I love traveling. Exploring other places has been one of my bonding activities with my friends. However, my last travel was in November 2008 in Bora. Since then, I haven’t had any significant out-of-town adventures (and by that, I meant far places like Visayas and Mindanao).
Last January, my High School friends and I talked about going to the beach. Our friend from UK was coming home and he wanted to go to Coron, and so, our trip was planned. Like I said, I have always been the “organizer” in this group when it comes to traveling, so I immediately checked out airline fares online. I’m used to traveling via Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines (ang orig 
) and I haven’t tried PAL Express (di ko alam service nya) so I was thinking of securing tickets from Cebu Pacific. However, since there was no promo at that time, fares were a bit higher.. PAL Express offered much cheaper fares even if it was not a promo. To cut the story short, I bought PAL Express tickets going to Busuanga for March 2010. Our departure from Manila is March 19, 2010 at around 11AM and we’re gonna leave Busuanga by March 22 at 2PM. The schedule was perfect for us since I have a companion that will only be out of her work by 7AM (she can still catch our 11AM flight to Busuanga)
I was confident that it would be a smooth travel for us since I trust Philippine Airlines. That even if the aircraft to Busuanga is the old Air Philippines, there won’t be any problem since they could not afford to ruin PAL’s reputation (even if I already encountered not-so-nice experiences with PAL before.. talk about benefit of the doubt and second chances).
Come 1st week of March, my friend told me that our friend from UK (he booked his/his sister’s tickets while I booked for my 3 other friends and I) received an email notification from PAL that our flight schedule was changed. Our former 11AM flight was rescheduled to 7AM. It was an auto-generated email so responding to that freakin’ email was not possible.
Another thing that made me irritable was the fact that I DIDN’T RECEIVE any notification about that change of flight schedule. Mind you, I booked online 3times. I didn’t receive even one email. Can you just imagine if I didn’t have a companion who received a notification? E di naiwan na pala ako/kame ng eroplano hindi pa namin nalalaman na nagpalit pala ng schedule? That was sooooooo irresponsible of them. I got more infuriated when I learned from my friend that Cebu Pacific calls their passenger if there are changes in their flight schedule. Buti pa sila.
Also, I just noticed that airlines here in the Philippines don’t include in their disclaimer/rules & regulations/terms & conditions that schedules may change, may it be with prior notice or not. Labo diba? Kinalkal ko old e-tickets ko wala talaga nakasulat na ganun e.
I knew there were 2 flight schedules going to Busuanga everyday or every other day, but how come we were not given the chance to be transferred to the other schedule, the later one? How the hell would my friend catch that effin’ 7AM flight when she will only be leaving her office at 7AM???!! Kawawa naman sya diba? She’s on graveyard shift, by the way. It says in the notification that if passengers have concerns/questions, they should contact PAL’s hotline. HOTLINE… yes, the line was too hot that I couldn’t connect 24/7 (di ako natutulog diba so I just spent time contacting that effin’ airline). Our departure from Busuanga on March 22 was also changed from a PM flight to an AM flight (so tell me, what’s the purpose of getting a 4D/3N hotel accommodation when it seems that we won’t be able to maximize our 4th day??? I think the flight was changed to 7AM). At hellooooo, they changed the flight just a few days before our flight??!!
I got tired of calling PAL’s office (I even tried other department’s numbers) that I decided to send them an email asking for better options. Of course, I can no longer do something about their flight schedules.. all I needed was a chance to be transferred to a later flight. I emailed them… subtly expressing disappointments and fury, but still composed. I used my corporate email including my signature and other contact details so that my complaint would look professional (at para di nila isipin na cheap ako hahahaha.. para pansinin.. hehe). My email was too long and pure English maski ako dumugo ilong ko sa pag-intindi ng sarili kong email. 
I didn’t receive any reply via email, but after a day I got a phone call straight from their ticketing office. Bwahahah! Nagbunga din ang pagpapapansin ako. At last, we were given the chance to be transferred to the other flight. At mabait na sila at nagsosorry na..
Since then if there are updates they call me in the office and properly notify me. At sa awa ng Diyos from time to time nagpapalit ng schedule. Siguro nakaka-sampung palit na ng schedule. Up to the last minute, just a night before our flight they called me again.. saying that our departure will be at 9AM na. Nalilito na ultimo alarm clock ko di na alam kung anong oras ako gigisingin para magpunta sa airport. Hay. E kala ko talaga 9AM ang flight.. pero nakaalis dito sa Manila at 9:15 or 9:30 yata.
I thought the story already ended there. Hindi pa pala. On our last day in Coron (our flight was supposedly at 3PM), the receptionist in the lodge where we were billeted told us that our flight was rescheduled at 4PM. E syempre mag-aadjust na naman yun dahil di naman on time yun, so my friend who works on graveyard shift was already bothered if she can still go to work.. she has 7PM work. Kaya sakto lang dapat ang 3PM para makauwi pa sya before makapasok sa work.
I thought my OC-ness just struck and that I have high expectations when it comes to airlines, but the receptionist at the lodge told me:
“Ma’am next time po pagbalik nyo dito sa Cebu Pacific na lang kayo sumakay. Mas maganda po dun. Bihirang-bihira sila magchange ng flight. Yung PAL lagi nag-aadjust ng schedule.. kung minsan nagkacancel pa.”
Booooooom!!! Ayun, ayun naman pala ang katotohanan.
When we got to the airport, ayun na naman ang storya.. panay announcements na naman na kesyo madedelay ng dating yung aircraft.. in fact, we were anxious na na baka nga macancel pa. Tsktsk. E baket naman kaya nadedelay, sobrang ganda naman ng panahon.. taas ng sikat ng araw, tapos di naman mahangin.. wala din naman kasabay na aircraft sa runway.. namaaaaaaannnnn!!!
Pramissssss, I will never fly with you again. Tsk!
This morning before I started my daily routine at work, I dropped by the cafe located at the 10th floor of the building to grab a bite to eat as I was starving to death. My last real meal was lunch the day before.
