The Cebu Provincial Board will call on officials of Cebu Pacific Air to shed light on complaints lodged against the airline’s services.
“We are promoting the tourism of Cebu and here is an airline bringing the name of Cebu but with several complaints already. This is not good for our tourism industry,” PB member Agnes Magpale said.
Magpale said she will file a resolution next week about this but in the meantime she will act on a recent incident involving the airline and Medellin Vice Mayor Michael Miranda, who was reportedly left behind by the plane.
Miranda, in an interview with The Freeman, said that last May 9, while he was waiting for the plane inside the terminal of Cebu Pacific in Manila, he was surprised to learn that his plane already left.
Miranda, with his boarding pass with him, said that his scheduled trip for Cebu was 4:45 p.m. but this was rescheduled to 5:50 p.m. While waiting, he admitted that he took a nap just beside the gate’s terminal.
When he woke up, he asked the airline’s customer desk about the trip and was only told that the plane is already fully booked and had already left.
“How could it be fully-booked? I already have a boarding pass. Nobody was paging my name and I was only told that I will be booked at the earliest flight the following day,” Miranda said.
Feeling aggrieved, Miranda said he called up Ronald Conopio, the protocol officer of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia for assistance.
At 7:30 p.m. that same day, he finally got a flight and eventually got home to Cebu. The vice-mayor said two foreigners were also left behind by the flight he missed.
“Nagyawyaw na man gani to ang duha ka foreigners kay nabiyaan sad sila sa eroplano. Moreklamo ka, ipasa-pasa lang ka. Their system is very chaotic,” Miranda said.
Miranda is now gathering all his tickets and other documents for his lawyer to study on with his plans to sue the airline company. He said money is not the consideration here but to compel the company to improve its services and the manner its staff deals with their customers.
RG Orense, Cebu Pacific Air manager for corporate communications, said he already noted the complaint of Miranda and that he will investigate the incident.
Orense said that, as a matter of policy, the company addresses a formal complaint at least three days from the time it receives the complaint but he clarified that informal complaints will not be tackled, especially if these are based on speculations.
“We can’t respond to complaints based on speculations because people have the tendency to generalize. Complaints must be specific and the person complaining must be identified,” he said.
Orense however encouraged people to raise their complaints or suggestions or comments at their website, which contains the company’s e-mail address.
Magpale commented that some of the aggrieved passengers may not have the time at all to file their formal complaints so it would be better for the airline company itself to investigate the issue.
Article source: The Freeman