With my frequent travel, I've been a sucker for the cheapest air ticket and hotel deals. In the past few years, I've been booking and buying my own air tickets online as it seemed cheaper than what the ticket offices sold. Just as I thought that buying tickets online was the cheapest way, I discovered a better way.
For domestic air tickets on Philippine Airlines or Cebu Pacific, check the ticket price online and later call the reservations office (for PAL, its 63-2 855-8888 and for Cebu Pacific, get the phone number of the local agent) and ask for the cheapest domestic air ticket price for your flight date and time. You can then compare which is cheaper.
I stumbled on this the other day when I was booking my Tacloban-Manila-Tacloban flights online. The cost was PHP6,425 (Cebu Pacific's air fare was PHP 3,506) but I was willing to pay for the higher fare because PAL's flight schedule was convenient. However, my online transaction didn't get through as there was server error after I submitted my credit card details. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I was forced to call PAL to check whatever happened to the online booking I had made. The call center agent said that my credit card was not billed as the transaction didn't get through. She offered to book my flights and asked if I wanted a promo fare. I replied that I wanted the cheapest fare. When she mentioned it was P3,978 (with Mabuhay Miles points earned and about P300 less without), I was pleasantly surprised to find the huge difference. The call center agent said that the P6,425 online fare was the price at my booking time but she confirmed that cheaper PAL domestic tickets can be obtained by phone. This rule does not apply to international airfares which are cheaper if obtained online.
4 comments:
Dear Ma'am Moni,
Wow! that would be a big saving! Many thanks for sharing the information. I will tell my friends who travel a lot by air.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Oping
Yes, there are ways to get cheap air fares and hotel rooms. Ask your friends to read my blog coz I promise to share a lot more.
maam moni, i went back home twice last year and bought my tickets in advance. guess how much i paid for a round trip tac-manila... Php3200! and on my other trip, i paid Php2,600 for round trip. can you believe that?
the trick is to book your flight at least one week in advance, go online, look for the cheapest rates, then call their hotline.
i haven't tried paying using credit card because i didn't need to. i'm only one ride away from Cebu Pacific's main office in Malate. very convenient actually.
you can also make reservations on some ticketing outlets but they charge you P200 or more.
for those who are not in a very tight schedule, i would suggest flying on weekdays because there are more promo seats available than on weekends.
People should read this.
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