Cebu Pacific FAIL

Cebu Pacific, the local discount airline, has been on my shit list lately, after having of my flights delayed.

And there’s no way to check online the flight status, nor do they tell you at check in that your plane is nowhere to be seen.  Nooooo…  Because why worry about the customer, right?  Every single time we find out that the plane has been delayed is when boarding time comes and goes, and 15 minutes later they announce how your plane to Manila from Cebu, for example, hasn’t even departed Manila yet.

And last weekend on our way to Coron, they managed to make what should have been a 1 hour easy flight, into a much bigger ordeal, when again, boarding time came and went, and only 20 minutes later they finally announced that the plane would be 2 hours delayed.  Of course, that was also a lie:  we departed 2.5 hours later than the original flight.  It annoys me the most when the total flight time is less than half of the delayed time.  Specially when I had to be out of bed at 6:30am for my 9:20am flight (you don’t want to risk being stuck in traffic on your way to the airport, plus we planned on grabbing breakfast), when I could have slept for 2.5 more hours to get my 11:50am flight instead.

Sadly, Philippines Airlines, the reliable local airline, is also at least double the price, so if we were flying Phil Air, we wouldn’t be able to afford the trip to begin with, so we’re stuck with Cebu Pacific (and so is every other sucker hearing about their plane being late.  Again…).

Today they’re running a 50% off promo of all their domestic and international flights, and since I know I need a ticket from Puerto Princesa back to Manila, for when my friend Liz is visiting, I jumped at the opportunity.

CB Promo

First, I checked the prices for Thursday, Nov 24th.  No 50% off promo going on there, but the still available promo fare costs PHP 799 (click to enlarge the picture), vs the regular PHP 1,099 fare.


So I checked to see if they have any available for Friday, and they did! Except…  They either need to get better at math, or they’re assuming their customers are stupid (again, you can click to see the full thing).


Regular price fare is 1,099 but the discounted 50% off fare is 749?  Uh, am I the only one who sees this and goes WTF?

Shouldn’t 50% off of 1,099 be 549?  Because if you have it on the left column telling me that the regular year-round fares are 1,099, and right next to it, you give me a 50% off price of what should have been an almost 1,500 fare, you’re trying to tell me I’m stupid.  And you’re assuming that Filipinos are also stupid.  Give me a break.

And if you look back at the regular promo fares on my first screen above, you’ll see that it’s usually 799.  So with this big 50% off sale, I’m technically only saving 50 pesos (roughly a little over a dollar).

Cebu Pacific FAIL.  Again.


Filed under Philippines, Travel, Travel Review

3 responses to “Cebu Pacific FAIL

  1. I guess they are cheap for a reason?

    I honestly never expect any flight to be on time anymore, or ever know what the eff is going on in an airport. I figure once they have my money, they will get me to the place… whenever they damn well feel like it.

    I hope the next flight is better!

    • So true! The difference is that in the US they pad the total flight time SO MUCH that they leave half hour late and you still arrive on time. So they can claim “99% on time” crap.

      But yeah, the airline here is definitely cheap for a reason…

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