PAL is Really Going to the Dogs

BusinessWorld
Wednesday, September 2, 1998
DEAR EDITOR

I thought that after all the restricting and moves to modernize Philippine Airlines as well as threats from rival airlines, the carrier would improve its services.

It turns out that this airline is really going to the dogs. Its booking system is so skewed up that they are forced to offload passengers even if they have been there lining up for an hour during check-in. it seems to be the only airline in the world that requires you to confirm several hours before your flight.

I had the exasperating experience one Sunday last month of being told that I could not take my flight back to Hong Kong because they had too many passengers.

My booking agent already had the schedule confirmed just five days before. The airline’s check-in staff as well as the public relations manager at the airport wasn’t that committed to help us out of the fix their company is to blame for.

If they were offloading too many passengers for failing to reconfirm, they should have at least held on to our tickets and try to see whether we could be accommodated in the other scheduled flights. All they told us was that the three other flights later in the day were also fully booked. How can that Korean-named guy posted in their public relations office be so cocksure about that?

In other airlines you would have them extending the courtesy of making arrangements to book you in the next available flight. Instead you just have your ticket shoved to your face.

I am a Filipino journalist working in Hong Kong and I thought that by taking this airline regularly I was among the thousands of Filipinos who think that in our little way we are helping the airline get back to its feet. There are actually cheaper fears being offered by other airlines here than PAL. instead you just get their usual service.

We have all been taken for a ride for too long. I was forced to take a Cathay Pacific flight instead. While definitely more expensive, they treat their passengers well.

You’ll have to drag me by the hair to ever get to ride another PAL flight again.

RODNEY DIOLA
Tak Po Garden, Kowloon Bay
Hong Kong
rodd@netvigator.com