Cebu Pacific and My Stolen Luggage

Booking cheap flights in the Philippines is not something Jurassic. It has a fare share of modern features that are not normally a give away for third world countries. Unfortunately, it only ends on your booking process… I would dare assume that this is most likely a booking software that Cebu Pacific did not do by themselves and rather have been done by some efficient entity. A simple lost luggage routine should have been part of some risk management manual they have being a big company but they consistently fail to handle. I just hope they have with them efficient staff to handle emergencies as I now begin to doubt that they do.

Cebu Pacific left my luggage to be stolen and they don’t give a damn about it. (If you are new to this site kindly check out a summary on my About page) They left me hanging with nothing but my baggage claim stub that is obviously worthless without them doing anything about it.

When we arrived at the terminal of Bacolod-Silay Airport, I clearly remember that I arrived at the conveyor belt before it was even turned on. As I normally do, I positioned myself near the beginning of the luggage entry point thinking that I get to see and have my bag at first exposure. For that particular day, 5J-479 did not have my bag. The conveyor belt stopped, the baggage claim area became empty other than me, my staff and the guard on duty. I immediately reported it to the guard on duty in the most casual manner and the guard said that there’s this chance that the luggage could be on board on the later flight. He told me further that I can wait for the next flight arrival or they will just send it directly to me on my preferred address which sounded like a sweet deal. So I decided to just let the long day pass and wait for an update from Cebu Pacific.

The next day at around 6:35am (Saturday of June 19, 2010), I received a call from Mr “Robert Jance”, the head of security for Cebu Pacific in Bacolod-Silay Airport terminal, who informed me that no unclaimed bag was found up to the time of call. He further told me that there is a possibility that the luggage will come on a more later flight so it would be best to wait for the weekend to pass and do a follow-up by Monday. (I will post my personal opinion on this on my future posts)

The night of that same day, around 10:15pm, a certain Joseph sent me an SMS message saying that he has my bag. I immediately dialled this Joseph guy but he was rejecting my calls saying that his mobile battery is low and told me he’ll just text me when he finds a charger. After around five (5) minutes, he sent me another SMS telling me I can now call. So I did.

The voice conversation with Joseph was light. He told me he’s sorry to accidentally get my luggage and that it was accidentally part of a five (5) piece luggage he has. He also said that it passed security checks so he didn’t mind as he had somebody carry it out of the terminal. He also further told me that he got with him somebody else’s bag other than mine. While conversing, Joseph became interested with what I do being able to read across my travel itineraries, plane e-tickets, succeeding travel plans as well as other notes on my scribble notebook. He asked a lot of questions about my personal circumstances. I don’t have much of a choice but to be polite considering that the guy I’m talking to, though sounded so intrusive already, has with him several important items that I have including a company ID with barcode and magstrip information. Anyhow, Joseph swiftly offered to send back my luggage at his own cost. He says he just can’t return it to the nearest airport as he was currently stationed at Malaybalay, Bukidnon for a project — being an architect. I told him we’ll further coordinate once we have informed Cebu Pacific so that it is properly channeled. It wouldn’t happen however until Monday in consideration for office hours.

Monday came, at about 7:15am, I called Mr Jance about the conversation with Joseph, then he told me they’ll take it from there. Gave him the number of Joseph along with other details as discussed over the phone. After the call, I texted Joseph about the status but this time, I did not get any response from him.

On my succeeding post I will detail what transpired between the conversation of Joseph and Mr Jance as detailed by Mr Jance to me when I went back to the airport for follow-up.

Tomorrow will mark the 3rd month since my luggage was stolen. I have specifically bought this domain to get the attention of Cebu Pacific’s senior management and hope to resolve this problem once and for all. As far as I can see it, the field managers are useless as to resolving this issue. They do not seem to see the possible impact of their poor customer service. As of this writing I have seen a lot of blog sites sharing the same misfortune I got. This is what happens when you book cebu pacific.