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Around 200 Filipinos furiously swarmed PEYA travels asking for a refund of their "unbooked" tickets which made them stranded for hours at Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong.
They are mostly domestic workers on their way home to the Philippines for the holidays with tickets issued by Peya Travel.
Stranded passengers said they were told by airline staff that the travel agency had failed to pay for their tickets, but Peya’s management blamed the fiasco on a technical glitch.
Peya’s proprietor Rhea Donna Boyce admitted that she was aware about the booking problem and said she was very furious about it.
She managed to rebook the tickets of some 100 passengers who were unable to board their flights.
Unfortunately around the same number of passengers encountered the same problem, and many of them descended on the Peya office on the third floor of World Wide Plaza in Central to complain, some already sought the help of the police.
The travel agency’s staff walked out on their jobs in the middle of angry passengers, leaving only the sales director, Arnold Grospe, to deal with the complaints.
Belen rushed to PEYA’s office at mid-afternoon after finding out about the fiasco at the check-in counter, and was verging on tears as she angrily demanded her money back.
Among the passengers who missed her flight was on her way to attend the burial of her father. “May emergency kami tapos ganito pa ang nangyari. Ibalik nila ang pera ko,”[ we have an emergency and then this sort of thing happened, they must return my money] she said, adding that the $5,000 she had to pay for her ticket was her last money, and did not know where to get more cash to buy a new one.
Another passenger went to HK International Airport early as she was supposed to leave on the 7:50am flight of Philippine Airlines, she was shocked to learn that she was not on the passengers list.
After fuming for hours at the airport, she decided to just book a 7:20pm flight to Clark Airport aboard Cebu Pacific so she would at least arrive home within the same day.
Another customer, Vhie Azares Endaya, said she was concerned about her children who had been preparing to fetch her at the airport in Legaspi City, because she would miss her 10pm flight tonight. “Actually, my employer would be happy that I would not be leaving,” she added.
Stranded passengers said they were told by airline staff that the travel agency had failed to pay for their tickets, but Peya’s management blamed the fiasco on a technical glitch.
Peya’s proprietor Rhea Donna Boyce admitted that she was aware about the booking problem and said she was very furious about it.
She managed to rebook the tickets of some 100 passengers who were unable to board their flights.
Unfortunately around the same number of passengers encountered the same problem, and many of them descended on the Peya office on the third floor of World Wide Plaza in Central to complain, some already sought the help of the police.
The travel agency’s staff walked out on their jobs in the middle of angry passengers, leaving only the sales director, Arnold Grospe, to deal with the complaints.
Belen rushed to PEYA’s office at mid-afternoon after finding out about the fiasco at the check-in counter, and was verging on tears as she angrily demanded her money back.
Among the passengers who missed her flight was on her way to attend the burial of her father. “May emergency kami tapos ganito pa ang nangyari. Ibalik nila ang pera ko,”[ we have an emergency and then this sort of thing happened, they must return my money] she said, adding that the $5,000 she had to pay for her ticket was her last money, and did not know where to get more cash to buy a new one.
Another passenger went to HK International Airport early as she was supposed to leave on the 7:50am flight of Philippine Airlines, she was shocked to learn that she was not on the passengers list.
After fuming for hours at the airport, she decided to just book a 7:20pm flight to Clark Airport aboard Cebu Pacific so she would at least arrive home within the same day.
Another customer, Vhie Azares Endaya, said she was concerned about her children who had been preparing to fetch her at the airport in Legaspi City, because she would miss her 10pm flight tonight. “Actually, my employer would be happy that I would not be leaving,” she added.
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Many furious passengers swarmed over Grospe, demanding a return of their money.
Grospe, who frantically tried to help file applications to refund the tickets of the passengers, he said that he was unsure what had caused their bookings to disappear from their systems as if it was infected by a virus.
The affected passengers were mostly on Philippine Airlines and Cathay Pacific flights; they were booked but not confirmed. He also found out, upon checking, that some of the passengers on Cebu Pacific had confirmed flights.
Grospe offered to process refund claims as a crowd filled the Peya office, asking them to leave copies of their booking form, receipt and HK identification card to support their applications.
But he added that he could not promise the complainants when or how much refund would be paid.
The Travel Industry Council (TIC) sent staff to inquire about complaints it had received. It was not yet known what actions TIC will take but a search of the directory of travel agents indicates that Peya is still listed.
Some of those who came back from the Hong Kong International Airport said there was a bigger crowd of OFWs there who were unable to leave because their names were not on the flight manifest of either PAL, Cathay Pacific or Cebu Pacific.
PAL’s country manager, Leah Nicolas, was also at a loss when asked what could have gone wrong with Peya’s bookings, but said that as far as the airline is concerned, “the tickets were not issued”.
Nicolas said that PAL does not get bookings directly from Peya, as it is not accredited with IATA (International Air Travel Association). That means Peya had to go through an accredited agency to get the airline to issue the tickets, which did not happen.
“But in the past, we have had passengers booked through Peya and we didn’t have this kind of problem, so this is really strange, ” Nicolas said.
Asked if it was possible for PAL to deploy extra flights to accommodate the hundreds of mainly overseas Filipino workers who made their bookings through Peya and are scheduled to depart within the week, Nicolas said she could try asking.
“We can check but there’s a big demand for our aircraft right now because of the holiday season,” she said.
Nevertheless, Nicolas said she would send a staff member to Peya to inquire how they could help ease the burden on the affected passengers.
Many of the passengers who had been bumped off their flights also sought help from the Consulate, to ask if they could take action.
PEYA Travel issued an apology through their social media page with a promise to settle all the mess with their clients.
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