Just want to share this awful story about Zest Air Philippines which happened recently. On August 16-17, several passengers of Zest Air's Manila-bound flight experienced a 9-hour delay. Worse, they were not even given proper accommodation and food to compensate for the inconvenience. Kahit pa promo fare sila, they shouldn't be treated that way because they are still customers! I haven't tried flying via Zest Air yet but I don't think I would anytime soon. This is so annoying especially if you have a strict travel schedule. Sira lahat ng travel plans dahil sa flight delays. Thank God I haven't experienced anything like this before...siguro magwawala talaga ako if it would happen!
Below is Byahilo.com's story about Zest Air's unsatisfactory customer service. Kayo na mag-judge. :/
"I have been flying via Zest Air for several times now. And since they started flying to major airportslike Iloilo Bacolod and Cebu, I never had any complaints about their service, whatsoever. I am so used to 1 or 2-hour flight delays. I just simply pass it off as a normal occurrence. In fact, last August 20 I flew to Davao for the Kadayawan Festival via Zest Air/
So while we were having a good dinner in Cebu City August 16, at around 9PM, Don received a phone call from a Zest Air agent, Don gave the phone to Fitz who talked to the agent.
Right after the call, Fitz told us that our August 16, 11:55PM flight for Manila will be delayed to August 17, 3AM. Right there and then I said to my two travel buddies that we need a place to stay since we still have 6 hours before flight departure.
Immediately we headed out of the restaurant, got our luggage, and proceeded to the airport to check on the latest update regarding our flight. At the check in counter, the Zest Air staff confirmed that our flight is indeed delayed and is scheduled to arrive at 3AM. This is due to servicing done to the aircraft, which just left the Kalibo airport and is bound for Incheon South Korea. From Incheon the plane will be flying to Cebu to pick us up and fly to Manila.
Right after they said that the plane is currently flying to Korea, I know right at that moment that we’re not going to depart at 3AM. I was pretty sure of that. So i asked Don and Fitz that we go to the Zest Air office and ask for an accommodation (at least a decent place) where we can sleep. But the staff at the office cannot provide us with any, so I asked if we can be transferred to the next flight out of Cebu, but they cannot also accommodate our request, as according them, they don’t have internal arrangements with local airlines in cases like this.
The guy (sorry I forgot his name) just told us “Sa pre-departure na lang kayo sire matulog kasi comfortable naman mga benches dun“. Talaga lang ha. for all the rest of the Passengers? You’ll do nothing?
So we ask if we can talk to their Manager. Because we NEED a place to sleep. Imagine, we were already out of the hotel at 12noon, and have been all over the city, ikot ikot, then at 9PM we were told that our flight is rescheduled to 3AM?
Minutes later we were approached by Archibald Brillantes, Zest Air Cebu’s station manager. Just like the previous guy, same explanations were given. No accomodations, no flight transfers. The only thing that they can do is full refund of our airfare, and if we want, we’ll just buy the plane ticket in another airline.
HELLO PROMO FARES PO KAMI. 488PESOS. If you refund that whole amount, I bet, I can’t get any plane ticket from other airlines with that amount. another offer given to us was 150Pesos taxi fare if we want to go out of the airport muna. PERO PANO NAMAN PO YNUG ACCOMMODATIONS? AT OUR EXPENSE?
DI PO BA KAMI NA ANG NA INCONVENIENCE SA CASE NA ITO?
So we were literally left with no option but to just stay at the pre departure area. Isa isang row ng bench kami. I tried to sleep, but I keep on waking up after 20 or 30 minutes.
At around 3AM, One Piece Jollibee Chicken meal with 1 small Coke was served to passengers. That is the only food option we had. Aside from Dunkin Donuts, all other food stalls inside the airport are closed.
It was already 3AM, but no update of our flights yet. No sign of the aircraft arriving soon.
If I am not mistaken, it was already around 5AM, when we were informed that the plane from Incheon will be arriving at around 7:30AM, and our Manila flight is scheduled at 8AM. Hello, sino matutuwa sa news na ito? Umaga na di pa kmi nakakatulog ng maayos.
The plane arrived around 7:30AM. During this time, a lot of our friends have already asking us to go back to the office and demand for travel vouchers. they added that we are already entitled for this since we are already delay for quite a long time now.
So off we went to the office, during this time, we were already met by Jean Bejoc, who’s working for the morning shift. We asked her if we can have travel vouchers since we’re almost 9 hours delayed. She said that Zest Air do not have such thing and they do not give out travel vouchers even if the passengers were already delayed by 9 hours. We asked her if we can talk to her manager so that we can voice out our frustration regarding this incident. She said, her manager is currently at the check in counter busy with the check in process.
Mag bo-boarding na kami nag papa check in pa rin kayo? Di ba 45 minutes nag clo-close ang check in counters?
In short, we never got to meet the Morning shift manager. So I just told Fitz and Don that we’ll go directly to the Zest Air office in Manila upon arrival.
Finally, we left Mactan Cebu International Airport at 8:45AM. 9 hours delayed.
Upon arrival at the Old Domestic Terminal in Manila, we then headed toward the Zest Air office to complain. We were approached by Karen Bayog. We told our harrowing experience at the Cebu Airport, at the hands of the incompetent Zest Air Cebu Staff. We told her that we are asking for lightvouchers because, we believe, we are entitled for this with all the inconveniences we experienced in Cebu.
Karen Bayog said we file our complaint address to Miss Jocelyn Trinidad, the Customer RelationsManager. so we did file out complaint, explaining every detail of the story.
Karen Bayog said we wait for a few days for feedback. But until now we haven’t heard any news from them?
Does this mean our complaints just went to the deaf ears?
Diosko Zest Air, umayos kayo. I still have a few flights with you. Ayoko na maulit ito.
Postscript: you might wonder why this posy only appeared today. As much as possible I wanted to keep this issue between me/Dont/Fitz and Zest Air. Fitz has been trying to follow up our complaint but it seems that no one is interested to resolve our complaint. For how many times, he’s asked “Tumawag ka na lang ulit..”
During his last call, he was asked to call again today, FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010. But as usual, wala pa rin. So I have finally decided to post this. I have actually written this blog post last August 18, but kept it in my Drafts because I was really hoping for this issue to be resolved internally. But it looks like Zest Air is not willing to do its part.
Ill just finish all my plane tickets with Zest Air, at ayoko na sumakay ulit. Alam nyo ba ang ibig sabihin ng Customer Service at Customer Satisfaction?
Ewan ko lang…"
