Philippine Airlines

I flew round trip from San Francisco to Manila in Mabuhay (business) class in January 2013. There is no first class on the planes. The Mabuhay Lounge at SFO offered a superb light dinner. Business class was only half full. I had no one sitting next to me. Flight attendants addressed me formally by name and went out of their way to provide my requested food and beverages. Although the seat did not fully recline the seat plus the superb leg rest gave me enough room to curl up and sleep well. On the return which I had to make ahead of my schedule for personal reasons there was only one Mabuhay class seat available on the main deck of the 747 and the check-in agent obtained permission from the supervisor to assign it to me. The food in the Manila Mabuhay Lounge was superb-enough variety for a delicious complete dinner. My seat was in the first row of the plane which meant that I could place my carry-on in a closet in front of my seat rather than in an inconvenient overhead bin. I had the aisle seat but the person in the window seat had enough room to walk around the front of my seat and I was not disturbed during my sleep. Once again I was addressed by the crew by my title and surname and the food and beverage selection and service were superb. The outbound flight was two hours early as the light load enabled it to skip refuelling in Guam. The return flight was on time.

Vancouver to Manila flight. A 777 airplane. Landed at Manila International Airport Terminal 2. Positives: Very friendly staff Prompt service of meals and snacks Some extras - toothbrush toothpaste morning face towel Fun amusing safety video Clean Individual video screens. Touch screen. Negatives: Middle of the night snacking - they turn the lights on thereby "forcing" everyone to wake up to eat the snack. In flight entertainment of movies does allow you to select the latest movies among the rest of the movie selections. During the duty free shopping time FAs were very noisy and in our section there were 6-7 of them. They were passing items over the heads of passengers. It was very noisy and invasive of passenger space and peace. Tons of babies on the flight. Very noisy. When passengers were seated you still have lots of seat transfers because they have this policy of charging people $50 or $20 if you wanted to move to economy plus or to an exit row. Instead of having some peace of mind you have loud speaking passengers asking questions then moving their hand baggage to their new seats.

HKG - Manila return. Flight out was 3.5 hours delayed and not even the merest hint of an apology on board. We were provided with a 75 HK$ meal voucher at check-in. On board the seat pitch is very good and the crew were courteous and professional. Planes are quite dated but fine. The return flight was only 20 minutes late and the meal was delicious. It was one of the tastiest meals I've had on about 300 flights over the last 15 years. I just wish PAL could be more reliable in terms of scheduling as hanging around the airport for 3.5 hours late at night is not fun at all.

PR512 SIN-MNL. After a rather lacklustre MNL-SIN leg (an early morning flight marred by dismal FA service and attitude) I was optimistic that the outbound leg was merely a fluke. Check in at Changi and the ground staff messed up seat assignments (I traveled with 3 children and we were separated on the flight - good thing we were able to switch with a friendly lady so we can sit together). Flight delayed an hour out of Singapore and FA attitude was exactly the same as our outbound flight. Service was hurried cold and distant. Food was inedible. Good thing we had dinner at Changi before the flight. I really wish PAL would pay more attention to the people skills of their staff.

Booked 2 tickets leaving June 30 and coming back July 5 PR 119 and PR118. Staff seemed very tired I pressed the button for stewardess attention she passed by me several times until I physically had to touch her and tell her I needed a glass of water. The food quality falls below the standard for international airlines there were no snacks served in between meals. Flight duration between Toronto to Vancouver was 4 hours and from Vancouver to Manila 12 hrs. At check in we were asked to pay $20 per person to get a better economy seat even though we paid $4200 for the ticket. The only advantage was that you don't need to change planes between Toronto to Manila.

Our family of 5 went to Boracay for vacation last week (starting May 16). Manila-Kalibo on May 16 Kalibo-Manila on May 19 5.15pm. Trip going to Kalibo was ok however I was shocked to receive an email advisory from PAL on Saturday night at 6.35pm that we have been re-booked from our May 20 5.15pm flight to May 20 6.30am instead! It is impossible to get from Boracay island to Kalibo by that hour. CS agent and supervisor were insisting we either take the 6.30am May 20 flight or do a "go-show" for their 8pm or 10pm or 12.15am flights. I had to stay on the line with their CS Supervisor until he finally got us confirmed seats on May 20 4.15pm flight. In all of this all PAL could say was "sorry for the inconvenience". I will avoid this airline from now on.

Flew PR 511 MNL-SIN on 19 May 2013 in coach. PAL doesn't have online check in for international flights. Fortunately flight was fairly empty and an early morning flight and check in meant that the airport was not as crowded as usual. Painless going through check in with a full compliment of baggage from the family (wife and 3 kids). Immigration and security was a breeze. Because of the few number of passengers on this 6am flight boarding was easy. In fact the plane was fully loaded a good 20 mins before scheduled push back from the terminal. The good part of the flight ended there. I knew beforehand that there was no personal entertainment on PAL's A330 so I loaded the kids' gadgets with entertainment to keep them occupied for the 3 plus hour flight (an eternity in kids' clocks). What ruined the flight for me was the FAs attitudes of just going through the motions of completing the cabin service. It was rushed and no effort was made to accommodate passengers' requests. My wife's aisle cart ran out of the beef option but mine was stocked with it. When she requested for the beef she was merely told they ran out. I had to point out to the FA in her aisle to get the selection from the other cart. The food was pretty tasty for airline food though. Twice requested for coffee and it never came. No after meal drink run and the FAs were just in the galley chatting away. I recall the time when the saving grace of Philippine Airlines was the friendly and efficient service of the staff. Now they seem to even be losing that. I never thought I'd live long enough to see the day when I had better service from American FAs (was on Delta a few months ago) than from Philippine Airlines' FAs.

Have flown PAL twice now from Melbourne to Manila first time was so so plane was late taking off but on board service was fine. Flew again in April and was pleasantly surprised by the improvement in the airline flight on time cabin crew were very friendly and welcoming. Am a bit disappointed they are cutting out the direct Melbourne to Manila flight. All in all no complaints though their terminal is a bit small and stuffy.

Recently flew from Toronto to Manila Flit# 119 and returned Flit# 118 with Philippine Airlines. The crew onboard the flight were very professional courteous and made sure everyone was comfortable through the entire journey. The seats though not first class were comfortable leg room was sufficient food was good no complaints here. If I am ever to return to the Philippines for another vacation I will once again choose PAL.

Had a fairly pleasant flight but the plane (A330 Singapore to Manila in economy) was very old and rickety. A small number of common TVs down the centreline that skipped and lost sound constantly. Old seats aggressive aircon and everything just didn't seem very well put together. Good food and staff though.