"Give air travellers their dignity back."
"Give air travellers their dignity back."
Just recently, a member of the House of Representatives urged his colleagues to conduct a congressional inquiry in aid of legislation regarding airline responsibilities in cases of flight delays and cancellations.
Allegedly, Cebu Pacific, the country’s leading budget airline, in its quest to get the lion’s share of the market, overbooked itself, adding more destinations and frequencies, even without the availability of additional fleet, thus resulting to overextension of their aircraft usage per day that even the maintenance window is reportedly being sacrificed.
What’s worse is that Cebu Pacific was said to have kept the issues facing them until it was raised on social media. And of course, Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Zarate’s personal experience of experiencing a seven-hour delay prompted him to call for the inquiry.
While Cebu Pacific admitted it had flight delays or cancellations, it was rather unfortunate that the Civil Aeronautics Board did not impose any penalty on the budget carrier even as it was found to have cancelled over 100 flights from late April to early May, justifying their action (or inaction) by saying the affected passengers’ concerns were found to be handled properly by Cebu Pacific in compliance with the Air Passenger Bill of Rights.
What exactly are the passengers’ concern covered by the airlines’ responsibilities under the Air Passenger Bill of Rights?
According to Ms. Cielo Villaluna, spokesperson of the Philippine Airlines (whom I interviewed concerning the subject based on my own personal experience), the airlines’ responsibilities for delayed and cancelled flights are limited to providing food and beverage, hotel accommodations, rebookings at no additional expenses for all affected passengers, as the situation warrants.
“When the flight delay reaches the third hour, and delay is caused by the air carrier, it is mandated to provide food and beverage to the passengers and this provision is given every third hour thereafter. If this situation eventually leads to a flight cancellation and the airline announces that a replacement flight will be provided, passengers are asked if they are willing to take a replacement flight or not. If they are not willing to take said replacement flight, they may opt to rebook on another flight or refund, without having to pay rebook/refund fees,” Ms. Villaluna’s text message read.
(I suddenly remembered we were given crackers when our flight to Shanghai last August was delayed by more than eight hours.)
However, food and beverage and hotel accommodation or rebooking may be the least concern of any passenger affected by flight delays or cancellations.
I had the most unfortunate experience. My family and I were originally scheduled to fly on the evening of May 16. However, merely eight hours before our flight, we received an email informing us our flight had been cancelled and was replaced by another flight scheduled at 12 noon the following day.
And maybe as any airline’s standard procedure, the email also informed us we were free to decide whether we would accept the replacement flight or be rebooked for another flight.
Rebooked for another flight? Eight hours into the origin al flight schedule means everything is already in place—the hotel bookings, the car to fetch you at the airport, the schedule of activities, etc. How can one even suggest rebooking at the eleventh hour?
Anyway, we proceeded to the airport the next day and at the check in counter, we were again informed our flight had been delayed for another four hours. In fairness to the airline, we were given food vouchers to cover our lunch—as what Villaluna had said.
But that’s not the point. We had already paid for our hotel in advance and we were already being charged by the hotel and everything we had booked for—while we wait helplessly at the airport terminal.
In fact, one passenger whom I talked to was raising the same concern. Who would shoulder the additional expenses the affected passengers would incur because of the delay and cancellation?
Still, we proceeded with our trip. As we had lost a day with the cancellation and the delay, we had to proceed with our scheduled activities without giving ourselves the benefit of adjusting to a different time zone. Confounding the issue was that the hotel had already cancelled our booking thought it had charged us for the first day as we were a no-show. We had to beg with them literally to reconsider our booking.
Three years ago, we booked a flight with AirAsia, out of the country to coincide with the long weekend as the country commemorated All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. We were scheduled to fly back to Manila on November 3 at 11:50 in the morning, which was just what we wanted as we have to check out of the hotel before noon.
However, about three weeks before our trip, we received an advisory from AirAsia saying the time of our flight back to Manila has been adjusted to 8:20 in the evening of the same day, around nine hours delayed.
Of course the advisory came with a standard apology and as a bonus, the geniuses of AirAsia had come up with a proposal for alternative options for those affected by the flight adjustment.
According to the kind-hearted geniuses of AirAsia, we “may choose one of the following service recovery options: (a) One time free move flight within 14 days; (b) Convert fare amount to credit shell valid for 90 days; or, (c) Refund.”
Are these people thinking? The adjusted flight concerns our flight back home, meaning we would be coming from another country.
So, if we chose Option A, we would have had to spend a fortune for hotel accommodation and food as the 14-day extension was much longer than our original vacation. And we didn’t have the luxury for that because aside from the fact we were on a shoestring budget, we all had to go back to work to earn our living.
Option B and C meant we would be cancelling our booking for our flight back home. Ano gusto nila, mag-TNT kami? If would have been better if they offered to refund us for our tickets for our flight out of the country—which they did not.
As we still had a baby then, our option was to accept the new flight schedule and book another day at the hotel even if we would be staying for only a few hours, which meant an additional expense for us. We were literally at their mercy and we were forced to swallow whatever adjustments they made.
So the question: Are the airlines’ responsibilities under the Air Passenger Bill of Rights enough to cover for the damages flight delays and cancellations cause? Should we content ourselves with those candy treats the airlines offer us for every flight delay and cancellation they incur?
Obviously, the Air Passenger Bill of Rights is passè. It should be revisited and amended. Airlines should not be allowed to hide under the alibi of a force majeure or a situation beyond their control. This alibi makes their business almost risk-free.
Come the 18thCongress, the House of Representatives and the Senate should push through with their investigation in aid of legislation and give dignity back to air travelers.
No more candy treats.