Airlines Inform - your guide to airlines all over the world.
Copyright © 2008-2024 www.airlines-inform.com. All rights reserved.
your guide to airlines all over the world
Philippine Airlines Discussion
For people in America I highly recommend that you contact the Department of Travel to file a complaint. Someone from DOT will reach out to PAL and will expedite your request. www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviat...
Reply
Thanks for the advise. I have started the chargeback on the credit card and waiting for the investigation and refund. I only initiated this in feb this year after reading through all the advise in this forum. PAL definitely has taken all for a ride and I will NEVER look at it again. Hopefully I get my refund or credit back into the card. Looks like PAL has buried itself by it's manner of treating it's customers. Tita of Los Angeles : Deal with your credit card if you are based in the US. Ive been given a run around for 14 months whenever I call and email so its useless to deal with PAL directly. My friends who are based in Manila had to go to their office and wait there all day just to get their refunds. Its so counter intuitive not only they looked kawawa waiting to get their own money back but they might catch Covid waiting with everyone else. I have no respect for the execs running the shi* show. I knew pilots and FAs who got sacked right in the beginning and never received any severance pay. They wanna hold on to the interest free money for as long as they could. Their stupid government is a joke too. QOUTE] Guest : My flight got cancelled in mid May and refund acknowledgement on the day itself but the approval was processed only in early July. I have been chasing them since then. Initially refund was by 3 billing cycles, then 5 months, then 5 months excluding weekends and holidays and now most recently from end dec to this very month to wait for an update. It takes about 4 or 5 emails to get an answer but the answers make one sick. Purchased the tickets end dec 2019, 8 months has passed since approval of refund in early July and 10 months since acknowledgement. In their statement in Sept 2020, PAL claimed they have refunded about 80% and further added that about 15% of their domestic and global operations have started. Logically if this is so, one wonders why can't they refund the remaining 20% in the 6 months that has lapsed ( from Sept 2020 to March 2021) when they can refund 80% from March to Sept 2020. Looks like PAL is full of * and doubt anyone believes their media statement. One wonders if ever they will win back the customers again. Really sick and annoyed for taking its customers for a ride when the money should rightly be refunded soonest.
Reply
Deal with your credit card if you are based in the US. Ive been given a run around for 14 months whenever I call and email so its useless to deal with PAL directly. My friends who are based in Manila had to go to their office and wait there all day just to get their refunds. Its so counter intuitive not only they looked kawawa waiting to get their own money back but they might catch Covid waiting with everyone else. I have no respect for the execs running the shi* show. I knew pilots and FAs who got sacked right in the beginning and never received any severance pay. They wanna hold on to the interest free money for as long as they could. Their stupid government is a joke too. QOUTE] Guest : My flight got cancelled in mid May and refund acknowledgement on the day itself but the approval was processed only in early July. I have been chasing them since then. Initially refund was by 3 billing cycles, then 5 months, then 5 months excluding weekends and holidays and now most recently from end dec to this very month to wait for an update. It takes about 4 or 5 emails to get an answer but the answers make one sick. Purchased the tickets end dec 2019, 8 months has passed since approval of refund in early July and 10 months since acknowledgement. In their statement in Sept 2020, PAL claimed they have refunded about 80% and further added that about 15% of their domestic and global operations have started. Logically if this is so, one wonders why can't they refund the remaining 20% in the 6 months that has lapsed ( from Sept 2020 to March 2021) when they can refund 80% from March to Sept 2020. Looks like PAL is full of * and doubt anyone believes their media statement. One wonders if ever they will win back the customers again. Really sick and annoyed for taking its customers for a ride when the money should rightly be refunded soonest.
Reply
Good for you. I had to submit a report to my credit card company because all of my bookings were a bit complicated there was a total of 3 international round trip tix for my parents and 11 domestic/ inter island going to Palawan and Bacolod for the rest of my family members. Good thing I booked the 11 tickets with Asiana because we were going to do a week of lay over in Seoul. I got the refund within 24 hours of the flights getting canceled without any hassle, fines or fees. After four weeks of filing that FRAUD report, the refund is now back in my card which took over 14 months for PAL to release and on top of that robbed me $80 each for each ticket. $240 + $60 seat upgrade fee they charged. Im so pissed. I still haven’t received the one for domestic flights. Needless to say I am not using this airline period. They are totally crooks I am so turned off by everything thats been going ion that part of the world. Its disgusting. Crystal : I called my credit card company earlier, and they helped me with the dispute/refund. I just have to wait... I suggest u call the credit card company they might help.. im hoping i will get may refund.. 🙄
Reply
I called my credit card company earlier, and they helped me with the dispute/refund. I just have to wait... I suggest u call the credit card company they might help.. im hoping i will get may refund.. 🙄
Reply
My flight got cancelled in mid May and refund acknowledgement on the day itself but the approval was processed only in early July. I have been chasing them since then. Initially refund was by 3 billing cycles, then 5 months, then 5 months excluding weekends and holidays and now most recently from end dec to this very month to wait for an update. It takes about 4 or 5 emails to get an answer but the answers make one sick. Purchased the tickets end dec 2019, 8 months has passed since approval of refund in early July and 10 months since acknowledgement. In their statement in Sept 2020, PAL claimed they have refunded about 80% and further added that about 15% of their domestic and global operations have started. Logically if this is so, one wonders why can't they refund the remaining 20% in the 6 months that has lapsed ( from Sept 2020 to March 2021) when they can refund 80% from March to Sept 2020. Looks like PAL is full of * and doubt anyone believes their media statement. One wonders if ever they will win back the customers again. Really sick and annoyed for taking its customers for a ride when the money should rightly be refunded soonest.
Reply
Maria : Guys, has anyone received their refund lately? Our flight was cancelled in June 2020 and we are still waiting.. Mine was cancelled June 2020 as well. Got my refund a month ago, after several follow-ups. Good luck.
Reply
Guys, has anyone received their refund lately? Our flight was cancelled in June 2020 and we are still waiting..
Reply
UPDATE:!!! So good news and bad news. After 4 weeks of gathering and submitting a 35 page Dispute/ Fraud Case against PAL with my Barclays credit card - I sent them copies of everything all the E tickets, receipts, the back and forth emails that went out of nowhere from different agents/ PAL staff - thank God three of the round trip canceled tickets LAX- MNL- LAX just went back to my Mastercard today. However I am super pissed off that PAL has the nerve to take $70 for each ticket. The $716.55 I originally paid January 23,2020 is only $646.55. The two other tickets I paid $683.55 is now only $613.55. What the hell?!? If anything they should pay us interest for holding our payments for over a year. If I didn’t file for that FRAUD report on them I highly doubt they would have refunded part of my payments. Im beyond pissed. $70 for what???and thats times 3 = $210 for the three tickets and the $60 seat upgrade fee they charged me. Unbelievable!!!!
Reply
If only I booked one stupid ticket for what $600-700 I can just forgive and save my self the heart attack, stress and anxiety of dealing- begging with them..saksak nila sa baga nila. The thing is its around $5000 US. That is hard to come around these days esp for people who got furloughed and lost their jobs. I know another friend they are down $9000 and her co worker about $7000. Imagine this airline fully booked esp for Spring and Summer 2020 for an entire family of 5-10 people and paid them late 2019 with credit card. Ang kapal ng PAL talaga- the nerve of Lucio Tan and these executives. Im wondering if they are able to sleep at night. Karma is a * . They deserved to be sued. I do not know why the media is not covering this now their Covid case is back and going back up - these stupid airline will have another year of excuse after excuse why they are holding our money back.
Reply
I canceled my round-trip ticket to the Philippines from LAX in August 2020. Now mid March I still don’t have my refund. I wasn’t concerned until I saw all these other posts. I’m feeling I have many more months to go. Shame on you Philippines airlines. Stop making interest off of our money!
Reply
Report this airline and the travel agency for not refunding the money that took months and years just to be refunded.The more complaint to the US travel government about them will show that they are really not doing what they should be doing lile doing the right thing. those people who bought the plane ticket probably are having heart attack because of worrying too much , health problems due to the long wait of the promised refund which they have no idea at this time people need the money and they are holding it back. According to thier policy refunds takes 5 months .It shouldnt taken years for them to return the money. They ignored their costumers who paid them their salary then after they taken the money .They dont care .They have no concern unwilling to do it right away to return the money back. There is no costumer satisfaction from their service . Emails get ignored,phone calls is unhelpful coz those costumer service find ways to lie and not get back. long emails back and fort still ignores the problem.O think they are DUMB!
Reply
I ‘ll bet my $5000 they owed me that its not even 10% compared to the lies and press release that its been 80%. I wish their stupid government will at least step in and look into it. If they at least booked all flights from sping/ summer 2020 from 2019 that is a lot of refunds due to US customers alone. Guest : It would be interesting to know the actual percentage of customers that have actually got a refund from PAL?
Reply
It would be interesting to know the actual percentage of customers that have actually got a refund from PAL?
Reply
Sorry with your father’s passing and Im sure these airlines do not care at all regarding the circumstances. My credit card has accepted my claim for Dispute and Fraud. They said it takes about 2-3 months for them to sort things out with the merchant. Right now, the credit card said they are swamped with these type of problems because the airline doesn’t have a system in place to refund our payments for the flights they canceled due to Covid. Again another excuse for these stupid airlines takes them seconds to charge the customers credit cards and then years to reverse the charges. They just want to hold on to the funds as much as they could. I still want to get together with the others and see if a law suit can be filed against Philippine airlines QOUTE] Guest : We bought 3 tickets and 1 other plane ticket last year in February 2020 because my father passed away. I called them 3 times on separate occassions and ended up on promises of a refund. It is almost a year now. I couldnt take this anymore so I am finding a way to connect with other passengers with the same plight as we are as to the next move we should be taking. I am already hopeless with their promises.
Reply
We bought 3 tickets and 1 other plane ticket last year in February 2020 because my father passed away. I called them 3 times on separate occassions and ended up on promises of a refund. It is almost a year now. I couldnt take this anymore so I am finding a way to connect with other passengers with the same plight as we are as to the next move we should be taking. I am already hopeless with their promises.
Reply
Tita of Houston TX : If you have opted for a refund on your card.. make sure you are able to document all the emails, ticket attachments, the begging and humiliating email back and forth, * email back and forth correspondence to submit with your dispute/ fraud claim. This airline needs to pay damages for holding customer payments and giving us a very difficult time with our own money. I work very hard, make back breaking overtime to pay the credits cards in full each billing cycle. BUT What if the others lost their jobs? And the credit card they used to purchase those tickets have at least 16% apr?!? What is 16% of compounded interest monthly and accumulated with other fines/ fees for a year? Does PAL ever think of those scenarios? That airline makes me sick to my stomach the executives whoever is running the show are all shameless A holes
Reply
I requested a refund in july 20, 2020. And until now i didn’t receive anything. I emailed this stupid company for several times. They are only sending a reply with different reason and different agent. And also telling me to coordinate with my bank. I called my bank but i came up nothing. I only have remaining month here in UAE and i dont know what to do with them. I guess they are just ignoring my email.
Reply
CT : My initial purchase for my ticket was back in December 2019 and thankfully my credit card company still honored my claim. I was also surprised, but again, it strongly helps if you have documentation and emails showing that you tried reaching out to PAL in good faith. Wheb did you file a claim with your credit card?
Reply
If you have opted for a refund on your card.. make sure you are able to document all the emails, ticket attachments, the begging and humiliating email back and forth, * email back and forth correspondence to submit with your dispute/ fraud claim. This airline needs to pay damages for holding customer payments and giving us a very difficult time with our own money. I work very hard, make back breaking overtime to pay the credits cards in full each billing cycle. BUT What if the others lost their jobs? And the credit card they used to purchase those tickets have at least 16% apr?!? What is 16% of compounded interest monthly and accumulated with other fines/ fees for a year? Does PAL ever think of those scenarios? That airline makes me sick to my stomach the executives whoever is running the show are all shameless A holes
Reply
This horrible airline is probably wishing their customers dead of Covid or some other cause so they do not have to refund their payments for those unused, canceled flights. On their stupid press release on their web page on Sep 2020, I do not believe they have refunded 80% of those Covid canceled flights even just for their US based customers. Every pilot and flight attendant ( I know about 10) who works for PAL have been furloughed since April 2020 and have stopped receiving wages since June. If they stopped operations, barely paid their employees and barely bought fuel for their jets then why on earth are they holding the customers payments - an interest free loan or even interest growing loan on their part. Wtf ???
Reply
Its really disgusting how these Philippine carriers both PAL and Cebu pacific are mishandling these refunds. I just filed a dispute/ fraud case with my Barclays credit card. It took some time to gather all the e- tickets for all 15 of my family members, all the email correspondences in which both airlines just ignored since April 2020. I purchased my tickets November 2019 for a July 2020 family trip. Their stupid press releases on their websites to string US passengers for a year. Can you imagine the interest that these immoral, unethical, disgusting companies made out if all these refunds tgats been due to the US customers alone?!? I really wish we can all somehow organize a class action law suit. I don’t even know where to start. Their government is so corrupt and useless- even their media is all mum about the scam that these airlines are making. My family and I will be avoiding traveling to the Philippines at all cost.
Reply
My initial purchase for my ticket was back in December 2019 and thankfully my credit card company still honored my claim. I was also surprised, but again, it strongly helps if you have documentation and emails showing that you tried reaching out to PAL in good faith.
Reply
I am at 11 months so cross my fingers that this is the maximum amount of time for a refund. This is disgusting and further more they posted a memo on their site apologizing for the delay of refunds due to covid in September 2020 and said they have refunded 80% of the requests but another 5 months later and flights starting up again and they haven’t refunded the other 20%? RangerOne : I would suggest to everyone here to contact your bank/credit card company and pursue a manual chargeback, it may be possible to get your money that way. It would also be better if you have email correspondence/proof that you contacted Philippine Airlines, and they either gave you the run around, or denied you Guest : Guest : Hey, how long was it between getting the confirmation email that you would receive the refund certificate and receiving the certificate Guest : I just received the certificate for my refund today in an email. I have not received the funds from my bank yet. I will keep you updated. I requested the refund Jan 14, 2020. I was strung along for 11 months as they maintained that my refund had already been processed. They told me I should have received a "refund certificate". I only received the "refund certificate" on Dec 15, 2020. I received the refund to my credit card on Dec 21, 2020. Hang in there everyone. It's been a long 11 months. Document any contact you have with the airline. I filed multiple complaints with both the US and Philippines Civil Aeronautics Boards. I'm not sure if it was my persistence that got me the refund, or the fact that they finally had the money to give. Needless to say, I will never book another flight with PAL.
Reply
I have to agree with contacting your credit card company. I was able to get my money back - meanwhile, it seems the Dept. of Transportation is understaffed, they replied to me twice and then silence. I also agree with submitting emails and proof of you reaching out to Philippine Airlines, it definitely helped my case. Its still a pity, as now I will never use Philippine Airlines again.
Reply
Not sure if anyone has mentioned in this long thread but we were able to get a refund by calling our credit card (Capital ONE) for refunding almost 5K of cancelled tickets due to the pandemic. It took practically weeks after our initial complaint, submitting emails from PAL. I'm sure it's a different story if you had paid cash. Good luck.
Reply
My flight was cancelled in April. It's been 9 months and I haven't been given anything. I was told a "refund certificate" was being processed 4 months ago. I have probably sent PAL over 200 emails and I never get a clear response from them. I strongly recommend that everybody fill out a complaint with DOT. DOT has jurisdiction over PAL and these complaints can often help people get the refunds they were promised. It worked for me with Air Canada last year after waiting 14 months for a refund. www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint
Reply
Same here. $5000 worth of rebookings and still no refunds for almost a year now. Please give me an update how anyone is doing to get their refunds. Thanks
Reply
Guest : same thing happened to most if us here. They just cannot say that they have used our money to pay their other creditors. Im wondering which govt depy can help besides CAB (which is useless). I booked a refundable ticket in March march, due to the covid19 i cancelled my trip few days later after booking it. It has been 10 months and they always give random excuses, first to wait 15 days, then 30 days, then 90 days, now 120 working days.... ridiculous!
Reply
I would suggest to everyone here to contact your bank/credit card company and pursue a manual chargeback, it may be possible to get your money that way. It would also be better if you have email correspondence/proof that you contacted Philippine Airlines, and they either gave you the run around, or denied you
Reply
I booked a refundable ticket in March march, due to the covid19 i cancelled my trip few days later after booking it. It has been 10 months and they always give random excuses, first to wait 15 days, then 30 days, then 90 days, now 120 working days.... ridiculous!
Reply
Count me in! Started my refund process around early July. They gave me a confirmation late august. But I still haven’t received even a single centavo.
Reply
If there is any way for us to organize and get a lawsuit started, I would be very much interested in joining. I applied for a refund of estimated $700 back in April, and to this very day I have not received anything. Ironically enough, I have heard of some friends that received their refund of $1500
Reply
I made my booking online, never received a confirmation email but I was prompted to a confirmation page where it stated the 16 digit reference number, and so paid it thru BDO OTC, after paying, I still haven't received any email, e-ticket receipt, etc. from them. I called their customer service, the lady said my booking was confirmed but the payment hasn't been posted yet. Is this normal? How long does it normally take for the payment to be posted?
Reply
Myra : I purchased our flights on the PAL website for my family of 11 on November 22, 2019 for our summer vacation to the Philippines on July 2020. Covid hits and our flights were canceled. I was told through their customer service over my phone call with them that a refund has been processed on June 4,2020 and that I will get an email confirmation. I called and followed up every month. Its been 7 freaking months. No email. NO REFUNDs. Nothing. It’s a lot of money $7000 worth of domestic and 3 international flights. Good thing I booked most of family’s international flights with Asiana which only took them 24 hours to refund back to the credit card immediately upon cancellation. PAL and CEBU pacific are such crooks. I wish theres a class action law suit against these companies. A couple months is understandable but to hold customers payments for this long and charge processing fees $80 for each ticket is disgusting I think a law suit needs to be definitely filed against them and not let them get away with it, it's the only way.
Reply
I purchased our flights on the PAL website for my family of 11 on November 22, 2019 for our summer vacation to the Philippines on July 2020. Covid hits and our flights were canceled. I was told through their customer service over my phone call with them that a refund has been processed on June 4,2020 and that I will get an email confirmation. I called and followed up every month. Its been 7 freaking months. No email. NO REFUNDs. Nothing. It’s a lot of money $7000 worth of domestic and 3 international flights. Good thing I booked most of family’s international flights with Asiana which only took them 24 hours to refund back to the credit card immediately upon cancellation. PAL and CEBU pacific are such crooks. I wish theres a class action law suit against these companies. A couple months is understandable but to hold customers payments for this long and charge processing fees $80 for each ticket is disgusting
Reply
Guest : Hi Peter, Thanks for the detail information. It is sickening for this long wait for the refund. Looks like hands are tied. Hi Kana, The refund document is a printout that PAL gave me when my flight was cancelled back in May. On the left side of the document it lists the fare I paid, the portion of the ticket I used, the taxes that are to be refunded etc. On the top right hand side there is a number entitled "Refunded documents." Below that is my credit card number. And below the cc number is an Airline authorizing number. All of this is printed on a sheet that has the Philippine Airline logo dispersed throughout the page.I hope this helps. Kana : Peter Purcell : Good morning, I received a refund document for two tickets from Manila to Toronto on June 17, 2020 from the PAL office in Makati. I have made several calls to Pal without success. Does it normally take 6 months to receive a refund. Has anyone else experienced the same delay? Hi Peter, I'm facing a similar situation. I've been waiting for a refund from PAL for the past 7 months - my flight was cancelled in May and the refund was approved in July, but I haven't received anything since. I'm curious to know what's a refund document? Thanks, Kana
Reply
Hi Kana, The refund document is a printout that PAL gave me when my flight was cancelled back in May. On the left side of the document it lists the fare I paid, the portion of the ticket I used, the taxes that are to be refunded etc. On the top right hand side there is a number entitled "Refunded documents." Below that is my credit card number. And below the cc number is an Airline authorizing number. All of this is printed on a sheet that has the Philippine Airline logo dispersed throughout the page.I hope this helps. Kana : Peter Purcell : Good morning, I received a refund document for two tickets from Manila to Toronto on June 17, 2020 from the PAL office in Makati. I have made several calls to Pal without success. Does it normally take 6 months to receive a refund. Has anyone else experienced the same delay? Hi Peter, I'm facing a similar situation. I've been waiting for a refund from PAL for the past 7 months - my flight was cancelled in May and the refund was approved in July, but I haven't received anything since. I'm curious to know what's a refund document? Thanks, Kana
Reply
Peter Purcell : Good morning, I received a refund document for two tickets from Manila to Toronto on June 17, 2020 from the PAL office in Makati. I have made several calls to Pal without success. Does it normally take 6 months to receive a refund. Has anyone else experienced the same delay? Hi Peter, I'm facing a similar situation. I've been waiting for a refund from PAL for the past 7 months - my flight was cancelled in May and the refund was approved in July, but I haven't received anything since. I'm curious to know what's a refund document? Thanks, Kana
Reply
Good morning, I received a refund document for two tickets from Manila to Toronto on June 17, 2020 from the PAL office in Makati. I have made several calls to Pal without success. Does it normally take 6 months to receive a refund. Has anyone else experienced the same delay?
Reply
Guest : Hey, how long was it between getting the confirmation email that you would receive the refund certificate and receiving the certificate Hi there, I got my refund approximately six months after my May 2020 flight was canceled. I received 100% credit back on my credit card account in late November. Just be patient and good luck.
Reply
Babycel : I hate PAL. Each agent has different information. I gave up and requested a refund. It’s sad that the airline that represents my country of birth is also milking us dry... www.facebook.com/groups/275575733985987 ... - Booking Refund group
Reply
I hate PAL. Each agent has different information. I gave up and requested a refund. It’s sad that the airline that represents my country of birth is also milking us dry...
Reply
Guest : Hey, how long was it between getting the confirmation email that you would receive the refund certificate and receiving the certificate Guest : I just received the certificate for my refund today in an email. I have not received the funds from my bank yet. I will keep you updated. I requested the refund Jan 14, 2020. I was strung along for 11 months as they maintained that my refund had already been processed. They told me I should have received a "refund certificate". I only received the "refund certificate" on Dec 15, 2020. I received the refund to my credit card on Dec 21, 2020. Hang in there everyone. It's been a long 11 months. Document any contact you have with the airline. I filed multiple complaints with both the US and Philippines Civil Aeronautics Boards. I'm not sure if it was my persistence that got me the refund, or the fact that they finally had the money to give. Needless to say, I will never book another flight with PAL.
Reply
Hey, how long was it between getting the confirmation email that you would receive the refund certificate and receiving the certificate Guest : I just received the certificate for my refund today in an email. I have not received the funds from my bank yet. I will keep you updated.
Reply
I just received the certificate for my refund today in an email. I have not received the funds from my bank yet. I will keep you updated.
Reply
After calling Philippine Airlines (Sydney Office) over and over to follow up on my refund (refund request was processed in April), they sent me an email saying my tickets have been refunded and that they will send me a refund certificate once they funds have been released to my bank account. This was 7 days ago and I have not received the certificate or funds. I followed up PAL and they said another department is handling this and can’t provide a timeframe..... has anyone else had the same experience? I will update everyone if the certificate and funds are received. Fingers crossed.
Reply
Guest : It seems everyone have the same problem. My refund was processed and got my refund references on June 26, 2020. Got a reply from PAL that I need to follow up with the issuing bank, how can I follow-up with my bank if there's refund transaction date and transaction reference from the bank utilized by PAL? Mr. Talal (commenter) said got his money back after sending all evidences, what kind of document he presented to the bank? Is the PAL Refund Reference number is the same as Bank Refund Transaction number?[/QOUT Wilma : I'm still waiting mine too. Cancel it June 26 and is November now no refund. I suggest just dispute your transaction to your issuing bank.. They have no intention if giving our refunds back.
Reply
The fact is that this Airline is using customer refund money worldwide as an interest free loan and hanging onto funds for a s long as possible if not ever- initially 3 billing cycle was the refund period, this was extended by a further 2 billing cycles without formal notification. Who's to say it will not be extended further? The biggest laugh I had was the complaint email was WECARE@PAL.com.ph they care hahha its the last thing they do is care .
Reply