MANILA, Philippines — Cebu Pacific representatives on Wednesday said that the design of the air carrier’s website caused customers to be charged rebooking fees without their approval, promising that they will fix the issue by the end of July.
During a Senate hearing on passenger complaints against Cebu Pacific due to recent flight cancellations, a Cebu Pacific officer said that they were “aware” of passengers’ complaints about the apparent forced rebooking incidents, saying that it was a “user experience design issue.”
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Representatives of the budget carrier also clarified during the hearing that in all instances when an airline decides to overbook, passengers are entitled to compensation if they are bumped off a flight or denied board.
The Senate probe conducted by the tourism and public services committees followed tourism panel chair Sen. Nancy Binay’s recently filed resolution on the string of complaints from passengers who have been inconvenienced by recent incidents of overbooking, offloading and online booking glitches.
Some Cebu Pacific passengers have recently voiced their grievances about apparent website errors that resulted in them being charged multiple times for transactions that appeared to be unsuccessful.
User design experience issue
“There is a part of the flow where if a passenger clicks proceed, it commits the changes even before the passenger pays. We recognize that and we are taking that feedback as well,” said Cebu Pacific's Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Candice Iyog.
Iyog said that Cebu Pacific is already working on “a fix or an enhancement” to the interface of the website
“Depending on when it's ready, we're looking at possibly end of July that we will be able to implement this change in the user experience,” Iyog added.
This came after Sen. Risa Hontiveros cited several instances when passengers’ original flights were canceled even as they were merely checking the prices of rebooking flights on the website.
Describing these incidents as “technical issues,” Hontiveros said that according to one passenger’s account, they were made to pay a bill of P16,000-worth of add-ons after availing of Cebu Pacific’s free rebooking option. Hontiveros said that some passengers who tried to rebook a flight were immediately made to pay before they could confirm their purchase.
Iyog said that the budget carrier has recently reminded its customer service agents to allow passengers to get back to their original flight or to remove add-ons that were “accidentally added.”
Overbooking
The Senate resolution also cited several instances when “travelers were offloaded by Cebu Pacific, without any verifiable cause or valid reason, due to the airline’s overbooking.”
A representative of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said that government regulations do not set a cap in terms of how much airlines can overbook, but passengers denied boarding due to overbooked flights need to be compensated.
This requirement to pay passengers for the inconveniences caused by being offloaded is an “effective counterweight” to discourage airlines from the practice, said a representative of CAB.
Sen. Grace Poe also chided the carrier for the lack of customer service agents who can directly respond to customers' complaints.
Cebu Pacific representatives said that they receive over 2,000 to 3,000 calls from passengers daily.
Hontiveros said that government agencies should step in to prevent more passengers from being disrupted in their travels due to canceled, rescheduled and delayed flights in Cebu Pacific and other airline companies.
Agencies mandated to supervise, control and regulate air carriers such as CAB and the Department of Transportation should also be held accountable, Hontiveros said.
“The cost of a delayed or canceled flight goes beyond the ticket price. It includes wasted hotel reservations, missed business opportunities, and stress,” she said.
Cebu Air, Inc. shares closed down 1.07% at P36.85 per share apiece on Wednesday afternoon.