It doesn't make sense, but it works. . .
[QUOTE=BrainDrain;1899156]Enjoy that early flight. My last Cebu to MNL flight was three hours late before they would even board us.[/QUOTE]And in the completely opposite vein. Recently my CP flight (T3) was scheduled for 12:15 pm. To be safe, I left the hotel at 9:15 am (Makati), arriving 9:50 am at T3.
An aside: Outside T3, the CP entrance had a HUGE line, while the PAL entrance had a tiny line; I waltzed right thru the PAL entrance security checkpoint. Can all the rest of those people with CP itineraries be dumb enough to join that long, long line just because they are CP customers? Yes, yes they can. I showed the security guy at the door my passport and CP itinerary and asked if it was OK for CP customers to come thru at this checkpoint: "Yes sir".
My queue for my outbound province flight was empty (amazing), and I checked in and got a boarding pass right away. I bounced around upstairs in the foods area for a bit before heading thru the security checkpoint to the gate. On my boarding pass it showed gate 132, boarding 11:30. I showed at my gate at 11:10 to find it empty of customers. I checked the monitor, which showed my gate now as 133. At 133, the sign had a different province. I asked the CP girl at the counter where my flight was, and she said it was changed from 132 to 133, then back to 132 (still empty). I pointed out to the CP agent at 133 that 132 was empty, and the monitor still showed my flight at 133, to board in 10 minutes. She seemed confused. "It cannot be". The monitor was down the hall, and she sent another CP agent to check the monitor, which was still showing 133. Keystrokes on their computer. Suddenly over the PA system: "Westy's flight will board in a moment at gate 134". Both the CP lady and myself looked over to 134, where the sign showed yet *another* province (not mine). The crowd for my flight had been waiting at 134 and began lining up.
None of that makes any logical sense. The only good news is that the flight was ON TIME, and boarding started a few minutes early. Suddenly the CP lady said: "Yes. 134 now. Boarding now, departing 12:05 pm". Wait, when I checked in, the flight time was 12:15. Now 12:05? "Yes sir". You moved a flight time (and boarding) UP? "Yes sir they did". That just never happens, and you run the risk of late-arriving passengers, who would have previously made the 12:15 flight, missing their flight if you move the time up to 12:05. "Oh. Yes. I see it". Amazing. By 11:20 they were boarding my flight, at a gate that you could only be at if you listened to the (nearly indecipherable) PA system. While the flight was on time (well, we boarded on time and pushed back, only to sit idling for 20+ minutes for ground traffic -- the pilot reported too many aircraft waiting for takeoff), the large monitor and the gate computers were not in sync, the gate agent could not correctly pinpoint a gate, and *none* of the gates showed my province as the destination.
Welcome to it!