It started yesterday. I just want to air out my frustration towards this travel agency that is handling our booking to Manila.
We chose their agency because they are the agency which will be arranging for the raffle prize -- return ticket Syd-Mla-- that Liam won last year. Anyways, we decided to choose them so as to have an easier time dealing with them, considering the background of the raffle prize that Liam won (a different story), and hopefully it will also be a lot easier for us to plan our trip if we are only dealing with one travel agency.
Well, when I asked for a quota early Feb, they gave me a quota right away and gave me a deadline. A deposit is needed (which is actually a thumbs down for me as this was the first time I heard of a travel agency asking for a deposit, it was non-refundable and non-transferable, I was expecting that we will just have cash out, paying everything in full, if our flight needs to be confirmed ), we paid a day late (because we thought it was toooo early to have the flights confirmed considering it was just Feb and our flight is still on October). Anyways, we were given two weeks to give our full payment for our flights to be confirmed. Of course, paying in full would also mean we are protected for whatever price increase they might have in the future, or are we? We gave the remaining balance for our flight way ahead of time. I was actually surprised when the staff informed me that the bank receipt will be forwarded to their boss for their boss to process our e-ticket already. I was surprised because usually when we purchase the tickets online direct from the airline company it only takes minutes for us to have our e-tickets. So anyways, I waited. But after a week of not hearing from them, I e-mailed to follow up. I was given Wednesday or Thursday of last week. But the weekend passed and I still did not hear from them. I am sooooo trying to be good and nice with them because as I have said they will be the ones arranging for the raffle prize ticket which Alvin will be using for his flight going to Manila (he wasn't booked yet because they said we had to wait after March for them to see the price difference of the promotional value given by PAL,ewan but they assured us that Alvin will NOT lose his slot for the dates we told them).
Now back to the story. I e-mailed yesterday to follow it up again only to be told that "there was an extension in the issuance of e-tickets for passengers traveling later this year"...meaning, that includes us! ANd not only that they gave us a time frame, hopefully we will be getting the e-tickets at the end of the month?! What?! A month of waiting for the issuance of e-tickets?! Wait a minute! That started it. I was resisting the urge to get mad, so I tried to be reasonable,thinking of ways on how to calm myself and justify the agency's reasons. But I still researched on the net, called up friends and asked my Kuya who is a frequent traveller. They all gave me the same answer, they get their e-tickets right away. The latest is 2 days. Sometimes delays happen if the client paid using a credit card but in our case, we piad in cash thru bank transfer. I was still not satosfied so I called up PAL, they said the latest for them to issue e-tickets is within 48hours, they checked for my booking reference, yes, our names are there but it also reflects that we haven't paid them yet, considering we have been paid for more than two weeks now! Di ba nakakainis? I was still hesistant to "fight" them because I was afraid that they will make it doubly hard for us when it's time for Alvin to get and confirm his booking. So I asked Alvin to call me at home told him that I will be e-mailing the agency already. Magalit na sila kung magalit, if they make it hard for us when it's Alvin's turn, well we have the Dep't of Fair Trading to rely on, all their emails and promises are kept. Alvin gave the go signal so I emailed them yesterday. This time I cc'd the boss (still giving the benefit of the doubt that it might just be the staff who is inefficient).
Anyways, I told them in my mail all my frustrations and surprise of having to wait for a month just for us to get our e-tickets. And the fact that if I didn't e-mail yesterday to follow it up I wouldn't have known that there was an "extension on the issuance of e-tickets for late travellers." The boss replied still apoligizing and mentioned that they don't course thru PAL their tickets, so saan? E we booked a PAL flight?! And that they work on different conditions. Anyways, they promised again that they will prioritize our e-tickets. I didn't e-mail them again. Up to now, I still don't understand why I have to wait this long. My friends and my Kuya all course their travels thru travel agencies as well so I don't know how this travel agency's system is different from the others.
Naiinis pa rin ako, well, let's just see if they will fulfill their promise of having our e-tickets before the end of the month. I will not name the agency yet, because I just mentioned that we still have to be nice with them because of Alvin's flight (if worse comes to worse I will ask the help of the org that had the raffle, they should be the one coordinating with them, right? But that will be our last resort). Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.
