Philippine Airlines Reservations Rolls Out Fast E-Ticket Service
Philippine Airlines reservations (PAL) has enhanced its 24-hour service by allowing phone-in customers to receive electronic tickets (e-tickets) by email or fax in as fast as 10 minutes, without leaving their home or office.
The special service is now available nationwide through the new PAL Fulfillment Centers in Manila (through tel. 855-8888) and Cebu (tel. 3400-191), that extends the usual flight booking and ticket payment service (through a valid credit card) to issuance of e-tickets.
Previously, customers had to wait in line at the ticket office to get the e-ticket after calling Philippine Airlines reservations for flight booking.
“We call it Fulfillment Center because we are now able to complete the transaction through the issuance of e-tickets even by phone,” according to Ms. Ma. Magdalena Dominado, assistant vice president of Philippine Airlines reservations based in Manila.
“We are able to book and issue domestic and international tickets, including rebookings, buy-up and reissuance of tickets at the Fulfillment Center, a task previously done at the ticket office,” adds Jose Elias P. de Guzman, manager of the Manila Fulfillment Center.
With the PAL Reservations Manila hotline usually swamped with calls daily, the flag carrier decided to duplicate the service in Cebu to process transactions coming from Visayas and Mindanao.
While the Manila Fulfillment Center is open 24 hours a day, the Cebu extension office is up only from 6 am to 8 pm. Still, Ms. Floresa S. Noval, PAL manager for Cebu Reservations, proudly reports her staff of 22 has been able to generate an average P1.8 million monthly revenues from purely phone-in credit card transactions. At any given hour, as many as nine tele-sales agents handle the calls.
"We can now handle all phone-in transactions coming from here at Cebu as well as anywhere in Visayas and Mindanao, using either Visa or Mastercard as mode of payment," says Ms. Noval.
Ms. Noval also claims, "Our highly trained tele-sales agents, who quickly acquired ticketing skills on top of the regular reservations duties, have set a record of completing a transaction - from start of call to issuance of ticket - within 10 minutes."
According to Ms. Dominado, sometimes when Manila-based Cebuanos and other customers are unable to get through to the Manila reservations number, especially during peak hours, they call the Cebu Philippine Airlines reservations hotline from Manila.
Loyal PAL customers from different locations throughout the country have found the convenient facility another innovative PAL service and the reason for patronizing the flag carrier over the competition.
The two full-service Fulfillment Centers that are capable of completing transactions up to issuance of e-ticket may be accessed through the following hotlines: 855-8888 in Manila and 3400-191 in Cebu.
