My wife and I have never travelled together locally or abroad in our five years of marriage. That’s why come 2010 and in the coming years, we are excited to plan ahead on our future travel itineraries considering that local airlines have brought down airfares both locally and internationally to make it affordable for people to fly.
One of the most notable airlines we’re considering when we travel locally or abroad is none other than Cebu Pacific.
It’s innovative way of offering low-cost travel both locally and internationally convinced me and my wife to avail of its services soon.
However, yesterday’s (December 13) unforgettable incident with Cebu Pacific’s personnel shocked us and quashed whatever good image we had about Cebu Pacific.
Our reliable cook, Lorna was actually scheduled to fly back to Zamboanga City yesterday morning at around 5:50 a.m. to join her family for the Holiday vacation as well as take the time to rest some more since she had two operations due to acute appendicities and ovarian growth on November 21at Qurino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC).
All was well till the time we got a surprised call from her relative early yesterday morning who was supposed to be her companion going back to Zamboanga.
She informed us that Lorna was left at NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) 3 because she had “insufficient” documents to prove she could fly to Zamboanga.
It was Sunday and I had to leave early for our morning services at Victory U-Belt so my wife took care of inquiring with Cebu Pacific on the surprising turn of events.
According to the (Cebu Pacific’s) personnel at the airport, who was part of the check-in counter/ department, the medical certificates should be issued three (3) days before the departure date.
My wife was told by that particular personnel that THAT PARTICULAR POLICY IS MENTIONED IN THE COMPANY RULES (as posted in the website).
However, when my wife checked the Cebu Pacific web site, she didn’t find any policy stating such (medical certificate should be issued three days prior to departure). Certainly, that “policy” was absurd because it’s not even posted in the website while its airport personnel expect us to know it clearly?
Ava said she called another customer service agent, and she was told that the policy the airport personnel mentioned was not actually posted in the website.
Several personnel, including a certain Mr. Jhong Costantino (Lead Customer Service Agent of the Airport Services), also talked to Ava to explain the “policy“.
After spending countless hours burning the phone lines, my wife was asked to submit a new medical certificate from the doctors so that Lorna could leave within the day.
Obviously, Cebu Pacific’s request was beyond my wife’s control since yesterday was a Sunday and our Obstretrician and surgeon who issued the two medical certificates (certifying Lorna is fit to travel) were either resting or set for several operations.
We found Cebu Pacific’s request unreasonable already considering that the medical certificates issued on November 28 and December 1, 2009 implied that Lorna’s condition was much better than the time the certificates were issued. That’s why we don’t see any reason why she wasn’t allowed at all because her documents were complete.
The worse thing is, Mr. Jhong Constantino told my wife that Lorna’s medical certificates were “tampered” that’s why it’s really impossible for her to leave Manila for Zamboanga within the day.
The question is, “who tampered it?”
It wouldn’t be us or Lorna? Who, in his right mind would try to do that and put the blame on others?
After much discussion, we ended up re-booking Lorna’s travel schedule on December 21. We did it because we felt there’s nothing we could do before unreasonable personnel’s from Cebu Pacific.
One of Cebu Pacific’s vision statements was–“We are reputed for our unparalleled genuine, warm and caring service.”
In Lorna’s (and our) first-hand experience yesterday, Cebu Pacific’s airport personnel failed to live up to this specific vision.
Hopefully, after my wife’s letter of complaint addressed to Cebu Pacific’s management, this incident would not be repeated while the personnel’s directly involved yesterday would be properly dealt with to prevent tarnishing Cebu Pacific’s good name in the airline industry.
Paging Cebu Pacific…