For OFWs: How to Get the Airport Terminal Fee Refund @ NAIA3

As an OFW, I have always been exempted from paying the ridiculous airport terminal fee when I fly out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (read blog here). But since the airlines have started including the airport terminal fee in the ticket price, I had to get my refund.

Last month (July 2015), before my Cebu Pacific flight back to Seoul, South Korea, I was able to get my refund, and I'd like to share my experience. 

Kung kasali na sa ticket price mo ang airport terminal fee, ibig sabihin nabayaran mo na ang airport fee. Kaya dapat e-refund sa iyo ang airport fee kasi exempted ka bilang OFW. Other passengers who are exempted include athletes and Muslim pilgrims based on their list (see photo on #7). 

Eto ang mga hakbang para mag-refund sa NAIA3:

1. Before mag-check in, patatakan muna sa POEA desk ang Overseas Employee Certificate (OEC). 

At NAIA3, ang POEA desk ay nasa pinakadulo, sa LEFT SIDE, upon entering the first security x-ray check. 

Tip: Sa pagpasok sa NAIA3, dumaan sa last gate (pinakadulong gate) para mas malapit sa POEA desk.

2. Mag-check-in para sa flight.

3. Doon sa check-in counter, ang airline staff magsasabi sa iyo kung saang counter mo kukunin ang 'certificate'. For CebuPac flights, sinabi sa akin na hihintayin ko sa 'Counter 1' ang 'certificate'. 'Certificate' ang tawag nila sa print-out na naka-lagay ang breakdown ng nabayaran mo noong binili mo ang plane ticket.

Ang 'certificate' ay e-pi-print ng CebuPac na nagpapatunay na nabayaran mo na ang terminal fee noong binili mo yung ticket mo. Ito ay ibibigay mo sa REFUND CLERK inside the 'Terminal Fee REFUND' office (Step 6).

   (The piece of paper behind my boarding pass is the      'certificate' given by CebuPac staff at Counter 1)

4. After check-in at hawak-hawak mo na ang 'certificate', pumunta na sa Immigration. Ipapakita mo lang sa guwardiya ang OEC mo para hindi ka na sisingilin ng terminal fee.

5. After Immigration, dumaan sa final security x-ray check.

6. After final x-ray check, pumasok sa TERMINAL FEE REFUND office na nasa LEFT side mismo ng final x-ray check. (See photo below).

7. Inside the TERMINAL FEE REFUND office, present your OEC, 'certificate' given to you at the check-in counter, and your boarding pass to the clerk.

See list of requirements below (photo taken at the refund counter):  

8. Get your refund of Php 550. 

                         (My P550 refund)

9. Proceed to your boarding gate. 

The refund counter is open 24/7 according to the accommodating and friendly clerk. I forgot to get her name, but she was doing a great job of advising those who are missing a document. 

Have a safe flight! 

#ofw #naia3 #pinoy #balikbayan #immigration #poea

A Pinoy At NAIA 3: Those Useless Trolleys

I have always wondered why nobody at NAIA3 collects these trolleys at the boarding gates to bring them back to the security check area to be used by passengers on succeeding flights. 

Maybe, NAIA management couldn't afford to pay one more staff to do this?

Maybe, NAIA management doesn't know how trolleys work?

Or maybe, NAIA management doesn't give a rat's arse about passenger convenience.

                (Useless trolleys at Gate 115 
                        of NAIA Terminal 3)

The walk from the pre-departure security check to the assigned boarding gate at Ninoy Aquino International Airport's Terminal 3 is quite a distance, especially if your gate is the farthest. And a trolley for your hand-carry luggage would be a big help, especially if you've been travelling all night long and have been dragging a heavy maleta on your left hand and carrying another bag on your right shoulder.

At the Incheon International Airport in South Korea, there was always a Korean lady who gathers all these trolleys for passengers in the pre-departure area to use for their hand-carry luggage. She collects them at the boarding gates and brings them back to a spot near the duty-free shops, where the next passengers, who just cleared immigration, could use as they make their way to their assigned gates.

But at NAIA 3, oh well. Let's just say management must be 'natutulog sa pansitan'. No offense meant to the glorious pancit, especially if cooked with lots of sahog and pork chunks. 

I have been passing through NAIA 3 all these years as I always took Cebu Pacific from Seoul to Manila, and then from Manila to Bacolod City. And every time, I always looked for a trolley after I passed the last security check at the pre-departure area. There was always none. Nada! Umasa ka pa! But lo and behold! When I arrive at my assigned boarding gate, I'd always see a few huddled together, useless and stored away, which just means the NAIA general manager doesn't want you to use it.

So, last Sunday, when I arrived at Gate 115 of NAIA Terminal 3 (a very far walk from the security check!) before 2 PM to wait for my flight to Seoul and saw these useless trolleys just stored on the side, I decided to talk to a Cebu Pacific male staff sitting at the gate counter and told him to at least inform the management that these trolleys could still be used for the passengers' convenience if only somebody cared to bring them back to the security check area. But basing on the reaction on his face, I think I wasted my time talking to him. I was right. During my one-hour wait before boarding, those trolleys didn't move. This means that even Cebu Pacific staff don't actually care about the convenience of their own passengers.

I hope the NAIA management would read this complaint. Although maybe to them, this would just be a suggestion. 

I am not asking NAIA to be as convenient and efficient as the Incheon International Airport because Incheon has been consistently voted as the best airport in the world, and NAIA, sadly with its broken moving walkways, broken toilets (would you believe international passengers had to use the employees' toilets last Sunday??) and the least attention to passenger convenience, just couldn't compare.

I'm posting this blog to whomever is running the country's premiere airport (and please don't tell me there's no CCTV camera covering Gate 115, thereby preventing you from noticing the idle trolleys); I hope next time I would be able to use one of these trolleys after I clear the security check!

I hope. I'll keep my camera ready again next time.

                   (Can NAIA really live up to 
                        the name of Ninoy?)