[ETC!] Walang ONSEhan!

As the clock was about to strike twelve last night, I was wondering what’s really special with this “11-11-11” or “11.11.11” date? The last time I checked, what’s considered lucky for those with Chinese descent is the number “8” which when closely looked at resembles that of the symbol of ‘infinity’. From what I’ve heard, the number “1” is not considered to be lucky as when you try to write the number one, it is downward or from top to bottom.

Then, I chanced upon this post from Facebook, specifically the pages of air transportation providers Cebu Pacific and Zest Air. Since they’re considering “11-11-11” as an event, throwing another seat sale for the customers would be the best excuse to commemorate such activity.

So when the clock struck 12 midnight, as November 11, 2011 begins, a lot of people are busy updating their statuses on the different social networks. Me? I was busy looking at the cost of each flight the destination I was interested to go to next year.

Opened both the websites of Cebu Pacific and Zest Air. Then this showed up:

Cebu Pacific's "Christmas is in the Fare!" promo

Zest Air's "Walang ONSEhan!" Promo

Both carriers are offering 11-peso flights. Zest Air’s for all domestic destinations, anytime between June 15 to October 15, 2012. While Cebu Pacific’s for all domestic and international destinations, anytime between June 1 to December 15, 2012.

After about 5 minutes, I was already busy looking for the “specific” destinations that I have in mind. It’s a good thing that I have a list of the ‘confirmed’ schedules of the ultra marathon races around the country next year (thanks to sir Jonel and sir Jovie). Unfortunately, as I was about to book my first flight on both websites, this happened:

error encountered from the Zest Air website

error encountered on Cebu Pacific's website

It was then that I realized, there were already thousands of people accessing that same website in the middle of the night. So I tried again and again and again. I was also monitoring in between, Facebook and Twitter updates from other people trying to book for flights. Witty comments such as “walang ONSEhan pero ang hirap magbook ng flights!” and “Patay tayo dyan, naONSE ako sa booking confirmation!”.

After about 2 hours of trying, I managed to book flights for destinations in the south. By 3:00AM, I have already booked for 4 destinations with 11-peso base fares. Of course, if we include the taxes and other surcharges, total cost of the fare is about 500 pesos one-way which I already consider as cheap enough.

11-peso base fares one-way

confirmed flight to somewhere south

So what’s so special again with “11-11-11”?

Nothing, I guess. A regular day for a JUANderer like me.