Saturday, January 12, 2013

Hot meal

I recently had this experience on my Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Bangkok. I was hoping to book a Philippine Airlines flight but their online booking system only accepts credit card transactions for international flights. I prefer Philippine Airlines on this trip because I want to have a light meal or snack before arriving in Bangkok. However, there is a feature in the online booking system of Cebu Pacific that you can pre-order your food since they do not provide the food by default, one if the reasons why their base fares are lower.

In short, I booked a flight with Cebu Pacific and pre-ordered their hot meal (chicken barbeque). So everything goes well and around an hour or so in the flight, they began distributing the food for those who pre-ordered. So they confirm the passenger's name on the boarding pass against their list. When the flight attendant came to our row, she did not gave me food or call out my name. I was so embarrassed because you can tell in my face and body gestures that I was expecting food. in fact, the man sitting next to me whispered (to the wind) that its not free and they pre-ordered. Obviously he wanted to indirectly tell me that I did not receive food because I did not pre-ordered.
So right after the attendant went to the next row, I checked my boarding pass, there is no note that I have food. I checked my itinerary receipt (I printed the 1st page only) and there is no note that i have free food, so I thought to myself that maybe I forgot to click that option and just thought that I did it.

After 30 minutes or so, I can't get it off my head that I distinctly remembered that I pointed out to my husband that I ordered food. So I decided that I should check the whole itinerary receipt and took out my iPod touch. Good thing I have downloaded the mail and file before so I wouldn't need internet connection to check it. And there I saw that I clearly paid 350 PHP for hot meal. So I pushed the button for attendant assistance and I told her that I did not receive food although I paid for it. She asked for my boarding pass and for my itinerary receipt. Then I told her that I just printed the 1st page and immediately showed her the soft copy on my iPod. She looked at it and told me to wait. After a few minutes she came with the food and another flight attendant who asked again for my boarding pass and itinerary receipt. Again, I informed her that I just printed the first page but I do have the softcopy on my iPod. So she looked at it and checked against the hard copy and my boarding pass and blatantly told the other attendant " meron ngang hot meal si ma'am" ( ma'am really had hot meal) which reading between the lines means they were doubtful on my claims. The 1st attendant then handed me over the food and said that she's sorry that they do not have chicken barbeque and what they have is chicken adobo. Obviously, I do not have any choice but to take it. The 2nd attendant then told me that she will hang on to my boarding pass and my itinerary receipt because she has to do something. After a few minutes, she went back and gave me back the papers with no apology or whatsoever.
So it left me to think they don't think I deserve an apology and/or that they are still not convinced that I have pre-ordered(and paid) meal but just gave in to me since "the customer is always right".

Lessons learned for me, if I can help it, book with Philippine Airlines. If I have to book with Cebu Pacific and I pre-ordered food, I have to confirm during check-in or print all the pages of the itinerary receipt.

Day 17

Feom 40 days to a Joy filled life by Tommy Newberry - We do all sorts of silly things that fuel our negative emotions. As a result, we end...