Just when I thought it was over, apparently, it isn't.

I was contacted on Facebook (again) by one Brian Thomas Hogan - The Chief Executive Advisor for AirPhil Express. Although I find it odd to be contacted on Facebook, they must have reasons to their choices and actions. IMO, although people do check their Facebook profiles regularly, I prefer to communicate about these matters via email. In case Facebook was hacked, someone can get on their account and say "We're contacting you about your details and your credit card on file failed. May we please have your new credit card details?" Of course, this is the most extreme of situations, but phishing is a serious thing to consider. This is the correspondence so far:

• Brian Thomas Hogan

  • Good Day - I saw your blog on Airphil Express. I am Chief Executive Advisor and would like to send you a reply. Please send me ur[sic] email address. I assure you overall our quality of service is top notch. However, lapses do happen....[sic] Please send it to me so i can investigate further, The more details the better.......[sic] Thanks
• 18 hours ago

  Ian Galliguez

  • Hello Mr. Hogan,
    
    I do not wish to imply that your service is terrible each and every time however, the experiences that I have had with your airline was in fact less than satisfactory. I appreciate that you are communicating with me now however it is just also a bit of an abrade that this communication is happening now - more than 3 months after my initial complaint and after I have made a post on my blog and on other social networking sites. It raises suspicion that the only reason I have been finally contacted is that I have made this public.
    
    I completely understand that lapses happen in companies, we also have our own company and lapses are part and parcel of customer service. However, I believe that the best way to deal with a customer service lapse is to quickly deal with the situation. I was under the impression that the people/person I was communicating with last April was going to forward this to the department and people concerned, as they have previously stated.
    
    No disrespect intended but if it's all the same to you, I would prefer to have your email address and I would gladly email you instead. David, my boyfriend, and I would happily provide you with an account of what had happened - although most of it is already published on my blog in an earlier post. It's just that it's hard to establish a formal/serious communication on Facebook. (There are a lot of fake accounts and posers here and I just want to be able to verify and ensure that I am communicating with the real Brian Hogan. The nature of my work in showbusiness makes me very cautious and careful)
    
    I appreciate this course of action. I await your response.
    
    Sincerely,
    Ian
• 18 hours ago

  Brian Thomas Hogan

  • Please call me brian - our team is usaually[sic] pretty good but at the end o[sic] the day we are not always on the money. We strive to be the best budget airline in asia[sic] - only way to get there is with open and honest communication which is my credo. I love our team but we still need to improve daily too[sic] support our guests. I love all comments and suggestions. We now use facebool[sic] for all customer service and our the only airline to employ an on line team. This goes 24-7 in the next few months. I strongly believe in our top notch filipino[sic] staff. Please provide me flight details so I can improve our service.
    
    God bless - Brian
• about an hour ago

  Ian Galliguez

  • Hi Brian,
    
    I'm sure you have your reasons for communicating on Facebook. I guess I'm old fashioned by wanting to formally communicate through email rather than a social networking site. But that's just me.
    
    Here are my flight details. I have a copy of it in my email and I can forward it to you.
    
    (flight details deleted for this post)
    
    Thanks,
    Ian

**************

Now, maybe it's just the grammar Nazi in me...baka naman typos lang talaga. Siguro old fashioned ako or siguro di ko pa rin keri ang makipag communicate with anyone about something quite serious sa FB. It's not professional and it just sits weirdly with me.

I think I understand where they're coming from. I believe I'm the anti-thesis of the recent press release they've had on the Philippine Star. SVP for Marketing and Sales, Alfredo Herrera stated “Because we understand our customers better, we find ways to make their travel arrangements more convenient..." How convenient was it for me to get to the airport at 5 hours before my flight?


AirPhil Express’ response is through major investments in its operations. Herrera shares that because travelers now rely heavily on the Internet for their needs, they put up their own digital team.
“We are the only low-cost carrier that responds to customers in real time. AirPhil Express is on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. You ask us a question on Twitter, you get an actual answer. We are investing in consumer service responses. That is something we are very proud of. We continue to enhance our website and benchmark against the world’s best. Everything is as fast as possible,” he declares.

Let me dissect this statement with my experience: Their own digital team can't even fix their website. A fatal error that ran for 4 days can mean death. But kudos to them now as they've managed to change the entire website and had it upgraded!


My favorite is how they stated that they respond to customer in real time. Err...3 months isn't real time. Congrats on being hip and technologically adept but I still don't think Facebook is a good venue to resolve this issue. I check my email more than I check Facebook. Plus, it's a more secure venue. I can verify your identity and that goes both ways. I also find it a bit disconcerting that I can get an answer faster if I were on Twitter than if I called them or if I texted or I emailed. Does this mean that any answer I get in my email isn't an actual answer? Maybe that's why they actually used the word "anent". (Sorry, di ako maka get over!)

So, I guess this is it. In all honesty, I'm not quite sure about what I'm expecting anymore. I want to say that we can just chalk it up to a bad experience and that I've learned my lesson and would never fly their airlines again (and will not endorse them nor suggest them to anyone I know) but I also want to redeem them. Lahat naman nagkakamali and lahat deserving ng second chance. Pero wala pa akong next biyahe.

Finally, after tweeting and blogging and posting it on Facebook, AirPhilExpress finally emailed me! They have finally emailed me back. And, it only took 3 months! That's just a quarter of a year. This is what they've sent me:

Dear Mr. Galliguez,

We refer to your feedback through the online networking site, Facebook, for our attention. Thank you for your patience in awaiting our reply. On behalf of Airphil Express, our sincerest regrets for any disappointment caused you as a result.

We are grateful to receive comments with regard to our services. Certainly, feedback such as yours, enable us to identify areas that need enhancements. We have noted your concern with importance and have since forwarded them to the offices concerned for their appropriate attention.

Moreover, we lament knowing that the service handling of our Airport Representative in Iloilo impressed you unfavorably. With due respect, please allow us to explain that as a new policy guided by our domestic tariffs, approved by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) of the Philippines, our Front Row and Emergency Exit Row Seats are to be paid for when requested. These seats are our Premium Seats with a charge of PHP200.00 each. As an existing procedure, these seats are blocked for airport assignment and are last to be released.

Anent to the seat provided to you, we regret learning that you were provided an unclean seat which caused you discomfort during the flight. It is our goal to provide our passengers total comfort and safety during the flight. Furthermore, we do not tolerate inefficiency from our cabin crew whom we expect to be best in this area. You will appreciate to know that we have since brought the matter to the attention of our Officer-in-Charge, Maintenance and Engineering and Assistant Vice President-Inflight Services for the necessary corrective action to prevent occurrence of similar incident.

Thank you the opportunity to communicate with you. We are aware of instances when our services seem not to meet expectations. However, it is not our intention to cause you any disservice and can only hope to merit your understanding. Despite the turn of events, we hope for another chance to restore your confidence in us, under more pleasant circumstances.

Sincerely,

This is my response to them:

Thank you for your email. I believe that my posts on other social networking sites have finally reached your office and have merited this response. Forgive me for being a bit curt as it had been months since I have received any kind of response. (It has been a total of almost 3 months - since April, I believe). Also, I'm a Miss Ian. My name is quite deceiving but rest assured, I am a girl. :)

I completely understand where you are coming from when it comes to following policies and procedures. My boyfriend and I are well aware of FAA and global regulations. It's just as you have said, that you value your customer's safety and comfort. How can I feel safe when the seat next to an emergency exit is unoccupied? The time that it would take for an FA or anyone else to get to that door in the event of a crash landing is detrimental to the odds of survival. Should another passenger get to that door, they wouldn't have known what to do because he or she wasn't given the instructions or have read the safety card. Technicalities and a bunch of what ifs, I know. But I understand where you're coming from.

I appreciate your response, though quite belated. This is a good step to improvement. I hope that it does go beyond this parry of emails and reflect in better customer service in every step of the AirPhilExpress experience.

***

On a different note, mejo naimpress ako sa kanilang usage ng anent. Who uses that word nowadays anyway? Or at least in an email.

And I mean TERRIBLE! Be it online, on the phone or face to face. It's just so frustrating and sad that this had to happen. I was expecting more from them, even though they're a budget airline because they're owned by Philippine Airlines, which in my experience, has been nothing but excellent.

We've had a trip booked with them last April and we've waited all this time to hear a response from them but they haven't answered so I figured, it's about time I post what has happened. This is the transcription of our Facebook communications:

• AirphilExpress Attendant

  • Hello Ian!
    
    We're now available on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/airphilexpress) and on Twitter (@airphilexpress) for customer support. Got any issues or complaints? Tell us and we'll work on that.
    
    APX
    (I've posted on their Facebook account on how terrible the service was. I even posted it on Twitter. They've responded tot hose posts with this)
• 
  

  April 11

  Ian Galliguez

  • Thank you for your message. I was expecting something more from your company in terms of customer service because PAL has been nothing but stellar and I was sorely disappointed with yours.
    
    I called to get a ticket booked for my boyfriend, who at the last minute decided to come with us to Iloilo. First off, your website needs A LOT of improvements. Whenever someone clicks on your contact details, we get a fatal error on screen which means the script you are using is in itself incorrect. This has been going on (at least to my experience) for almost 4 days now (and counting). That should be rectified immediately because had it not been for the fact that my sponsor had already booked my flight, I would've just gone straight to Cebu Pacific or Zest Air instead. This easily correctable error makes you lose possible online sales. Get that fixed and fast. I instead found a number on facebook.
    
    Second, I understand why a company would have a 24-48 hour holding time before the purchase of the ticket. I have asked PAL to do the same for me and they've gladly obliged and then some. I have already stated that I didn't care about the price of the ticket, what I wanted was a bit of understanding and consideration since I have just arrived from Baguio and will be flying to Iloilo in a few hours. I was told that the only way I could get that ticket reserved was if I went to the airport at 5 in the morning which was 5 hours before my flight! There was no empathy and there was no human appreciation of the situation. THAT was what I found appalling. I asked if she can have it held for just an hour later but she said no and that the only way for me to get this ticket was to go to the airport and take a chance to buy it there.
    
    I have nothing to say about the staff in Terminal 3. From the ticket office staff to the check in clerks - they were cheerful, friendly, helpful and emphatic. My boyfriend is 6'2" and is a rather massive British fellow. I've explained that AirPhil planes usually don't have comfortable legroom (We call your planes the jeepneys of the skies with the way you cram all these seats together with almost no leg room) and that if we could have a seat that was either at the first row or at the emergency exits. We were willing to take the responsibility of the task of manning the exit doors. Our check in clerk cheerfully put us on the first row and wished us well. It wasn't the same in Iloilo though when we were coming back. I have explained the situation to the check in clerk but this time, he stated that it was a premium seat and that I had to pay 200 pesos for the seat. I explained that in Manila, we weren't asked to pay but he said that it was a premium seat and that we all had to pay if we wanted to be seated together. It felt like we were being ripped off. I asked if he could explain it in a way that I could understand which meant I required a response other than the phrase "premium seat po kasi" and "Kasi ganyan po pag fully booked ang flight"
    
    And as predicted, there was non-existent leg room in our seats (18 a, b and c). Not only that, but the seats weren't even checked or cleaned as there was an empty pasta box (complete with fork) on the seat pocket in front of our seat which smelled like it's been there for a while. I pressed on the attendant button and nobody came over. I just grabbed the passing flight attendant and called his attention on it. He didn't even apologize for it, he just took a look and grabbed it and left. All this time, the attendant button was still blinking. It kept on blinking until take off. I purposely didn't unclick it to see if any of the attendants would come to our seat but we were able to take off without it even going off. Now, this tells me that either the button is just there for decorative purposes and that the FAs were trained to ignore the attendant call or they have absolutely no clue as to what that button is for.
    
    Please, take this feedback positively and make the changes.
• April 12

  AirphilExpress Attendant

  • Hello Ian!
    
    We're very sorry about this unexpected event. And yes, we will never take your feedback as a negative one. Instead, this will be a good trigger for us to improve the service the passengers deserve.
    
    You can forward your sentiment to customercare@airphilexpress.com. On behalf of Airphil Express, we're sorry for the inconvenience tis[sic] event may have caused you.
    
    APX
• April 13

  Ian Galliguez

  • Pardon me for being critical but if you were really concerned about the customer service, YOU would've IMMEDIATELY forwarded this message to the concerned group. This is the prime example of how terrible your customer service is. What could have made this correspondence redeemable (and perhaps would have alleviated my annoyance) was if you had said "I have forwarded your concern to our manager." This means you have taken on the responsibility of the issue and that you are truly sincere about your apology and are prepared to make sure that the necessary steps to improving customer service happens.
    
    Nonetheless, I've send it to the email address you've provided. My boyfriend however, is less forgiving than I am. He has made a blog post about it and is terribly terribly upset.
    
    We want to be able to get your feedback and post about this experience. We own an online travel website that has 94,000 readers a month and we want to be fair in our reporting. Though we appreciate your apology, we would like to know why this has happened and what will be done to ensure that this will not happen again.
• April 13

  AirphilExpress Attendant

  • Good Morning Ian!
    
    Alright, Ian. I will escalate this concern to the customer support head. Our Facebook will serve as your channel when we want to update this complaint. I apologize for my previous reply.
    
    Have a nice day!
    
    APX
    (First off, "Alright, Ian"?! That's so patronizing! Do I sound like a 5 year old that can be appeased with an "Alright, Ian?". Second, you're using Facebook as a channel for complaints? How professional is that? Lastly, you had to wait for me to tell you what to do? Oh dear lord...)
• April 26

  Ian Galliguez

  • Hello,
    
    I have emailed the people you told me to contact and they haven't replied to us yet.
• April 27

  AirphilExpress Attendant

  • Hi Ian!
    
    May I know the name and email address you used? Thanks!
    
    APX
• April 27

  Ian Galliguez

  • Hello,
    
    You provided the email address (customercare@airphilexpress.com)
    
    You also stated "I will escalate this concern to the customer support head. Our Facebook will serve as your channel when we want to update this complaint"
    
    It has been 13 days since that statement (see above message sent to me on April 13 at 9:01 am) Surely, that's more than enough time to read an email.
    
    Thanks.
• April 27

  AirphilExpress Attendant

  • Hi Ian!
    
    What's your name and the email address you used to email us.
    
    APX
• April 27

  Ian Galliguez

  • ianvictor@discoverph.com
• April 27

  AirphilExpress Attendant

  • Hello Ian!
    
    The customer care checked their emails and they didn't receive any email coming from ianvictor@discoverph.com. What we did is we forwarded this conversation straight to them. Please wait for our reply.
    
    APX
• April 27

  Ian Galliguez

  • Hello,
    
    I have sent the email and I have the header if you need it. I haven't received any notice from the postmaster so that means that it was delivered. It could have been sent as spam. Regardless of that however, you stated that it would be sent to the concerned people.
    
    I'll just wait for your reply then.
    
    Thanks.

That's the end of our communications. I have not heard anything from them anymore. I will be posting this on DiscoverPH as well because in all honesty, people should be aware of how terrible their customer service is!

Yes, they are a budget airline. I understand that and I also understand that they're trying to cut corners and make do with what they have to be able to provide such cheap air fares for people who would like to travel on a budget. However, no matter how cheap your fares are, you shouldn't scrimp on customer service! It is the lifeline of any company.

I'm not trying to be a brat who can't get her way. Hey, I've flown on other budget airlines that have the same price for the fare (even cheaper sometimes) but they're never ever this bad with customer service! Cebu Pacific has great customer service! Their FAs are always smiling and they even converse with you! But this, this is just appalling.

I hope this reaches the big bosses. They should start taking a look at how this is affecting their sales and customer service. Make a search on Google and you'll see even more posts about their customer service and how bad it is.