matagal na bang practice yan?
The offloading of baggage does happen and the passenger has all the right and recourse to ask airlines for compensation provided that it falls within the contract of carriage. Force majuere is a legal defense for the carriers and will not entitle the cargo owner / baggage owner any recourse. So in the case of claudine's group, Cebu pac should have asked her to go to their office to discuss this as she was creating a scene. That would have helped the airlines protect their image and settle the situation amicably. So one can blame cebu pac for the ineptitude / handling of the passenger complaint due to a ground crew who was not trained for a situation of Celebrity going ballistic and demanding all the VIP treatment that she so richly deserve and entitled to (however real or imagined it is).
It is laughable on DOTC's part for them to conduct investigation on the current plight of air passengers as it all can be traced to their shortcomings as well as CAAP which falls under their umbrella.
QUOTE
The Department of Transportation and Communications and the Department of Trade and Industry have promised to look into consumer complaints on cancelled or delayed flights, removal of luggage without the owners’ consent, refusal of airlines to use tubes to and from planes to the discomfort of passengers, and high rebooking fees charged for those who reserved flights on promo rates.
UNQUOTE
Cancelled / delayed flights - this is usually due to the NAIA air traffic which is caused by the runway capacity and allowing the airlines to mount more flights even when the capacity per hour has been breached. Mar Roxas who says that they will ask airlines to cut down their number of flight is just trying to appear to the public that they are doing something when in the first place it is the governing body who should dictate that the airport is beyond capacity already. It is just the government is trying to impress on everybody that they are doing something when in fact if they did their jobs in the first place this mess (not the claudine incident but the air traffic mess) would have not happened.
high rebooking fees - DTI should be the one to protect consumers rights but hey, this is the philippines.
refusal of airlines to use tubes to and from planes to the discomfort of passengers - Budget airlines as much as possible do not use tubes as they are charged for the use of these. So passengers who bitch about this should know that they are buying budget tickets. If they want to be provided all the frills, go buy tickets from a legacy carrier. (I am in no way connected to PAL).
removal of luggage without the owners’ consent - DOTC should read up on the contract of carriage. it is an internationally agreed upon contract of carrige. Oh, wait. Our country is on FAA Category 2 for not complying to international standards. woops. goes to show DOTC should bring down the hammer on CAAP or vice versa.
The government wants to make it more fun in the phillippines and increase tourist arrivals. Our main gateway is operating beyond capacity. How can one convince tourists to go to our country when the journey to the fun is "hell" and getting out of paradise and back to their home country is through "hell"?
But ultimately to be on topic. Thank you claudine. hopefully this incident will spur and shame the DOTC to do something about our airports and help with consumer rights.