Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

The Cebu Experience

Posted by Mikko at 28 November 2011

Category: BiliBid, Travel

Tags: ,

I first stepped on Visayas’ soil last October 11, 2011 when the kids of BossChief Inc went to Cebu to promote our very own penny auction site, BiliBid. We ‘launched’ BiliBid in Cebu last October 13 at Handuraw Pizza located at Gorordo Avenue in Cebu City. Around 20 bloggers came up. Dinner was served, then the ‘program’ followed. It was a simple program. After dinner, we introduced BossChief Inc, the people behind it and BiliBid. The mechanics of BiliBid were explained, followed by a live bidding demo then the Q&A portion.

We spent most of our stay in Cebu inside our hotel room at Alba Uno Residencia, just behind IT Park. Our usual waking time was 1pm, which made it difficult for us to roam around the city since we had to fix ourselves before we can go out. Aside from our stay in the hotel, we were able to:

  • hangout at IT Park (walking distance from the hotel),
  • eat for dinner at The Ranch in Banilad,
  • eat for lunch at Matias BBQ in A.S. Fortuna,
  • ride the zipline at Papa Kit’s in Liluan,
  • have our massage at Thai Boran near Crowne Regency Hotel just before leaving Cebu.

We weren’t able to explore Cebu much due to time constraints, but never did I know I’ll be coming back to Cebu after a month.

Last week, a BossChief and I came back to Cebu to meet some friends and talk about our upcoming business in Cebu. Tonight will be my last night in Cebu and tomorrow morning, I’ll be going back to Manila. Just like last time, we still checked in at Alba Uno Residencia.

This time, I was able to enter a mall in Cebu to attend the Visayas Blogging Summit. We had our ‘business meeting’ on a Sunday at Cebu Yacht Club. After our meeting, we went to Portofino Beach Resort beach resort, at last natikman ko na rin ang dagat ng Cebu. I was unprepared for our impromptu visit at the beach – but that did not stop me from dipping on the beach.

I’m looking forward to my next visit in Cebu. Sana tuloy-tuloy na once a month ako makakabalik ng Cebu.

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(29 Sept) More PAL flights push through, majority still cancelled

Posted by Mikko at 29 September 2011

Category: Travel

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It’s a strike three for the Philippine Airlines!

The Philippine Airlines is still struggling to return to normalcy two days (2) after the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (Palea) went on a sit-back strike.

Most of the airlines flights are cancelled for the third consecutive day already. PAL posted on their Facebook page that the following international and domestic flights will push through today (29 Sept) until further notice. All flights not listed below are considered cancelled. Continue reading “(29 Sept) More PAL flights push through, majority still cancelled” »

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(28 Sept) PAL continues some flights, most still cancelled

Posted by Mikko at 28 September 2011

Category: Travel

Tags:

The Philippines’ flag carrier, the Philippine Airlines (PAL), said on its Facebook page that they will be operating select domestic and international flights today, September 28, 2011. 62 domestic flights and 40 international flights shall remain canceled today.

Only the following flights from Manila will operate today:

DOMESTIC
PR847   0600H   CEB
PR291   0700H   DGT
PR321   0855H   KLO
PR811   0900H   DVO
PR853   0900H   CEB
PR323   1330H   KLO
PR293   1340H   DGT
PR849   1530H   CEB
PR813   1530H   DVO
INTERNATIONAL
PR896   0720H   TPE
PR300   0800H   HKG
PR438   1330H   NGO
PR408   1425H   KIX
PR432   1430H   NRT
PR306   1450H   HKG
PR116   1850H   YVR
PR102   2200H   LAX
PR104   2230H   SFO

This comes a day after members of the ground crew union Palea (Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association) went on a surprise sit-back strike. The employees refused to perform their duties such as facilitating disembarkment of baggage, refuelling aircrafts, checking in passengers, among others. Continue reading “(28 Sept) PAL continues some flights, most still cancelled” »

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Our almost 16-hour delay with Zest Air

Posted by Mikko at 3 January 2011

Category: Travel

Tags:

Summary (all times were approximates, GMT+8)

  • Passengers of this flight, you may answer this form so that we can coordinate in case someone’s filing a civil case against Zest Air.
  • Scheduled flight Zest Air Z2393 (ETD: January 2, 2011 1915h) bound for Manila from Davao.
  • No announcement of delay before ETD.
  • 1945h, 30 minutes after ETD, ground crew flight will be delayed due to additional servicing of aircraft. No new ETD was given.
  • No announcements were made until 2230h, 3 hours 15 minutes after ETD. People from Zest Air were “hiding” most of the time as they weren’t there to assist us.
  • 2230h, a “supervisor” named Emmanuel Aldea, announced that flight is cancelled. A new flight will be held the next morning at 0625h, in conjunction with an existing 0625h Zest Air flight. No hotel accommodations, just free dinner.
  • New ETD is now January 3, 2011 0625h.
  • No announcements from Zest Air until around 1000h the next day. Not even an announcement of delay of our new flight. Announced that new ETD will be January 3, 2011 1030h.
  • The other 0625h flight (but delayed) pushed through but carried passengers scheduled for the flight. People started complaining since we weren’t prioritized even if we were delayed for more than 11 hours already.
  • The 1030h flight pushed through. The Zest Air management issued no official statement regarding the delay.
  • In-flight, they served our “breakfast” at 1200h. To add insult to injury, the food pax were not enough for everyone in the fight. There was also a lack of utensils. Some people at their food pax with their hands.
  • Original ETA: January 2, 2011 2100h. Actual time of arrival: January 3, 2011 1240h.
  • Total delay: 15 hours and 40 minutes.

Happy New Year everyone. I started writing this post on my tenth hour at Davao International Airport. My sister and I were here more than two hours before the ETD of our Zest Air flight as a check-in requirement.

We checked-in together with my sister’s batchmates (which we saw at the airport). For me and my sister’s ticket, a Zest Air ground staff asked for a photocopy of the credit card used to purchase the ticket. Since we had none, we were asked the first and last four digits of the credit card. We were able to provide it right away since it was stored on my phone. As the crew gave us our boarding passes, we immediately notice that there were no names on them. Just passenger and seat numbers, not even flight or gate number. Continue reading “Our almost 16-hour delay with Zest Air” »

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