‘If you could bring only three things with you when you ride on a plane, what would they be?’

One might say a phone. Or maybe a mini hand fan. Or your wallet — we need money for transactions, right? Perhaps your passport for identification if you’re traveling to another country. Or maybe your emergency kit — you never know what might happen next.

But there’s this one thing that you should never leave without — P A T I E N C E.

That is exactly what we need now with the kind of service we are getting from some airlines, particularly that yellow airline that claims to be for every “Juan.” With the increase in the fuel surcharge, of course passengers should also get more in plane services, including the way they treat their passengers.

Since passengers on domestic flights pay a fuel surcharge of P185 to P665, and P610 to P4,538 on international flights, we really do hope the airlines’ services would improve. We should be getting what we pay for, meaning fewer delays and canceled flights. Can we expect that now?

With the graduation season now on, surely a flight or trip would be a memorable gift to reward a hard-working student. But this is not the case for all. Just recently, a student and his friends who received a trip to Japan as a graduation gift from their parents were booked to return home on 13 July on this yelllow airline. But to their surprise, the airline booked them for another date without letting them know or getting their consent. Weird, right? At least there should have been a confirmation from the passengers before they did their magic. What was it — fully-booked, or just making sure their seat sales and “piso fares” could be accommodated at the expense of people who had booked a long time ago?

Well, your guess is as good as mine.

What can I say? This was not the first time an incident of rebooking and cancellation without notice happened. Last February, there was another incident with this yellow airline, not with youngsters this time but with a poor senior citizen let us call “Lolo.”

The convenience of the riding public must always be the top priority.

Lolo, despite his age and not being tech savvy, was bumped off his flight. As I overheard their conversation, the poor senior citizen was asking how that could be possible and how could the airline assist him. But the only thing the airline would say was that a notification was emailed to him hours before the scheduled flight. Really? Did they expect a senior citizen to read emails before his flight? I’d guess it wasn’t him but a younger family member who booked his flight for him. And how could they expect him to find a backup when it was the original flight that was the backup? The old man was not even given food or lodging vouchers but was only told that his flight would resume soon.

My hope is that airlines would show more compassion toward their passengers. The flying public should always be their top consideration when it comes to safety and hassle-free trips. At least, I hope the transportation leaders would not allow travelers via land, air, or sea to be short-changed.

It is not only happening with the airlines but with the shipping lines. For some reason, with this rainy weather, there are times people are stranded at the ports. At least, the shipping lines could give their passengers some food while waiting for the next ship. Again, the convenience of the riding public must always be the top priority.

I hope this rainy season, we will not be seeing ship passengers waiting at the ports, stranded, with no other option but to wait for the next trip. But on a positive note, the good thing is there is no increase in sea fares. Sea travel using the new and improved ports of the Philippine Ports Authority is still a lot cheaper and more practical compared to air travel.

Well, it’s always better to be safe than sorry on every trip via land, air, or sea. One inconvenience is an inconvenience to all passengers. After all, we are on the same boat!