An officer of the country’s flag carrier reportedly denied claims of bumping off its passengers in favor of celebrities following a viral Facebook post where a customer called out the airline.
In a now-deleted post that previously earned traction, a Filipino accused Philippine Airlines of bumping her off a flight to Denpasar, Indonesia for Holy Week because of a “celebrity family.”
Denpasar is the main gateway to Bali Island, a popular tourist destination.
The Facebook user alleged that when she got to the airline counter at the airport, the flag carrier told her their seats were given to a “family of celebrities.”
The passenger claimed that she was given a “free ticket” to supposedly appease her.
“What I want is to be on this flight with the rest of the group!!!” the Facebook user wrote before.
The complainant additionally claimed that she was on the counter “for an hour” and that “no one in PAL seems to be genuinely eager” to address the matter.
“From what I heard — one of these celebs bought an economy ticket and didn’t want to get seated all the way in the back or at the exit row… so the PAL supervisor decided to upgrade him. WOW,” the Facebook user alleged.
An account claiming to be an officer of PAL reportedly responded to her post.
“We want to emphasize that our policy and practice do not involve bumping off passengers to make room for high-profile travelers,” the account allegedly commented, as reported by the Philippine Entertainment Portal.
“We would be happy to provide you with a clear explanation of the events that took place, and we hope this will help resolve any concerns you may have,” the account added.
According to the supposed PAL officer, two business class passengers from a connecting flight missed their flight to Bali.
This resulted in some overbooking on PAL’s more recent flight.
“To manage the situation, we reached out to our Business Class passengers and asked if anyone would be willing to switch to a different cabin class at check-in. This was, of course, accompanied by due compensation,” the account added.
“We would like to clarify that all business class passengers, including the passengers you mentioned, were offered this opportunity. You were identified for downgrade, being the last business class passenger to check-in,” the PAL officer continued.
“Fortunately, two passengers accepted the offer, which allowed you and the rest of the business class passengers to keep your original class of service. We want to assure you that we value our passengers’ satisfaction and strive to provide a comfortable and stress-free travel experience,” the account added.
It said that PAL would “review any opportunities for process improvement” to ensure that such incidents can be avoided in the future.
How is Sunshine Cruz connected?
After the post of the Facebook user went viral, speculations arose that it was actress Sunshine Cruz whom she was referring to, although the PAL passenger clearly used “him” in her post.
The rumors came after some Filipinos visited Instagram to see the local celebrities who are in Bali during the period of the online user’s posting.
The actress is among those who are in the tourist destination.
It did not take long for the buzz to reach Sunshine, who immediately addressed the rumors.
“Not us! Booked and paid since first week of March,” the actress said on her Facebook page on April 4.
“My family and friends have tickets to Bali at nakasakay ka din naman pala, girl,” Sunshine added.
“Hinayaan mo pang i-bash at guluhin kami ng mga tao sa insidente na wala kaming kaalam-alam at kasalanan. Ngayong lumaki ang issue, deleted na ang post mo, girl?!” the actress further said.
Sunshine also responded to some comments on her Facebook page.
“Artista or not, we need to defend ourselves from lies! Hayaan lang namin na sirain kami ng mga anak ko sa page [niya]? ‘Di naman pwede ‘yun,” she wrote.
In another post, the actress reminded the public to refrain from assuming anything.
“Let’s not assume, lalo na ‘di naman pala sure, para hindi tayo nakakasakit at nakakagulo ng ibang tao. A Blessed Holy Week to everyone,” she said with emojis of a smiling face and a folded hands gesture.
