Pal Seeks P28 Million In Damages From Unruly American

[UZI]

I have been on Pal international flights which had an inside window cracked and the stewardess said not to worry about it since that is only an inside plastic window which just protects the outside window, so if that was true and since the plane was still flying and did not implode, then I believe it must have been true, then that piece of plastic will in no way stop the plane from flying and could be replaced easily at the next maintenance as already said. So as I said before, if they cannot justify the amount they ask for, then I think they are just being greedy and making fools of themselves, but that is just my foolish lack of airplane knowledge opinion and I would love to see the opinion of someone who has worked on those types of aircraft and who could tell us how much time and money it costs to replace one of those pieces of plastic, after all the US government has paid hundreds of dollars for toilet seats and hammers, so maybe the plastic window does cost a few hundred dollars but $619 thousand and change dollars labor seems to be a bit much IMO.

You still don't see the point about aircraft down time,also we do not know the extent of the damage from what we read.

Aircraft down time in the Philippines might be an issue since something that would take a US mechanic a few hours to fix might take weeks or months to get it done here. Now I am not being negative about the Philippines, I am just speaking from experiences that I have had here with some repairs needed while others are done way before I even expected them to be done. It is hit and miss here so maybe the plane could be down for a month or more and that might justify their $619,000 service charge. One hour to remove the window, two weeks to draw up the paperwork and pass it to all those who might have to approve it, then another two weeks to send it to whatever country makes the part, then another few weeks until they send the part, then another few days until they find a mechanic who is not on break to install it, and then an hour to install it. Yup this is the Philippines, but the guy who broke it should not be billed for the inefficiency of the system here. Now for one of my boring stories on efficiency of PAL, my wife and I were supposed to fly from LA to Manila but the flight was delayed, the reason, they needed a part and had to get it from Manila. Now I am pretty sure LA would have to have such a part because of all the flights that go out of there and therefore the part probably could have been bought there but NO, they had to wait until a flight brought one in from Manila, cost unknown but they had to put up most of us in a hotel in LA which no doubt cost them dearly and then they had to get us to that hotel in a shuttle which may have been free but since we had to give the driver a paper signed by them, I would guess it cost something but I am not sure, then they had to feed us all one meal for dinner and one for breakfast, then shuttle us back to the airport in the morning where we all had to wait for 6 more hours while they installed the part. My guess is they brought in a Filipino from Manila and then had to fly him or them (most likely them since I rarely see one man doing a job here) back and feed them. Maybe it took so long because they had to sleep before putting it in. Now the flight was mostly empty going back because quite a few that could fit were put on a later flight and others opted to fly to San Francisco and get on a Pal flight there. Now the kicker, since the flight left LA in the afternoon, it arrived in Manila at midnight, so they had to put us up in another hotel and give us a food ticket for the hotel and that too had to cost them some money and then they told us to be back at the airport at 3 AM :wt-hell: arrive at midnight and be back at the airport at 3, they had to be nuts, but we did it anyway so we could catch our connecting flight that left at 6 AM, so what time did Manila airport open, 5AM, so because of Filipino time, most people probably arrived late, so they told us to be there at 3 AM when they actually must have meant 5 AM, or maybe they did not know what time the airport in Manila opened. True efficiency in their system and I am sure they could have bought the part and had a US mechanic put it in for way less than flying some mechanics in from Manila along with the part, not to mention the possible cost of flying the part in since no flights arrive in the daytime, so possibly it was on an earlier flight or they shipped it air cargo or or or? I really do not know but if that is any example of how PAL operates, yes Boss Man it could have cost $620,000 to get installed. Either way it had to cost them a fortune to fly back a mostly empty plane. Ya mon, this is the Philippines. :as-if: and :cheersty: :551:

Just a point here. With the exception of the original Philstar report, there doesn't appear to be any other newspaper here or abroad covering this 'alleged' claim. Any story involving a foreigner, especially an American, catches the attention of most & ALWAYS Cebu Sun Star.Don't you think that strange in itself?UZI