Reasons to avoid flying Cebu Pacific

PAL still gets the cream of the crop and all its flight attendants are college graduates from the country's better universities and likely from the higher echelons demographically. Unlike many/most of their Zest or Cebu Pacific counterparts, their English diction is flawless and they're quite likely to be fluent in another regional language also. The senior members - Pursers - seem a bit remote and snobby but in general they're nice and friendly; sometimes a bit too friendly!

Insurance?!!! IATA?!!! You're having a laugh!

Hardly anybody buys insurance here - household, motoring or health and certainly not for (domestic) travel! Cebu Pacific does have its own travel insurance but nobody bothers as it's an added expense and not only is the cover pretty basic, there are many exclusions to limit or void liability and therefore claims. I believe the maximum pay-out is something as ridiculously low as PHP 20,000 in the event of death - that's £330; life is cheap here.

The only airline that is an IATA member is PAL and that's one of the reasons I will book with that airline if I possibly can.

An old friend in Hong Kong used to recommend PAL on the grounds that "Their pilots are basically cowards!" Hah!

(To be older than I, and still flying, a plane would have to be a DC3!)

My scariest plane moment in the Philippines was courtesy of China Southern - I once had a hous in Paranaque, near the bay which was visible as you approached NAIA from the starboard side of a plane, on finals, so I was looking out in the dark - no lights. I thought "surely we are not lined up right?" - sure enough, suddenly both throttles went to TOGA and round we went - I realised the combination of Taglish and Chinglish had lined us up on Roxas Boulevard!

I have flown in a DC 3 from the dessert out in Gialo to Benghazi. No windows.

Inclined even at a standstill on the tarmac.

Gated subdivision off Atlantic Avenue, on the reclaim, just North of Las Pinas. Newly built at the time hence cheap!

I love DC3s! First flight was in one - Mogadishu to Nairobi - Aden Airways - 1960! Like you I flew in a couple in Libya - popular because they could have balloon tyres for sandy strips. Tend to avoid the Filipino ones, as the maintenance may have been iffy for the past few decades, but would happily jump into a good one!

I remember Sir Adrian Swire flying Betsy, Cathay Pacific's original DC3, into Kai Tak (she is now hanging from the ceiling in the Hong Kong Science Museum) - but he had had her "looked at carefully" first!

(CX also bought every RR engined Tri-Star - including eventually all the secondhand ones - HAECO were extremely scathing about the maintenance that had been done on them in the States - they all had the most complete type of overhaul possible before entering CX service!)

That was proper flying in the old Douglas Dakota. Had a slight scare when they couldn't get the undercarriage down so we had to circle Benghastly for a couple of times until they managed it. No dancing girls or quizzes on board unfortunately.

Scuse me whilst I just crawl under a rock,

I was sitting on the PORT side, of course.

(need smiley for d'oh!)

If the undercart doesn't go down, the co-pilot gets out of his seat, picks up a tool that looks uncommonly like a vintage car starting handle, (which is probably what it is) opens a trap door in the middle of the gangway and winds until its down and locked.

(don't ask me how I know that)

Try THAT on an A380!

Never mind dancing girls, back in the Dawn of Time when BOAC VC10s flew between Benghazi and Tripoli en route from Aden to (eventually) Heathrow, a queue built up for the starboard aft bog. The chief purserette eventually got the pass key and found an elderly Bedu brewing up, on the floor of the bog, using a charcoal stove - about six feet from the inner of a pair of Rolls-Royce Conways. I wasn't on board for that leg, I joined for the Tripoli-London leg.

I er... don't usually do that. I can tell red from green, too - I have certificates from Dr Dean of the GCBS to say so!

LOL .....

I know. He passed the cranking tool to you while he flew the plane.

In terms of delays, I've had several with Cebu Pacific and Zest but generally allow and accept them knowing that I've got a bargain ticket with the possibility of hassle involved (fly PAL when I need to be somewhere for a specific time) but the worst we had was in Hong Kong.
We were waiting for a flight with a group of around 50 people (aircraft only a 1/3 full) at the gate when at the scheduled flight time the display changed to 'delayed' and no further information. Around an hour later I used the customer services phone to call the handling agent who came to meet me. She advised that they had no information on the flight because the Philippines ATC doesn't share its information (or its modern enough) with the rest of the world so they actually didnt know whether the aircraft had taken off, was en-route or had been cancelled and wouldn't know anything until it actually entered Hong Kong airspace. She tried calling Cebu Pacific and Cebu airport but couldn't get anyone to answer her calls, so shrugged her shoulders and left us to wait.
The aircraft arrived 5 hours late and off we went back to Cebu, no apologies, no free drinks, just a ride home on a bus with wings.
We didn't get stressed about the situation, we just accepted it.

Is this another Cebu Pacific incident? Seems to be...

Cebu Pacific plane takes out NAIA runway lights

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/06/13/13/cebupac-plane-takes-out-runway-lights-naia

Indeed it is and there's a bit more detail in this Rappler report. According to GMA, the pilot has been grounded for not reporting the event but that does seem to be standard operating procedure for this airline.