Cebu Pacific awards baby girl 1 million points

AFP FILE PHOTO

A BABY girl born onboard a Cebu Pacific flight last Sunday would likely be flying a good number of times in her life.

Cebu Pacific said the baby named Haven, born 32 weeks premature, was the first to be delivered onboard any of its flights since the budget carrier started operations two decades ago.

For that, she was awarded 1 million GetGo points under the carrier’s flight rewards program. According to the company’s website, passengers earn a point for every P5 spent, meaning her points were valued at P5 million.

Family members can also benefit, since GetGo points, which will not expire, can be shared.

According to the carrier, Haven was born approximately four hours after the departure of flight 5J015 from the Dubai International Airport to Manila last August 14.

She was delivered with the aid of Cebu Pacific’s cabin crew, and two registered nurses, who were also passengers on the flight.

Cebu Pacific, a unit of the Gokongwei family’s JG Summit Holdings Inc., said the flight diverted to Hyderabad, India, “to ensure the mother and baby received medical assistance.”

It said both mother and baby are being assisted by the carrier’s customer care team.

“We are happy that both mother and daughter are doing well, and would like to commend our flight and cabin crew for handling the situation with utmost professionalism and efficiency,” Cebu Pacific president and CEO Lance Gokongwei said in a statement.

“We also express our sincerest gratitude to the two volunteer nurses who helped ensure the baby’s safe delivery,” he added.

Haven would get plenty of travel options should she decide to one day use her points.

So far, Cebu Pacific offers flights to a wide network of over 100 routes on 36 domestic and 30 international destinations, mainly within Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

Cebu Pacific has 57 planes as part of its expanding fleet. This includes seven Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320, six Airbus A330, and eight ATR 72-500 aircraft. Between 2016 and 2021, it expects delivery of 32 Airbus A321neo, two Airbus A330, and 16 ATR 72-600 aircraft orders./rga