Of all my long haul flights with PAL, this recent trip from SFO to MNL really made me realize that customer service is not this airline's priority. I was extremely disappointed by this experience. I was actually pissed by how they handled my concern.
My inflight LCD wasn't working so I signaled to one FA to assist me with it, she said to wait for the FA assigned to my row. So I did and waited. I asked one male FA for help (while he was giving someone water)... sabi nya, "Sandali lang ho, pakihintay lang... dadalawa lang po ang kamay ko... hindi ko ho kaya pagsabayin lahat."
I was really shocked by that response but that was fine, I understood somehow. But He didn't get back to me. I ended up calling another FA. I said, can you please reset my LCD? She said, Bakit po, ma'am, anong nangyare? She even told me it's supposed to work and even asked me how come it's not working. Duh, they SHOULD'VE explained to me why it wasn't working!
I said, "It's been like this. It's not working at all... it seems stuck. This should work especially for a 14-hour flight. Can you pls ask the person in charge to reset this?"
Sabi nya, "Sige ho ma'am pakihintay na lang"
One hour had passed, nothing happened. I called her attention again. I said, "Did you take note of my LCD problem? It hasn't been addressed yet."
Timing naman na nandoon yung male attendant na inapproach ko earlier. Sabi ni female attendant sa kanya, "Paki process nga request ni ma'am kasi naiinis na sya."
Oh my god. Seriously? Did she have to say that for everyone to hear? I was not irate at all, I was simply requesting. Assuming they had undergone customer service training, I expected them to be able to attend to that very simple request.
I had to call her attention for what she said. I said, "Miss, hindi ho ako naiinis. I simply wanted to know whether you already processed my request. Is that too much to ask? Is this how you treat your passenger? Telling your colleague na naiinis ako within earshot of everyone onboard was extremely rude"
Sabi lang nya, "Sige po ma'am we will activate it now."
Sobrang inis ko, I blurted something like, "Wow, what can I say? That was extremely rude. I was never treated like this anywhere else. Only on PAL. This is extremely unprofessional. " Unsurprisingly, the other passengers nodded in approval. Sabi ng katabi ko, "This is not acceptable in the U.S. If a business treats someone like this, they will lose a lot of customers FAST."
It took them HOURS to address this damn issue. I was only able to take advantage of the inflight entertainment after we left GUAM to Manila. Imagine!
Overall a mediocre company. The only good thing about them is their direct flight to and from USA.
