How we got a Cebu Pacific Air canceled flight refund & an honest review of the airline customer service

A holiday disrupted by a canceled flight can be both annoying and frustrating, especially when dealing with a budget airline like Cebu Pacific Air and trying to get a canceled flight refund. Fortunately, we eventually resolved the issue and received a full refund. This article shares our personal experience, detailing the entire refund struggles and a turning point that led to our success in obtaining a Cebu Pacific Air canceled flight refund. It also shares an honest review of Cebu Pacific Air customer service. 

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Cebu Pacific Air canceled our flight

Route: from Manila (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) to Coron Island (Francisco B.Reyes Airport)

After boarding and sitting on the plane for about an hour, Cebu Pacific Air announced that due to weather conditions in Coron Island, the airport was closed. As a result, our flight was canceled, and we had to get out of the flight.

Locals told us that flight cancellations are quite common during the wet, typhoon season in the Philippines, especially for smaller flights heading to the islands, where the airports are often quite small as well.

However, right after Cebu Pacific Air told us to get off the flight, there were no clear instructions on where to go or what to do next. Another local passenger noticed our confusion and pointed us to a small, unofficial desk (since Cebu Pacific Air didn’t have an official counter in the arrival hall).

On the desk, there was a pile of small notes for passengers, listing three options we could choose from and providing only the homepage link to Cebu Pacific Air, without giving any further or detailed instructions on how to actually proceed with those options.

When we asked the two staff standing there for help, the two staff members unfortunately did not seem willing to assist us but kept repeating “just do it online, we don’t do it offline.” At that moment, the flight status hadn’t even been updated, so none of us could take any action online while their staff were still present. Since there were no more Cebu Pacific Air flights to Coron Island that day, our only option was to request a refund— and that’s where the real nightmare began.

Challenges we faced when claiming a refund after Cebu Pacific Air canceled our flight.

1.The refund option on the Cebu Pacific Air website was not available.

Few hours later, I went on the Cebu Pacific Air website, which the paper they gave us directed us to, I didn’t find the “refund button” in the “Manage Booking” section available to click. After typing the correct booking reference number, my last name/email address, it only displayed the canceled status without any further options. I tried for the next few days, and it was always the same. On the page it also shows, “Manage your booking up to two (2) hours before your flight!” which was not applicable in our case.

2.The staff at the airport check-in counter were also unable to assist us.

When I visited the check-in counter in the departure hall after realizing it was impossible to do it online, they again told me to do it online. I explained that I couldn’t do it and insisted they help me solve the problem. They then opened the Cebu Pacific Facebook page, started a live chat and typed all the correct information of our booking.

However, they also couldn’t help me to successfully get a refund with the live chat agent. I had no idea why.

3.Even Trip.com, the online booking agent I used to book my flight, had a problem claiming our refund from Cebu Pacific Air without requiring us to agree to an unreasonable agreement.

Since I knew the refund should be processed through the online booking agency where I booked my flight, I was trying the Cebu Pacific Air website and the Facebook live chat agent while also contacting Trip.com. They assisted me better and faster by helping submit the cancellation request to Cebu Pacific, noting that the flight had been canceled by the airline due to the weather condition. 

However, a day later, they send me an email saying” Flight Ticket Cancellation Request Failed: the cancellation request failed because your circumstances do not meet the airline’s requirements for involuntary cancellation”, and they suggested we apply for a voluntary cancellation, which we refused because it did not apply to our situation.

We told Trip.com to try again and explain to the airline, but Cebu Pacific Air then instructed Trip.com to submit an offline submission, which required us to agree to a statement saying, “If the airline does not approve the cancellation, the refund will be voluntary.” This didn’t make sense at all. So, we refused to agree and continued to go back and forth with Trip.com. They helped me resubmit the request again and again, but the outcome was always the same—without our agreement to the statement, the airline kept asking Trip.com to inform us of the same thing. Consequently, the refund request was not able to be processed. 

A suggested solution for claiming a refund for a flight canceled by Cebu Pacific Air

Went to the Cebu Pacific Air office located in the departure hall of Terminal 3 at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport and being strong was our turning point to finally getting a refund back. We didn’t know this way, it was suggested by a local girl after knowing we struggled dealing with it for 10 days. Maybe you could do the same if you have already tried the methods below without success: 

1. Look for the refund option on the Cebu Pacific Air website.
2. Use the Cebu Pacific Air Facebook live chat to request a live agent and ask for a full refund. Make sure to provide your booking reference number, complete passenger names, the date and route of your round-trip flight, and the email address associated with your booking as well as request a refund.
3. Contacted the online booking agency to request a refund for you (If you booked your flight through them).

Below is what happened at the Cebu Pacific Air office and how the issue eventually been solved.

On the last day in the Philippines, we went to Cebu Pacific Air office located on the right side of the Terminal 3 departure hall at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. (Please be aware that airports in the Philippines have security at the entrance, and you are only allowed entry if you have a flight at that specific terminal. However, since we were in a rush and weren’t in a good mood, we explained to the security staff that we needed to go to the Cebu Pacific Air office immediately, and they let us through).

When we approached the staff at the counter, she told us again to apply online. We explained all the methods we had tried, the responses we received, and our inability to process the refund. We insisted that they resolve the issue for us right then and there.

After checking the system, the staff member informed us that two online agents had already requested the refund for us, and it was pending. She advised us to contact Trip.com since we had booked our flights through them. I explained that I already did and that Cebu Pacific Air required us to agree to an unreasonable agreement that we couldn’t accept. We then asked her to process the refund without needing us to agree on the ridiculous agreement. Our frustration was evident, and we made it clear that we wouldn’t leave without a resolution.

We wanted to take photos of the staff member, which made her defensive. She called security and informed us that taking photos at the counter was prohibited, and making sure we didn’t have the photos taken. Meanwhile she still refused to assist us in processing the refund.

We then requested a certificate stating that the flight had been canceled by Cebu Pacific Air, so we could apply for insurance. Suddenly, she made a call to seek approval for something we were unsure about, then returned to her desk and started a Facebook Live chat. She typed in the same information we had typed earlier and requested a refund. After answering a few more questions from the live agent, they finally agreed to process the refund, confirming it would be returned to the original account, which was Trip.com.

She told us to contact Trip.com, stating that Cebu Pacific Air had already confirmed the refund request. To avoid further complications, I took photos of her live chat conversation with the online agent and sent them to Trip.com, explaining that we had visited the airline office and had received a refund promise from the airline. I requested that they process the refund to my credit card.

Magically, just one day later, Trip.com sent me a confirmation letter regarding the refund amount, without requiring us to agree to any unreasonable agreement requested by Cebu Pacific Air again.

On the same day, I received an email stating, “A refund of xxx for your flight booking has been successfully processed back to your bank.” I received the full refund to my credit card(including taxes and fees) within 3 days. FINALLY.

I am guessing that in our case, visiting the Cebu Pacific Air office was the key turning point in successfully obtaining a refund for our canceled flight. 

I hope this article and our experience help you if you encounter the same issues we faced. However, circumstances may change due to different cases. But, good luck!

Honest review of Cebu Pacific Air

If you ask me if Cebu Pacific Air is a good airline? My answer is no, I’d say Cebu Pacific Air has the worst customer service and user experience I’ve ever experienced, and I will not book with them again.

I knew Cebu Pacific Air was a budget airline, so I wasn’t expecting them to have great service like top airlines. However, the way Cebu Pacific Air handled issues felt like they had zero standards. The attitude of the staff and the design of the refund process made resolving the issue incredibly difficult. It seemed like they didn’t care about customers’ concerns when it came to getting refunds. (Of course, I believe ㄋsome other passengers may have some smooth refund experiences, but that wasn’t the case for us.)

You can’t excuse it by saying they’re a budget airline, because even Ryanair, a budget airline in Europe, apologized, gave clear directions, provided updates of the flight, and offered incentives to passengers when my flight from the UK to Ibiza was delayed for several hours years ago.