What I learned from rebooking a local airplane promo fare

...or How Cebu Pacific Air earns from those airplane promo tickets.

We booked an international flight before I left for Japan. We're lucky to book the Thailand trip at 75% off, with check in baggage and travel insurance.

Last month of May, our purpose of trip got postponed due to Thailand's Martial Law. The plane ticket was not shouldered by the organizers (as previously agreed upon). For the majority of the days last week, I have spent time trying to work my way around that trip not going to waste. After all, the cost of the ticket is my hard earned, almost nine grand and it's an opportunity for a travel abroad. I called Cebu Pacific to see my options and here's what I've learned, straight from the horse's mouth:

1. Promo fares are re-bookable, BUT non-refundable and non re-routable. Meaning, we will still have to go to Thailand should we decided to re-book it.

2. You cannot re-book your flight to another promo seat sale, whether you are just moving your flight dates within the promo travel period.

3. If you re-book a flight, you get a penalty fee of Php2,000.00 per way plus air fare difference from current pricing. So if you plan to re-book a round trip flight, it's going to cost you four thousand pesos plus air fare difference. How do you compute for air fare difference? It's the cost of the current air fare price minus the paid air fare.

4. For promo fares, there's no "no show" fee. If you book a regular priced plane ticket, that's the time you will be charged a "no show"fee. ( When I was told about this, I did a quick mental computation of how many times I could have been charged for no show fee due to my excitement and luck in booking promo fare tickets.)

5. You have until 4 hours before your departure time to decide if you will re-book your flight.

BUT they offer you other options where you can temporarily put your flight schedule on hold and put it in what they call a Travel Fund, because its no one's fault that Thailand happened to be on Martial Law. But for their promo fares:

5.7 Promo Fares and Lite FaresPromo Fares and Lite Fares with promo code discounts and the applicable fees, taxes and surcharges are non-transferable, non- reroutable, non-refundable and may not be stored in a Travel Fund but may be rebookable (except to another promo seat after the sale period). Where allowed, rebooking must be done at least four (4) hours before the estimated time of departure (ETD) and is subject to the applicable charges such as rebooking fees and fare difference.

When I called their hotline, they only have a specific travel advisory for a specific covered dates. But since our supposed to be flight is due next month, I will still have to wait for another set (if ever) of a new travel advisory.

To make the story short, I have to pay for more than 5,000.00 after my proposed plan of re-booking. My friend Frankie, to fit in his schedule, will have to pay more than 10,000.00.

And to quote my friend Cristina: "Naku sis, it's [re-booking] almost like you bought a year-round priced ticket!"

Promo fares are really risks to take. You win some, you lose some. So I guess it's really cheaper and practical to just say goodbye paid promo plane ticket and see you next time Thailand.

And Cebu Pacific just easily earned more than $500.00 from our tiny group of three alone.