Cebu Pacific and Air Asia

Air Asia's slogan: Now Everyone can Fly. While Cebu Pacific's: It's time everyone flies.


Tomorrow I will end my vagabonding and fly back to the US so I sit here and reflect on some of the negative and the positive of the whole trip. I need to mention that Philippine Airlines lost my business twice because their online booking system refused to take my US issued credit card, while Cebu Pacific’s online booking system has no problem with it.

Last Sunday when I had lunch with my friends they talked about the negative publicity that Cebu Pacific has been getting. They themselves did not experience it, but you see what I mean when I said that only 4% of dissatisfied customers go back to the establishment to get it rectified and the other 96% badmouth it to their friends? I don’t own or have a vested interest with Cebu Pacific, but if what I heard is true that Cebu Pacific has yet to post a profit earning I feel I need to defend Cepac. Rumor has it that because Lance Gokongwei is the only son of the old Gokongwei, and this is Lance’s biggest venture, (big in the sense that even toy airplanes are not cheap) the old man has consistently pumped in millions and millions of pesos into this venture to keep it going.
Something is to be said for the old man’s action; it definitely is good for the flying public.

Of course, I understand that budget airlines can and should strive to do better; cheap doesn’t have to mean sloppy. Which brings me to my next thought – Air Asia. When I flew Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, it was a very positive experience too. Approaching Melaka Sentral by bus from Singapore I suddenly (again) had another anxiety attack. When that happens, my first impulse is (always) to get out, get away, get lost, whatever.

Melaka Sentral is a bus depot but almost like an airport in itself, very impressive set up. To calm my nerves, I had to know I can get out and I had to know when. My choice was to get on another bus and get out and not even stay in Melaka for 2 days as planned because by now, I was already feeling the anxiety building up to an uncomfortable level. Then I saw an Air Asia office tucked to the side of all the bus ticket counters. I went in and was told that I could get dropped right in Kuala Lumpur LCT ( the Air Asia terminal ) by this one bus company –the Transnacional from Melaka Sentral.

When I found out that Air Asia had flights almost every hour to everywhere, I started to calm down. Prayer and Air Asia did calm my nerves, so I decided to stay 1 night in Melaka after all. The next day, I walked into LCT and bought my ticket to Penang. The process took less than 10 minutes, it would have been less had this Asian lady not cut in line in front of me. That part was a negative but not worth dwelling over because I doubt that we can get Asians in Asia to learn to queue. And for Filipinos to queue? Not in your life while there’s Wowowee.