EBGflyer

I'm booked next week on a flight from PVG-HKG, one-way with Spring Airlines and then connecting to PAL with the routing HKG-MNL-DVO and return a week later.

Spring Airlines (9C 8959) is scheduled to arrive in HKG at 6.35pm and my PAL flight is scheduled to depart at 10.30pm. If everything goes smooth I have tons of time to grab my bag in HKG and check in again.

Recently, I'm seeing quite a few flights out of PVG getting cancelled. So if that happens I will miss my flight in HKG til MNL.

So how flexible are PAL in a situation where I miss the first segment? If I call and let them know instantly would they also cancel my remaining segments on the same PNR?

Your answers are appreciated,

Thx

fpmurphy

I hate to say it to you, but if you miss your flight on PAL, you will probably have to fork out some money for a new ticket. The joys of purchasing tickets on different airlines.

No late checkin either. PAL is fairly rigid about checkin cutoff time.

EBGflyer

Yes, I would assume that's what they would do.

Perhaps they would be a little more flexible if they are notified well in advance. Anyone got experience with that?

I have myself tried to miss my domestic PAL flights after arriving late in MNL with Turkish Airlines and they actually offered me to refund my ticket after the flight departed. Minus the fees, but better than nothing.

I do have insurance to cover for missed connections, but I'd rather not use it

moondog

Why not change your PR ticket to depart from Shanghai and put the problem to rest altogether? This would also have the added benefit of sparing you of 9C.

EBGflyer

2 reasons - schedule and price.

Apparently, PAL doesn't fly until the next day- and not until late in the afternoon on the 18th. There is no flight to connect with on the 17th when I arrive into PVG at 11.50am.

Cebu Pacific and AirAsia has flights at 1am and 3.40am respectively on the 18th, but frankly I try to avoid those as well as it makes the PAL ticket a lot more expensive as I would have to buy a one-way tickets on the return to HKG (flying back to Europe through HKG). Buying a return HKG-MNL-DVO is actually quite affordable, but originating in PVG is not. I would be nice if there were more affordable options between PVG and MNL.

So going to HKG first gives me the opportunity to buy a more affordable return-ticket with PAL (and I don't have to change terminals in MNL) as well as getting me earlier to my destination Davao.

marconess

There is no way they will allow you to miss a segment and just keep the rest of your itinerary in tact. At best, with "warning" they will reprice your itinerary with the new starting detestation but expect to pay the fare difference which will be large. If airlines allowed this, we would all be doing it to avoid the higher fares from hub airports.

EBGflyer

Thanks for your input.

I made my flights, so there was never a problem. Will try to avoid missing segments. Sounds like a lot of problems to deal with.

TravelwhileyouEat

Just to throw this in... PAL is pretty strict with it's fees and will collect them as much as they can. Example, I booked a ticket and wanted to change it to the flight earlier the same day but they would not let me transfer my exit row seat and said I needed to pay for the fee again. After much back and forth, and their bullheadedness, I decided out of principle to just cancel my ticket and swallow the USD 100 refund penalty and USD 30 exit row seat payment. They lost the remaining value of my fare over trying to keep $30 (which for me was so stupid since there was a re-booking fee of $50 which more than made up for the $30 they could have given as goodwill).

I re-booked my flight on another airline which cost me a tad more but I wanted to let my wallet talk and stop flying with them.

R2

This is true to the point that it sometimes gets ridiculous IME.

I was travelling SIN-MNL with my wife on two different PNRs. Flight was pretty full and they can not give us seats next to each other at check-in. She was assigned a seat at the back of the plane, I was given an exit seat (for free, they usually charge for it.)

Once boarding is complete, I ask the purser if my wife can join me as the two seats next to me were vacant. Yes, is the answer, but only if we pay the additional priority seat fee (USD30 or whatever it was).

I decline the offer. A little later they invite her to sit in a vacant seat in the row behind me but despite my very friendly request would not allow her to sit with me in the exit row unless we pay for it.

It wasn't a big deal but I was surprised how rigid they were. If this was requesting someone to move from Economy to Business I would have completely understood it.