By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
accordingly. ”
Three ladies from a coop in Sagada booked a plane ticket about a month prior to their departure. In order not to miss their flight, they went to Manila a day before their departure. Alas, on flight day, they were hampered by a flooded big city and were not able to reach the airport on time thereby missing their flight. They went to the counter of the airline to seek a refund. They were referred to their ticketing office but did not get any refund. They said the Fare was not refundable.
Another guy bought a ticket also about a month before his flight from the same airline company. Unfortunately, he got sick before his flight and was unable to fly. He went to his travel agent for help as to a refund. He was advised to visit the airline’s office for the purpose. He was told, the ticket is non-refundable.
I myself bought a ticket also about a month before my trip to Palawan to attend a scientific convention. Two weeks later, I found out that I booked a wrong date, so a week before my supposed departure, I tried to have it rebooked. I was told that I had to pay almost the same amount for rebooking! I then found a way to have a live chat with a personnel of the airline concerned. I told her about my predicament. I asked for a refund. I was flatly told that the ticket, costing more than PhP5,000 was non-refundable.
Of course, I was already told by my travel agent that the ticket is non-refundable but just the same, I contacted them. Travel agents are also wary about the non-refundable tickets of budget airlines because they become the unwilling shock absorbers when customers could not refund even a portion of what they had earlier paid.
The airline involved in the above three cases is the same: AIRASIA Airline. It is actually the world’s best low-cost airline for the last eight years running. Wow! The agency responsible in giving such award based it on the following: responsive customer service, friendly cabin crew, and efficient operation. Whoa, responsive customer service! I don’t know but what happened to the three cases above point to the airline’s calloused insensitivity to the cry and despondency of its customers. In that light, the airline is far, far, far from the best. You give your money weeks or months in advance in buying ticket, probably they had made use of it already before the flight, but you can NEVER, NEVER, NEVER refund it for whatever reason. You can not even refund it even if the airline cancel’s a flight. You can only rebook to the same destination within a prescribe period of time. I can describe that as pure greed on the part of the airline
Because of that, the low-cost airline carriers like AIRASIA will never lose unless their airplane is lost or got burned, God forbid! And they are preying on poor people like me, and the others cited above.
AIRASIA was formerly owned by the Malaysian government but it was privatized when it was already dying. It has a Philippine “branch”. They bought a local airline, Zest Air, earlier to immediately increase their Philippine destinations.
During the awarding ceremony for the best low cost airline last year, the airline’s CEO Mr. Tony Fernandez, said among others: “Even though we’ve won this award eight times, we know we can be better, we want to improve our customer service, we want to improve talking to you.” Customer service again. It stinks, it really stinks. Talking of customer service but don’t want to give back the worth of unused ticket, or whatever the amount after deducting what is properly deductible.
We should not wonder why low-cost airlines are the ones lording the skies at the moment. They are like leech sucking the hard-earned money of the paupers.
My voice is small, it may not even amount to anything but if all concerned, in unison, raise an outcry over such onerous practice, maybe LCCs may change accordingly. I can still remember what senators, particularly then Sen. Ponce Enrile, did about the greedy business malpractice of local telcos re cell phone loads. Before, telcos were so voracious they only see their customers as MONEY. No more, no less. They sell loads with very, very short expirations. That’s why people were forced to load very often even if they had not yet consumed the amount they paid for. This made the telco owner(s) laugh all the way to their banks, and never get tired of smiling-at the expense of Juan and Juana de la Cruz. This stopped only when Enrile and others investigated and may have concluded that what the telcos were doing was similar to a five-six scheme or maybe even worse.
It’s not a hopeless case for the non-refundable plane ticket. I humbly suggest that well-meaning congressmen and senators also investigate the greedy business malpractice of budget airline so people could also get what they deserve. I hope a well-intentioned lawmaker will really take the cudgels against the malpractice.**
