CEB survey reveals ease of travel a top concern among Filipinos

SEVENTY-SIX percent of surveyed respondents said they want to travel again this year, mirroring a renewed hope for domestic tourism, a survey by airline carrier Cebu Pacific (CEB) revealed.

The study, which had 777 respondents in the Philippines, was conducted in January 2021.

“The main consideration for travelers right now, before they decide to travel, is really the travel requirements. It is the top consideration before people book their flights,” Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and customer experience, said.

Iyog said when they ran the survey in July 2020, the top concerns were safety and security, flexibility on cancellations and travel restrictions.

However, in its latest survey, respondents’ top concerns were travel requirements, travel restrictions and safety and security.

CEB scraps change fees

Because of this, CEB permanently removed its booking change fees, allowing passengers to rebook as many times as they need.

The carrier believes that flexibility is critical in restoring passenger confidence in air travel.

“In a recent survey we conducted, flexibility remains to be one of the considerations of our passengers when deciding to travel again. Because of this, we are removing our change fee effective immediately. As we work on rebuilding our network and supporting domestic tourism, we will continue to listen to our passengers so we can make it even more convenient for every juan to fly again,” Iyog said.

With the removal of change fees, passengers may now rebook their flights as many times as they need at no cost. A minimal fare difference may still apply.

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases recently released new simplified requirements for domestic travel which indicate that travel authorities and health certificates will no longer be needed. Certain quarantine protocols will also be required only for those showing symptoms.

“This is a timely announcement as well, as we support the recent IATF announcement on the standardized travel requirements, and as we celebrate our 25th founding anniversary this month,” Iyog said.

Passengers may manage their bookings online through the “Manage Booking” portal on the Cebu Pacific website: http://bit.ly/ CEB manage flight.

They only need to log in using their Getgo account, if applicable, or enter their booking reference to access their booking online. Bookings can be modified up to two hours before the flight.

Passengers may also easily update their contact information and addresses, as well as correct misspelled names, nationality, birthdays and salutation through the same portal. Those who booked their CEB flights via travel agencies must coordinate requests through their respective agents.

Apart from this new policy, CEB also has an ongoing P25 month-long seat sale on top of other deals in celebration of its 25th anniversary.