When some Juan’s flight is cancelled - Leonor Magtolis BrionesThe Business of Governance | Leonor Magtolis Briones | 05/03/2009 11:29 PM
It started like my usual trip to Dumaguete. I was flying there to attend my last meeting as Chair of the Silliman University Board of Trustees. My flight was scheduled at 2.40 PM. I left my office at 10:30. I always allot two hours travel time to the airport from U.P. Diliman. I checked in at 12:30 noon, in compliance with the requirement that passengers should check in two hours before the scheduled departure.
So far, so good. Everything was routine. The lady dispensing the tickets told me that the departure had been rescheduled to 3:30 p.m. but I merely shrugged. Like all frequent travelers, I was used to delays of even three hours.
After checking in and lunch, I settled in the pre-departure area and started reading international magazines to catch up on foreign news. I chatted with a group of public school teachers who were going home after a seminar in Tagaytay.
When 3:30 p.m. came and went with no call for Dumaguete passengers, the latter started fidgeting. The lady beside me said loudly that her husband texted her that our flight was cancelled. Cell phones started clicking and ringing. I texted at least three people to verify from the Dumaguete side if our flight was indeed cancelled since there was no announcement from the Manila end.
When the announcement did come, there was an uproar. People started panicking about appointments, buses and boats to catch from Dumaguete, and people to call. One teacher said she had to catch a bus to Canlaon City. A 72-year old American was telling everyone who cared to listen that from Dumaguete, he and his Ilocano wife were still scheduled to take the boat to the nearby island of Siquijor. Another passenger had travelled all the way from Libya via Qatar. He had no sleep for more than twenty-four hours.
We were instructed to go to the arrival area, get our luggage and go to the airline counters for rebooking and other arrangements. It was bedlam in the luggage area. Passengers jostled to get their suitcases, boxes tied with rope and string, backpacks, sacks, baskets, plastic bags and all sorts of bundles.
The American kept grumbling that in Las Vegas not a single flight has been cancelled in so many decades. I assured him that in the United States, flights are routinely cancelled when there are thunderstorms and snowstorms. While he was moaning that his luggage might be lost, a young man found them and lifted them from the carousel for him.
The passengers were informed that they were booked for an afternoon flight the next
day. We had two choices: receive a free ticket and P500 for taxi fare home or stay in a hotel. I decided to go home and see my grandchild to distress myself.
I lost a day’s work anxiously waiting for a boarding announcement which did not come, chasing my luggage, negotiating with airline staff, arguing with a taxi driver , sending dozens of texts and making frenzied calls cancelling appointments.
The official reason given for the cancelled flight was “sunset conditions.” Can’t communications equipment of small airports be upgraded so flights don’t have to be cancelled whenever it gets dark?
Regulating yellow taxi cabsTo get out of the airport, the public is informed by airline staff and huge bill boards that one can choose from three modes of public transport: FX cabs where one can negotiate the fare; yellow taxi cabs with a flagdown rate of P70 and metered fare, and regular taxicabs with a flagdown rate of P30 and metered fare. I was most impressed.
I immediately decided to take the yellow cab despite the higher flagdown rate because of the printed announcement that the fare would be metered. No sooner did I get inside the yellow cab when the driver asked where I was going. When I told him where in Quezon City, he called his supervisor who promptly advised him to charge P1,200 without meter. I retorted that he should use the meter. The driver gave the usual reason about distance and traffic. I threatened to report his company to the government authorities.
The cab driver loftily informed me that meters are only for “Mega Manila.” I answered in my most former-senior-government-official tone that Quezon City is part of Metro Manila. After more threats to report his company, the driver and his supervisor relented and agreed to use the meter.
The metered fare turned out to be P722. I was quite pleased with myself until my husband, snorted that whenever he takes a regular taxi from the airport, the metered fare hardly reached P350.
Calling the former LTO, (now LTFRB?) . Right under those huge tarpaulins announcing metered fares, taxi drivers continue to prey on hapless passengers. as of 05/03/2009 11:29 PM
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December 23rd 2017, 4:01 pm by James307
Subject: When some Juan’s flight is cancelled - Leonor Magtolis Brion 
