Oh no! After the celebration of Valentine’s Day comes a major heartbreak for all passengers and travelers, whether domestic or overseas. Have you heard the news?

Oh my! I hate to be the one to break it, but in case you haven’t heard, airfares are expected to rise in March due to a fuel surcharge increase. Yes, that is correct, passengers can expect to pay more for plane tickets beginning next month with the looming increase in jet fuel.

According to a recent advisory of the Civil Aeronautics Board, or CAB, the fuel surcharge will be up to level 6 from level 5 this month, but it is the first fuel increase of the year after two consecutive downgrades.

To give you an idea, under level 6, passengers on domestic flights will pay a fuel surcharge of P185 to P665 while on international flights they will be charged an additional P610 to P4,538.

For example, passengers flying from Manila to Iloilo, Bacolod or Tacloban will be charged P388, while those traveling from Manila to Gensan and from Clark to Davao will have to pay P665 more on top of the base fare.

I hope the airlines’ services will also improve with these increases. Well, it cannot be denied that delays and canceled flights are still rampant these days.

Just last week, I heard a senior citizen complain to an airline company with a yellow branding color about its late notification to him about a cancelled flight. The notification was emailed to him just hours before the scheduled flight. Did they expect him to check his email every day, he fumed.

How did it end? Well, your guess is as good as mine. The airline had overbooked the flight. The old man had no choice but to accept the last minute change by the airline because there was no other option left.

My dear readers, being left with no other option is the worst. Do we, paying customers, deserve to be given services we do not deserve? Just because it is the only thing available doesn’t mean we will be forced to short-change ourselves; we did not short-change them when we paid the full amount for their services.

What is happening with the airlines is happening with the shipping lines. Why do you think there are delays in scheduled trips, especially during peak season? Don’t they have the whole year to prepare for the peak season that only comes once or twice every year? Should these technical issues, cancelled trips, delayed trips, maintenance issues be allowed to happen when the ships are needed the most?

Well, your guess is as good as mine. You can go back to the story of the airline earlier but the same question remains, do the paying passengers need to experience these kinds of services when they are paying in full for supposedly hassle-free trips?

It is really disappointing to see the passengers of shipping lines waiting in vain at the ports, stranded, with no other option but to wait for the next trip, spending important occasions at the passenger terminals, when they could have been in their homes comfortably spending time with loved ones, except that their ships did not arrive on time.

Thanks to the free lugaw initiative at ports nationwide of Philippine Ports Authority General Manager Jay Santiago, stranded passengers have a hot meal while waiting for their ships.

But you see, my dear readers, these are just Band-aid solutions. We need long term solutions for these recurring problems. What I am saying is nothing new. It is the same old call for the shipping lines to provide better services for the passengers, especially during peak seasons. Oh, not to mention, Holy Week is coming up in a few weeks. We do not want to see the same old problem of passengers stranded at the ports.

The good thing is there is no increase in sea fares. To give you an idea, a passenger traveling by sea from Manila to Tacloban will pay a fare ranging from P200 to P1,800 and a terminal fee of from P10 to P95, and that’s it! A lot cheaper and more practical compared to air travel, not to mention that our ports have been improved to cater to the volume of passengers.

The increased airline fares is definitely sad news for those traveling to explore the Philippines, but the good news is there is always a better option via the seaports.

After all, it looks like most of us can’t be leaving on a jet plane soon with the higher fares, so let us just ride the same boat!