Cebu Pacific are the Philippines’ budget air carrier with a normally easy to use website – but for the last few days they have been unable to process Visa credit cards, causing big frustration for customers
Just a quick note to say anyone trying to book a cheap flight to the Philippines – or within the Philippines – on Cebu Pacific is in for a nasty surprise if they try paying with a Visa credit card. Once you’ve got all the way through the booking process and handed over your Visa details, the system refuses to confirm your booking and says “Sorry, the payment gateway could not be contacted in a timely manner”. I know, because I’ve been trying to book a ticket with Cebu Pacific for the last 3 days now. In the end I gave up and phoned their customer service number which was engaged at first and then helpfully told me that they couldn’t accept internationally issued Visa cards at the moment. Quite why no one had thought to flag this on the Cebu Pacific website itself is a mystery – it would save customers a lot of hassle. It’s also perhaps an argument for making sure you have both Visa and Mastercard, as they can still accept the latter just fine.
In the end I made my booking through a Bangkok travel agent which was fine except I have to get the tickets delivered rather than just emailed to me. It’s all a bit a storm in a teacup but it really makes me fed up when companies don’t think of what’s best for their customers, even if they have to look bad by publically admitting they’re having a problem. So beware if you’re trying to book a flight with Cebu Pacific in the next few days, as there is no info on when this problem will be fixed.
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