I've been writing about continuous improvement, habits and productivity since 2007.

How to fly with Cebu Pacific and not get angry at cancellations: You don’t (Part I)

(This is a two part post, the first one recounting my experience and the second, an insight into the Service Recovery protocol of the company)

Backstory:

I arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 on October 7, 2018,  2 hours 30 minutes early for my 2PM Manila- General Santos City Cebu Pacific flight 5J 997.  I only have a backpack and a hand carried bag with me. I checked in online the day prior. After the pre departure protocol checks, I went directly to boarding gate 120 and fell asleep at the bench waiting for the plane . I heard the paging system announcing  our flight will be delayed “due to the delayed arrival of our turn around flight”.  Cebu Pacific flight 5J 997  arrived ~ 2:30- 2:45PM . Passengers boarded the plane between 3- 4pm.  After around 15 minutes inside the plane, I saw the cabin doors shut and heard the pre-departure announcements on the loudspeakers. The plane backed up,  getting ready to taxi into the runway. Once I felt the plane moving, I immediately fell asleep. I woke up 30 mins thinking we were flying already.  Looking out through the plane’s window I saw our plane still lining up for the runway. When it was our plane’s turn to take off, the control tower advised our planes pilot to go back because our plane will not make it to Gensan airport’s “sunset” limitations. Our plane proceeded to the arrival area as instructed. The flight pilot and crew gave the standard arrival welcome routine. It felt really awkward though knowing we weren’t even an inch off the ground. The pilot instructed us to proceed to the customers desk at the arrival area for rebooking, rerouting and in my mind,  whatever we  can salvage from this debacle. Personally, I think the flight crew handled this flight cancellation per protocol nicely although I still would want an explanation why their arrival was delayed. I frankly don’t know what  “due to the delayed arrival of our turn around flight” mean.

Events turned for the worst at the arrival area’s customer’s desk. The permanent customer’s desk is busy with some other transactions and we were told a temporary customer desk for 5J 997 passengers will be set up immediately.

I am first in line in front of this temporary customers desk. A team of Cebu Pac ground staff gathered behind the desk doing something I don’t understand. First, they were looking for a laptop connected to their network, probably to book us again. Second, they were also looking for WIFI connection (???). Both laptop and wifi dongle arrived late. Third, no one seem to have definite answers or protocol to follow. There’s someone constantly talking to a phone, another holding typing on an ipad probably for their network while others are holding brochures and flyers. Nobody introduced themselves and I don’t know who is the person in charge. Someone or some two maybe three people started announcing and talking  to the passengers. It’s quite obvious some staff aren’t sure of their answers or what to do based on the  tentative answers and announcements we got.

They gave us one free domestic flight voucher as their way of apologising for this flight cancellation, really a mess for most of us. Our tickets were automatically rebooked for the next day gensan flight and was told free hotel accommodations (or 500PHP for those who won’t stay there) for the night. Those who want to rebook or reroute  elsewhere or another time, well we were advised to wait till they finish setting up their transfer desk.

Not wanting to stay overnight and wait for next day flight, I opted for the 6PM flight to Davao. They booked me alright, I was first in line but they refused to give me my 500Php transportation allowance. I did not insist anymore since I only had 30 mins window to boarding for that davao flight. So I ran to the departure area, went through the same boarding protocol and arrive at the gate 15 minutes earlier than the boarding time.

I barely warmed my butt waiting, someone on the paging system announced our davao flight will be delayed also due to, guess what “late arrival of your return flight”. So here I am, waiting for a plane to arrive and writing my thoughts here. I hope I’ll end up in Davao tonight. Let’s see what happens.

Update: 9:30 PM 10-7-18
I finally arrived in Davao. Hope to find a place to stay, as I left my keys to my sister’s place in the car back in Gensan. Needing a massage and coffee too. Then will write on my thoughts on this experience. A chance to learn, so to speak.

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Remembering August, Sr.

August is my dad’s month. It is I think our clan’s month. Augusto was born August 27, and died August 8, 44 years apart. He named my younger brother Augusto Jr. Some of his “apo” was born August- Russel Aguilar Aug 17. Paul Austin De Vera Aug 10.

While my other siblings Lynette, Betsie and Augusto Jr  inherited the brilliant mind and effortless knack for “pakikisama” of my dad, I am in awe of his craftsmanship and attention to detail.

He worked at a raw, ramie textile factory, supervising people from different ethnic backgrounds during the “volatile” Mindanao in the late 70s and early 80s. Assuring an export quality, high grade ramie textile for San Miguel Corp is no easy task. He developed a keen sense for quality almost invisible to most eyes. I asked him how he knew “premium quality ramie fibers” by just rubbing it on the dorsum of his hand. “It feels a bit smooth, little rough undulating”. “And when you comb the fibers with your bare hands, the bad ones stall your fingers like tangled hair strands ” he added. “Smells different too. Like a wet rotten leaf. ” Well, his sense for fine grade, premium quality “material ” is not limited to ramie textile. He met, chased and wooed my mom within this same company. A boholana and a beauty queen, mom couldn’t resist my dad’s keen sense for “premium quality”. She married him.

I used to tag along with my dad in his office, on the field, and even in the remotest areas of Mindanao where non muslims rarely went to. “What are we going to do in that place pang?” I asked. “We’d be visiting a sick worker and hasn’t reported for days” he said. That was the first time I saw a “boss” going to a worker’s house and in a “no mans land’ at that. I still remember the surprised look at the weakened face of that worker. He couldn’t meet us inside his bamboo shanty, who I think , could barely hold 2 adults. The sick worker offered us his only barako coffee, then he handed a dried, sweet local delicacy to go with the coffee while we sat on bamboo ladder to his house eating. “Drink or eat anything they offer” my dad told me. “Thats the only thing they have and when they offer it to you, it meant they value your presence more than anything in their possession”. I was barely 7 or 8 years old then and never drank coffee but that was the most inspiring coffee I ever had in those times. I saw my dad hand something to the worker. I’m not sure if its money, a medicine or what. I just heard the word “thank you” in the vernacular. This is also I think one reason why my dad is well loved by his workers. ( At the necrological mass, trucks of his muslim workers eagerly waited outside the christian church just so they can bid goodbye to their boss friend).

My dad can also whip out a toy gun out of anything. From the stem leaf of bananas, wooden “de tansan” from spare lumber, sulpot made of bamboo. “I want a scooter!” I asked him. So he builds a wooden scooter with wheels made of old ball bearings! He is good with his hands, a craftsman i suppose. He sew all our torn bags. His mind is always busied by his hands. He draws all my school “drawing” assignments. And he is always pre occupied covering our notebooks and books with not only soft paper covers but cardboard plus transparent plastic cover on top!

Augusto, is also a very sociable person. He blends well in any group and is loved by both his workers and his bosses. He is the barkada for everyone. He’s unassuming, jovial , communicates well and has this ability to hold everyones attention when needed. He is a prolific storyteller and was a company’s toastmaster. He laughs with all his mouth wide open to his ears. I never heard him ridicule anyone nor comment on someone else’s’ misfortunes or activities. He also is a beer drinking suave. Explains why he is a constant fixture in any of his barkada’s gatherings. He loves “sabong’ thats he breeds and grows fighting cocks. He doesn’t bet though as gambling is strictly prohibited in our house. He taught me in my young age how to breed and prepare fighting cocks for derbies. I only retained the “how to cook tinola” part or if his fighting cock lose, how to eat 3-4 “balut’ in one sitting.

I was a “papa’s boy” said my siblings. True. I stayed with my dad often. I never really fully understood why he died earlier than everyone. He was just 44. I was just 8 years old then. Yet over the years I realized he never “left” us at all. He, together with our mom, inspired all of us to be where he wanted us to be. He told my eldest sister he wanted a doctor in our family. After he died, I never even thought I could go to college much less be a doctor. But look where are we now. To Augusto and my mom’s credit, they also now have an accountant, a teacher and hopefully a lawyer soon. We’re all papa’s children after all, aren’t we?!

So pang, I only got one request to you ever since you left ahead of us. Take care of me, us in all my journeys. I still remember that worried look you have every time I hop and jump above a ten foot stack of ramie textile. But you always send some angel to watch over us. I would still love that angel with me 🙂

PS. Ikaw ang “lodi” namin..

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Top Fun, Healthy Activities Tips for You

Some days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the Pequod now went rolling through the bright Quito spring, which, at sea, almost perpetually reigns.

For sleeping man, ’twas hard to choose between such winsome days and such seducing nights. But all the witcheries of that unwaning weather did not merely lend new spells and potencies to the outward world. Inward they turned upon the soul, especially when the still mild hours of eve came on; then, memory shot her crystals as the clear ice most forms of noiseless twilights. And all these subtle agencies, more and more they wrought on texture.

It was so; only that now, of late, he seemed so much to live in the open air, that truly speaking, his visits were more to the cabin, than from the cabin to the planks. “It feels like going down into one’s tomb,”—he would mutter to himself—”for an old captain like me to be descending this narrow scuttle, to go to my grave-dug berth.”

It was of a dark, purplish, yellow colour, here and there stuck over with large blackish looking squares.

Some days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the Pequod now went rolling through the bright Quito spring, which, at sea, almost perpetually reigns on the threshold of the eternal August of the Tropic. The warmly cool, clear, ringing, perfumed, overflowing, redundant days, were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped up—flaked up, with rose-water snow. The starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets, nursing at home in lonely pride, the memory of their absent conquering Earls, the golden helmeted suns!

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Tips for Consistent Meditation

Here’s how I was able to consistently meditate daily.

  • The best time to start meditation is now. Start with the basic 10 minute guided meditation (Headspace if you chose to)  It’s free!
  • Be clear about your goals on why you are meditating. Is it for personal, career, relationships, relaxation or any other reason?
  • Do guided meditation in areas full of distractions (too much noise, movements)
  • If you have tinnitus, a low non destructive sound should help negate it. Surprisingly, I can meditate now without sounds even if I have tinnitus.
  • A familiar, silent place for meditation is desirable for starters but is not necessary. I do meditate on the bus or inside my parked car.
  • Comfy but not slouchy chair is recommended.
  • The most comfortable sitting posture for you is recommended. You don’t need complex sitting postures to meditate.
  • Don’t fret when you are distracted, because you will be, often and a lot. The most important thing is, you bring back yourself to meditation as soon as you notice you’ve been distracted.
  • Practice meditation as consistently as possible preferably on a regular time schedule. I do mine consistently in the morning and set alarms for this.
  • Practice “breathing in meditation” for a minute or two in situations you’re really stressed out. Mind you it works wonders!

That’s it! I hope you will start and enjoy the benefits of meditation yourself! 

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