A passenger expressed disappointment recently via social media against an airline company which supposedly "off-loaded" their group to accommodate what she described as a "celebrity family." Several netizens reacted to the post, initiating a guessing game of sorts as to the identity of the supposed celebrity family. Among names that cropped up were that of Sunshine Cruz and family, who are now in Bali for the Holy Week. Not a few informed Sunshine about it. The actress was quick to deny the allegation.
She posted, "Huh?! March pa nakabili ng tickets ang family ko. Hindi kami yan. Please make sure bago may pa tag." Sunshine related to another naysayer: "nagpa reserve sya at nakasakay pero nag ingay on her fb then nag delete kanina and people have been bashing us since we arrived Bali. Not fair." On Facebook, the celebrity mom of three reiterated: "Not us!"
"Booked and paid since first week of March," she pointed out.  "My family and friends have tickets to Bali at nakasakay ka din naman pala girl. Hinayaan mo pang i-bash at guluhin kami ng mga tao sa insidente na wala kaming kaalam-alam at kasalanan. Ngayong lumaki ang issue deleted na ang post mo girl?!" In a screenshot that is currently circulating online, the airline explained what happened. It read: "We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience about your flight from Manila (MNL) to Denpasar (DPS), and we understand your frustration concerning the check-in incident. We want to emphasize that our policy and practice do not involve bumping off passengers to make room for high-profile travelers. We would be happy to provide you with a clear explanation of the events that took place, and we hope this will help resolve any concerns you may have." "Two Business Class transit passengers from a connecting flight missed their flight to Bali yesterday and the reason was attributable to PAL, which resulted in some overbooking on our flight today. To manage the situation, we reached out to our Business Class passengers and asked if anyone would be willing to switch to a different cabin class at check-in. This was, of course, accompanied by due compensation. We would like to clarify that all business class passengers, including the passengers you mentioned, were offered this opportunity. You were identified for downgrade being the last business class passenger to check-in. "Fortunately, two passengers accepted the offer, which allowed you and the rest of the business class passengers to keep your original class of service. We want to assure you that we value our passengers' satisfaction and strive to provide a comfortable and stress-free travel experience. We will review any opportunities for process improvement to ensure that we avoid this type of situation in the future."