Am I the only one who is a victim of online airline booking scams?

SECURITY ISSUES, DOUBLE BOOKINGS AND CEBU PACIFIC AIRLINES

By a Victim of Predatory and Dangerous CP Airlines

Cebu Pacific's online booking system is often operating internationally illegally and unsafe—as well as passenger-unfriendly.

“MOST OBVIOUSLY by ALLOWING DOUBLE BOOKING OF PASSENGERS WITH SAME NAME AND AGES--WITHOUT ANY initial online SECURITY CHECK is only one KEY EXAMPLE of INCOMPETENT SECURITY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. Any disguised individual could occupy the second sets of seats.”--KAS

For example, this past Friday, I was "permitted" on-line with CEBU PACIFIC in a crisis this past Friday to “accidentally book myself and [pay for] two family members” 2 times on the same flight--using all the same names and credit card address.

http://www.cebupacificair.com/

NOTE: This occurred because the local airline I was in (in Taiwan), UNI Air, is also incompetent and failed to tell me that 3 planes were canceled on December 10—due to weather issues—from tiny Beigan Island to Taipei. This thus made it impossible at the last minute to make my December 11 (1:20am) flight to Taiwan.

http://www.wego.com/airlines/uni-airways-b7/economy/from/taipei-tpe


Next, when a few minutes later, I understood my error with CEBU’s illegally operating system (1. the online system, 2. its fax-address and 3. phone numbers in Taipei for Cebu Pacific) failed to respond to my request to not double book myself and two families--and NOT TO CHARGE MY FAMILY 10,000 PESOS twice for each December 11 booking, i.e. for 3 passengers.

CONTACT THE MANILA PHONE NUMBER, MR. STODA

After getting no help from the Taipei contact addresses for Cebu Pacific, we went to the airport. All the Cebu Pacific staff at the International Airport in Taiwan could do was to tell me to contact Cebu Pacific when I arrived to Manila.

Yesterday, I arrived in Manila with my wife and child.

NOW--TODAY—when I CONTACTED face-to-face CEBU OFFICIALS in Manila, they claimed that the company would REFUSE to refund my second or DOUBLE BOOKING of 3 passengers on December 11, 2010 from Taipei to Manila--stating the company “considered it solely the responsibility of the passengers involved when there is any online booking error.”

HOW CAN PASSENGER BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE IN A DOUBLE BOOKING?

http://telebisyon.net/

I take a moment here to ask you travelers and readers, “How can the person doing the online booking be solely responsible when the airline’s online booking systems allows passengers to double book themselves? Internationally, this is dangerous for security reason. It is also not good for customer service and reputation of the company.

I couldn't believe such an outrageous statement. I listed off the reasons and asked to speak to the manager. I was told to call the CEBU Pacific number—which wasn’t even answering calls at the time. I stood firm and demanded to get a real authority further up in the chain-of-command speak to me and reconsider refunding the inadvertent second booking.

HERE IS WHAT I SUMMARIZED CONCERNING ON-LINE SERVICES

First of all, I know that INTERNATIONAL SECURITY WORLDWIDE, such as the FFA, currently have protocols which include telling the airlines to question any double bookings of the same names, ages, etc. of passengers--without a thorough investigation in advance.

QUITE OBVIOUSLY, Cebu Pacific's online security is incompetent and virtually illegal if I can quickly and accidentally book and pay for the same 3 passengers on the same flight using same names and ages. Further, the Taiwan offices of Cebu and Manila offices of Cebu also failed to respond to my requests for assistance then in a timely manner.

NOT ONLY is the security system in error at Cebu Pacific, the policy (as far as my double bookings and other bookings are concerned) is wrong and incompetent because in my 5 most bookings to and from Taiwan( to and from Manila) the system has only confirmed my flights one or two times properly via email—as its online service is supposed to do 100% of the time. In short, not only is the internet security more than quirky at Cebu, but the email system is inconsistent.

Third, in August 2010 I became a Cebu Pacific online member on their website. However, in 4 months I have not received via email or snail mail any confirmation of this or my membership number.

In short, Cebu Pacific and its online web service is behaving dangerously--and incompetently on behalf of international passengers flying to and from overseas.

It allows double bookings of the same names. It doesn't answer telephone calls, emails, faxes, or civil face-to-face requests for help in places, like Taiwan and Manila.

It does not treat loyal customers--like me (and my family)--friendly--but rather ADVERSARILY. That is, any airline in its right mind with passengers having flown (with family) multiple stretches on the same flights needs to be treated with respect and not blamed for all foibles or idiosyncrasies of a bad online and communication system at Cebu Pacific.

Currently, Cebu Pacific SIMPLY preys upon its own internet incompetence’s--especially in the lace of internet booking security and double charges passengers unfairly.

In response to Cebu Pacific's double booking and charging of my family--i.e. with no apparent hope of recuperating our unfair losses (even despite international booking security breaches), I have determined to FILE A COMPLAINT WITH INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AT AIRPORTS personnel in the region--including the USA Embassy's regional security supervisors for the FFA etc.

Yours,

Kevin Stoda
Philippines, Taiwan, USA