General Info

[GoodEnough]

One of the nice things about living here as one advances in years, is the priority given and deference paid to "seniors. " I fly almost weekly out of terminal 3, and I never get in line to get into the terminal. Instead, I go to the front of the queue and tell the security person that I'm a senior (no lie there) and I'm allowed through the entrance immediately. Since I always print my boarding pass for CP from my computer, I just go to the gate after airport entry. The whole process rarely takes more than 5 minutes.

GE.

[WestCoast1]

At NAIA T3 recently, I got dropped off for my CP domestic flight fully 3 hours prior to departure. The lines outside were the normally long lines. As I was approaching the queue with my luggage, one of the airport porters approached me and asked if I was a business traveler. In almost all of my past trips, this is a cue for a bribe to get thru that line faster. Usually I give the guy p100 (or even p50) and he's happy with that. Yes, stud, I am a business traveler. He put my bags on a cart and before he could move me towards the door, I told him p100. He wanted p500. I giggled and pushed the cart to the end of the line. He dropped to 450. I demured with 100. He walked away. A few minutes later he walked by again and offered 400. I looked away. A moment later a different porter walked by and asked if I was a senior. I have no idea in phils what age a senior is, but I replied Yes, yes I am. My knees tell me the rains are coming.

He took the cart from me and led me past the queue to the door, loading my luggage onto the xray machine, then off the machine once the luggage was through it. He walked me right to the CP line for Persons With Disabilities / Senior Citizens (the queue was empty) and left me there, he turned to walk away. I called him back and pulled the folded p100 note from my shirt pocket that I had ready for the first guy, and stuck my hand out to shake his hand, with the folded note concealed in my palm. When he saw that I was attempting to give him money, he smiled and walked away. Sweet! I checked in and went right to security and my gate. Apparently chivalry is not dead in phils. BTW, there were LOTS of much older philipino in the long line, and I did not see a single one of them selected for the same good treatment.

Later date in Cebu, when departing for the province at the Lapu airport (early afternoon flight, weekend), there was nobody in line at the airport entrance xray machine. Then there was nobody in the queue at my CP domesic flight queue. From airport entrance to gate was under 7 minutes. WTF it never happens so good!

[Engine Driver]

Doesn't the porn star Janice Griffith look a lot like a hot girl from AC?

[Pantot]

This is a link to a news article on the CNN survey that claims to show that the Philippines has the second best food in the world. Clearly the survey was undertaken by imbeciles IMHO (and likely GE's also).http://www.philstar.com/headlines/20...-2nd-best-food

Here is your answer. It was an open Facebook 'poll'. So it was more of a poll of who is on facebook in reality. CNN's real crime is in cheapening the word poll. The pinoy website just turned it into something more than it is.

This wasn't exactly Gallup here. Italy was 3rd and Taiwan at #1 had more votes than everyone else combined. Look at the vote totals its a joke.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/14/travel...eys/index.html

[Mbsl65]

They have a 24/7 Call center to solve issues. It is toll free. You can also call from Skype. They are trying to establish themselves as a premier airline, so I assume they may do anything to fix your issues.

[Econo Tech]

In the world? Maybe in Asia, though I would rank Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Japan ahead of the Phils. While I like the seafood and BBQ in the Phils I find that my diet is far less healthy than when I'm back in the states. It's much harder to find good healthy ingredients. And as for the restaurants, the big cities of Manila and Cebu isn't even in the same league as the major cities throughout the world. Obviously the folks in this survey don't travel much and maybe travel much outside of Manila.

One of my former boss' nanny used to nag him to invest some money in a Filipino restaurant, and her nagging got worse when her cousin landed in Singapore, with a HRM Degree.

Till my boss got a bit too fed up and asked the nanny why he should put in a 100 K in a Filipino restaurant.

She replied, 1) to help her cousin work, and 2) there are thousands of Filipinos in Singapore and 3) Filipino food is the best in the world, and all can eat.

While he agreed to the fact that anybody can put up with bland Filipino food, vs spicy or such other food, his next questions were, 1) why there are never any non-Filipinos seen eating in Filipino joints in Singapore and 2) as a well traveled person, why Filipino restaurants only operate in places with large overseas Filipino community (including Jollybee) - unlike Thai, Italian, Mexican, Indian.

Case closed.

[Random99]

I know there have been several posts on this in the past, but Uber is definitely a plus for me here in Makati / BGC.

Pros:

* Clean, new cars always with good aircon.

* Don't need to have cash.

* No expectation of tip.

* No haggling of price. There seems to be a plethora of GrabTaxi participants which are hiking up fare expectation. Good luck getting a taxi during rush hour without a flat fare (no meter) and the driver trying to double the price.

Cons:

* Prices at times will multiply 2 x normal fares or some other multiple. I usually take them off hours (mid-day or late evening), so I'm not 100% sure of the formula.

* Drivers seem to be new, not experienced.

* Mapping function on the app isn't great. Sometimes I have a hard time getting it to pinpoint my correct location and typing the exact address does not always work. I try to go to a known place when I'm in Makati ie Starbucks at Glorietta 5 and use that as the address.

* Doesn't seem to be that many Uber drivers, so you may have to wait some.

* I think someone mentioned in a previous post about privacy concerns as Uber may store the locations tied to your credit card (not a big deal to me).

Although I've signed up for Grab Taxi, I haven't used that app yet and Uber is a better seems to better price than a regular cab (no apples-apples comparison yet). It was only 80 pesos from BGC to Makati (daytime) and 110 pesos (during traffic). That same day, my fare for 3-4 blocks in Makati was 60 pesos with a regular taxi (traffic).

[Cjetset]

This is a link to a news article on the CNN survey that claims to show that the Philippines has the second best food in the world. Clearly the survey was undertaken by imbeciles IMHO (and likely GE's also). I can so little to praise food here which is generally fatty, loaded with sugar in some form or other and tastes disgusting. Now there is seafood but that exists and other countries also. So that does not IMHO qualify.

Had the survey stuck with national dishes and asked intelligent people then I am sure the results may be different.

The other surprising thing (well not really) is that this is headline news. Methinks some one needs positive news not the real stuff.

Just my take on things gents.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/20...-2nd-best-food

In the world? Maybe in Asia, though I would rank Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Japan ahead of the Phils. While I like the seafood and BBQ in the Phils I find that my diet is far less healthy than when I'm back in the states. It's much harder to find good healthy ingredients. And as for the restaurants, the big cities of Manila and Cebu isn't even in the same league as the major cities throughout the world. Obviously the folks in this survey don't travel much and maybe travel much outside of Manila.

Now when it comes to worldwide hobbying, well then the Phils is definitely #2 if not #1 .

[Wicked Roger]

This is a link to a news article on the CNN survey that claims to show that the Philippines has the second best food in the world. Clearly the survey was undertaken by imbeciles IMHO (and likely GE's also). I can so little to praise food here which is generally fatty, loaded with sugar in some form or other and tastes disgusting. Now there is seafood but that exists and other countries also. So that does not IMHO qualify.

Had the survey stuck with national dishes and asked intelligent people then I am sure the results may be different.

The other surprising thing (well not really) is that this is headline news. Methinks some one needs positive news not the real stuff.

Just my take on things gents.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/20...-2nd-best-food

[Wicked Roger]

Was posted on he UAE board but relevant given your tastes.

http://www.aliexpress.com/promotion/...promotion.html

[Random99]

Going to Philippines this summer, will check it out / may move there for good.

Leaning towards a Schwab High Yield Investor account, as there are no FX fees, etc. Anyone here have any bad experiences going that route?

ImAGuy -.

I just moved here recently as well. Just wrote some info:

http://www.internationalsexguide.inf...414&viewfull=1#post1732414.

[Member #4387]

Skogis:

I was in the similar situation. I had booked three separate FF Tickets from IST. They told us that flight is overbooked and they are within IATA rules to do so. There was no flight the next day and they told us to try after two days. They declined any compensation. They were so rude to us. My reply was: I work for the US Government. You do whatever you think is right, but when I get back in the US, I will do what my rights are. I will take you to the small claims court and will ask for compensation. I won't need a lawyer but you will need one. Within 30 minutes, I was walking out with three 500 Euro checks, confirmed ticket after two days, free hotel rooms / meals vouchers. Ironically, we were suppose to stay in Istanbul for two nights. This delay worked out great for us.

Yes I could obviously asked to talk to the on ground manager but as I stood long enough to fill out the "property irragularity report" and I had pussy waiting I thought I might deal with this later. Probably a lot easier to deal with Turkish back home in Norway than here in phils anyway. I have also travelinsurance ofcourse can reimburse me with what I have bought so far (but still peanuts). But as Turkish seems quite arrogant I will not let this go just out of princip. But they were right about the. IATA rules that they are allowed to overbook a flight but by doing so they should instantly first ask the passangers if any voulenteers would give up their seat toward a compensation. If no one voulanteerly wants to do so an airline can actually "by force" deny u boarding. The passangers with the cheapest tickets will have to stand behind but ofcourse by generously beeing awarded compensations one way or another.
I find it funny though that you have to wait two days as they fly to Beijing and Singapore and airline partner fly to manila from there. It seems they dont deal much with rebookings and checking available options. Well well, last time i fly an airline with atleast daily flights or more to a destination and even if Turkish gave away a seat to me my biz with them is over. Turkish call themself an european airline and is a member of Star Alliance. Hickups have happened to me(simular situations as u meantioned as well)but the difference is that Austrian, Scandinavian, Lufthansa, Thai etc(biz)will treat u accordingly and throw money, flightcoupons or bonuspoints after u. Luckely I did not loose any pussy over it, thanks God. My biz with Turkish is finished if i ever recieve my bag.

[Jose Marcia]

Skogis:

I was in the similar situation. I had booked three separate FF Tickets from IST. They told us that flight is overbooked and they are within IATA rules to do so. There was no flight the next day and they told us to try after two days. They declined any compensation. They were so rude to us. My reply was: I work for the US Government. You do whatever you think is right, but when I get back in the US, I will do what my rights are. I will take you to the small claims court and will ask for compensation. I won't need a lawyer but you will need one. Within 30 minutes, I was walking out with three 500 Euro checks, confirmed ticket after two days, free hotel rooms / meals vouchers. Ironically, we were suppose to stay in Istanbul for two nights. This delay worked out great for us.

[Member #4387]

To the eurpopean crowd:

Relatively recent (March 15 I believe) mentioned airline started up with non stop flights from Istanbul (IST) to Manila (MNL). With relatively good connectiontime from Oslo and beeing a Star Alliance member (bonuspoints, I am a Diamond) I thought, wow, good lets try this.

Booked my tickets in Biz a couple of days before my departure and I was happy about the price (Euro2200). Thai charged almost Euro3000 for the same flight.

Beeing relatively late in to IST from Oslo we did have only 45 min connection time but we were ran through a speedy process by an turkish sportsman. Even I did have trouble hanging on to him. And a couple of old blokes were blue in there faces when we finaly reach our boarding gate (IST is a rather big airport). I asked the sportsman about our bags but he told us no problem as our arriving plane was parked relatively close to our departing MNL plane. Short connections can be hazzle as you might make it but not your luggage. I felt eased by his "promise"(even if I knew he did have nothing to do with the baggage handling).

While omboard the relatively old A340-300 aircraft (Turkish is not using their relatively new B777 fleet on this route yet) our captain told us it was going to be a delayed departure due to cargo and bags beeing still loaded. For once I was happy about this comment so I just laid back and felt relaxed. After a while, well after expected departure time, the captain once again adressed a new delay due to a cabincrew member sick so they had to replace her. I was thinking, as Turkish is a huge airline, they ofcourse have a lot of airport standby crew actually at the airport. It took one hour to replace her. 1. 5 hrs late we took off.

Arriving in MNL I saw a depressing sign as I was not suppose to have any special assitance or whatever. My name was held up by airport staffs (and the same for the rest of the Oslo passengers). Ofcourse I knew our bags did not make it and I was totaly correct. They told us they would do their very best to get the bags here as soon as possible but when I asked what they put into the statement "doing their best" the answer was even more depressing. They would put it on the next MNL flight this Saturday. I pfcourse objected and told them I knew Turkish has loads of flights to ie Singapore and Beijing and could easily send our bags through their and ship them on by either Singapore Airlines or Air China (noth Star Alliance partners). I was told that was not their policy but he would mention this soulution to the Turkish Airlines Manila based manager. Ofcourse I did not hear more from them.

Travelling a lot each year and my bag does not arrive happens but all companies I have flown so far will do their outmost to transport your bags to you as soon as possible. Turkish does not seem to care. I was asking for a compensation bcs all I did have was an extra t shirt and their answer was that it was up to the mention Manager to decide. In earlier simular cases I have allways gotten atleast an small ammount of cash to survive one day and buy items but Turkish don't give a shit. Ofcourse I did not hear anything from the manager or the airline whatsoever. And it is not that I can not afford to buy a few items but it is a priciple involved.

I will see Saturday what happens. I regret hugely i did not fly Thai:-)

[ImAGuy]

Going to Philippines this summer, will check it out / may move there for good.

Leaning towards a Schwab High Yield Investor account, as there are no FX fees, etc. Anyone here have any bad experiences going that route?