22 January 2012 @ 10:09 pm
I hate you, Philippine Airlines.  
Originally posted at http://thenextmela.tumblr.com/post/16283121628/i-hate-you-philippine-airlines

(A more detailed post to follow, maybe.)

So my mom bought me a MNL->SYD return ticket last May 2011. She bought it online and forwarded the e-mail confirmation to my e-mail address.

Her June 2011 statement confirmed that she paid for the amount charged to her credit card.

Yesterday, January 21, 2012, I checked in around 6:30 AM for the 9 AM flight. (Take note: PAL doesn't have an online check-in system.) No problems there -- I was able to get my (preferred aisle) seat, and clear customs. I was waiting patiently at the gate for the call to board.

Ten minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave, I was called to the counter and was told that I did not have a ticket.

The staff member told me that I had to go to the ticketing office to get a ticket otherwise I wouldn't be able to board!!!!

She made me run, yes, RUN to the ticketing office because I might not make my flight. In her words, "Para umabot ka pa." She gave instructions on her walkie-talkie to have my luggage offloaded.

WTF?!

I eventually found out that there was a problem with the internal computer system. After getting our payment, the system failed to issue a ticket. I was still in the system as part of the flight (which is why I was able to check in) but I didn't have a ticket, technically speaking. The lady said that I didn't have to pay again, but I had to go to the ticketing office.

I had to RUN to the ticketing office, and when it was finally resolved, I had to RUN back. I was one of the last people to board. I was assigned a different, lousy seat.

And I did not get a single apology from a PAL employee. The only person who apologized to me and showed compassion for what happened was the contractor who checked me in.

I had also called my parents and my mom was calling their customer service hotline to figure out what happened. She even traveled back to NAIA 2 to try sort things out. That'll be in a later post, but in a nutshell, the people she talked to were unhelpful, unprofessional, and nobody wanted to take responsibility for what happened.

Why I'm so pissed:

1. Their IT systems suck. Why the hell would it charge my credit card then fail to issue my ticket? For 8 freakin' months?! What's more, if I didn't have a ticket, why was I in the system and allowed to check in?!

2. The problem is internal. You know what a decent airline would have done? They would've realized that the problem was internal and let me board. I mean, they knew from the very beginning that I'd already paid, and it was their computer system that screwed up. They would've said, "Ma'am, there was a problem with your booking. We received your payment but the system failed to issue you a ticket. We'll let you board and manually issue the ticket on our end."

Instead, they offloaded my luggage, and had me RUN to the ticketing office. When I was there, the employee at the counter didn't ask for any IDs or my passport or anything. She only asked for my booking details before she went off to process it. If she only needed my booking details, why did they make me go all the way there? Couldn't they have just called them on the phone and given my details over the phone?!

3. PAL did not apologize to me AT ALL for what happened. Any decent airline would have at least upgraded me for my trouble. But I did not get even a single apology from ANY PAL EMPLOYEE.

4. Remember how they issued me a ticket pronto that day? My mom got the e-mail confirmation -- and it was for January 25. I'm already in Sydney, my flight was on January 21. So, what, I wasn't supposed to be on that flight either?!

5. After my mom talked to someone from PAL, she found out that they already knew about this issue. Yes folks, PAL knew that there was a bug in the system where the card would be billed but it wouldn't issue a ticket. What did they do about it? N-O-T-H-I-N-G. There were no systems or processes in place to seek out passengers like me and rectify the situation. There only solution was -- offload her luggage. Make her go to the ticketing office and get another ticket. Good luck if she still makes her original flight!

Screw-ups til the end. WTF.

I hate you, PAL.

Trying to get the SYD->MNL leg of my trip refunded. I am SO not flying PAL again!!!

This is my second horrible experience with PAL. The first one was a few years ago when I was trying to get a refund. After numerous e-mails and calls, I still didn't have it. I still don't.

This is the last straw. NEVER flying PAL again.

I hate you, PAL!!!


 
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01 May 2011 @ 10:59 am
a long overdue lunch  
Met up with Francis for a long overdue lunch yesterday. I've been here for around 10 months now (wow, time does fly) but I've only seen him twice. It's insane. Fortunately, we'll be going to the same uni next semester so hopefully I'll get to see him more often!

We had dinner at Liana's, an Italian place here in Parramatta. We had no idea where to eat, so we just entered the first restaurant we saw! As what happened last time we met up, we ended with so much food! We also ended up finishing most of it. (For some reason, we always underestimate our appetites. We still had room for dessert afterwards!)





Then we went to Chocolateria San Churro a few steps down. This is fast becoming my favorite dessert place! It's nice and cozy, and the food is awesome. The chocolate drinks are thick and a dessert in themselves (which is why I opted for a tea this time round) and the desserts are really yummy. We had churros with caramel and milk chocolate dips and massive chocolate covered strawberries.





I'm trying to move away from the HDR-type, high color photos from my last few photo sets. Those kinds of photos have their place but I don't want to get used to them too much. It was my first time with my Kelly Moore, too! I'm loving this bag so far. :)
 
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29 April 2011 @ 11:02 am
road trippp  
I went on a road trip last Saturday. We didn't really know where to go so we ended up in Wollongong... then figured, hell let's go to Canberra!

We logged 705 kilometers that day. Sadly, my photo count was nowhere near our kilometer count.


I fell in love with this tree as soon as I saw it. I loved how it was nice and golden. If I were a fairy, I would totally live here.




I don't usually give titles to my photos but I just had to give a name to this one: Intruder.







The first photo in the last row is very HDR-ish. I usually try not to let my HDR photos look too HDR but I couldn't help it with that one. In case you're curious, most of the photos were taken at the gardens around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, with the last three taken at the Australian War Memorial. There are two taken during random rest stops on the road.
 
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26 April 2011 @ 01:04 pm
Sydney Royal Easter Show  


I did not take my camera out for the entire month of March.

I really need to take more photos. (Fortunately, my Kelly Moore bag is arriving soon! It actually arrived in Australia last Thursday, but with the Easter break the post office will be closed until tomorrow. So wait, I must!)

Anyway, I went to the Sydney Royal Easter show last Friday and it was packed. According to the news later that evening, around 125,000 people went on that day alone. It definitely felt like it!
 
 
14 January 2011 @ 05:22 pm
a China day  
Nope, I didn't go to China! But when my parents were here, my brother and I took them to a Yum Cha place (basically, you just have dimsums -- or as they say here, "dimsims") for the entire meal. We were really full afterwards so we decided to walk through the Chinese Friendship Garden near Darling Harbour.











Squares and circles!



 
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03 January 2011 @ 01:35 pm
Elizabeth Farm  
My family and I went to Elizabeth Farm last week. It's "Australia's oldest surviving homestead," built in 1793 by John Macarthur, also known as the father of the Aussie wool industry. The nice thing about is is that none of the furniture is vintage. They're exact copies of the originals, but since they're just copies, people are allowed to move around freely, sit on the chairs, and touch stuff.

I love going to places like this! (In the daylight, of course -- the ghosts of the past become all too real at nighttime.) It's always interesting to see how people used to live in the olden days. I always thought their lifestyles were romantic -- until I remind myself that plumbing was nonexistent, women were seen as second-rate citizens, and most of the commoners didn't live in places as nice as this.












I realized I have a penchant for shooting windows.



 
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