Philippine Airlines
Reviews and Complaints

I emailed customer service of PAL last October 23, 2017 to bring to their attention my request for a ticket refund and the circumstances which brought about it. On Oct. 29, my email was acknowledged by Ms. Katrina Sanchez of customer service with an assurance for the immediate resolution of my problem and with a request that I provide her the 6-letter booking references of tickets I purchased. On Nov. 2, I emailed to Ms. Sanchez the information she was requesting from me with the expectation that it will help solve my problem. It is now December 7 or almost one month after I sent my email to Ms. Sanchez and since then I have not heard from them. The ticket which I was forced to purchase in order to return to the USA and which I am now requesting to be refunded cost me $1, 287.16. This money was hard-earned and I am therefore appealing for your immediate attention and action to my request. Your continued inaction of my refund request is now causing me extreme financial difficulties and if I do not receive any reply or action from your Company by the end of this month, I will bring to the attention and ask the help of my government, political, legal, mass media and consumer contacts here in the US and in the Philippines until I get my refund.

Nov 24, 2017 5:15 am
I took a business class flight to Manila on PR 127. I was looking forward to a wonderful, relaxing flight to Manila to visit family and friends. The first disgusting thing I experienced was I was given a dirty utensil in one of the meals served. I thought that was it. Upon landing, I claimed my brand new luggage and found a big dent on one corner of the luggage (picture enclosed) . It was very disappointing. I checked in my luggage thinking it will be well taken cared for, I guess not. I have heard a lot of lost and mishandled baggages by Philippine Airlines. I hope PAL will attend to this case ASAP.

I have booked three round trip tickets on Feb18 and 22, 2018. However, my flights are cancelled, and airline cannot provied direct flights on same day. They only offered two options: transfer flights with unkown time and refund.

Since my vacation is only 5 days and I dont want to change to tranfer flights, I prefer to cancel the trip. I have contacted both agent and hotel seperately, and both of them told me its non refundable even due to flight cancellation.

But airline refuse to compensate hotel loss and they dont even try to help on my issue.

Our international flight sydney to manila 28th of Nov 2017 @ 0600am was cancelled yesterday. We received an email informing us our flight was cancelled 5:51pm already. No one tried to reach out and inform us regarding with the changes. In fact we are the one chasing up your customer service desk hotline number how many times and keep putting us on hold for more than half an hour. When we spoke to one of your agent, we tried to beg and make an arrangement if we could be facilitated and transfered to other airlines since we really need to be in davao not later than nov 30. We tried to went to the airport and check if there was someone or any pal crew who can help us with our concern. But when we arrived in the airport, no pal crew available and we ended up asking for assistance in the information desk. They told us even in their system was not updated regarding with the changes. We called again the customer service hotline and request if we they can help us with the available any airlines for 28th nov. agent ask me if is it ok for us to be re routed to other airport state, and i agreed to that even it is very inconvinient in our part. But unexpectedly pal staff told us that they will not shoulder the expenses from our transfer re route flights. And this is very unfair to us as your customer having this pressure and stress just because of your companys inconvinience. We tried to make an arrangement again to the airlines staff if we can do a certain flight itirenAry that was given to us by the flight center in the airport to assist us with our request of departure date 28th of Nov, but customer service department did not grant it again. They just told us we ca go to the airport and ask assistance to check in counters if they can help us but no assurance that we can get a flight. Instead they gave us new itirenary which is suited and convinient to them not for their customer. All the hussle and inconvinience cause by your company, give us really a bad experience. We dont deserve this service because it is not our fault why the flight was cancelled! We shouldnt suffered this consequences knowing that its not our choice. Even our domestic flight change of itirenary request was not even facilitated and given assistance. They always said to us that it needs to be refered to their consultants or to department who can do tje approval for the request! It is so degrading to a well know airlines with a great service. If not action within today we gave to lodge complaint in aviation complaints here in australia to improve companys service.

I arrived at the Heathrow airport to check in for my flight, PR721 to Manila on Saturday 25th November. When checking in the lady at the check in desk advised my ticket stated a return date of 10th February. This was incorrect, I had booked to return on 10th December, and my receipt showed this. The lady would not check me in for the flight until I had resolved this issue (despite it not being my fault and in no way caused by me), And told me to go over to the ticketing desk to resolve it. There was no one working on the ticketing desk, And so I waited for 20minutes. When someone eventually became available to help, After discussing the issue she eventually said she could not help me as I had booked through a travel agent, And that I needed to contact them to resolve this. So after incorrectly being sent to the ticketing desk, over 35 minutes later i went back to the check in desk to be checked in for the flight. I requested an aisle seat as I have to frequently go to the bathroom on long haul flights, however the lady said there were none left. When I boarded the flight, I found there were in fact lots of spare aisle seats on the flight, And I had been misinformed.
I sat in my seat to find the screen not working. After I complained about this, the flight attendant moved me to a new seat - one of the many spare aisle seats luckily, which fortunately had a working screen. However, half way through watching a film the screen suddenly decided to reboot itself. I called a crew member over to ask what was happening, and she did not seem to know, with no apology she simply said 'ill reset the screen, or you can move to another seat'. After already being moved once and with all the problems checking in to the flight, this was not acceptable. This has created a very stressful beginning to my holiday, And I would like to know what you plan to do to ensure I do not face similar problems during my return flight with you

Be warned that Philippine Airlines may cancel or reschedule your flights in an extremely annoying way. Very disappointed and utterly furious with PAL.

My fiance and I, who are both OFWs, are getting married this December. Since our families will be complete for the holiday season, we decided to go on a trip with everyone after the wedding. We booked domestic flights on PAL for Christmas last February, almost 11 months before the travel date.

Since we were a large group, we had no choice but to call their Manila ticket office from overseas in order to book since the maximum allowed on their website is 10 persons. As such, they split us into 2 groups with separate reference numbers. Just today, roughly a month before our flight, they emailed us a "Flight Status Update". One group's flight was pushed 2.5 hours while the other group's flight suffered a 6-hour delay. Instead of getting to our destination early morning, half of us would be arriving past lunchtime because of this.

Not only did they fail to keep us together as a group, the 6-hour delay is simply unacceptable. What's even more frustrating is that the only options they give us is to rebook within 30 days without penalties or a full refund. Both of which are not feasible for people who plan their vacations ahead of time since accommodation arrangements have already been made.

Name: mohammad nhor sawato
Address: cotabato city
Agency: bureau of madaris, deped armm, cotabato city
Cp #: [protected]
Email address: saidah. [protected]@gmail.com
Flight date: may 21, 2017
Destination: manila to davao

Exchange ticket: [protected]
Code: sibpdx

Dear sir/mam, I would like to request for an electronic copy of my boarding pass which I lost last may 21, 2017 after my arrival at davao international airport. I badly needed the electronic copy for my liquidation in my office.
Thank you very much and hoping for your kind consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Mohammad nhor sawato

I would like to report the incident werein my baggage was been left in san francisco international airport, under the passenger name TEDDY M. JOCOM, routing SFO/MNL with flight details PR105/290CT tag number PR463032. Last october 31, 2017 we have been told to wait for the said baggage. And because of the long wait, the person who would going to fetch us already left. We arrived in manila at approximately 6:00 am in the morning. At that moment we are tire of the long travel and still no shadow of the left behind baggage showed. Aside from arrival, our destination is too far from airport because we are from the province. The delayed baggage gave us physical and mentally stress. Having said, the baggage arrived on our location the next day November 1, 2017. Upon checking on the items inside, we notice that some goods are spoiled and softened to the extend that we could not cook it for us to eat. We are very upset on what happened and hopefully you can provide us a reason and explanation on this matter.

Thank you,

Teddy Jocom

our flight last August 2016 was cancelled. I am traveling with my 2 year old baby and my husband. We didn't informed that the flight was change or it was cancelled. No staff at the airport that can assist us during that time. We have no other way was to go back on my grandmother house. It was frustrating that my 2 year old child was sick because of the experience.
We are asking for a compensation about this situation.

I booked online a return flight for two from Cebu to Caticlan (Boracay), traveling out 5th November and returning 9th November 2017. When the confirmation e-mail came, it had the tickets as returning 5th November (i.e. the same day as we were to fly out). I immediately telephoned your office to request a correction but was charged an extra 3000 pesos to correct the return flight to the 9th.

It is clear that your online website makes it difficult to choose correctly the return flights and it appears not to allow full checking of details before the credit card payment is taken. Full details of the booking are via e-mail AFTER the payment has been made. Why?

It is unfair to charge for such simple errors. There is no justification for charging an extra re-booking fee after such an error has been made. In addition, your website should make it far easier and clear on how to book the correct return flight.

This is the second time I have had to pay PAL extra money because of the inadequacy of the online booking system. Money should not be taken from the credit card until there is a confirmation of flight details step made available.

The booking was made online on 20th October, the correction by phone on 21st October.

Since my wife and I are regular customers, and it was not my mistake concerning the online booking, it would be good customer relations if the 3000 pesos could be refunded.

Eric Adams

I am complaining about our PAL Flight PR 2867 Manila to Cebu dated Sept. 27. Original departure time is 750pm. We received delay in departure to 830. Our original booking had seat assignments but when we did an online check in our seat assignments were not there so we had to select seats that were farther than the originally selected. When we got to the counter, we were issued with new boarding passes even though we had printed our boarding passes. By 730 out party of 5 were called to go to counter 17. Our issued psses were changed and bybthis time thw seat assignments were changed again to the farthest part of the plane. It ook several changes at counter 17 (3x). Old boarding passes were not retrieved from us and he new passes were with us too. We had to inform the staff that trhe old passes were still with us. Unbelievable! We dis not receive any notices of further delays in the 830 departure until we got to gate 17 when they advised the plane that was delayed will be furher delayed and will arrive 830 to depart 850 (estimate). This is a business trip for an important audit program with our party of 5 as advance party to our executive team. We ended up with the executive team leaving on time and ahead of us with their 920pm flight. Our prep work schedule was totally ruined. SUCH DISREGARD FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME FOR THE PASSENGERS! You are in the business of service BUT SUCH BAD SERVICE IS WHAT YOU ARE PROVIDING YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS!

I am lodging this complaint for management to improve not only your service but likewise DEMAND that PAL compensate this bad service for this flight as this hampered and greatly affected this business trip of ours.

Passengers:
Malabanan, Charlotte
Boletic, Hasel
Paculanan, Froilan
Hornada, Rolando
Gatdula, Grace

I demand and expect respinse from PAL at [protected]@gmail.com

You have cancelled a flight of mine in January meaning that I am now having to foot the costs of extra days & suffer loss of earnings. I have emailed you at your we care address 10 times, and tried communicating with your Facebook on a regular basis since 11 September requesting some sort of compensation. Your company has ignored all but my original attempt. The response I receive ignored my request for a discussion and fobbed me of like a piece of dirt. Now, your company ignore EVERY attempt of mine to make contact.

To PAL Mgmt,
Can u please explain what really happened to our 2 luggages? We had a flight from MNL to AKL last sept 21 2017 PR218. We are travelling w/ our 3yo daughter. We didnt mind the 1 1/2 hours delayed. It was a long flight. We were dismayed and disappointed when we reach Auckland airport on Friday 22 sept, our luggages were not there! We waited for so long and no one is informing us til we went to the baggage counter/cust svc. They told us that our luggages are still in australia! How come? We were tired, so we just went home coz they told us they will deliver it the nxt day. So sat comes no luggages, we called the cust svc they said by monday! Imagine how many days past. We have lots of belongings in our luggages that we cant live without thats why we bring them everywhere we go. Especially baby stuffs, vitamins and meds that we cant hand carry. So monday 25 sept comes, we called the cust svc again and they said its not there yet! Where are our luggages? When will it come? This really is unacceptable! Please investigate and reply asap!

Hello... I travelled on one of your flights from heathrow to australia on the 14 th of september 2017.. And to my shock horror. When I picketed up my suitcase from darwin airport it was all torn at the top. As if someone was trying to look in side it. I'm very upset about this. It was a brand new suitcase as well never been used. I am in happy about this. The is
P. Harrison
[protected]@msn.com

Hi kindly investigate our conversation while having my booking on Sep.11 ..bet. 10:45pm to 11:51pm. and Sep.12...bet.10pm or 11pm till 12mn thru your reservation ofc.MJ. She also called me yesterday Sep.13 at about 4:30pm to 5:30pm. This is regarding my request to refund my baggage allowance of 15 and 20kls. Not inform about the FREE BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE. Very disappointed about the attitude of your reservation officer. Pls.contact me at [protected]..ASAP

Booked a flight through a third-party vendor (Justfly) last June from Atlanta to Manila. My flight route is Atlanta-LA-Manila. Since then PAL kept on changing my schedule until they made a major schedule change that makes my layover time in LA from 3 hours to 14 hours. Called Justfly about it for months and the option they gave me at first is to give me a later flight from Atlanta going to LA so I don't have to wait for my next flight for that long. Weeks later a representative from Justfly called me to tell me I'm not getting the later flight. And I cannot refund it anymore without penalty because apparently I already agreed to the flight change.

So tl;dr: PAL sucks.

I seriously concerned for the quality of service that I have received in the Philippine Airlines in NA International Airport in Manila. When I was waiting in Gate 2, I had to get a drink of water as I am diabetic. When I sent my son to get some water, he was not allowed in. This is inappropriate and can endanger human lives. The air inside the airport is still humid and not cold enough to lower the temperature, especially in a mass crowd of people. I am not a animal that you can just herd in an area. My body functions differently and without the proper care and I can become very sick or die. If you going to control the area there should be water fountain available to passengers in the waiting area or at least have a water station or vendor on the side where passengers are waiting for boarding. This is so clear that your endangering the safety of the passengers. As we are on board on the airlines after waiting for awhile they don't serve water to passengers, only business class has those privileged for diabetic meals there should offer snacks also. I am mabuhay miles member I doubt it on the next trip I will not use Philippines airlines anymore.

My locator was EMYUPP for a flight from Davao to Manila and then Manila to Vancouver. Ticket number [protected]. I cancelled this reservation. When rebooking my flight today, your agent informed me that I was being fined for a "no show" on the Davao to Manila (domestic) flight.

I dispute this. I had cancelled the ticket. I wasn't travelling. Why would PAL expect me to show up for a flight that I cancelled? The ticket number and the Locator is the same for both portions of my flight.

When I cancel the reservation, I cancel only the date. I don't cancel just one part of my ticket.

Please explain a "no show" for a flight reservation that was cancelled beforehand.

Passenger: Cynthia H. Franco
Flight No. PR0213
Manila (MNL) to Sydney, Australia (SYD)
02 July 2017 / 12:15PM

I'm writing to you to complain about my mishandled luggage. My son and I are stressed out already from a long international flight and felt doubly stressed when we arrived at Sydney International Airport to see wrecked luggage. Out of three (3) luggages, one (1) got wrecked. We got a hard time bringing out the said luggage from the carousel to the car of my friend.

Please see the attached photos for your reference.

Called customer service regarding as ticket that I want to rebook and every time I call they always have the different story to tell. That happened for 5 times already. So we canceled a re-booked ticket which we are aware of the 75$ no show fee BUT when we called to cancel, the manager told us that the ticket is valid to use and rebook for a year. However, when we called the customer service to try to rebook it, they are giving us different information and we even asked to talk to the manager that we talked to before but they say they're gonna give us a call back and they're gonna put a note on my ticket with all the things that the manager has told us. But that never happens, cuz whenever we tried to call they ALWAYS asked what happened, etc. Wherein they're supposed to put the note but they said no note was found on the ticket. which means, they didn't do their job and MAYBE that's why until now we don't receive any callback. I lost my respect to this department. I have tried to hold my patient throughout the 5 calls and gave them every information I have told them and tried to be nice to them the whole time but I'm just over it. We don't deserve it. We love flying thru Philippine Airline but it just sucks that they can't give us the right service when what we all want is to rebook the ticket and we're just basing on the words that the manager told us. Now it's all about the trust issue. Like if you told us the first time that it is not valid for a year or so, we wouldn't expect and wait for a callback and now telling us that the ticket has been expired and we cannot use it anymore. How sad.

We are looking forward to a resolution on this matter. We hope you can accommodate us for a proper customer service this time with no broken promises. For more details e-mail me at [protected]@gmail.com and contact number 1+[protected].

I will be waiting for your interest on this matter.