Manila

[Buko Max]

The booking has been OK - but the question is - what is the actual flight going to be??!!

Hello Joe,

As far as I know Cebu Pacific, my carrier of choice, is not a discount airline. That flight is not too bad considering they used older equipment. Last time I flew them, the plane was only half filled and since that flight is < 2 hours long, they will only serve juice and some munchies. To relieve the boredom, the flight attendants play games with the passengers and the winners take home prizes (ballcaps and t-shirts). In Manila, I was upgraded to first class just for being nice to the ticketing lady. I'm not sure about their excess baggage policy but it should not be too much of a problem. The real hassle is if your flying on to another destination in the P.I. because you must shuttle to the domestic terminal.

Happy Landings

[Mianbao]

Firstly, for airline reviews check out skytrax.com, but anyway back to what we are here for…

Spent one evening in EDSA recently. Very easy to find if you tell the taxi driver EDSA/Roxas (“ed-sah”/”roh-hass”) and look for the Heritage diagonally across the road.

Went into Bullets & Arrows first. Some real talent up on the stage as well as sitting down around tables on the right hand side of the bar. Tables were all free on the left side so sat at one. It was a Monday night so only a couple of customers, plus was still only four days after the recent typhoon.

After a few minutes the atmosphere, or lack of, started to get to me however. There was very little eye contact from the girls sitting around the tables, and none at all from the stage. They all looked thoroughly bored, as if they would rather be anywhere else. Could not blame them and started to feel the same myself so headed into Firehouse.

Firehouse was instantly better, with a large number of girls and a much better atmosphere. I made friends with one of the mamasans, who was happy to give me space and take my time to pick a ‘special friend’. I must say it was hard choosing, so in the end started chatting to one who had sat down in front of me and flashed a couple of smiles. She was quite petite and cute, however there were a large number of ‘types’ in this place, something to please everyone really.

A drink and P1,000 barfine later and we were in the taxi off to my hotel in Makati (1 hour there at 10pm, 20mins back after midnight). Despite the GFE appearance in the bar service was pretty disappointing, however. Functional, no passion and complaining of starting to hurt after not very long (yeah right). Don’t like to continue in case they really are suffering so stopped after that. If service had been better I had hoped she would stay into the next day, however she was keen to leave. Offered P1,000 tip considering we hadn’t really finished, however she was none to pleased with that so ended up giving another P500.

Not a great experience but I can say I’ve done EDSA. Stayed in Makati the next couple of nights, separate post in the relevant thread coming shortly…

[Martians]

Cebu: Email or phone to see what is on their HK-Mla flight. They are ok on things like that.

PAL: is an arrogant airline run by a well connected Chinese guy. They do as they please, fly when they like and treat you like shit. Exercise care with them. Cebu cannot undercut htem on domestic flights or Pal's pals will zap them.

[DirtyCanuck]

Wading through 100's of messages to try to get a feeling for what's best options for my trip to Manila and then on to Boracay. Have been to Manila once before and had a great time in Makati. The plan this time is to spend 3 to 4 nights in Manila possibly to find a bed friend to take onto to Boracay. Suggestions on the top 10 places to go in Manila to find great talent would be appreciated.

[Frequent Flier]

This has always been the case for me when flying to the Philippines from either the USA, Hong Kong or Korea on as many as 6 different air lines. In the past you may have been purchasing a round trip ticket and therefore they did not ask you this question. Had you purchased a one way ticket to the PI before this situation? If so I would find that odd based on my experience.

In the "past" I purchased roundtrip, and on "THIS" trip I purchased roundtrip.

Yes Dr. Slim, I understood what you are saying...

You say that you purchased a round trip ticket from some destination to the PI. Then while in the PI you purchased a round trip ticket to another destination. Once there you then wanted to return to the PI on your round trip ticket, but they wanted to see your outbound ticket leaving the PI. You could not produce this and even though your outbound ticket leaving the PI was on PAL and you were flying on PAL to the PI you are upset that PAL would not even look it up and see that you had thiss outbound ticket.

It may be that PAL is way behind all other airlines when it comes to paperless travel or electronic travel. At least they were the last time I flew with them a few years ago. The last time I flew with PAL, and I guess it is still the same, they were the only airline that I knew that would take your reservation for a fight over the phone, but you could not purchase the ticket and there was no requirement to hold the reservation with a credit card. No confirmation number either. You could not purchase the ticket ahead of time. Only at the airport or at one of their offices could you purchase the ticket.

You show up and your reservation is there under your name. So I am guessing that their internal operations are not even capable of doing what you were asking for, but I am not sure of course.


FF

Also there is a "quote" function at the bottom of every post that allows you to more clearly show the persons post that you are responding to in a way that separates it from your response. If you use this it will make your post much easier to read and understand. Hope this helps as well.

[SE Asia Joe]

I just booked on Cebu Pacific - Hongkong Manila Hong Kong - on their internet site. Each leg was HK$400, plus HK$387.16 tax etc for total $1,187.16. At least HK$600 cheaper than what I could have gotten on PI. Also, each leg of the journey is booked sepaqrately with different prices posted for different time/date etc. ranging from this $400 to $1,000 per leg.
The booking has been OK - but the question is - what is the actual flight going to be??!! Anybody have any info/experience to pass along for this budget airline - i.e. can I expect not to be served anything, is it going to be chock-a-block with chattering Domestic helpers, are the seats going to be back breakers, is the airplane going to be held together with bailing wire....????
Also, have sent them an e-mail asking if they will allow me to bring my golf bag ON TOP OF the 20KG free baggage allowance - believe that this is the case for most other airlines? Of course have not yet received a reply!!
Any input would be much appreciated
SE Asia Joe

[Finrod]

When it comes to doing business in the Phils, I have gotten that one generally shouldn't assume anything if one can help it. Do it by the book, have all your documents with you and things tend to go better. That was my experience.

Dr Slim, your point is well taken, only I have no reason to hate on PAL: I booked an RT ticket online with them and due to an emergency, I had to change the departure at the last minute. Called them by phone, they said you have to contact via email because the ticket was bought online. So I emailed, they replied the ticket was non-rebookable, etc. I said, WTF? The rules listed for that ticket on the web said it was rebookable. So I printed that page and went to the ticket office at Centennial. They said the same thing, but did redirect me to a manager in the Makati office who they said had the authority to make a change. The Makati office manager and her staff were quite non-plussed because the fare code to them signaled a non-rebookable ticket, yet I was showing them the fare rules that said it was. They even had me login to my account and show them that again. Something I see they would not do for you. Long story short, the whole thing took 3 hours, they ran me through a bunch of fees, etc., it cost about $78, but I was able to change the flight.

[Dr Slim]

[QUOTE=Finrod]No reason to boycott PAL. EVERY airline flying to the Phils will require you to show an onward ticket as a condition of getting the boarding pass. That is a hard and fast requirement by the Bureau of Immigration and the airlines can be fined and threatened with losing their landing rights for letting passengers through without it. Now it's possible that the immigration agent doesn't ask you to show your onward ticket, but the airlines don't know that so they're not going to go there. Period. For the airline, it's an easy choice between pissing you off and pissing off the BI.

The old hands know this. Newbies take note. Dr Slim, consider it a lesson learned.

The airline doesn't have to know what the Immigration officer will do. I owned a outbound ticket. PAL merely refused to acknowledge it.

[Dr Slim]

This has always been the case for me when flying to the Philippines from either the USA, Hong Kong or Korea on as many as 6 different air lines. In the past you may have been purchasing a round trip ticket and therefore they did not ask you this question. Had you purchased a one way ticket to the PI before this situation? If so I would find that odd based on my experience.

In the "past" I purchased roundtrip, and on "THIS" trip I purchased roundtrip.

[Dr Slim]

I'm not a newbie (I've been to the Phils more than 20x) and I am not concerned with what all the airlines do. I know the rules with Immigration and the $1000.00 fine. If you read my post carefully, you would have learned that PAL had evidence of my outbound ticket in their computer (why did they have the evidence, its only because they sold me that outbound ticket) but refused to PRINT ME A COPY which would have allowed me to get a boarding pass and go back to Phils. INSTEAD, they were happy to SELL me a new ticket which they knew was not 100% refundable. It seemed to me that they were happy with my misfortune and joyfull at the chance to make 50 free dollars rather than provide customer service to a passenger with over 100,000 miles flown with them. They knew I was not scamming them, they knew I had an outbound ticket bought and paid for. The girl at PAL Thailand went so far as to say that this situation happens all the time. So that means that they created a policy of refusing to print a copy so they can benifit by the problems of others. Fuck PAL. They are true examples of the 3rd world. They will cut off their nose to eat today despite their actions leading to eating less tomorow. If they rfuse to do business in a more customer oriented western style, then they will reap what they sow.

[AsiaFloyd]

Finrod is correct.
same happened to my friend on thai whom i was travelling with. But he was able to contact his wife in Tarlac and the famiily was able to get his Manila-Auckland ticket to thai before we landed and thai officials were waiting with his namecard as we deplaned to give him his ticket. Funny thing phil customs never asked for his return ticket but intl carriers have to play by phil govt rules because they can be heavily fined.
And we all thought there were no rules in the phils.

[Finrod]

No reason to boycott PAL. EVERY airline flying to the Phils will require you to show an onward ticket as a condition of getting the boarding pass. That is a hard and fast requirement by the Bureau of Immigration and the airlines can be fined and threatened with losing their landing rights for letting passengers through without it. Now it's possible that the immigration agent doesn't ask you to show your onward ticket, but the airlines don't know that so they're not going to go there. Period. For the airline, it's an easy choice between pissing you off and pissing off the BI.

The old hands know this. Newbies take note. Dr Slim, consider it a lesson learned.

[Frequent Flier]

One thing you all must remember or it can cost you money. If you are traveling usa/manila/usa and do your Bangkok trip within your longer trip, make sure you bring your "RETURN" ticket to the USA with you. I made the mistake of leaving my return ticket in a safe deposit box in my makati hotel and took a 4 day trip to Bangkok. Upon checkin at Bangkok Airport I was asked to show my outbound ticket from Philippines. As it was in my safe box I obviously could not show it. So PAL told me they would not issue me a borading pass. I was ready to explode. I told them that since they sold me my ticket, they can check their computer and print me up a duplicate. They refused. They told me to "buy" a ticket Manila/Hong Kong to show immigration and then get a refund later. In my 20 trips to the Philippines, no immigration officer ever asked me to see my outbound ticket but they insisted that it is the law. So I was forced to buy a useless ticket and then cashed it in with a $50. 00 penalty for cashing it in. Can you believe these motherfuckers? I can go on and on about this situation but it just seems to be part of the price I pay for mongering.

Boycott PAL as much as is possible as these people do not value your patronage and will gouge you any chance they get. Despite being a billion dollar, multi-national company, PAL is just a 3rd world, 3rd rate company wrapped up in shiny glitter.

Dr Slim,

This has always been the case for me when flying to the Philippines from either the USA, Hong Kong or Korea on as many as 6 different air lines. In the past you may have been purchasing a round trip ticket and therefore they did not ask you this question. Had you purchased a one way ticket to the PI before this situation? If so I would find that odd based on my experience.

FF

[Dr Slim]

I just flew manila/Bangkok/manila for $280. 00 round trip on PAL. I flew 1st week of August. I don't know what you guys consider budget, but that seemed pretty cheap to me. I purchased that ticket online at the PAL web-site.

One thing you all must remember or it can cost you money. If you are traveling usa/manila/usa and do your Bangkok trip within your longer trip, make sure you bring your "RETURN" ticket to the USA with you. I made the mistake of leaving my return ticket in a safe deposit box in my makati hotel and took a 4 day trip to Bangkok. Upon checkin at Bangkok Airport I was asked to show my outbound ticket from Philippines. As it was in my safe box I obviously could not show it. So PAL told me they would not issue me a borading pass. I was ready to explode. I told them that since they sold me my ticket, they can check their computer and print me up a duplicate. They refused. They told me to "buy" a ticket Manila/Hong Kong to show immigration and then get a refund later. In my 20 trips to the Philippines, no immigration officer ever asked me to see my outbound ticket but they insisted that it is the law. So I was forced to buy a useless ticket and then cashed it in with a $50. 00 penalty for cashing it in. Can you believe these motherfuckers? I can go on and on about this situation but it just seems to be part of the price I pay for mongering.

Boycott PAL as much as is possible as these people do not value your patronage and will gouge you any chance they get. Despite being a billion dollar, multi-national company, PAL is just a 3rd world, 3rd rate company wrapped up in shiny glitter.

[Csun213]

There are no direct Flights by Budget Carriers TO BKK,though you can use Air Asia from Manila-Clark-KL-BKK or Tiger Manila(Clark) to Sing then to BKK.Cheers

Thanks for your fast response and information.