Bad news! Our Cebu Pacific flight to Hong Kong, vice versa, is cancelled due to precautionary measures being implemented to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
We booked this flight last November 1 during a promo period and were looking forward to our first trip with our new family member, Kenshin.
However, we received a text message and email notification about our cancelled flight just this morning. We are given 3 options: rebook, travel fund or refund.
In case, you are one of the affected passengers, you can manage your rebooking thru the email notification link they will send you or simply call Cebpac hotlines.
REBOOK
You may rebook or reroute to an alternate airport up to 30 days from your original flight for free. This means that you can change your flight destination to wherever Cebu Pacific will allow. Or you may also just adjust your flight schedule with the same destination. The last time I chose this option, we had a cancelled flight to Taiwan and rebooked a free flight to Seoul, South Korea. No extra charge but the catch was that since our Taiwan trip was supposed to be 5 days, it also applied to our Sokor trip. The period between our departure and arrival flights could not be modified or extended, the customer service agent said.
TRAVEL FUND
Should you choose the travel fund option, you can store the value of your original booking and use it later in future Cebu Pacific flights. But the catch is that you need to use this travel fund within 90 days. Example, if your original flight costs P10,000, you can use this to pay for your next flight/s.
REFUND
The third option is when you request for a full refund for your ticket/s. You can receive the refund depending on how you paid for the ticket. If you used your Credit card to book the (cancelled) flight, then the refundable amount will be credited back to your Credit Card account within the next two billing cycles or depending on your bank’s billing cut-off.
If you used cash payment or did an over-the-counter payment, you need to go to a Cebu Pacific satellite sales office to personally get your refund. I had experienced this years ago, the customer service agent instructed me to print out the receipt of our tickets and bring 2 valid IDs. We went to their Robinsons Galleria sales office. It is located at the ground floor just facing the EDSA. Our transaction lasted for 30 minutes only and we finally got our money back easily.
So if you are still dillydallying about the 3 options, decide based on these criteria:
-your allowable work leaves. If you can still sway your boss to resched your vacation, then go ahead.
-is it visa-free destination? Take note of the time frame in case you choose to rebook flights and need to secure a visa. (Click here if you need Japan or South Korea Visa approval)
-is it safe to travel within the given period? As of now, there is an outbreak of COVID-19. Kindly review the list of countries with cases of coronavirus and check if there is an ongoing travel ban.
-lastly, do you still need to travel within 1-3months? You can travel later if you need more time to plan your next adventure. Then you can easily avail the refund option and use the extra cash for other expenditures.
The Covid-19 pandemic has a huge impact to travel industry due to all new travel restrictions to contain the virus spread. As a result, many people around the world are now starting to take travel insurance seriously but don’t know where to begin when searching for the right coverage. For more information about travel insurance, you may visit Consumers Advocate webpage.
Do you love to travel in Japan or South Korea? You may find something interesting in our blog. Feel free to explore.