Zest Air Flights s-u-c-k bigtime: My 9hr flight delay experience
Posted by on August 27, 2010
I have been flying via Zest Air for several times now. And since they started flying to major airports like 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 Dont 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 light vouchers 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 Relations Manager. 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…
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I know the feeling….same thing happened to me mid July. MNL-CEB bound when the lady at the check-in counter informed me that my 8:20am flight will be moved to 12:55pm due to aircraft servicing….all Zest Air flights that day were delayed….some of their flights were provided food (if u can call that food) for compensation….mas masarap pa nga ang pagkain sa jollijeep kesa sa binigay sa mga stranded na pasahero…they should give you travel vouchers……SEVERAL TRAVEL VOUCHERS dapat since you’re taking your flight with them for lots of times already….it was my first time using Zest Air, and with that hindi na ako uulit na kumuha ng flight sa kanila.
[...] Zest Air Flights s-u-c-k bigtime: My 9hr flight delay experience Posted in Events, Family, Lifestyle, Syndicated Posts, Travel on August 27, 2010 [...]
flying with zest air is a NIGHTMARE. will never fly with the airline even if its for free. had a very bad and harrowing experience with the airline and it’s useless talking with their people because they cannot and will not do anything with your complaints. manigas ka na lang and wala talaga silang pakialam.
asa ka naman! E promo fare ka lang.. Gumastos ka kaya ng mas mahal para maexperience mo mga luho mo! Pucha! Kaya nga mahal magparebook ng promo fare.. I hope you’re getting the point that you are not the priority.. mareklamo ka naman.. Nangyayari talaga na madelay ang flights!
@asa ka! either promo or regular fare pa ang naging ticket mo, hindi biro ang ma-delay ng 9 hours sa flight….mapa domestic or international flight pa yan…
just saying…
asa ka: Cge sabihin mo din yan sa naka regular fare na kasama sa flight namin. whether naka promo or regular fare.. pare pareho kmi na 9hr delay.
t yung premium airline na sinasabi mo… nagkaka delay din yun.. baka di mo lang alam
I’m one of the passengers of this flight. Being on promo fare does not mean you don’t have the right to complain of bad customer service.
And in this case, being on promo fare is actually outside the point because, if I may again repeat what Enrico said:
1. All the passengers were delayed… the promo fare passengers AND those who paid regular fares – all of us waited for 9 hours.
2. Flights do get delayed – and this happens in ALL airlines, both in budget airlines and premium airlines. And we understand that sometimes, this is inevitable.
The point of this post is the BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE of Zest Air.
Think about this:
It was 9pm when we received the call that our flight is delayed to 3am.
The agent who called us said that the plane got serviced in Kalibo and but is now ready for takeoff to Korea.
From Korea, it would fly to Cebu for us.
Hours of travel from Kalibo to Incheon: at least 3 hours
Hours of travel from Incheon to Cebu: at least 4 hours
9pm plus 7 hours equals 4am
And this calculation is just for the hours of flight and does not include the time for boarding, etc.
At that point, we knew that our 3am departure will NOT happen. Why was Zest Air being untruthful? We don’t know.
Now, after realizing that the 3am ETD is impossible, we asked for possible accommodations for the night or at least travel vouchers for the inconvenience.
But they did not give any.
Why did we ask?
Because that’s what other airlines do.
1. One PAL flight I was in got delayed from 7pm to 2am. Everyone was taken to a restaurant for dinner and checked into a hotel where we could comfortably wait and rest.
2. One Cebu Pacific flight I was in got delayed from 4pm to 8pm. Travel vouchers was given to those who requested for it.
3. A friend who flew Air Philippines got delayed for 10 hours, she received travel vouchers as well.
Again, we are complaining about the poor way Zest Air handles their customers when such delays occur.
We are expressing our disappointment that they couldn’t handle such complaints any better.
Remember, we gave them more than a week to do something about our complaint letter but received no feedback whatsoever… tumawag na lang daw ulit ako.
Thus, in the end – it was a lesson learned for all us.
I plan my travels months ahead and I still have 3 more booked flights with them. I just hope this kind of customer service would not happen to me in those upcoming flights.
But I’m already resolved… after that – no more Zest Air.
I’m planning to go to tablas island this September and the only option I have to fly there is via Zest because there are the only one who fly to tablas early in the morning. I’m afraid that I might also experience the delay of their flights although I’m getting a regular rate for the ticket because there is no available promo.I really need to be in tablas early because I have only one day to process my moms late registration of her birth certificate
Ugh. Sakit sa ulo. Sana may handa sila sa mga ganitong mga pagkakataon. Six hours is six hours. Laking bagay kaya non. Dapat handa, lalo pa’t lagi naman silang delayed
Mahirap na experience yan..
hey, get a crappy airline, get crappy service. thats why i get pal, kahit mahal at least they give a liiiiiiiiitle consideration
I understand your frustration about what happened to your flight. Like you, I am a traveler too and events like these are inevitable sometimes. That is why it is important to get travel insurance (flight delay benefit, cancellation & interruption benefits, etc). Zest Air did a terrible act on completely ignoring its passengers. Being a budget airline doesn’t mean they also have to offer services that are not as par as other premium airlines. I have never taken Zest Air yet but have flown thru other budget airlines across SEA and the US. A simple treat like take away dinner will do. Demanding travel vouchers are probably beyond their budget? It looks like this is another bitter pill that is hard to swallow.
This happened to me and Ada rin October 2009. 7 hours delayed ang flight and since then, medyo hesitant na akong sumakay sa zestair.
Naku Eric kabanas naman etong experience nyo. Pero mas maswerte pa kayo ng onti kasi they gave you jollibee and softdrinks haha kami sa AIRPHIL nung nadelay grabe tuna sandwich at tubig na maligamgam!
When we went to complain tho we didn’t ask that we wanted travel vouchers…. we wanted explanations and heads to roll… they gave the roundtrip vouchers to tame us kasi we were really mad at what they did….
but what we were really asking was heads to roll and it did major revamp sa AirPhil now…
pero 7 lang kami nakakuha ng voucher ung mga nagpursue lang to file a complaint I am not sure what happened to the rest in our flight 177 passengers kaya kami… and until now ala paring feedback from them
akala siguro nila mananahimik kami no way
Ngek di na ako sasakay niyan. Talagang wala silang paki sa mga pasahero.
yes, please dont bother with zest air ever again. our 835 flight to cebu tomorrow will be delayed daw to 1630 tom. I booked the flight a month ago, but they just informed us just around 7pm. you have to yell for them to do something kung hindi sira plano mo. Now my friends and I are booked into different airlines at different flight scheds. Imagine friends having a quick holiday together wasting time to wait for the each other.
and im scared for the flight back to manila. I have work the next day. what is wrong with this airline?
Zest Air delays are a norm, happened to us last year we were in Bohol ready for our noon flight to Manila then was advised will be delayed to 4pm, ok went to a mall to kill time, then it happened at 5pm they announced that due to runway conditions flight would be for the following day (which is BS coz PAL just took off about 430pm). But in fairness, they billeted us to a hotel and shouldered dinner and transpo to hotel and airport . It was a nigthmare coz I had to miss work. But never again would I fly Zest Air.
[...] until.. Eric had his wildly unimaginable 9-hour flight delay with Zest Air! Read more about it here… Gawd, I am a not-so-patient person and I can’t imagine myself in such situation… [...]
zest air- Not GOOD! they never inform their client n advance for change of schedule. I will never fly with Zest Air again.
[...] Read the story of my Cebu-Manila Zest Air flight through Byahilo here: Zest Air Flights s-u-c-k bigtime: My 9hr flight delay experience [...]
[...] Byahilo: The guy (sorry I forgot his name) just told us “Sa pre-departure na lang kayo sire matulog kasi [...]
Your record has been beaten, zest air flight Davao to Manila delayed 15 hours last January 2, 2011. details on this blog http://conradmiguel.com/zest-air-fml
Oh my goodness! I am about to book return domestic flights MNL-BCD with zest air. I won’t be doing that now. It looks like delays is a regular occurence, and absolutely disgusting customer service. i won’t be flying with this kind of airline even if it is free. NO THANK YOU. Thanks for posting you experiences to warn others.
hmmnn… if you want considerations better to take your flights in PAL,.. y?? it’s because I’ve Got this experience of having a 12hrs. flight delay, and we thought that we will not be accommodated by their hotel check-in because were only CHANCE PASSENGERS… BUT, everyone whose flight was delay where brought in a hotel and served with food.. so I don’t feel disappointed because of the delay of the flight, in fact i enjoyed it… ^_^
wag na kayo sumakay sa zest air… do not patronize poor servicing airlines… come to think apat lang airbuses nila…. syempre di kaya iserve lahat …. ambisyoso lang talaga zest air… akala ganun kadali magpalakad airline…. yaks….
ZESTAIR STEWARDESS STOLE OUR VERY NEW ONLY 3 DAYS OLD BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK!
We just had a trip yesterday from Bellaroca, Marinduque to Manila.
Flight was delayed for 3 hours, we left Marinduque at 4PM.
My boyfriend’s bag can’t fit at the overhead baggage area so we gave it to the stewardess to keep.
When we got home my boyfriend discovered it’s stolen, plus his bag’s zipper was damaged probably due to the hurry of the stewardess.
We can’t remember her name but we can recognize her if we see her again.
I know it’s our responsibility to check after she gave it to us.
When you’re boarding off the plan all you can think of is go home especially when you’re already tired.
Also passengers should be rest assured that their baggages are safe with whom they travel with.
We can buy another one again, it’s the TRUSTWORTHINESS and the feeling of VULNERABILITY once we ride a plane now that gets to us.
We have written 2 complaints, 1 to Zestair and 1 to Bellaroca because it’s the only airline that flies there and we believe management needed to know that this happens and might happen again to their guests.
We plan on pursuing this complaint wherever it takes us for the benefit of other passengers like us.
When we travel we should be relaxed and worry-free.
Thanks,
beige