Here are 8 steps to book the promo fares from Airasia for real.

Step 1. Focus.

Make sure you have nothing to do for the next hour or so. If you get distracted, you might not be able to find the promo fares you are looking for.

Step 2. Visit Airasia.com.

Select your preferred destination, then the travel date. The 300 promo fares are only for local trips in the Philippines. For my sample trip, I’ll be selecting a trip to Puerto Princesa, Palawan for 1 person.

Step 3. Select the Promo Fares if available. 

If it’s not available on the date you selected, click on View by Month to look for dates with promo fares. Now this is the part where you have to focus. It took me maybe 20 minutes to find the promo fare for this example but I’m not too picky with the travel date. Remember: not all the dates you prefer will have a promo fare, so you have to keep looking at other months. There will be promo fares bound to show up. Just be vigilant.

Once you find the perfect travel dates with promo fares, click on the promo fare for both depart and return trips. Your total will show up on the right side of the page. Click continue.

Step 4. Fill in all the necessary details.

While in the Guest Details section make sure to enter all the necessary details correctly and then click next.

Step 5. Minimize check-in baggage.

When booking check-in baggage, my advice is to get the check in only for the trip back in case you bought souvenirs.

And if you're not planning to get a lot, just go for the lowest check-in which is 15 kg for 170.

For this example, I selected the 15 kg one and added 170 PHP to the total.

Step 6. Don’t get the Travel Protection insurance. 

It costs 300 PHP. If you want to, of course you can get it. But it beats the point of getting cheap fares. Click on Checkout to pay for your trip.

Step 7. Pay for your booked trip in the Payment Section. 

The total in my sample trip is now 770. 

600 for the Round trip and 170 for the check-in baggage for the return trip.

Now depending on the payment method, there will be a processing fee that will be added to your total.

Let's look at the processing/payment fees:

Credit Card (Visa and Mastercard)

Paying with a credit card will add 134.4 for each passenger each way. Since the sample booking I clicked is just for 1 passenger, the processing fee is already 268.80 making the total amount 1038.80 PHP. Imagine how much this will be for a booking of more than 1 person.

Credit Card (Big cards)

Big Mastercard and Big Visa has zero processing fee, but I don't have either. I don't think these are available in the Philippines.

EZPay

Paying with Airasia’s EZpay has zero processing fee and will even give you a discount for baggage fee of 26 pesos. But this service is not available in the Philippines.

Payment Partners

Paying thru Payment Partners has a lesser amount for Payment fee. The Payment fee is 134.40 PHP per passenger. But it’s still a considerable amount. Another downside of this option is that you have to make sure to pay for the booking within 12 hours of clicking purchase on the website. This could be a problem if you don't have any of the Payment Partners near your area.

Internet Banking

Payment thru Internet banking or Direct Debit is still the BEST way to pay for a trip in Airasia.

Trust me. Right now it’s not showing any additional processing fees. Let’s click on Purchase to see the next screen.

On the next screen, select BPI Express Online/Mobile Fund Transfer option from the drop down menu. 

Then enter your BPI Expressonline email address

This option is the easiest way to pay for your trip. It's online, you don't have to go anywhere and this process only adds a few cents for the verification fee.

Just follow the instructions on this page to pay for the trip thru Fund Transfer.

https://gw.dragonpay.ph/Bank/GetEmailInstruction.aspx?refno=KV9FBTF8

After Validation, you're all good to go.

Step 8. Wait for the Itinerary

Once you are booked and paid, all you have to do is wait for the Itinerary email from Airasia. It only takes a few minutes. Once you receive it, you're good to go! :D

And there you have it. Booked and ready travel. I hope these steps help you in your search for the cheapest fares. 

Visit Airasia.com to book your own trip!

Here are some tips on using the Uber app to get around the city. This is mostly from my experience and I make sure to do them every time I request for an Uber car to ensure efficiency and to save time.

Tip No. 1

Set the pin as accurately as you can on the map of the app.

Don't just rely on the GPS of the application to set your pickup location.

Make sure that you align it as close to your actual location as possible.

Try to zoom in on the map as much as you can so that the name of the building is already visible. If it doesn't show the name of the building in Uber, check your Google Maps app for the right area. It should look exactly the same on Uber, sans the name of the area.

Tip No. 2

Don't ride during Surge periods!

Surge prices are crazy. They range from x1.25 of the regular fare to x3.

Cray cray! So if you can still wait, let the surge price end. Just check the app every 10 minutes or so until the surge ends.

Tip No. 3

Contact the driver immediately after requesting pickup

One sure way of wasting time is just letting the driver figure out where you are exactly. and figuring out how to get there. Try to send him a message with your exact location, any landmarks nearby and anything he has to know in your area. 

In my case when I request for an Uber car in UP Ayala Technohub aka UPA, I always tell the driver to stay on the right lane of the high way. There is this low barricade that starts before he gets to UPA and keeps going until welcome rotonda. Which is already past UPA. If the driver doesn't stay on the right side of the barricade he won't be able to turn right into the UPA entrance. Two drivers ended up going around welcome rotonda and taking a U turn under Tandang Sora all over again, just because they didn't stay in the right side of the road. From then on, I make sure to send them a text message immediately so they'll know.

Tip No. 4

If sharing a ride, don't use the split fare option in the app.

If you ride with Uber, I don't immediately think that you are the frugal type. But Uber is used mostly for convenience. Specially when there are no available taxis and there is no other way to get from point A to B. But hear me out. The split fare option in the app charges an additional 10 pesos to both your card and your friend's card and whoever else you split the fare with. So to lessen the charges going around. Just split the fare between each other manually. If I use my uber app, and it charges on my card. I'll expect my friend to pay his/her share after. And if we use my friend's phone, I'll pay him/her for my share in cash. 

You each save 10 pesos!

Tip No. 5

Get the driver's contact number

The company says you can get a "Private Driver" right? So why not get the driver's contact number? I do this when I need to get the car that I rode in last time. And the driver is the same guy who will be driving that car at a later date. So I always save the driver's number for future use. 

So that's it. Those are my tips on using Uber here in Manila.

If I have more tips for you, I'll make another blog post for it!

Use this code to get free 200 pesos in credits:
UBERLIBRE200

Or you can register here:
https://get.uber.com/invite/uberlibre200