Passenger Tales

Last Thursday I had another airport misadventure. My boss and I arrived at Tacloban airport just as they were making a last call for PAL passengers. I hurried inside with our tickets leaving my boss with the bags. An airport stevedore was urged me on and pointed me to line up at the PAL window so that I could get our boarding passes. The airport personnel took a long time to process the ticket of the person in front of me so that when it was my turn to be served, it was already 3:13pm. Out flight was at 3:55 and they had this rule about checking in 45 minutes before take off. The man at the counter informed me that there were no more seats available. I was flabbergasted. How could that be, since we already had tickets and these were confirmed tickets. He explained that it was a systematic problem. PAL Manila usually overbooks flights and it becomes a first come first serve basis and the last ones to arrive will just have to take their chances in the next flight. Unfortunately for us that meant the next day because PAL only had two flights to and from Manila daily. Taking the next flight meant staying overnight in Tacloban and flying out early the next day. However, when we went to the PAL Ticketing Office where we were referred by the men at the counter, we found out that it was still a dicey proposition because all their flights were fully booked until Sunday. There were around 10 of us passengers who were in the same situation. The manager promised to do his best to accommodate us the next day as long as we were at the airport early, around 6:00am while the flight was still at 7:45am.

So now we were left with the problem of where to stay and how to leave the airport. We were not familiar with the place. It was a long way to Baybay where we stayed for the past two days and the service vehicle of VSU already left after we went inside the airport. My boss called the director of our regional office who immediately made arrangements for her driver and a staff to fetch us and bring us to a hotel. I’m very grateful for them because they really took great care of us. After we had settled at the hotel, the director came to visit us and when she heard that we wanted to see San Juanico Bridge, the longest bridge in the country, she told us that she will send back the car to us after her driver brings her to her appointment.

It was already dark when we got to the bridge. There were few lights but you can still appreciate the beauty of the long and curving bridge. We traversed its length and when we got to the Samar side, we made a U-turn to go back to Leyte. We asked permission from the police guarding the bridge so that we can stop along the bridege to take some pictures. As usual, my camera does not function very well in the dark so I was not able get good pictures. It would have been great to visit the bridge during the day to see the surrounding vistas but at least we got to see such a historical landmark.

We started for the airport early the next day. We got there at around 6:10am. The manager was not there yet but our co-passengers were already waiting. When he arrived we descended on him like hungry vultures. Hehe. He told us that we’ll know by 7:00am. So we waited outside for the fated hour to arrive. While there I took some pictures and continued talking to Di, the regional office staff who still accompanied us. At around 6:45am we heard the PAL airplane arriving from Manila. A short time later we saw the passengers exiting the airport. Di became very excited when saw a group of guys congregating outside the airport door. It turned out it was her favorite band, 6Cyclemind. She called out to them and asked if she can have her picture taken with them. They were very accommodating.

At 7:00am we went inside to hear our fate from the manager. He gave me and my boss the gold pass while the others still had to wait to hear about their fate because only three of us can be accommodated so that left only one more slot for around 5 people. It was only after we were seated in the plane that I was able to breathe easily. Guess what? I was seated between two men, alas not the kind in my fantasies. Hehehe.

A fitting postscript to this adventure was that when we were ready to leave the airport I discovered that I lost my boarding pass where the stickers for our checked in baggage was placed. When the airport security inspected our bags I explained our predicament and showed him my ID. He was reluctant at first but when he consulted with another guard, he was told that it was ok as long as the name in the ID matched with the name in the stickers. At last, we were home free.