wrap it in.” So we did, thanks to that guy. (I sometimes think if the girl needed to take home ham that much ) I should have given the ham to the guy who actually helped instead of taking it home.

• On that same flight, we went to the boarding area and wondered why our flight was not flashed on the screen, while those that came later were on it. My sister asked Customer Service, and they said that there was just an error in encoding the flights into the computer. Okay. After almost 2 hours, and one more time of asking them—and getting various answers, there was no news as to what happened to our flight. We were thinking: Was there just an error in encoding? Or is our flight being cancelled? I went to the counter and asked, “What happened to our flight?” The guy behind their Customer Service counter said, “Ma’am, dumating na po ‘yong plane n’yo. [Ma’am, your plane has arrived.]” AYUN! So the honest response from the start should have been, “Your plane experienced a delay, but we are taking care of it.”

• Just this week, my other sister had a business trip to

  Manila

  . Unfortunately, her company booked her on Cebu Pacific. For her flight back, she got to the airport early because the airline requires passengers to check in at least 2 hours before the flight. She had been waiting for 1 hour and 45 minutes on the check-in counter for her destination. When she asked why there was still no one behind the counter when check-in time was almost over, the airport guard told her that the flight has been checking in for an hour already, only at a different counter. There were no signs or announcements over the PA system that there had been a transfer of check-in counters. Plus, no one bothered to take down the sign that says

  ILOILO

  over the vacant counter. The line for that vacant counter was already long. It takes so much not to think that they do it on purpose so that there will be many who will need to rebook because of “late check-in” hence the rebooking and no-show fees.

These are actual experiences, and my sole purpose is to have someone take a look at the kind of customer service the airline gives. If Cebu Pacific claims non-discrimination and democratization with their tagline, “It’s time everyone flies,” why then does their customer service imply otherwise? If cheap fares get cheap service, then it is an insult to passengers. It implies that Cebu Pacific belittles its clientele by subjecting them to poor customer service via impolite remarks and misleading information. Besides, poor customer service is disservice. To Cebu Pacific management, please try to find out what it is that de-motivates your people from doing their work right. Train them right. Address their needs. Being the so-called “leading domestic airline” in the

Philippines

takes more than just the count of passengers you fly. It’s what these people experience while flying with you that matters. Now I understand why the Philippine Airlines campaign is “It’s about experience.” Enough said.