Travel company airs side on controversy

CEBU, Philippines — An online travel agency that has been under fire recently after several complaints of undelivered bookings has reiterated its plea for understanding from affected customers as they resolve concerns brought about by external and internal matters.

In a press conference last Saturday, September 28, 2019, the chief executive officer of Air You Go Travels Experience, Mark Kenneth Calog, with one of his legal counsels, lawyer Jesa Anne Carla Balahandia-Nuñez, said they have temporarily closed the company’s three physical stores since their employees have received threats from irate customers.

Calog said they stopped receiving new bookings but stressed that they continue to attend to all their customers who already have paid bookings with them. He assured that they will not stop until all their clients are attended to.

Air You Go Travels Experience, a company that has been operating since 2011, has recently received complaints in social media for allegedly failing to fulfill paid bookings by some customers.

In an earlier statement, Air You Go explained that with the unexpected closure of Boracay last year, they had to reschedule some bookings.

In April last year, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered for the closure of Boracay Island to address sanitary and sewage problems.

When it was officially opened six months after, Calog said they immediately scheduled all their bookings for the island.

However, the company faced another concern after the “untimely closure of our hotel in Boracay when our lessor unlawfully evicted us from the property,” said the company’s statement on their FB page. Air You Go operated a hotel in a leased property at Station 2, Boracay Island.

Nuñez said a multi-million suit on the “unlawful eviction” is ongoing, which also involves a former Air You Go Travels Experience business partner.

With the setback on the hotel where most of Air You Go’s Boracay-bound clients are billeted, the backlogs increased over the past few months.

Nuñez said the company would have been able to address the problem, but with the backlash in social media, the problem escalated further.

Calog said some of their clients who are not even scheduled to leave until next year have also been asking refunds due to the social media scare.

But he said they are working non-stop on their backlogs first and the trips in the upcoming months.

For the month of October, Calog said they have around 2,000 bookings. Due to the backlogs, they would have to refund around 200.

On their Facebook page, which has over 1.9 million likes, the company has posted their schedule of refunds, as well as their helpline numbers.

But Nuñez said that they have received even more complaints online since some posted that their hotline numbers could not be contacted.

Nuñez explained that with only 35 people from the 70 employees they once had to attend to all the concerns, their lines are always busy with the number of calls the company gets everyday.

There are also more complainants against the company after some individuals have allegedly been contacting their clients, urging them to complain against Air You Go.

Nuñez said they have proof of such communication between certain individuals and their clients, but they would have to address that another time.

For now, Nuñez said their main priority is to address the company’s backlogs and upcoming bookings. At the same time, she said they hope their clients with concerns about their bookings would go directly to them instead of other people.

Further, Nuñez assured that Air You Go will refund those that needs to be refunded and hopes their clients won’t resolve to violence, which already has been experienced recently.

Calog has reportedly been receiving death threats, as well as his employees. Nuñez said some of the company’s frontline personnel have also been physically harassed by their clients, which was why they had to move to a neutral location.

Calog also reiterated their previous statement that contrary to allegations that they are a scam, he said they are a legitimate agency and in fact have been operating for eight years now and have booked travels of around a million individuals. (FREEMAN)