Philippine Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | The new seats definitely make a difference for Philippine Airlines flight from Hong Kong to Manila. While the flight was quite bumpy as usual for this route on this time of year. The new seat config had definitely made the flight quite enjoyable. The new configuration also gave all business class seats direct aisle access to the convenience of the passengers. The entertainment system and movie selection was also a big improvement from the old "bring your own media player to watch" setups. I do hope that the airlines updates all of the aircraft in its fleet to this new seat configuration.

✅ Trip Verified | Cebu to Manila. The flight was delayed by one hour, only through public announcements at the airport they informed us of that. I was advised to carry my big bag on board as the time required to handle the bags in Manila Airport would not be sufficient to make my connecting flight to Istanbul in time. I suggested they give me a seat in the front area of the plane to allow for a quick exit but they gave me a seat in row 60 plus. Upon arrival they did not dock the giant airplane but stopped on the tarmac and used buses. Sure enough, due to my rear seat I was able to use the 3rd bus only. After some additional waiting time on the tarmac I was rushed to a waiting shuttle bus who transfered me to terminal 1 in Manila. Suffice it to say that I boarded my codeshare connecting flight at 22:37 for a 22:40 departure.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Manila, this is totally different experience compared to last time. Cleanliness - spotless, ample space for legroom, built-in on-board entertainment, food was great and very accommodating staff. Overall we can’t fault it. To be honest I can give more than a hundred percent to the staff who did their level best to please their customer even though there’s one guy on board who been very demanding and rude and very condescending towards Filipino or Asian in general (London - Manila route) Who seated near my place and talking loudly that we could hear him clearly. Oh well after few hours trying to get my nap but been kept waking up because of his voice I then stood up and told him to shut up and be considerate to people around him. Oh well that kept him shut the whole journey. If this guy made a complain against staff because they refused to serve him alcohol after one or too many.

✅ Trip Verified | Tagbilaran to Manila. Lack of communication at Tagbilaran Airport which now features zero shops or other facilities. Flight service OK but check-in experience was terrible. Totally disorganized check-in queues and check-in staff would neither honor the baggage allowance under the ticket nor allocate the pre-booked (and paid) Choice Extra Legroom seat. Whilst the hard product is OK (inflight service is largely friendly, plane looks OK, snack service could be improved), the soft part of the product is terrible. PAL needs to start to take its customers seriously. After flight complaint handling again terrible, one month to get the complaint transferred to a handler and another month to "authorize" reimbursement of USD5 just does not cut it in today's environment anymore.

✅ Trip Verified | Manila to Jeddah. I tried to book via PAL website but there's a problem with the payment system, payment won't go through. Called their hotline from Jeddah, which is an overseas call, to avail the low fare. I am an Overseas Filipino Worker therefore, I am exempted from paying the Terminal Fee and PH Travel Tax which can be removed out through their website. But since I was booking through the hotline, I was informed by the agent that they cannot remove these fees once I book through them. I had to undergo the process of refunding these taxes. Moreover, PAL and Travel Tax office are pin pointing to each other as to where will I get the refund, and until now I am still waiting for their responses. Bookings made thru agents/hotline cannot be accessed to their website, not until 24 hours before your departure. So there's no way to confirm your booking online before that. There is no IFE, you have to download their MyPAL Player app to access their IFE. No amenity kit provided on this leg. The service is okay, though there is not much initiative from the crew (e.g. walk around to offer drinks). Served one full hot meal in an 11-hour flight, the rest are light meals such as crackers and sandwiches. JED-MNL leg delayed by almost 4 hours. Good for me because I am checking the flight status the night before my departure in the morning. The departure time changed 3 times. from 6:40 to 10:00. Flight changes are announced via email only. I can only recommend PAL if the ticket price is way low compared to other carriers.

✅ Trip Verified | Manila to Bacolod. Excellent service. Snacks are good, very polite flight attendants. No in-seat IFE on this short route. Bathroom is clean, cabin is clean, on time. Ground crew is very polite and organized handling the tickets. Deserve recent rating upgrade.

✅ Trip Verified | My return flight from Singapore from Manila with Philippine Airlines was a great experience. It started off weird at the Manila when the check in person told me that I needed to pay a terminal fee in exchange for my boarding pass. It was cheap so I was fine with it. But I couldn’t figure out where to pay the fee and there was no sign to say where to pay it. I asked a few ground staff and they told me that I don’t need to pay because I’m holding an Australian Passport. But nonetheless they were very friendly and approachable. And one of the ground staff finally helped me out and even walked me to the place where I needed to pay. He waited with me at the line and we had a nice chat. Once it was my turn, he left and wished me good luck to my travels. When I returned to the check in, he gave me my boarding pass. He then asked if I had any glass or breakable objects. I told him I have some souvenirs that might break. And just with that, he placed a fragile sticker on the bag with no hesitation. I was pretty happy and very relieved and confident that my bag’s contents wouldn’t break. Then at immigration, the line was short and there was no wait at all, despite the hundreds, even thousands of people in the airport. The departure hall was small and there was a lot of people. But enough seats and charging ports for everyone and a good wifi connectivity. The plane was new and quiet. No TV but had a streaming service which had a great selection of TV and Movies. Would love to have a tv though but it was a short three hour flight. Would recommend reading the Mabuhay Magazine which includes some very interesting topics and articles. The food was super delicious and big. The staff was very friendly on requests. Overall I loved the experience with PAL. I hope they improve the plane to Singapore to include TV, and then I believe that the flight would be excellent.

✅ Trip Verified | I missed a midnight flight and there is no way to call any Philippine Airlines office in New Zealand at past midnight. Only other means I had was to use the MyPAL chat, and it took someone more than an hour to compute the fare and penalties for the next flight. After more than an hour of waiting the agent told me that someone would call in 5-15 mins. No one called! Had to go through the MyPAL Chat again to follow up and go through the same questions and the agent was double checking the computations. It's another hour to do that and ended up giving me a different computation!

✅ Trip Verified | Our return flight from Singapore to Manila was initially delayed by 20 minutes. While the airlines previously had asked us for our email during the online booking, I never received any notice of this delay until we got to the check-in counter of the airport. It took at least another 25 minutes beyond the initial delay before they airline began to board the aircraft. To top things off, while the passengers at the departure area could see in full view the aircraft standing by at the gate a few minutes after the original time, the Pilot makes an announcement of his "apologies" for a slight delay due to aircraft turnaround. I realize that occasional delays is the norm these days for air travel but could you make sure to inform the passengers ahead of time and don't give us the canned excuse if the reason of the delay cannot be truthfully given.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew Dammam to Manila. Philippine Airlines still have a long way to go to be a 5 star airline. They have to improve their Middle East flights especially the leg room and IFE on Premium Economy and Economy Class. I hope they will also give importance to all OFW’s working in the Middle East by providing a better and excellent service. All Filipinos takes pride when they are flying with Philippine Airlines especially the OFW’s. The airline already did a great job with customer service from ground to on board and the food that they served.