Philippine Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Disgusted. We bought our tickets with them because they were cheap. Within days they had changed our stopover of a few hours in Manila to overnight. They had they audacity to call it a “simple re-accommodation”. Having to stay overnight in Manila was not simple or pleasant. At check in in Sydney the staff were rude when they told us we need a Manila ecovid certificate. No help was provided. Now we find our return leg is similarly affected with a 7 hour stopover (was 2 hours) in the awful Manila airport during the hours of 1935 to 0330. No explanation, no compensation, no assistance - just last minute changes. If you can help, it never fly with them unless you like nasty surprises and rudeness.

✅ Trip Verified | Myself and my partner (Australians) chose Philippine Airlines as their business class prices from Sydney to LA were extremely competitive for Christmas time. We flew 4 sectors with PAL and all were significantly delayed. Transit in Manila was an absolute nightmare. Straight off our plane those also transiting were ushered into a corridor and ushered plastic chairs. No communication! More than an hour later, we were given water. Then transit passengers were asked to move to the transfer desk. After standing in a line for almost 30 minutes, our passports were taken and we were moved to another room – where we waited for another hour. Next, we were moved into another line and our hand luggage was scanned and taken to small room we had to identify our luggage which was opened and tested (for what?). Then ushered into a bus and taken to the next terminal. Our baggage was scanned again upon leaving the bus and then we found the gate – our hand luggage was scanned again and all our documents were checked once more where the worker was meticulously writing down (by hand) passport and ESTA numbers and taking photos with his phone of every single document! 3 days before our flight home, we received emails saying our LAX-Manila flight was going to be delayed significantly, meaning we would miss our connecting flight to Sydney. After an ordeal trying to get someone on the phone or via chat and more than 3 hours on messenger, the best PAL could offer us was leaving on a flight from LAX a day earlier, a 28 layover in Manila and arriving home in Sydney 5 hours later. That was the best they could do. They did provide hotel accommodation and food vouchers however but to some no name hotel 30 minutes drive away. We were out of pocket with a non refundable night of accom we lost in LA, car hire and needing to pay for another night of dog boarding at home. The flight from LAX to Manila was a nightmare. TV remote was broken Reading light was broken - The lie flat bed kept hitting the floor. On arrival to Manila, only 4 out of 5 bags had arrived. The staff seemed very meh about the whole thing - uncaring and unsympathetic and didn't seem to know what to do when questioned. They were unfriendly and unhelpful and their solution was for us to fill in a form, that’s about it! About a week later, nothing from them about our bag - they just don't care! Needless to say, the trauma, the stress, the worry endured at the hands of PAL was horrendous.

✅ Trip Verified | The focus of my review at this time is on their Mabuhay Miles frequent flyer program. I usually take a domestic flight which will connect to Manila or Cebu for an international flight, all via PAL. This saves me from trouble in case I would miss my connection. From experience, they would rebook me to the next flight for free, if there are problems with the connection. And that is okay. But accommodation and food aren't included, though that's fine by me. With so many flights, I became a frequent flyer and their program is useful in terms of extra baggage allowance and priority tag, priority boarding, and lounge access. But that's it, they don't care much about frequent flyers in other aspects, especially redemption. If you redeem a one-way international flight ticket, expect that your hard earned miles are to be practically useless, because you will still pay a huge amount. Even if you redeem a round trip ticket, you will still pay hefty airline charges because apparently, the miles are only for the base fare. I've been so used to flying with SQ where I only pay the very minimal $10 airport tax upon miles redemption, even for a oneway MNL-SIN ticket. So I find PAL's redemption rules weird and a money grab. Then there's the problem with redemption nominees that can be easily done online with other airlines like SQ, but not PAL. It's like 1995, you need visit their ticket office or call their hotlines if you want to redeem for other people. They would have you wait for 2 to 3 hours at their ticket office (worst experience in their ticket office in Alabang), then charge you a rush fee for redemption made less than 10 days from the intended flight. From the provinces in P.I., I now take an extra day for layover in Manila just to fly with other airlines because PAL is getting ridiculous. If their frequent flyer program doesn't change, then good bye.

✅ Trip Verified | The counter staff made us pay for a premium economy seat instead of the normal seat. We checked in at around 0845hours, she claimed that there are no vacant seats in the center area and that if we (I and my husband) to sit together, then we have no choice but to take the premium economy seat. We asked her that if really no seat available for isle and center, she said no more and we need to sit separately both in the isle. She seven said that it’s a full flight. In which well on fact it’s not, there are a lot of vacant middle seats in the economy area, how can this be!!.

✅ Trip Verified | Philippine Airlines have the sheer arrogance of placing a Business Class passenger into a broken seat that will never turn into anything comfortable to sleep on. Worst still, I thought the seat was just uncomfortable and that was the way it was supposed to be. After 2 hours of struggling to get comfortable, I gave up sliding down the seat and it was only then I noticed the issue. Earlier in the flight, I was having a chat with one of the stewardesses and she said something about broken seats. I thought I mis-heard her and dismissed it. After letting a steward know, he got a box for the seat to prop up on. Far too late by then. Damage was done, the other passengers' children had had their sleep and there was no letting up on their noise from there on out. I'm glad I had Neurofen on hand for the headache. Why wasn't I told from the start about this? Was it the case that I wasn't going to notice or not care? Better not to alert the other passengers of the failure either else they might have something to say in social media? Towards the end of the flight, another seat failed and then my partner lets me know she can't place any weight on her chair without it collapsing. Word of advice to Philippine Airline "Business Class" passengers. Don't assume by paying $1000s extra that your trip is going to be anywhere near "Business Class". The photo of the damaged section of lighting is a bonus. I tried to complain to the airline but that was ignored.

✅ Trip Verified | Philippine Airlines encouraged bidding to upgrade to Business Class. I bid and yesterday they took my money and upgraded me to Business. Today they announced a new plane without Business and put me in a far worse middle-seat that I had originally - and now I have to hassle with begging them for a refund which I may or may not get. It is not automatic.

✅ Trip Verified | They lost our luggage in Manila on way to Canada. Did not respond for days so we missed Christmas. When dealing with they were extremely unhelpful. Did not submit reports for our initial missing luggage and gave us run arounds. Had a tracking tile in the bag and saw it in Vancouver for multiple days without contact. Finally dealt with agent in Vancouver airport who offered business class return. Accepted and then when we went to fly back claimed we were unable to access and refused his initial offer. Entire staff were like this, passing the buck to someone else. Do not fly with this company.

✅ Trip Verified | Our flight connecting in Manila has been a disaster. Flight delayed 6 times then cancelled. Flight rebooked by airline five days after our scheduled departure with no notice. Missed connections so had to stay in Manila. Then the following day the flight was cancelled, and abandoned by airline for 2 days. Spoke to agents at 3 terminals in Manila. Called the 1-800 customer service number over 10 times. Texted and DM’d the airline, no one to help with hotels, rebooking, meal vouchers. The customer service reps told us to just go outside. I guess they just wanted us to sleep on the streets of Manila. No response to multiple requests for help. The flight was good, but everything to do with customer service outside the flight has been a nightmare. Strongly suggest international travelers avoid this airline. Terrible experience.

✅ Trip Verified |  Philippine Airlines continue to disappoint. My flight on 6-Jan PR310 from Manila to Hong Kong was delayed. Ground operations is poorly managed with little to no information provided to customers. No one had any credible information. There was no supervisor present to support the representatives. I ended up rebooking my own flight without any help from anyone at PAL. I don’t recommend this airline until they do a significant revamp of their operations.

Not Verified | Terrible service at the transfer desk, it took 4 hours and caused me to miss the flight, employees are not skilful and very messy, they not friendly and don't care about passengers.