Cebu Pacific and their Idea of "Fun"

I started on this blog post around 1:30 AM as a rant against Cebu Pacific's online reservation portal.  They opened a 1-day-only sale on flights (only P10 for domestic flights & P1,010 for international flights, exclusive of applicable taxes & terminal fees, which is still a really good deal) when the clock struck 12:00 A.M. on Oct. 10, 2010 Manila time.  As with their many other crazy flight sales, the website will keep going bonkers and cough up all sorts of technical glitches.  So if you're really dead serious about landing a bargain, you have to risk carpal tunnel syndrome for at least an hour.


Well, it took me almost TWO effin' hours!  But at least I got it done.  IT'S DONE!!!  Woohoo!  I'm going to be Cebu-bound with my little family in January.  I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to book this flight and, by golly, I was gonna get this locked in no matter how stressful the experience.  At the peak of my agony, I had four browser tabs open, all trying to push through to Cebu Pacific's online reservation.  I even used 2 browsers, Chrome & Firefox.

Shout-out to Cebu Pacific: Just in case one of you stumbles into this little pond of mine, I have one advice for you -- GET ADDITIONAL SERVERS.  Hey, Tech Infra guys, ever heard of server load balancing and web traffic management?  That's right.  I'm sure this ain't new to you, what with the frequent flight sales that Cebu Pacific throws out every week or so, I'm sure you have a damn good idea about how much traffic the site gets.  You anticipate it.  In fact, it's expected.  But why keep testing your customers' patience when an online service is supposed to make these tasks easier (in this day and age, hello?) and faster?  It should be saving our time instead of wasting any more of it.

Cebu Pacific, I really appreciate your idea of "fun" and your innovativeness, but please, be consistent.  People already assume that your online reservation portal on sale dates is a hellhole.  Don't keep it that way.  Peace out!