Pinoy Blog Machine (Beta)

It’s good to know that Kuala Lumpur-based Air Asia is now again offering 1Million FREE Seats to all its destinations starting this day up to August 31. As what the name of the promotion suggests, you just need to pay for the administrative taxes and fuel surcharge. I am just not ecstatic with the travel dates being offered as you need to wait at least another 8 months before you can travel starting April 1, 2009. But for those who want to plan their vacation this early it would be acceptable. Kuala Lumpur can be a great stopover city when you plan to go to Phuket, Bali, Cambodia or Hanoi (all connecting through Air Asia of course) as there are no direct flights going there from Manila. I availed of this same kind of sale with Air Asia for my Clark-KL-Clark trip a little over two years ago when a roundtrip ticket then just set me back 2,239 pesos all-in (that’s the cheapest airfare I got and to think that it is a 3.5-hour flight… during that time my roundtrip fare to Iloilo or Cebu would be more than 3,000 pesos). The roundtrip fare this time if you would like to travel from April 1 to July 31, 2009 is just 3,665 pesos which consists of just taxes and fuel surcharges.

So now, to give justice to my blog post title above… I just want to compare how our very own low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific measly but proudly advertise their ZERO fare sale even if they are just allocating 35,000 seats as compared with 1Million seats with Air Asia. I would be happier if they offer 100,000 seats instead of 35,000 like what they are doing before. I have friends going to Bangkok and Shanghai this November and they are having difficulty in finding ZERO fare seats. How can you expect to find a flight with that scracely 35,000 seats for travel from Sept. 16 to Dec. 17, 2008.

According to wikipedia, Air Asia operates a total of 50 aircraft as compared with Cebu Pacific with only 20 (As of today). So my point is, ideally Cebu Pacific can never really have a 1Million Free Seat Sale with their 20 aircraft just to keep up with its Malaysian counterpart. A ZERO Fare international seat sale of 200,000 or even just 100,000 would be very acceptable but not just 35,000. Cebu Pacific… I know you can do better.