It is during this time when the domestic travel and transportation service industry faces the most number of peak sales periods.
School semester break. All Saints and Souls Day respite. Yuletide vacation. Even honeymoons.
Imagine your stress level shooting up when you can’t book a flight, if you are waitlisted, your flight is either delayed or cancelled, etc. Add to the tension building up within you is the frustration of trying to contact the airline reservation office. All the lines are busy and you are desperate in wanting to speak with someone.
There is now a relief in sight. Specially if you are flying Cebu Pacific.
Cebu Pacific (CEB), a unit of JG Summit Holdings, Inc. and known in the local airline industry for its pioneering and innovative efforts in delivering value-added services to its customers, has introduced a mobile booking service. Unless contested, it is the first local airline to introduce mobile booking, which is already popular among business travelers abroad. Like passengers of low-cost airline company Air Asia of Malaysia.
Since last month, CEB passengers could book their domestic flights through texting.
TEXT CEB, the name of the service feature, is more than airline seat reservations. The customer experience starts with retrieving domestic flight schedules information, e.g. flight status, actual time of arrival; and find out about air fares e.g. increases and promotional package rates and go as far as booking a seat.
"No more wasting time," stressed Candice Alabanza-Iyog, Cebu Pacific Marketing Director. "Everything they do with our call centers, they can do faster (with TEXT CEB)."
The essence of TEXT CEB is how to make it (information retrieval and information itself) more convenient, more accessible and faster," continued Iyog.
The service works! I tried it recently.
If you do so, be sure your IN box is not full because you’ll receive a batch of three simple steps and instructions. You will be charged R2.50 per reply message received.
Simply text "CEB" to 2982 (for Globe users) or to 386 (for Smart users). Sun Cellular subscribers may visit the mall/ directory/ listing/ transport/ Cebu Pacific on their cellular phones.
Cebu Pacific tied up with Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular to further enhance the airline’s services to its customers. "This will make travelling a lot easier for people while improving the efficiency of our booking and ticketing procedures," said Bong Mojica, Cebu Pacific General Manager.
The service is expected to be popular because people can have their flight details with them in their mobile phones at all times. "They will not have to refer to their diaries, PDA’s or paper copies to confirm their flight details with Cebu Pacific," he said.
With mobile phone users in the country expected to hit 35 million in the next three years, Cebu Pacific thinks that using SMS will be one of the best ways to get in touch with travelers.
For example, "With the use of SMS, Cebu Pacific passengers can also be notified on the latest promos through text alerts," said Iyog.
CEB earlier launched its electronic ticketing service, wherein passengers can pay their airfares via the E-Ticket. "E-Ticket protects passengers from lost tickets. The usual paper ticket cannot be replaced once lost. The E-Ticket is stored in the airline’s computer. The passenger is given only his flight information through his mobile phone or a piece of paper that has no value and can be replaced anytime," Mojica said.
While Iyog added, "After booking a flight via text, passengers may pay through phone or internet using their Visa/ Master Card, or through Equitable-PCIBank’s FAST phone for their electronic tickets. They could also pay through the ATM, using their EquitablePCIBank ATM cards, or at any Cebu Pacific Ticket Office."
Cebu Pacific flies from two hubs: Manila and Cebu servicing 14 domestic destinations. It also flies twice daily between Manila and Hong Kong, twiceweekly between Manila and Seoul, four-times weekly between Cebu and Seoul, twice-weekly between Manila and Xiamen as well as Manila and Canton.
