This is my first horrible experience in the Philippines. Our flight was from Manila to LAX at 10 pm on April 28th. It started with calling the airline to confirm the charges to take a painting. I triple confirmed that the painting was rolled up, and the tube was slightly less than 2 m long. The airline confirmed that as it was quite light and that since it is artwork, there will be no charge. As a precaution I took the name of the attendant that spoke to us. Once we arrived at check in, the check in clerk rudely told me that there will be a charge of USD 400 for oversize luggage. After telling him what we were told he said he can do us a favour and charge us USD 200. As I explained to him what we were told regarding the no charge, his response was "that was a verbal conversation so you can't prove it". When I asked to talk to the supervisor, his response was "I already talk to him, you don't need to talk to him, you don't believe me?" followed by "if you talk to customer care and they tell you one thing and you come here and I tell you another, who do you believe? me of course" I finally managed to talk to the supervisor who was very abrupt and said "pay this now and you can put a complaint later" I explained to the manager that I would have given this artwork to our friends at the hotel we were staying at had I've been informed clearly of the charges. To which his response was " so do you want to pay for this or not" I ended up trying to fold the art piece, which didn't work and it got damaged at which point I told him to dispose it or have it as a gift from me but to know that he has absolutely spoiled my day. To which his response was yes, yes, yes with a smile. When I told him that this is very unfair and unprofessional and that I know in his mind he is just thinking this person will be gone soon so what does it matter, his response was yes, yes, yes with an even bigger smile. At this point we had no choice but to dispose the art piece as he said he will not issue the boarding pass or load on our last suitcase (which we paid extra for) until this is resolved. To add insult to injury the clerk then tells me I have to find a bin to which I responded I am sure you can dispose it. As I walked away the clerk along with a Filipino passenger (who had no idea of what transpired) decided to shout out " F$_& you" you need to respect Filipinos, you are in our country. In no way did I use insults or raised my voice.We visit the Philippines twice a year because we loved the hospitality, the politeness of the people and the country. However, this experience ended that and we are sad to say that it would appear the filipino culture is changing for the worse and Philippine Airlines staff is helping spoil the image of the Philippines.I hope this clerk doesn't get the opportunity to ever do this to anybody else. As for the other passenger, I am sure at some point he will experience this at some point in his life.UPDATE:After speaking to a customer management officer, it is clear that they run a scam to try and charge you as much as possible. It is clear that check in staff have been given authority to override anything you are told by customer service and in doing so they are on a power trip. Not sure what happened lately in the Philippines but there seems to be a lot of hate for foreigners as another friend of ours also got harassed by airport staff recently.
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