Why Cathay Pacific gets sued - Manila Standard Today
For an airline that claims world-class status in the aviation industry, boasting of decades of service, Cathay Pacific displays an utter disregard and gross ignorance of how to treat its customers properly.
Its shabby treatment of a good friend of mine a couple of months ago befits the behavior of a small-town fly-by-night operator.
I refer to my friend, former Ambassador to Laos Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, also chairman of his Group of Companies. He had the misfortune of choosing to fly Cathay Pacific Airways during a weekend trip to Hong Kong sometime in late September.
A true foodie, Tony usually hies off to places where he could indulge his cravings for delicacies. Hong Kong is one such place where he could enjoy such goodies as scallops and soft-shelled crabs.
The anticipated pleasure food trip became a bad trip instead when Cabangon Chua was told at the NAIA terminal by Cathay Pacific’s crew that the business-class bookings for the ambassador and a companion had to be downgraded to economy class. The airline staff tried to sweeten the downgrading by describing the alternate booking as a “premium economy class,” as if the customer wouldn’t see that even as “premium class,” it was still economy class, and worth much less than already paid for.
The reason given was that the aircraft originally assigned for that particular fligh—CX918- had to be serviced and replaced by a smaller aircraft with fewer seats for business class passengers.
The ambassador had paid for a total of US$1,958.58 for two round-trip business class tickets. He naturally expected that the airline would automatically pay back the difference of US$1,420 between the business class and economy class.
However, there was no firm assurance from Cathay Pacific that such a reimbursement was forthcoming. Instead, the ground personnel tried to pay Cabangon Chua and companion P3,000 in exchange for signing a document that appeared to be a receipt for “advance” payment of a future reimbursement of the fare difference.
A careful reading of the paper showed to Tony and companion was actually a “quit claim” absolving Cathay Pacific of all liabilities for the downgrading —meaning there definitely was no assurance that the airline would pay back the whole amount. The ambassador naturally refused. In any case, the ambassador boarded the plane to end the stressful episode and headed for Hong Kong for his anticipated pleasure food trip.
The downgrading would have been easy to dismiss and get out of the mind of my friend Tony. But what really disgusts the ambassador is how the Cathay Pacific ground staff tried to make a fool of him by making him and his companion sign a quit claim in exchange for P3,000. Very insulting indeed for the chairman of his own Group of Companies engaged in banking, insurance (life and non-life) HMO, hotels and tourism, publishing, radio and television broadcast, education, property development and other allied businesses.
For someone with his resources, the fare difference of US$1,402.02 is no big deal. It’s the principle of the thing that rankles.
Tony expressed this sentiment in a demand letter he sent to Alan Lui, Cathay Pacific area manager in the Philippines through lawyer Alexis Oco. But Cathay Pacific’s reply through its lawyers, Siguion Reyna Montecillo and Ongsiako Law Offices, added insult to injury when the ambassador was told that the airline would be willing to refund “the fare difference of only US$188 for each pax,” or US1,000 less than the amount demanded by the ambassador.
My gulay, no reason given, no explanation as to how the airline reduced the difference in the prices of business class and economy class tickets from US$1,402.02 to only US$376 or US$188 each.
And so in their demand letter, the ambassador’s lawyer describes Cathay Pacific’s counter-offer as a “baseless, inequitable and downright insulting.” Their computation simply doesn’t make sense.
Now, totally disgusted with the very insulting and patronizing way Cathay Pacific is doing business, the ambassador has made a formal final demand and not only for a refund of the undelivered business class accommodation of US$1,402.02, but is now demanding an additional P2 million in moral and actual damages.
As the ambassador’s lawyer wrote to the airline, “should you fail to reply as herein required, we shall be constrained to file the appropriate course of action against you, which would necessarily include claims for interests, incidental damages, attorney’s fees and cost of litigation.”
From a small incident, Cathay Pacific is now facing a full-blown suit for its deceitful and insulting treatment of a well-known Filipino businessman.