PAL Flight PR 8137

My original flight at 4PM was PR 813. But PAL living up to its name of Plane Always Late, it was changed to PR 8137. The seven must have been gotten from the number of hours our flight was late. Nakamshet. I ended up leaving manila at 11PM! What could be worse than that? Oh, just waiting 12 hours to take your flight. Just like what happened to my boss.

What pisses me off was not the delay per se. Unforeseen circumstances are exactly that - unforeseen. Nobody wants to be delayed. Not the passengers. Not the airport staff. Especially not PAL. As it is costly. My new friend and I (even anti-social people like me would end up with a kindred spirit when stuck seven hours in a closed space. our ties being... we were on the same flight. and uh, she went up to me first. i'd have finished the book i had with me. and would even read it twice over just to avoid approaching strangers.) even ended up stuffing ourselves with an arroz caldo snack (which is more lugaw as it doesn't contain anything but rice and no chicken. baka nga am pa!) and a pork barbecue meal from St. Cinammon (sagot ng PAL syempre), plus airport snack (the usual biscuit and Nutrilicious) and KFC two-piece meal (not bad!) provided by PAL.

What pisses me off is that deception was happening throughout the seven hours we were waiting. We were informed at 330 that the flight was going to be delayed and we were leaving 630. So, okay. Typical of PAL and not unexpected. And I can still catch the frisbee game in Agro. By the time it was 6PM, another announcement was made that we will be leaving at 845 instead. Whadapacksyetisdis? So I thought, okay so no more game for me. But I will still be able to catch the 1130 rerun of American Idol. By the time it was 730, Eli (the new friend) got news that the plane was leaving at 1045. This was before any announcement was made.

Apparently, by 6PM PAL already knew that the flight would be leaving at 1045, but were making announcement of increments of two hours for the delay, which we assume was probably to avoid any responsibility of housing the passengers. Pusanggala! Ano yan? That pissed me off sooooo much. I wanted to go to the management and pick a fight. But Eli was stopping me.

I, for one, just really needed to vent my irritation at the situation. My trip last December with Cebu Pacific was also four hours delayed. And after all those wasted time, all they give you is an apology and if you're lucky, a snack.

For this particular event, if PAL already knew we were leaving at 11PM by six o'clock, they should just have told us. They should have just given us the option of going out for a proper dinner or to go back home or to just get out of the airport to take a breath. I could have spent some more quality and quantity time with Jan! Or watched Rome and Juliet (mehn, two of the hottest actresses i'm kinda lusting after playing lesbian lovers. hot pare!). Or Music and Lyrics. Or something other then sitting on the cold steel seats of the airport, hiding along with new found friend (long story, bloggable but I won't bother. best told live.), wasting hard earned pesoses informing people about the delay. Agh. I mean, it could be that they are obliged to house us which would entail a very large expense. But heck, how many people riding the plane would know that? I'd think it, but I wouldn't know for sure. Unless by some serendipity convenient for the passengers there's a consumer lawyer present (mon salas, reason to ponder some more on that consumer watch NGO. hehe!) for that flight.

And here's what really, really, really gets my goat. Why is it that when a passenger does not make it on time for the check-in, we are forced to pay a no-show fee plus an additional amount when we change flights when these effin' airlines can delay the passengers for hours and hours and hours on end and just give an apology and some food? Where's the justice in that? Nakakainis lang talaga!

I understand that inconveniences other passengers should one come late. But still, they are taking advantage of the people!!! Dapat, dapat, dapat... if their flights are late for an hour, or even two, they should provide their passengers with a No-Show Fee Waiver Card for Your Next Flight much like a Get Out of Jail Card in Monopoly. Just to balance things out. Hello! Time is Gold kaya. The seven hours they delayed us is almost a full day of work, a sufficient amount of rest, quality time with friends and family... Time is too priceless to be wasted on an airport terminal! Unless you're Tom Hanks.

But typically Filipino, most of the people were still calmly waiting in their seats. Definitely a lot of complaints here and there, but I don't think there were any threats of a class suit or anything like that. People were adjusting their schedules according to the delay. New friends were made (like me). More people were smiling or just quiet rather then intensely angry. It's really such a Pinoy attitude - c'est la vie... that's life. No wonder GMA keeps pushing and pushing us, because we just complain in our seats but stop there and move on smiling to ourselves and think, "maybe this delay happened for a reason. If we left on time, our plane would have crashed." Soooooo Pinoy talaga.

And typically Filipino, it makes me glad I'm one.

That's another notch up for the Philippine happiness index. Sheesh.