Off we went at 6am to travel a couple of hours to the airport in Clark. We were pretty organised and even on time! Now in the past I have been made painfully aware of "required fees" that must be a paid inside the terminal. After researching I was pretty sure I knew the amount needed. I was wrong!
The first sign we came to was "terminal fee". It wasn't so bad. The second line we were pointed to go to was"airport tax". However we were assured since I am not Filipino and Josiah is an infant that this only applied to Ron. It wasn't a small fee but we brought a bit extra just in case. Hmmmm... wrong information apparently given to us! When we got to the front, the woman said that the fee applied to 3 of us. Unless we wanted to pay an "exemption fee" for Josiah. Hold on- we have to pay a fee so that we don't have to pay another fee?!! is this making sense to anyone else?!!
By this stage I was getting annoyed. You can ask to see all the policies in the world and talk until you are blue in the face but at the end of the day , the airport staff have the say and that is it. I am thankful for a very patient husband, but even he was getting agitated by this stage since we had to go and change money back into pesos to pay this ridiculous fee.
Surely that is it I thought. There are no more signs for fees. Just one security check and then we can relax and start to enjoy our trip. Wrong! When we got to immigration the guy said "you must pay a fee". This time the fee didn't even have a title! He must be joking! It was a really steep amount. We asked to speak to a supervisor to give an explanation. After searching through an old notepad she said" because you are a foreigner and resident". Wait a minute! The other guy just said there would be no more fees because I am a resident of the Philippines! I felt like I was going to explode but Rons calming influence was rubbing off just enough to hold me from going mental. We really questioned this fee. Giving all the sensible reasons we could as to why it should not apply. We told of the information we had been given already by the other staff. Surely each post should be giving the same info? The supervisor replied " they other staff don't know what they are doing". Em... shouldn't that be her job as their manager to make sure they did?!
I was mad! I began to speak faster and waffle why we should not pay this fee. It was not making a blind bit of difference... but i was mad! Ron spoke sensibly to the women while I sat down in a fluster. I thought I was talking to myself but said out loud "this system in so corrupt" Well!! One of the staff heard me and was not at all amused. Honestly I never meant that they particular individuals were corrupt, in fact one girl was particularly sweet. However I did feel it was unjust and the lack of communication between staff was very unprofessional. Next thing we know they are not going to allow us on the flight and they definitely would not let us on the flight if we did not pay. Sigh..... beyond frustrating. By the time we were finished we had to pay out almost 100 pounds of money.
In my personal opinion I still think the system is guilty for legalised corruption. But I also know my attitude that day was not right. I should have been able to remain calm. I should not have spoken what was in my mind. I should have been able to control my flesh from boiling over. I shouls be more like my hubby in these situations whose moto is "a gentle answer turns away wrath". However honestly in my stubborness in this situation these are the last words I would have wanted to hear!
As you can read there are no deep lesson in this blog. Just the ramblings of a frustrated travller and the reminder to myself not to ever use the *Corruption word in an airport again! Looking back it is now a little funny...not very funny... but maybe a little bit! :)
When we were leaving the NAIA airport, i had the fees already separated. My husband only needs to pay the Terminal fee while i had to pay both terminal fee and Travel tax because im a filipino. We paid for the terminal fee but for some reason nobody was asking me to pay for Travel Tax so up until now i have the philippine money for my travel tax!
ReplyDeleteGigi Neale
sad but true.. =) btw why dont you ask about how you could get a filipino citizenship?
ReplyDeleteMacky A.