What if your confirmed booking is suddenly cancelled by the airline like Cebu Pacific? What options do you have? How much are you going to pay to rebook your promo flight?
Hunting for Piso Fares and Promos
Our travels, husband and I, are plan months in advance. We have the destinations and dates plotted early in the year. Why? Promo fares favor the prepared. 🙂 If you want to be among the first to book during piso fares and red hot seat sale events, you got to have a ready list of your preferred travel dates.
We booked last April one way ticket from Manila to Cebu for 2 persons during a P100 base fare promo of Cebu Pacific. Travel dates are December 31 at 6:30PM. We bought the tickets 8 months in advance. Yah that long basta lang maka-promo lol. After sharing the flight details with friends and family, the immediate reactions are ‘Goodluck sa delay!’, ‘Hala! Mag New Year mo sa eroplano!’. Lol.
You may remember that Cebu Pacific was slapped by CAAP with 52 Million Pesos in fine due to the flight delays and cancellations that transpired during the 2014 Christmas flight rush. Turned out Cebu Pacific overbooked several flights, and as a consequence, tons of passengers missed celebrating Christmas day with their families.
Cheapskates that we are, Titus and I figured we’d rather risk a delayed flight on December 31 rather than pay premium for highly coveted flight schedules. Filipinos typically go home to celebrate the Christmas and New Year holidays with families in the provinces. High demand = High Ticket Prices for flights near Christmas Day up to New Year.
For the two of us, a regular flight would have cost us between P3,000 to P4,000 one way. With our December 31 late afternoon flight, we only paid a total of P1,296 – this is for one way for two persons with 30 kilos of check-in baggage. Mura talaga, lol.
Trial Booking Cebu Pacific Ticket for December 29 for 2 PAX
*Snapshot above taken September 18,2015; the cheapest available flight for Manila to Cebu with check-in baggage for this day.
Schedule Change Advisory
AND THEN…. I received an email a few days ago with subject line “Schedule Change Advisory” from Cebu Pacific. It reads “Cebu Pacific would like to inform you that your flight has been cancelled due to schedule realignment. However, we have mounted another flight which you may take in lieu of the cancelled flight. “
This proposed schedule will leave an hour later than our original flight schedule. What if there will be more delays? Baka sa ere na talaga kami abutin ng New Year 2016 hehe.
Good thing that Cebu Pacific offered rebooking options for our cancelled flight. If you have received a similar advisory, know that you have options. You do not need to ACCEPT the offered new flight if it doesn’t work out for you, or if doesn’t fit your schedule.
The options given to us by this airline are the following:
- Rebook without charges for travel within 30 days
- Put in Travel Fund ticket value without penalties (except for KOREA flights)
- Refund without penalties
- OR you can also ACCEPT the new flight schedule.
‘Yes! Cancelled yung flight natin!’ grinning I told Titus.
The cancellation of flight originated from Cebu Pacific themselves, therefore I can rebook our tickets without penalty to the travel date and time that we want – as long as it is within 30 days of the original booked date and there are still open seats left. Yes! =)
I called up Cebu Pacific Hotline number at Manila (+632) 70-20-888; you can also contact them via Cebu hotline at (+6332) 230-8888 . I spoke with their CSR, and have successfully rescheduled our flight to our preferred date – December 29, and we didn’t pay any additional fee. Sweet!
What if you want to cancel your flight on your own accord?
If there is no cancellation advisory coming from the airline, and you want or need to rebook your promo ticket. This is my suggestion on what you should do:
First, wait for a new promo. Every so often, Cebu Pacific announces a P500 pesos all in fare – this is a good deal. Once there is a new promo fare announcement, go to www.cebupacificair.com and search a promo ticket that matches your new schedule. Do a trial booking, take note of the total cost of ticket.
Second, call the Cebu Pacific hotline to talk to a customer rep. Ask the csr how much total fees you are going to pay if you will rebook or reschedule the confirmed ticket that you already have.
Based on our experience, rebooking a promo flight cost more versus buying an entirely new ticket. This is because you have to factor in penalties like rebooking fee and fare difference charge. If this is the case you are facing, just forget about your old ticket, and buy a new one during a promo fare. Charge it to experience, ika nga.
*Promo tickets are non-refundable, but rebookable.
Waiting for Seat Sale
The most popular promo is the piso fare from Cebu Pacific. Air Asia’s version is called the Red Hot Sale. We are hoping that before the year ends, there will be available piso fare for 2016 travels. That’ll be fantastic so we can all fill our calendar next year with affordable flights. While we wait, plan your travels ahead.
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wow ms anne nktulong ung blog mo sa amin tatlo kami original flight march 26 sila nag cancelled, e di ngaun mapapaganda lalo kasi pipili ako april kasi punta kami boracay ang fare namin 753 round trip manila to caticlan, pag ako nag rebook umabot ng 9,860 bawat isa round trip mas napaganda kasi april without any charges hehe
Wow! Minsan talaga mapapaganda ang schedule pag si Cebu Pac mismo ang nagcancell ng original flight date hehe Enjoy Boracay this April!!!
Hi, Ms Anne. Thanks for this how about yung sa amin kasi nag advice yung Ceb Pac. na pwede irebook pero kasi hindi siya cancelled flight delay lang siya ng isang oras pero may advised na pwede mag rebook up to 30 days. trinay ko mag rebook yung travel kasi namin March 14-16 MNL-ILOILO Vice versa pero nung pinalitan ko ng April 14-16 lumalabas eh mahal tapos yung total is 25k which is promo lang yung nakuha namin almost 1,1k RT. ang lumalabas pa na babayaran namin is 24k? possible kaya marebook namin yun without any charges? Thank you! 😉
Hi Erweng, the last time I check the time delay must be at least 2 hours, before Cebu Pacific will allow passengers to re-book tickets without charges. Pag less than 2 hours delay lang ang advisory, you can rebook but it comes with fees (like normal rebooking process).
I also got an advisory of delayed flight last December kaso 1 hour lang kaya when I logged-on sa Manage Booking tab, automatic na na confirmed yung new time (no free rebooking option kasi less than 2 hours delay).
Hi, Ms Anne Thanks for response. Okay na po siya narebook namin siya ng April without any charges buti naman HEHE. Thank you & Cheers! 🙂
Wow! Nice Erweng! Hehe 😀
hello, same experience po. Question, paano nio po ni-rebook? thru their website or call sa CSR. thanks po!
For flight rebooking – must be done by calling the Cebu Pac hotline kasi need iconfirm ng CSR nila yung changes na gusto mo. Also mukhang one hour delay caused by airline puede ng rebook for free.
Pano if nkpgbook nko then after few days biglang bagsak presyo un seats,,,is it possible na mgrebook aq same flight but cheaper seats? Ang difference din kc is almost 4k,,japan
Best to call Cebu Pacific for your query, but I think hindi puede.
Pano kung ganito: yung original flight 4pm mnl to bacolod on Aug 27, binago nila ang oras ng 4:20pm. na hindi man lang nila ako tinawagan o tinext. nagtaka na lang ako na basta na lang merong bagong itinerary ticket na hindi man lang ako nag-confirm na gusto ko yun o magpapa-rebook ako. na nai-send nila ang email Mar 3 pa, nakita ko Mar 31 na. dati rati naman tinatawagan nila ako pag merong changes na LAGING nangyayari. pangalawa na tong nangyari na hindi sila nag-i-inform na merong changes ahead before at hintayin man lang ang side ko kung ano ang magiging desisyon ko. worse, pagbabayarin pa nila ako kapag pinalitan ko ng oras kahit sa mismong araw. e sila nga ang hindi nag-inform na basta na lang nagbigay ng bagong ticket. yung agent na nakausap ko through 02 7020888, nakita sa record ni hindi man lang ako i-ni-nform nung changes. ano bang policy pag sila mismo ang nagpalit ng sched dahil sa technical prob o traffic sa airport? di ba talaga nila tatawagan ang passenger na merong changes dahil daw less than an hour ang changes? pero kapag more than an hour, merong option ang passenger at di na pagbabayarin? thanks!
Hi Mrs Lopez, I’ve also experienced that, no calls but they sent an email with updated itinerary. Sa email ko lang din nalaman, and when I logged back in sa Cebu Pacific dashboard na nakita ko changed time na.
On less than one hour flight time changes – parang walang rule ang Civil Aviation Authority na dapat mag allow ang airline for Free rebooking. Pag more than an hour na airline-initiated flight changes – may option na ang passenger for flight rebooking with no penalty.