Team DailyPedia
Following Atty. Raymond Fortun’s viral post about Cebu Pacific Airlines, the Gokongwei-owned airline company has issued an apology to its affected passengers on Thursday, November 19.
According to the airline company, passengers with flights departing within 72 hours receive a system generated email informing them to check in online. Passengers with canceled flights including Fortun received the email message.
“The email message was automatically sent to all passengers with flights departing within 72 hours. This resulted in some passengers going to the airport, despite their flight being cancelled,” it said in a statement.
In a lengthy Facebook post, high profile lawyer Fortun threatened to sue Cebu Pacific Air for causing inconvenience to its passengers after it cancelled his family’s scheduled flight from Vietnam to Manila on Thursday, November 19.
“See you in court. Send your best, it ain’t gonna matter,” Fortun wrote in his post.
Fortun revealed that he was in Vietnam with his family from November 16 to 19. According to the seasoned litigator, he received an email from the airline company on Saturday, November 14, notifying him that Manila was a no-fly zone from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the day of their return, November 19, due to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
However, on Sunday, November 15, Fortun reportedly received an email from Cebu Pacific Air informing that he can already check in via web check for his return flight, which was supposed to land in Manila at 4:45 a.m. Fortun noted that the time of his supposed arrival was outside of the no-fly zone advisory.
“I was able to secure boarding passes for our return trip. My second son was participating in a choral competition this Saturday and initially wanted to back out from the trip; we convinced him to come along as there was now a confirmation that he would be back by Thursday morning,” Fortun wrote in his post.
Upon their arrival at the airport on Wednesday night, Fortun was informed by Cebu Pacific employees at the counter that their 1 a.m. flight was cancelled. One of the employees told Fortun that they sent a flight cancellation notification via email on November 17.
“We did not receive that email,” Fortun insisted.
The incident has left Fortun and his family without a choice but to stay in Saigon, incur expenses, and give up their plans for the weekend. The lawyer stressed that the airline “did not even have the professionalism to provide for temporary shelter and for meals until they provide for a return flight.”
Check out Fortun’s full Facebook post below.
Fortun revealed in a later post on Thursday night that he had accepted the airline’s offer to fly him and his family back to Manila on its 1 a.m. flight from Saigon. However, the lawyer stressed that the offer will not “change the fact that they had already been inconvenienced.”
To give way to the arrival and departure of the world leaders of the APEC member countries, more than 1,000 flights of Cebu Pacific Air and Philippine Airlines were canceled from November 15 to 21.
Featured image credits to CNN News.
