# The joys of flying.



## mogo51 (Jun 11, 2011)

Just got back 2 days ago from a month in the home land Australia. Flew out of Angeles with Cebu Pacific, then onto HK airlines, pretty much on time .5 hr delay with HK but made up the time. HK is a first for me and felt they were quite ok, it was direct from HK to Coolangatta (Gold Coast). Food ok, but beverage hand out not up to my standard haha.
So return in opposite, great flight with HK airlines to HK, left early and landed .5 ahead of schedule, food even better, got my fill of red/white wine and staff very friendly. Next Cebu Pacific to Manila (couold not synch with Angeles unfortunately). At scheduled departure time I knew we were fgoinf nowhere, after a short while announced should be boarding soon. At 12,15an without another word from them, it was announced that the flight was cancelled due to mechanical failure and we would be taken to a hotel in HK. At 2.45am after handing out stickers with numbers on them (why I don't know as they never did anything with them), we marhed down to the bus depot but waited another hour as no buses were available::: 
Finally, buses arrived and we got to the hotel at 3.45am, only to be told that we needed to be on the bus again at 7.45am next morning. Nice hotel and had a good breakfast after 2 hrs sleep. 
Back to airport, a total shamozzle passengers lined up everwhere, no extra staff to handle the additional 150 passengers/ They did not even know what was going on and totally inept. I spoke to a 'manager' but with little result. We had to redo the Immigration thing no effort by tdhe airline to arrange for 'expresss check in'.
We finally left HK at 11.30am, .5 hr late again. Have flown quite a few times with Cebu Pacific before, whilst they aree not a great airline they are usually ok. 
DTheir staff had absolutely no idea how to manage the situation. We arrived home at 9.30pm that evening from Manila. No wonder I drink!!! The botdtom line is - it is just not only the Philippines, it is obviously a plague sweeping Asia!!!


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

mogo51 said:


> Just got back 2 days ago from a month in the home land Australia. Flew out of Angeles with Cebu Pacific, then onto HK airlines, pretty much on time .5 hr delay with HK but made up the time. HK is a first for me and felt they were quite ok, it was direct from HK to Coolangatta (Gold Coast). Food ok, but beverage hand out not up to my standard haha.
> So return in opposite, great flight with HK airlines to HK, left early and landed .5 ahead of schedule, food even better, got my fill of red/white wine and staff very friendly. Next Cebu Pacific to Manila (couold not synch with Angeles unfortunately). At scheduled departure time I knew we were fgoinf nowhere, after a short while announced should be boarding soon. At 12,15an without another word from them, it was announced that the flight was cancelled due to mechanical failure and we would be taken to a hotel in HK. At 2.45am after handing out stickers with numbers on them (why I don't know as they never did anything with them), we marhed down to the bus depot but waited another hour as no buses were available:::
> Finally, buses arrived and we got to the hotel at 3.45am, only to be told that we needed to be on the bus again at 7.45am next morning. Nice hotel and had a good breakfast after 2 hrs sleep.
> Back to airport, a total shamozzle passengers lined up everwhere, no extra staff to handle the additional 150 passengers/ They did not even know what was going on and totally inept. I spoke to a 'manager' but with little result. We had to redo the Immigration thing no effort by tdhe airline to arrange for 'expresss check in'.
> ...


In case you didn't know,,,,, Cebu Pacific is a Philippine owned company and is based here. So that's why the service (or lack or it) is the reason for the bad experience. That airline cancels more flights than you could ever imagine. It is a common occurrence with them so you have just been lucky up until now. Sometimes passenger have to wait to be rescheduled four or five days with them so consider yourself lucky. Like most locally owned businesses they hire "warm bodies" only. The ones that do have a brain don't care and yet others will not make decisions as they should. 
They use to like to fly into mountains too but at least they seem to have solved that problem.
I worked for the airlines in the States for a lot of years and just from a safety standpoint alone, Cebu Pacific is a carrier I would not use for any reason--ever.


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## pronse (Apr 3, 2009)

They call Cebu Pacific as Cebu Pathytic for a reason ?


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## magsasaja (Jan 31, 2014)

From my experiences Cebu Pacific can be hit or miss, however they can also save you a lot of money when it comes to flying long distance. I wouldn’t use them if i was on a strict schedule, but for holidays etc they do the job most of the time. 
Two years ago we flew Manila/Sydney at Christmas. For the 4 of us it cost 70,000php return. The closest direct flights at that time were over 200,000php. The extra money saved was used to upgrade our hotels and hire car. Well worth it in my opinion. 

We plan to visit Australia again soon but my wife must have read Asian Spirits comments, as she wants to fly a different airline lol


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## magsasaja (Jan 31, 2014)

Asian Spirit said:


> In case you didn't know,,,,, Cebu Pacific is a Philippine owned company and is based here. So that's why the service (or lack or it) is the reason for the bad experience. That airline cancels more flights than you could ever imagine. It is a common occurrence with them so you have just been lucky up until now. Sometimes passenger have to wait to be rescheduled four or five days with them so consider yourself lucky.


From my experience the local flights are cancelled more often than the international. Now that you mention it when we went to Australia there was a problem with local flights due to typhoon Nina. All of the local flights were delayed around 2 to 3 days, but the international flights all left on time. Might have something to do with them having to keep to their schedule abroad or risk losing slots in other countries?


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

magsasaja said:


> From my experiences Cebu Pacific can be hit or miss, however they can also save you a lot of money when it comes to flying long distance. I wouldn’t use them if i was on a strict schedule, but for holidays etc they do the job most of the time.
> Two years ago we flew Manila/Sydney at Christmas. For the 4 of us it cost 70,000php return. The closest direct flights at that time were over 200,000php. The extra money saved was used to upgrade our hotels and hire car. Well worth it in my opinion.
> 
> We plan to visit Australia again soon but my wife must have read Asian Spirits comments, as she wants to fly a different airline lol


 Hahaha... Sorry bout that. From all the years working for the airlines, I base my choice of carrier 
on these factors and in this order:

1.) Safety. Safety of the carrier is always first on my list.
2.) Connected to #1 is maintenance quality and flight crew experience and training.
3.) In-flight service such a crew hospitality and of course history of good food and meal service.
4.) Schedule. On time performance.
5.) Cost

That #4 is important but not at the expense of safety issues. Cost is important too for this old guy but I guess I worked in the industry enough years to know that safety and well maintained aircraft are most important. To or from the Philippines or anywhere else possible in the world there is only one airline I use.


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## magsasaja (Jan 31, 2014)

Asian Spirit said:


> Hahaha... Sorry bout that. From all the years working for the airlines, I base my choice of carrier
> on these factors and in this order:
> 
> 1.) Safety. Safety of the carrier is always first on my list.
> ...


You raise some very important points :thumb:
I drove over 50,000km in the Philippines last year, so i guess i should maybe cut down on my risk taking lol :fingerscrossed:


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

magsasaja said:


> You raise some very important points :thumb:
> I drove over 50,000km in the Philippines last year, so i guess i should maybe cut down on my risk taking lol :fingerscrossed:


I'll tell ys what,,,, driving here is a whole new game in risk taking for sure. I do drive here but only a motor-trike. Easy to drive in the traffic and good gas mileage. Really hafta keep your wits about you here for sure. These people are suicide jockeys -- or an accident looking for a place to happen.


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## lefties43332 (Oct 21, 2012)

Asian Spirit said:


> I'll tell ys what,,,, driving here is a whole new game in risk taking for sure. I do drive here but only a motor-trike. Easy to drive in the traffic and good gas mileage. Really hafta keep your wits about you here for sure. These people are suicide jockeys -- or an accident looking for a place to happen.


 usa drivers arent much better nowadays. Im shocked now at what i see these idiots pull. Cant complain about pilipino drivers anymore....


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## mogo51 (Jun 11, 2011)

Asian Spirit said:


> In case you didn't know,,,,, Cebu Pacific is a Philippine owned company and is based here. So that's why the service (or lack or it) is the reason for the bad experience. That airline cancels more flights than you could ever imagine. It is a common occurrence with them so you have just been lucky up until now. Sometimes passenger have to wait to be rescheduled four or five days with them so consider yourself lucky. Like most locally owned businesses they hire "warm bodies" only. The ones that do have a brain don't care and yet others will not make decisions as they should.
> They use to like to fly into mountains too but at least they seem to have solved that problem.
> I worked for the airlines in the States for a lot of years and just from a safety standpoint alone, Cebu Pacific is a carrier I would not use for any reason--ever.


I was not aware of that, so thanks for the heads up. I have already decided they will wait a very long time before I use them again.
Your observations about the staff are accurate, but these people were HK agents for Cebu Pacific. Mind you, they seem to be similarly affected.
Watching them walk around like chooks with their heads cut off, would have been comical, if it were not so annoying.


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