The potential danger of using a "cheap" 3rd party travel agent! Well done Cathay. Imagine having booked your flight to get home to your family for Christmas - and then to find out at the airport there's no ticket, no seat, and no chance to get on any flight. That's what happened to hundreds of domestic helpers in Hong Kong who had booked flights to the Philippines. At the airport they learned the travel agency never confirmed the tickets. Now the territory's flag carrier has stepped in, offering cheap fares and big planes to get them home on time. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42422836
Absolutely disgraceful. Perhaps some of the fantastically wealthy Phils politicians, 'aristocrats', and business owners can chip in ... maybe find a million or two from the Yolande disaster fund, still hidden under a few mattresses ?
It appears that Peya Travel, the travel agency that failed to confirm reservations and yet banked the fares paid by Filipino OFWs, is based in Hong Kong but is Filipino owned and operated. Neither its CEO (Yan Yan Bayona Boyce) nor any representative of her company is responding to the large number of messages posted on its Facebook pages over the last few days. It reportedly has had serious financial problems for quite some time, yet despite that, it continues to offer roundtrip tickets between Hong Kong and Manila at the ridiculously-low price of HK$990 (Php 6,340/£94.35). To put that into context, Cathay Pacific's roundtrip fare is between HK$3.5k and HK$7.9k - but there's no availability for flights before Christmas; PAL and Cebu Pacific are both cheaper but they too are sold out.
Does not seem like a "Christmas Miracle" to me. They got cheated by the travel agent who took their cash but did not provide tickets.
