Things to remember when checking in for an international flight
I’m writing this for my future self for things to take note of when going thru NAIA and flying with Cebu Pacific because our recent experience checking in for a trip to Thailand was frustrating, even though it shouldn’t have been that much of a hassle in hindsight.
Gulo nung experience namin kahapon flying with CebPac, pero hindi naman sana ganun yung nangyari kung clearly labeled mga check-in counters, the machines worked with human interaction in mind, and on-the-ground stuff actually knew what they were talking about.
So to save the hassle for future flights (hopefully?) here are things to take note of when going thru NAIA and flying with CebPac:
Before getting to the airport
Better to check in your flight online before you get to the airport, so the only thing you need to do would be to print your boarding pass and print baggage tags (if you have any checked-in luggage).
Best to just do the check-in via the website because while the app also has the tab, it doesn’t seem to be as reliable. My boyfriend tried doing that thru the app (since the ticket was bought with his account) and the tab contents were empty, even if it was already only a few hours before our flight.
Technically speaking, you could always check in with the self check-in machines by Cebu Pacific, pero I didn’t want to worry about that pagdating ng airport. I just wanted to think about getting a boarding pass (which I know should be doable rin with the self check-in machines) and getting the baggage tags since we had some luggage to check in.
You should also do your eTravel already, if you haven’t done so a few days before your flight. Honestly haven’t had an experience where someone had to check if I had done my eTravel already, but still better safe than sorry.
Paying the Travel Tax
This is only if you’re flying internationally. There should be no Travel Tax to pay when flying domestic. I know because I’ve had to process a refund for this after I paid for my dad’s travel tax for a flight that was just from Luzon to Visayas lol
You can pay for the TIEZA Travel Tax online via the eGovPH app. Just take note that there will most likely be some transaction convenience fee for this, which adds a few pesos to the overall payment. But, better that than lining up in the airport, where the line can grow really long it spans the whole width of a section for check-in counters.
You just need to fill up a form with your personal details and have your Passport Number ready. Then it connects to a payment gateway and it should reflect to your flight and account already.
Getting down NAIA (slightly) faster
If the line going to the departures drop-off is long (either due to there just being too many people / cars, or there’s a bottleneck at Departure Gates 1 & 2 because everyone’s trying to go down those gates instead of just going forward) you can get dropped off at the Arrivals gate instead, and just ride the escalator to the second floor where the departures are at.
Using the self check-in machines by CebPac
Scanning your passport with the machine
When scanning your passport, make sure NOTHING else is attached to your passport, like a rubber band (if you’re holding an old passport together with your latest one because the old one has your still-valid visa/s) or a case or whatever else. It should just be your passport. Hold it flat on the scanner so it has no reason to not “read” your passport properly.
Maarte yung scanner ng self check-in machine, and wala man lang silang reminder (if that was by design). Technically speaking though, the machine should have been tested with these brute force tests in mind since that’s what’s closer to reality.
When reprinting boarding passes
While the self check-in machines allow you to select multiple passengers when loading a flight (because duh, the reference number should hold that information), it’s best to process the reprinting of boarding passes individually because the machine will only print ONE boarding pass even if you have more than one selected.
A bit of a hassle, but we’d just have to deal with this as passengers since the system doesn’t seem to have been QA’d to consider this scenario. Either they should allow printing of multiple boarding passes or that should be clearly in the instructions shown in the screen.
Nakakatawa na lang rin na di gumagana ‘to kasi when you try to print multiple baggage tags naman, gumagana naman siya. So kaya siya, ayaw niya lang lol
Using the self bag drop counters
Know which side to go to
Bago mamili ng side ng self bag drop counter to go to (if they are available) double check mo na lang muna saang side yung for international flights and sa’n yung for domestic, since the counters wouldn’t normally have that label present and instead will just say something like “Self Bag Drop”.
Honestly this shouldn’t need to matter if the machines really were for self bag drops for the particular airline since that should be handled by the system instead. That or, you know… just add labels to the counters so it’s clearly marked which one is which. There’s a low hanging fruit here that could be taken but is not.
Attach the baggage tag printed earlier
The steps to attach the baggage tag to your check-in luggage is found at the back of the baggage sticker and it should be generally straightforward to follow. That’s one good thing they’ve implemented, at least they follow how other airlines have done it and marked the steps clearly.
Double-check if the machine is in “Agent Mode” before using
The screen for “Agent Mode”—meaning, the machine cannot be used by itself and needs another agent, or airport staff, to assist you in using it—looks exactly the same in terms of layout with the normal functioning self bag drop machine. The text on screen isn’t even readable from afar—for whatever reason, the font weight is light and the subtitle or additional instructions are written in an even smaller font. Accessibility? Readability? thrown out of the window lol
If you see that it says something like “Welcome” “choose your airline” then the machine should be usable. Since we’re talking about CebPac here, just tap the CebPac logo then follow the instructions on screen. You’d just need to place the bag on the conveyor belt to have your luggage weighed, and assuming it’s within the weight limits, you’d just need to scan the baggage tag attached and it should be good to go.
The experience that ended up becoming a “learning experience”
Our experience checking in shouldn’t have been too much of a hassle if the steps above were shared by the airport staff going around, or if there were better resources to know about these in the form of big signs, directional arrows, and such.
Kaso ang nangyari, we first tried the self check-in machines, but initially failed because it wouldn’t scan my boyfriend’s passport properly since he holds onto his other expired passport with his other visas with a rubber band. The scanner was not happy about this, but either the machine didn’t clearly indicate that it should just be the passport and nothing else attached, or the scanner could be more high quality and cater to cases like this (where others might have a protective case for their passports, for example).
Because the machine didn’t initially work, we just lined up to the very long line of checking in our luggage. But as we were waiting in line (and it was taking a while, which is usual for long lines like this with lots of groups checking in a lot of luggage and possibly having to adjust the luggage to meet weight limits and such) I got both me and my boyfriend’s passports and went to the machines to try again.
Only after my boyfriend just gave me the latest passport—without the attached other passport—did the machine scan his passport properly. Then I encountered the “it only printed one boarding pass, and not mine” experience. Thankfully, the machine didn’t take too long to reload and when I entered the details and scanned my passport, out comes my boarding pass, too.
When we secured our boarding passes and the baggage tags were also attached to both our luggages, I then tried the self bag drop machine first (since at this point we had low trust in the machines actually working given the track record of NAIA and CebPac in terms of experience).
There was a line though, so I just waited until I was second to the next in line. The person in front of me then was an old man who had a lot of luggage with him, and initially I tapped him to let him know he could use the machines in front of us—there were like, 2 working machines that had no one using them and lots more people who were just waiting for basically nothing—but he told me that his companions went to the farther machines and he was just waiting for them. Okay? Don’t hold the line then… smh
I then used the machine, following the instructions shown. I already saw other passengers who were ahead of the line earlier who successfully used the machines and got to move on with their lives, so I know the same should happen to me. When I successfully checked my luggage in, I immediately signaled to my boyfriend to come on over so he can get his luggage checked in, too, and we could finally move on with our lives.
After checking ourselves and our luggage in
Once we were done with check-in, dealing with Immigration and the Security Checks were now a breeze. There were still long lines, but that’s out of our control and it was moving forward at a steady pace anyways.
Since we arrived at the airport a little past 5AM and the whole ordeal of checking in took us almost an hour, the rest of the time was spent just dealing with immigration, then the security check. By the time we got out of the lines, we saw that our plane was already boarding, so we headed to the boarding gate to get seated in the plane. From there, it was just a matter of waiting for the plane to fly.
Okay, I wrote all that I wanted to write. If ever this helps someone else who’s just searching about CebPac and checking in for a flight, then that is a bonus. But this is also mostly for me to remember that these are the things I need to make sure of before flying again with CebPac if I do need to choose the budget option for flights.
For now, I’ll enjoy the rest of my time here in Thailand. I’m technically not on vacation from work though, so I still need to make sure I’m somewhere connected to WiFi and also need to wake up “earlier” (though it’s just a 1 hour difference between Thailand and the Philippines 😆) but I definitely am gonna make the best out of the time we’re spending here. 😁
Okay that’s all, thanks for reading! 👋
