PAL refund requests hit almost P18 billion

MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is almost complete addressing all refund requests amounting to almost P18 billion due to flight cancellations since  March last year.

PAL said it has so far refunded over 90 percent of the more than $370 million or P17.8 billion COVID-related refund requests it has received.

“We hope to resolve the rest in the coming months and revert to normal processing afterwards,” the airline said.

“As the aviation industry continues to cope with global health and travel challenges, we at Philippine Airlines reaffirm our commitment to service our passengers,” it said.

The airline was forced to cancel over 78,000 flights because of the pandemic.

PAL said travel restrictions have triggered an unprecedented high volume of refund requests, constraining the ability and resources of airlines to handle them promptly.

“We sincerely apologize for the long processing time that many of our customers have experienced since the start of the pandemic,” it said.

PAL said the airline is making renewed efforts and committing more resources to progressively step up processing capabilities.

The airline said its web-based myPAL Request Hub is being enhanced to improve processing of passenger options such as rebookings, conversions to travel vouchers, refunds and a new follow-up request feature.

“Processes are also being streamlined to better support these enhancements and ably deliver on our customers’ expectations. We will strive for more improvements to support refunds and other customer needs as we move decisively towards recovery,” the flag carrier said.

At present, PAL has restored nearly 25 percent of its regular domestic and international flights.

“We will continue to slowly add more flights and more routes in line with market demand and the eventual easing of travel and quarantine restrictions,” PAL said.