PAL’s midnight “sale”

It was more expensive to book a flight during Philippine Airline’s Midnight Sale. Well at least by $94.

I booked a flight during that May 9 midnight sale for a roundtrip ticket (MNL-SFO). The price was $1,444.70.

That caught me off-guard, because I distinctly remembered trying to book a day or two before, & got a cheaper price. Ergo, after the sale, I attempted to book again for the same dates. The price has dropped to $1,350.70.

But that’s not all:

When I arrived at the airport, the girl at the counter said she will only release my boarding pass after I pay the travel tax of P1,620.

I rummaged thru wallet, hoping I have enough for the travel tax & the airport fee, and breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, I was carrying sufficient pesos.

Wait, you mean I can’t pay at this counter? I, traveling alone, need to wheel two huge luggage & a handcarry towards that counter in the middle? And so I did.

You know, who would’ve thought that travel tax is not included when booking online? According to the confirmation email, I paid a tax rate of $286.70. Which we now know is not travel tax. Just regular old “tax.”

The fine print did mention this, though:

For international tickets purchased online, Philippine travel tax, if applicable, shall be collected by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) at Philippine airports. For information on travel tax, please contact the PTA.

So convenient no?

So here are my lessons learned when booking a flight online with PAL:

• Try to book a flight the day before, without actually confirming the transaction. Just so you’ll know how much it really costs pre-sale.
• Use Internet Explorer. I was persistently getting a blank page on Firefox & Safari for the Mac. But all went well when the site was accessed using Internet Explorer on Windows 7.
• Get offline & book thru your local travel agent. Even the girl behind the airport’s counter advised me to. And she had stories which I promised not to tell.

Being our flagship airline, I still would like to continue supporting PAL’s business. I have to admit, though, that they are not ready for online booking. Online transactions are supposed to make it convenient & cheap. PAL failed me in both.