Philippine Airlines

I really gave this airlines a chance and was trying to support it because I've ridden it for many years. I'm even an elite member of their miles program - but I've really given up. Unreliable schedules, unreasonable delays (4+ hours with no explanation and apologies) is really very taxing for a frequent traveler. It's one thing to have poor maintenance and scheduling operations, but one thing you can control is how you communicate to your customers. You just send 4-5 hour delay notifications with no remorse.

✅ Trip Verified | Consistently the worst airline ever. Very clunky website, where most of the time you are unable to check in online. You are forced to check in manually and loose any chance to select seats. No in flight entertainment on most flights. Food is horrible. Customer service is the worst as well. I have flown close to 10 flights for PAL this year and have never enjoyed it. I am forced to pick PAL because there are no other options for the Philippines.

Not Verified | When i Checked in my luggage in Manila the staff told me I will pick my luggage up in Vancouver. In my surprise around 4:40 pm Honolulu time one staff approached me that my luggage custom already take out lots of stuff inside. So I can't do anything because it's US but my point here why they need to bring my luggage there if supposedly in Vancouver. Then the lady has an attitude she don't even say sorry for airlines staff did! Now I know why lots of luggage got lost because that's what they do. The worst airline, always delayed flights, so rude staff, lack of information to their staff.

✅ Trip Verified | I booked my wife her one-way ticket to Manila as she had pre-booked her onward flight back to London from Manila. Her flight was to leave on the 2nd of July 2023 at 11:05AM from Brisbane airport (BNE), it was a direct flight to Manila. On the day... the plane was sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours (approx.) and then the pilot announced that the flight was cancelled due to technical issues and they would be re-docking and unloading the luggage. Passengers were informed to return home by ground staff and to await customer services to contact them to rebook on an alternate time/date. My wife had her connecting flight so she therefore required to seek alternatives asap and ended up booking with China Airlines which departed later that evening of the 2nd of July. To this day NO ONE FROM PHILLIPINE AIRLINES or TRIP.COM has contacted my wife to rebook her journey to Manila. Upon her return to the UK, she contacted the 3rd party travel agent whom I booked her one way ticket (Trip.com) to query about a refund. The response from Trip.com stated that they contacted the airlines and was informed that the flight was only DELAYED and therefore no refund would be granted. I then contacted Philippine airlines on their 24/7 number to speak to someone to see if they had any further details on that particular flight. To our amazement, even the airlines had the very same details (delayed NOT cancelled) and asked us to speak to Trip.com as they could not assist. I stated that it would be of no use as Trip.com would only contact Philippine Airlines again and get the same response and this would just go round in circles. I tried asking to see if there was an alternate team or number to find out more details, or to seek further advice, but the Philippine Airlines agent just hung up on me. It is SO upsetting that this how they treat their customers. I know that in general the people of Philippines are lovely and friendly, but Philippine Airlines seem to be such a poorly managed organisation that the poor service runs throughout the business. I would love for Philippine Airlines to reach out to me to help with this. It is as simple as confirming that the flight from BNE to MNL was cancelled so that we can get our money back.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst experience I’ve ever had. We were supposed to fly from Cebu to Bangkok with a connecting flight in Manila on the 26th of April 2023. Once in Manila, our flight to Bangkok was first delayed, then cancelled. Complete chaos ensued. We had to pass through immigration once again and had to queue for 4 hours (standing! – see photo) in order to be offered an alternative flight. When it was our turn, the only available flight they had was late in the afternoon on the next day, which meant we would miss our flight back to Europe. Thus, we had to buy our own tickets for a different carrier’s morning flight in order to be in Bangkok on time. However, we were promised that we would be reimbursed. We spent the night in a shabby hotel in Manila, courtesy of Philippine Airlines, and travelled to Bangkok on the next day on that other flight. But the worst part came after our trip. We contacted them in order to be reimbursed and they asked for our names, ticket details, etc. Upon sending them that information, we never again heard from them. NEVER. No matter how many times we wrote. This was four months ago. So we're stuck and there's nothing we can do. And the absurd part is that we had purchased the additional travel insurance they were offering. In other words, Philippine Airlines deliberately chose to ignore our reimbursement request, even though we were insured against flight cancellation by them … how is this even possible? Terrible, just absolutely terrible.

Not Verified | Its a long time to get there but it is cheap and there is a reason for this. First leg Melbourne to Manila can,t complain business class pod, pretty happy. Manila to Los Angeles - Very old plane, we had 3 business class seats one of which wouldn't recline, the second entertainment wasn't working. LA to Manila - Once again one seat would not recline at all. They suggested we might have to stay overnight in LA if we wanted a seat that reclined, eventually got on had to move seats from my 16 yo daughter as they bumped an employee out of business. Fourth leg: Still another seat not reclining, super stressful flights. If you pay for Business class at any price you expect the seat and entertainment to work. Incredibly long layover in Manila, terrible airport and lounge. I would not do it again.

✅ Trip Verified | I was supposed to be on an afternoon flight to Singapore (arrival 6 pm) with a connection to Helsinki at 9.40 pm. However, yesterday morning I received an email from PAL stating that the afternoon flight has been postponed ant the new arrival time in Singapore is 9.40 pm, and doesn't leave me much chance to make my connection. However there was no mention whatsoever about the connection. So, I was trying to be proactive and called the PAL customer service (on my super expensive overseas SIM I might add) Spent 1,5 hours on the phone. I wanted to ask for another connection and was offered the 9.35 am flight to Singapore. As this meant I would have to leave my accommodation shortly after midnight and additionally wait at Singapore for 8 hours, I requested the possibility of rerouting me altogether. In the 1,5 hours I spent on the phone (roughly 1 hour of which she was repeating the phrases one moment sir, do you mind if I put you on hold sir, thank you for patiently waiting sir) the end result was that I had to take the 9.35 am flight, rearrange my transportation and wake up at midnight to get to the airport. OK, these things happen every once in a while. I would have expected at least some sort of compensation though, however nothing was offered. Not even a bottle of water. Well, next time something like this happens (should I ever fly PAL again) I'll just happily take the postponed flight and start asking questions at the transfer desk of the connecting airport (obviously having missed my connection) and let them make new arrangements at the last minute. Might be even more uncomfortable for me but at least definitely more expensive to them. Finnair, as the issuing airline, washed their hands completely with a mere suggestion to contact PAL so I guess it could be worse.

✅ Trip Verified | Flight attendants and ground crew were nice but customer service isn't that great. They do not replace damaged baggage. It was a new suitcase (not even a month old) I was only compensated $60 cdn. Also on my return flight the video screen wasn't working and was told to email [email protected]. it's been almost a month and I still haven't heard anything back

Not Verified | I booked an Osaka-Manila-Osaka flight with them in June. I got a message telling me my flight back to Osaka has been cancelled and gave me the option to take the 3:40am flight instead. I declined the 3:40am flight and rebooked for the 9:05am flight. Next I flew with them again for my family's Manila-HK-Manila flight. A day before the trip I checked in online and got our boarding passes. On the day of our HK flight and as we checked in at NAIA T1 the ground staff said our flight was cancelled. I had to argue with them that we already got confirmed seats as we checked in online the day before. We had no idea that PAL cancelled our flight 3 hours after we checked in online. They e-mailed us at 11pm in the evening less than 12 hours from our scheduled flight. After a 20 minute wait at the check in counter they were able to check us in on our HK flight. On our flight back from HK to Manila I tried to check in online but could not find our booking. It seems PAL cancelled our flight without informing us. I contacted their Facebook Messenger agent and they said there was an error with the booking. Our ticket and scheduled flight was at 11:10am but They said our "original" flight was at 2:00pm was cancelled. They did not inform us about this cancellation nor the change of time so we got so confused. The agent said they will rebook us for the 11:10am flight. How can you rebook us on exactly the same flight? PAL is seriously messed up and I have decided not to fly with them for the mean time. I would rather fly with more reliable and punctual airlines.

Not Verified | I didn't enjoy my interactions with Philippine airlines in general. Staff were not help on ground in person or on phone, to communicate in English was difficult, the app didn't show flights at all and even when entering them manually they would disappear again. Another big issue was when we were not able to make one flight they cancelled all our flights. And even when asking for a refund they charge a refund service fee of a ridiculous amount. Fist told refund fee was 2000+1500 per person per way and then next message was told it was 4000+1500 per person per way. they said it takes 2-3 months for the refund to be processed. I had to pay another airline for new flights which cost more than the minimal refund Philippines airlines is giving me back.