Our Manila-Davao flight was on December 20, supposed to be at around 11 a.m. In around September, I booked our flight. The airline I chose was ZestAir because 1) I wanted to try the new kid (or airline) on the block; and 2) it has the flight schedules I want. So imagine my consternation when, two days before our flight, a customer service rep (CSR) from the said airline called and told me that our 11 a.m. flight will be cancelled and we would have to choose between the 4 a.m. and 6 p.m. flights! Que horror! Technical reason daw kuno…This is such a letdown because, if you know me, I scheduled our activities around this (“Ay sa Monday ko gagawin kasi kinabukasan noon flight namin”…”Ay pwede sa Sunday ng gabi kasi flight namin ganito, etc.)!
Image courtesy of dominicanewsonline.com
First, my Mom got my brother and his family the 10 am Philippine Airlines Manila-Cotabato flight on the same day, so they could hitch a ride with us to the airport in Manila. Because of this, my brother and his wife had to take public transport to the airport with their baby! Imagine how difficult that is…palipat-lipat ng sasakyan!
Second, my parents have already arranged hotel reservations for us in Davao City. Remember people that this is mid-December, near peak season! Hotels usually let you check-in after noon.
Third, we scheduled a birthday bash for our beloved Master Erwin Escobar on December 18, which, as expected, went on until the wee hours of December 19. So of course, we rise late on December 19 despite that we have to do so much before we leave the next day. We can’t take the 6 p.m. flight because we expect heavy traffic to the airport.
Fourth, naman, we have a baby with us! This means we rouse Raviv at 12 midnight because we leave for the airport at 1 a.m. (as we have to be there at most an hour before our flight).
I voiced these sentiments to the CSR I talked to, and demanded that Zest Air do something more—book us with another airline, give us free tickets or hotel accommodation or something. As expected, the poor CSR “can do nothing about it, wala po kasi ‘yun sa policy.” He suggested I email someone, but this was already Saturday night and we’re supposed to leave on Tuesday. If I email the person of authority, he might read it on Monday, and may tell me that my request was denied. So what choice do I have? After talking to my Mom and arranging our new hotel booking, I called Zest Air and confirmed the 4 a.m. flight. At eto pa: “Ay Ma’am ‘yung pabalik po ninyo na 1 p.m. Davao-Manila, cancelled din po…options po 4 a.m. and 9 p.m.” Fart, FArt, FARt, FART! Again, what choice do I have? Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that my Raviv will celebrate his birthday there (arrangements have been made a lot earlier, of course), I would have cancelled our stupid flight with Zest Air!
THE UNREFRESHING EXPERIENCE BEGINS
On the aircraft, I noticed something: ang konti naming passengers! Thus my theory is that the 4 a.m. and 6 p.m. flights were super under booked, so they “forced” the 11 a.m. passengers to be distributed between the two flights. It’s so not because the aircraft has engine problems (naman, they still had several days to do something about it ‘di ba? Especially the returning flight!)
Ito pa, after a long time, this was again the first time (after a looooong time) that our (hubby’s and mine) ears hurt a lot! Super! We were woken up from our deep slumber (natural, 12 midnight pa lang gising na kami papuntang airport) because of our painful ears! I know know that this is normal, but this hasn’t happened to us recently. I don’t know whether it’s because of the aircraft, basta it was really painful! I was worried my Raviv might start crying. Thankfully, Raviv is usually pain-tolerant and perhaps, too sleepy to care.
Aside from that, I think we hovered on the air for quite sometime, as in for 15-20 minutes, we were not moving.
THE UNREFRESHING EXPERIENCE CONTINUES
On our flight back, we were sent off by my Dad to the airport. Again, major major inconvenience because my parents had to book a hotel room in Davao City…currently, the road to Davao City is in bad shape as it’s under construction (itinaon pang Christmas season, hay!). The usual 2.5 hours Kabacan-Davao City trip became a maalikabok and malubak 4-5 hours trip! So obviously, they can no longer go home, as it’s already late.
Upon our arrival in the city proper, we had to eat of course. We went to an eat-all-you-can restau (I’ll try to feature it one time, I hope I still have the time!). And because we didn’t want to be late for our flight, we weren’t able to really relish the 20+ dishes (viands + desserts) at our disposal.
And then when we got to the airport at 7:30 p.m., guess what…our flight was announced as DELAYED! Instead of leaving at 8:55 p.m., we were to leave at 10:15 p.m.! Que horror!!! Poor Raviv is already so tired and just wanted to sleep but can’t, with all our going from one place to another.
Image courtesy of k202windsurfing.blogspot.com
To be fair to Zest Air, other flights were also delayed. BUT! As in a big BUT–Cebu Pacific served snacks to its patrons! We Zest Air passengers were on the same terminal with them, and then sila may pagkain, kami tunganga lang!
This is really annoying. With all the additional trouble and expenses we experienced and incurred, buti pa nag-business class na lang kami sa PAL! First plane ride pa naman ni Raviv!
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I stumbled upon this review about Zest Air…swerte pa pala ako!
Eden Sy
I hate hate HATE ZESTAIR and here’s why.
I made a booking via ZestAir’s website last JUNE 20 for a DAVAO – CEBU – DAVAO flight for 9 passengers departing August 22, 2009. ZestAir’s website is a bit weird. If you enter more than 1 passenger, it will give you a higher class/fare. So I booked us each separately — meaning 9 Record Locators, 9 different transactions, 9 different e-tickets, to avail of the lowest possible fares.
My credit card statement came, and BEHOLD. I was charged 10 transactions. This is the beginning of my ZESTAIR TORMENT. I called their customer care center and they put me on hold COUNTLESS TIMES, and long enough for the machine to cut me off. Which meant I had to call again LONG DISTANCE, talk to ANOTHER CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE.
Some time last July, Cebu Pacific had a promo, and 3 of our companions cancelled their bookings with Zest to transfer to CebPac. So now I’m left with 7 charged (and paid for) bookings — with only 6 passengers.
I still haven’t gotten feedback regarding this. Until last SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2009 — or so I thought. ZESTAIR called me, but not to inform me that they found the double charge. No. They called me, 14 days from my flight, to inform me that OUR FLIGHTS ARE CANCELLED.
“Sorry Ma’am, all flights are cancelled until October. We can either refund your ticket or rebook your flight to October.” That was all I got.
I demanded to speak with a supervisor because I would not accept that they simply give me a REFUND for the cancellation. Of course, this is an immense hassle for us. It is NOT my problem that they cancel our flight. It SHOULD NOT be my problem and expense to book another flight.
ZESTAIR only has one DVO – CEBU – DVO flight daily. So when I spoke with the customer service agent that afternoon, her other alternative was that we fly DAVAO – MANILA – CEBU. Ano sila, hilo? Was I supposed to thank them for that offer?! That offer is ridiculous because the DVO – MNL flight departs at 4AM and the MNL – CEB flight departs at 8AM. *Cheers Zestair! you are the best in taking care of customers!* We get a cancelled flight, and in return you offer us a tour of LUZON, VISAYAS, AND MINDANAO in 6 Hours! Take note that we have to be in the airport 2 hours before our flight, so the entire “tour” will last 8 hours! You should promote this!!! NOT.
I asked to speak with whoever has the authority to fix my problem. And today I got a call from their manager/supervisor, some Jocelyn Tolentino, who offered me 3 alternatives:
* A Refund ( of P980 each! *woah I’m rich!!!*)
* DVO-MNL-CEBU flight (PILIPINAS in 8 hours, san ka pa?)
* Rebooking our flight to OCTOBER. (I forgot to ask if this was free of charge though. harhar)
She also mentioned that there is nothing they can do because company policy says they cannot transfer us to another airline. Because their management is incredibly generous (this is nothing but sarcasm, of course) they also booked us via Cebu Pacific (everyone, kindly give them a round of applause) and making us pay for it.
Who wouldn’t be a disgruntled customer?! To those who know me, you know that I have travelled A LOT. This had been, by far, my worst airline experience. I don’t know why I even bothered to make a booking via this airline.
Now, let me ask you, is there any establishment out there who can beat this kind of service? Would you like to fly on an airline who treats customers this way?! I don’t think so. Tell your friends.
Eden Siason
Marx del Rosario
Zest Air sucks. Their planes suck, the management sucks, and their service sucks worst of all.
We booked 2 round-trip flights SNG-MNL-SNG for two separate dates. (Feb 5 & Feb 12) Then Zest Air had “operational issues” that forced them to cancel all SNG-MNL flights. Their staff called my gf (travelling on Feb. 5) to inform her of the cancellation. They managed to book her a flight in CebuPac but had to do it LAST MINUTE. This is understandable, considering that several passengers need to be booked and the availability of seats are getting fewer and fewer as the flight date draws nearer. So I thought they will give the same treatment to me. My gf even asked the customer service rep who called her about the Feb. 12 flight. The CSR replied that they are handling the passengers with the earlier flights first. So we waited.
Then on Feb. 8 I received an email that tells me my flight is cancelled (I expected it). But this time, they can only give me a refund. WHAT?!? A measly refund??? What about the time I lost? They know that booking fees increase as the flight date gets nearer. Why didn’t they inform me earlier that they aren’t going to book me another flight on another airline? What kind of service is that? I waited for them to call me, but they didn’t. So I called them.
After about 10 minutes of waiting, (on a long-distance call!!!) a CSR answered. I told him about my problem, and all he can say is, “Sorry, sir. Management decision po.” I replied, “Management decision din ba na hindi kami i-inform ng mas maaga? Alam n’yo namang tumataas ang fares pag lumalapit ang flight date. Yung kasama ko nai-rebook ninyo. Umasa ako na tatawagan ninyo ako para i-inform ng developments, tapos magse-send kayo ng email 4 days before my flight? Wala nang available seats sa ibang airlines! Yung natitirang airlines na may seats, aabutin ng 30,000 PhP yung fee!” Again, he could only reply, “Sorry, management decision po.” I knew then that he was just like a robot, forced to stick to the script and I really can’t blame him. He’s just a guy who answers phone calls, the real culprit is Zest Air’s management. He added that he will “expedite” the refund. I asked, “How soon can I get the refund? I need to book a flight immediately.” He said, “30-60 days.” WOW. Even if they can expedite the refund to 1 week, I only have 4 days left before my flight! And with the sky-high prices of the available flights, I need all the cash I can get. And the annoying thing is, THEY COULD HAVE TOLD ME EARLIER THAT THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO FIND ME ANOTHER FLIGHT! There is no way they could not have foreseen this catastrophe and informed all the affected passengers much earlier. Gusto kang isaksak ang refund sa mga ngala-ngala ng board of directors nila.
Don’t let this happen to you, people. Let this be a lesson to all of you. Avoid Zest Air if you could. Pay a few more for the other airlines with better track records, no point in paying less and getting screwed. Zest Air sucks. They suck so very hard.
i super hate zest air too!! one time when we went to bora, we had no choice to take zest air for our flight back to manila since cebu pac was already fully booked. our etd from caticlan was supposed to be at 4pm, aba walang eroplano! we were transferred pa to kalibo and left at 9:30pm! nagbigay lang ng pampalubag loob na burger at zesto! zest air really suck big time!! i hope someone from their management can read this post.
Oh man, I am scheduled to go to Bora with my kiddos and few family members and will be flying through Zest Air. I so dread to experience the posts I have read just today. I honestly doesnt have any idea of this airlines reputation and notoriority for delays and cancellation. I am keeping my fingers crossed…and twisted to not have the same fate as everyone does.
Hope ZestAir didn’t ruin your trip!