Budget Travel - Cebu Pacific Won't Let Me Buy A Ticket!

Cebu Pacific has some great rates and I would like to make some reservations for flights next January.

Problem: No matter how many different credit cards I try, I have not been able to confirm and pay for my reservations. The web site states that they do not accept US issued Visa cards nor do they accept "some" US issued Master Cards.
They do not accept ant form of AMEX cards.

I tried to phone the Manila call center - and gave up after 12 minutes on hold.

I would welcome any suggestions regarding how I can make my reservations.

I haven't tried myself, but would it be possible to book through a third party like Travelocity?

Perhaps I should have mentioned that I have tried Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Ziji and a bunch of other third pary agents. As with most other LCCs, Cebu Pacific does not pay travel agent commissions.

As a general observation, most third part agents are a complete rip-off for low fare fare flights for not only do they charge $10-15 per booking, they also charge for FEDEX (or similar) delivery of the tickets. These charge can add $40 to a $27 fare.

But thanks for the suggestion

I booked a HK-Manila flight last year no problem on a Canadian issued Visa card.

I was able to successfully book flights in March for a trip in June of 2007.
However, yesterday I tried to book a flight from MNL to TAG and was unable to. I tried using both a VISA and a MC issued by different banks.
I'm going to western union funds to a friend in MNL to purchase the tickets for me.
Another website to try is: http://www.filipinotravel.com.ph/tickets/reservation.php It takes 3 days to process reservations and you have to pickup the tickets in Manila or have them delivered in the metro manila area.

It doesn't do any good to email Cebu either as they never answer their emails.

I tried to phone the Manila call center - and gave up after 12 minutes on hold.



I've found the Cebu call center much easier to get through to than the Manila call center.

This is amazing -- I have been trying for days to purchase a simple BKK-MNL ticket on this carrier's website. After going through the tedious process of entering ALL information, and trying all of my credit cards (all of which are valid and have plenty of available funds), at the last moment they are all declined. (Yet, somehow, Cebu does manage to actually debit some of the accounts at the same time the authorization is denied -- how does THAT happen?)

Is this an airline that is aggressively promoting a policy of discouraging people from flying with it?

Am I crazy???? Has anyone figured out the CEBU SECRET, or should I keep my blood pressure in check and fly with a more-expensive-but-reliable alternative?

Thanks!

Have you tried calling them or a travel agent?

MisterNice

aroydee,

Google advanced search, but I knew this topic came up before @:-)

Now your request is neatly added to that thread.

EmailKid
Budget Travel Moderator

Cebu Pacific´s online booking is simply a roulette game hit or miss.
And it takes great patience until you finally can make a booking.

I have flown a couple of times on 5J and booking was always difficult (and i have German Credit cards)
Highest score was usually with VISA.

If you want to book C.P. it takes pure luck ! Reservations hotline is most of the time "busy" - best to try call them between 2am and 4am Philippine Time.

For the peace of mind you may book with Air Asia to Clark (50mi north of Manila) and i can promise you this booking will work !!!

If you intend to travel domestic in the Philippines i´d recommend looking at www.airphils.com or www.zestair.com !

Either ITN International or Budget Travel...the passenger was told he could pick up his ticket in Manila! I think he gave up.

Cebu Pacific like many airline portals in the Philippines have been plagued by either credit card fraud or inept programmers. Anyway - I feel your pain. None of my US based credit cards work. I just simply gave up but I did find that my US issued VISA debit card works fine as well as my Canadian MasterCard (I have this card flagged for Global Purchases).

Yes - as another poster stated - try Air Asia.

I recently gave a friend who was buying a ticket on 5J the big speech about how the transaction probably wouldn't go through, and it did first time.

Just goes to show it is a lucky dip I suppose.

After trying about ten times to purchase a ticket on their own website with all of my perfectly valid credit cards, I went to a CEBU PACIFIC ticket office in Manila. Believe it or not, it gets even worse there. They have a few tiny under-staffed ticket offices generally in shopping malls. They are overflowing with people waiting to make a transaction. My wait was more than one hour.

When I finally got to see a customer service (sic) agent, I explained my problem. They saw that I had attempted many puchases, and then laughed at me. They also told me that the fare they showed me trying to purchase would no longer be offered to me, and attempted to sell me a much much higher priced fare.

BTW: Cebu Pacific also does NOT answer consumer complaints.

My solution: Find another carrier and pray that Cebu Pacific goes out of business and is replaced by a carrier that actually cares about its customers. (AIRASIA here I come....)

After trying about ten times to purchase a ticket on their own website with all of my perfectly valid credit cards, I went to a CEBU PACIFIC ticket office in Manila. Believe it or not, it gets even worse there. They have a few tiny under-staffed ticket offices generally in shopping malls. They are overflowing with people waiting to make a transaction. My wait was more than one hour.

When I finally got to see a customer service (sic) agent, I explained my problem. They saw that I had attempted many puchases, and then laughed at me. They also told me that the fare they showed me trying to purchase would no longer be offered to me, and attempted to sell me a much much higher priced fare.

BTW: Cebu Pacific also does NOT answer consumer complaints.

My solution: Find another carrier and pray that Cebu Pacific goes out of business and is replaced by a carrier that actually cares about its customers. (AIRASIA here I come....)

Yep, Air Asia is my first choice in SE Asia as well!

Unfortunately they´re useless for philippine domestic flights ...
What i found out is that Air Philippines and Philippine Airlines are cheaper than Cebu Pacific when you book at short notice. (albeit you won´t get the best deals at short notice anyway but C.P.´s fares skyrocket when booked at short notice)
You may try Zest Air as well for domestic but not from/to Caticlan (MPH) as the aircraft they use on that route is not suited for the short runway at MPH - leading to already 2 "incidents" there ...
Otherwise Zest Air is probably not worse than others ...

My solution: Find another carrier and pray that Cebu Pacific goes out of business and is replaced by a carrier that actually cares about its customers. (AIRASIA here I come....)

Unfortunately, Cebu Pacific's only competition within the Philippines is PAL Express (A subsidiary of Philippine Airlines and they are not any better) and Zest Air with Chinese Turboprops that keep falling off the end of runways.

Unfortunately, Cebu Pacific's only competition within the Philippines is PAL Express (A subsidiary of Philippine Airlines and they are not any better) and Zest Air with Chinese Turboprops that keep falling off the end of runways.

:D

BTW you can book with Cebu Pacific with a Halifax card in the UK but not a A&L, Nationwide or LLoyds!

Tried many cards..

I know it sucks but Cebu Pacific has had to limit their credit card facility because of rampant fraud. LOTS of people complain about dealing with this and refunds. FYI TO ALL OF YOU...PR HAS SOME FARES THAT ARE EXCELLENT AND YOU GET A MUCH BETTER PRODUCT. EVEN INTRA-ASIA PR IS VERY COMPETITIVE WITH FARES.

Someone was able to use an Aussie site (http://www.bestflights.com.au/)in this post in LCC sticky (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/search.php?searchid=4133850) to book a flight on a European LCC. Wonder if it would work with Cebu Pacific :confused:

EmailKid

This has been a constant battle for me. MHG's assessment that Cebu Pacific´s online booking is simply a roulette game hit or miss is completely accurate.

Very recently I have had success a couple of times with a US issued VISA DEBIT card and before that a US issued MasterCard DEBIT card. I have also had success in the past with a Citibank Mastercard "virtual account number" which is generated by logging onto citibank.com and selecting the Virtual Account Number feature from the tools and services menu. I have no idea why the virtual account number worked when the actual card fails, but it did more than once. In the case of the debit cards I theorize they may favor debit cards over credit cards because you have less rights to dispute a charge than you do with a credit card but that is pure conjecture on my part.

I wish they would just accept that they are to incompetent to implement a functional credit card billing system themselves and just take PayPal instead.

Any chance the credit card issuers are actually rejecting the charges? I've had a charge for a flight on an overseas LCC rejected; you should be able to call up the credit card customer service people and ask if the charge was attempted and if so, why it failed. That might also be why the Citi virtual account # worked; the process of obtaining one may be considered a form of preauthorization.

Two replied in one:

My attempts to use my DEBIT (as opposed to CREDIT) cards also met with no luck at all -- although there is plenty of cash to cover, the payment attempts would not go through.

I have checked with my card issuers, and they report that NO attempt at authorization had been made by Cebu Pacific... and since I am traveling I have notified them that they would be charge activity from Southeast Asia during these months.

Curiously (or perhaps not so), Cebu Pacific also refuses to answer any of my inquiries or complaints -- and the "customer service" (sic) people merely disconnect me when I ask what is going on over the phone.

Although I am not a "free market" advocate, this is one case where I do hope that the market's invisible hand plays its role and sends this airline the way of People's Express.... into the dustbin of history!

There goes the debit card theory. I think it is just a total crap shoot. Usually it doesn't work. Every once in a while it does work. Through shear dogged persistence. My last Cebu Pacific ticket was easy enough to book but the flight was later canceled when they didn't sell enough tickets. Probably they didn't sell enough tickets because there website doe not work. I've got another flight in 2 days. I bought the ticket on-line 3 weeks ago with the US debit card so I know it does occasionally work.

On another side topic - even if you do get the card to work, the aircraft designated for that flight may change and as such, any extra fees you may have paid for your exit row seat may go to waste.

I recently flew from CDO to Manila and paid extra for my exit row seat. The equipment was changed and the system does not automatically re-assign your seat to the new exit row. You just keep the original seat number and Cebu Pacific keeps your money! I can't tell the difference between a A319 and a A320 on a tarmac and the ladies at check in are clueless. It is only after you board that you realise that your premium seat is just another seat and the guy who is sitting in the premium seat paid nothing! eek!

Further on my ordeal with Cebu Pacific....

Since I am traveling for a long time, I check my account activity online almost every day.

It seems that when I tried out the DEBIT card option, the situation got even worse. Cebu, of course, declined the purchase BUT they did debit my account!!!! So now, not only have they refused to issue a ticket for me they have also taken (STOLEN?) money from my account.

And since it is a debit (not credit) card, this is going to be even more diffciult to resolve.

I think the lesson is clear: under no circumstances deal with this airline. Any attempt to do business with them is highly highly risky.

It seems that when I tried out the DEBIT card option, the situation got even worse. Cebu, of course, declined the purchase BUT they did debit my account!!!! So now, not only have they refused to issue a ticket for me they have also taken (STOLEN?) money from my account.

Yes, the very same thing happened to a couple of my friends, so it is NOT an isolated case.

I can't tell the difference between a A319 and a A320 (http://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data/stats.main?id=23&submit=Search)on a tarmac and the ladies at check in are clueless.

A318 and A319 (http://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data/stats.main?id=22&submit=Search) can be hard to tell apart because they both only have one overwing emergency exit, but the A320 is easy to tell because it has two overwing emergency exits.

But I do share your frustration about losing exit row seats, especially when you paid for them.

UA was none too apologetic when they substituted CRJ700 for a CRJ200, and my exit row seat turned into a non reclining back row in front of the lav :mad:

And I paid for the priviledge of reserving the exit row seat by being a 1P, something I achieved by flying UA over other carriers even when their prices were higher.

EmailKid

Before this gets too boring...

Even though Cebu Pacific claims that they cannot process my attempts to use my credit and/or debits cards either at their ticket offices, at the airport, or on their web site -- they still have managed to somehow remove funds from THREE of my accounts!

Is there any legal action I can take against them? (I am a US resident)

You cannot believe how many hours I have wasted on all this and the emotional strain it has created.

Please, please.... never try to deal with these people -- and do tell friends and families and colleagues...!

I know it sucks but Cebu Pacific has had to limit their credit card facility because of rampant fraud....From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (July 8th 2009):

NBI warns public vs credit card fraud (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view/20090708-214407/NBI-warns-public-vs-credit-card-fraud)

"The National Bureau of Investigation warned Tuesday the public, particularly frequent travelers, against purchasing airline tickets from unauthorized agents who could be part of or in connivance with unscrupulous groups involved in credit card fraud.....

The warning came following the arrest of four Nigerians who were part of a syndicate which allegedly purchased electronic plane tickets through fraudulently acquired credit cards."

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (July 8th 2009):

NBI warns public vs credit card fraud (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view/20090708-214407/NBI-warns-public-vs-credit-card-fraud)

"The National Bureau of Investigation warned Tuesday the public, particularly frequent travelers, against purchasing airline tickets from unauthorized agents who could be part of or in connivance with unscrupulous groups involved in credit card fraud.....

The warning came following the arrest of four Nigerians who were part of a syndicate which allegedly purchased electronic plane tickets through fraudulently acquired credit cards."

This does not address at all the fact that Cebu Pacific offers credit card purchase as an option on their own web site, then seems to decline all attempts to buy a ticket (only then to STILL take the money from the customers' accounts without issuing a ticket). THEN, all the "web only" fares they offer are used as a "bait and switch" so that the flyer will have to purchase a much higher fare later on.

I KNOW it is unethical, I assume it is illegal.... but what is more significant is that it is just downright SLEAZY. (I write this as I am attempting to recover more than a half-dozen debits that Cebu Pacific made from various credit cards and bank accounts that I own.)

Buyers -- beware!