Remember last time I said my Philippine Airlines flights are always either
excellent or total disasters, well you’re in for a treat today because this one was
the complete disaster. So without further ado, let’s get into it. Welcome to Manila.
If you’d like to know the exact fare that I paid or my next five videos in queue, please check
out the description below and if you’re new here, hi there and welcome, my name is Kevin.
You’ve found yourself on a channel that takes unbiased travel content seriously. I
make airline trip reports, high end hotel reviews and cruise ship tours as well.
I always film without the company’s knowledge to be sure I get a true
experience and give you nothing more than my honest unbiased opinion.
I just arrived from Kuala Lumpur after a truly fantastic three and a half hour flight,
now getting ready for the dreaded Manila transit experience. The dreaded part really only applies
if your connecting flight is going to leave from Terminal 1 instead of 2 or vise versa. Airside,
flying business class, it’s taken me over two hours to get from one to the other before.
But luckily today, I don’t need to enter the transit lounge at all since both flights are in
Terminal 2, which you can see the inside of now. Keep in mind if transiting here to a flight to
Australia, Canada or the US, if you have checked in baggage you need to
wait in the transit area for it to come up and then watch them scan it. Good times.
Terminal 2 is Philippine Airlines, or PRs,
home here in Manila and this is where they have their single international lounge.
Located smack in the center, where the international and domestic
part of the terminal meet, the lounge is fine. Actually, it has improved quite a bit since I
was here last just a few months before Covid. It is still the same design, but some details
like the functionality of the outlets, or the condition of the furniture, etc- all of
that has improved and there was quite a diverse selection of food on offer.
By the way, in case you didn’t realize this flight is not going to be the most
positive review on earth, something I don’t enjoy
doing. If you’d like to see some of my favorite flights, hotels or resorts,
including another Philippine Airlines flight, please check out the playlist linked above.
The lounge does have a small bar, but it’s not exactly a spot you’re
going to pull up a barstool to. Alright, let’s head to the gate.
I’m on this flight today because of a great deal that I got on this itinerary to Sydney-
a great deal that continues to this day, by the way, especially from Southeast Asia
to Australia which has four of PRs current 48 destinations spread across 17 countries.
That only paints half the picture though as over the years PR has terminated more routes,
70 of them, than they currently have- and that is not counting
the ones that have been transferred to their regional subsidiary, PAL Express.
Why do I say this? Well, it is this pattern of highs and lows, growth and retraction,
big talk and limited action that I believe lead to my experience today and frankly,
it paints a detailed picture of why Skytrax ratings only hurt an airline like PR.
As we navigate this chaotic gate and go through a third security check, allow me to explain.
PR was on a high in 2018. They began receiving their new A350s, six of them. They started this
huge campaign talking about how they were reinventing themselves. They were going to
start lie flat A321, reconfigure their A330s to match the new A350s. On the New York routes
they had menus from Wolfgang Puck, I had it a few times, it was seriously some of the best food I’ve
had in the air. All of this was happening at the same time they received a Skytrax 4-Star rating.
Now I know what you’re thinking, Skytrax is a club that you pay for access to. It’s all a sham,
etc. etc. etc. Yes, I know and I fully agree, but not everyone knows.
So PR kind of owned the aviation newscycle for quite a while in 2018.
They were raising their own bar, pretty high, and people were responding well. Then it all stopped.
As we board let’s look at our stats for tonight. It’s just under an 8 hour flight
which got underway around 45 minutes late but landed just about on time.
As I stepped on board, I was greeted by quite a few flight attendants,
the purser not being one of them- I’ll explain that later- and I was escorted to my seat,
passing through a few rows of premium economy on the way to the small business class cabin forward.
By all means, this is a solid product for an A330. Besides perhaps Apex Suites,
there aren’t many seats out there that could be better on this type of aircraft.
A single cabin with five rows, there are 18 business class seats and tonight we would be
flying full and I’d be in 4A, one of the true window window seats in this
staggered configuration. This is a seat that on paper gives great measurements,
but in reality the whole lower portion of your body will slide into a pretty tight area.
Anyone that is tall or doesn’t sleep well on their backs will likely have trouble getting sleep.
Here you can see the aisle side of the window seats.
The seats have absolutely everything you’d need. A nice bright and clear in flight entertainment
screen. Plenty of storage, a universal outlet, a USB port and a reading lamp.
Waiting at the seat was a pillow, blanket, slippers, an amenity kit and head phones.
I’m not exactly sure when this aircraft was refurbished but I’ll
give them credit for a very well maintained cabin.
So, visions of New York steakhouses faded pretty quickly and well before Covid,
it was clear that costs were being cut already to their program. The penny pinching just continued
and then Covid was the almost final nail in the coffin. During Covid, PR shed part of it’s fleet,
selling four of their six A350s to Lufthansa and retiring some other older aircraft-
while all of this was going on, they continued to rest heavily on that four star Skytrax rating,
which brings me to my point. All too often- perhaps except for the handful of truly amazing
airlines out there, these BS ratings become headlines, then ad campaigns and then excuses.
I’ve seen too many times, especially when achieving 4-star status,
airline egos get inflated and standards quickly drop.
It’s lots of talk, lots of capital and little follow up or preparation for future growth.
Let me be clear, I love visiting the Philippines. When it’s good, I love flying PR, but they’ve
just got to get their priorities in line. On this flight, you’re going to see what I mean.
Hot towels and bottles of water were passed around, though there
was no true pre flight drink service.
The safety video began and we pushed back.
Then this light started to define this flight for me. It would not stop turning on for the
duration of the flight. As we taxied to the runway, you can see it here turning
on multiple times in the reflection. After a while, i got quicker at turning it off.
We held just short of the runway for a good 20 minutes and finally got our
slot for take off. The spool up and take off are coming up now.
Let’s quickly look at the comfort items on board. The pillow is a nice size and is pleasantly firm
The blanket, taking it’s cues from a few carriers in the middle east also did the job quite well.
The amenity kit is Furla branded but with Acca Kappa products inside.
Here’s the in flight entertainment. Those of you that know me know that
the moving map is literally the only thing I care about on flights. It wasn’t working.
As for movies on offer, there’s an average selection available, though the screen
really is one of the better ones out there at the moment. Over an hour later, still no moving map.
No problem though, I’ll just use the wifi and see the map there. Here’s how to login.
Oh that’s right, the wifi wasn’t working either.
There wasn’t even a network to find. Keep in mind, throughout this time,
the light above my head continues to turn on randomly. For the map and the light I
asked the flight attendant and she assured me it would stop and the map would work.
In the mean time, dinner was being prepared. Here’s the full menu, please note the red
prices are my addition to the graphic to give you an idea of the wine value on offer.
I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think I’ve ever used the word vile to describe any food in one
of my videos, until today. Unless you have a penchant for really cheap truffle oil and room
temperature pungent tuna, then you might like this dish. Considering the dressing
on the salad I had on my previous flight was so good, It was hard to believe how bad this was and
how poorly handled the near raw tuna tataki is. I know tataki is meant to be near raw,
but nothing near raw is meant to be warm. Next up was one I was actually happy for,
the Chicken Adobo. How they were able to screw this up, I have no idea. Do you remember
from like 30 years ago the junk drawer that everyone had full of rubber bands from the mail
man? Take all of those rubberbands and fuse them together- now you know how this chicken was.
The flavor was okay but the texture was almost other worldly. And the rice.
My god how do you screw up the rice so bad. It was like cheap minute rice that had been
cooked and then dehydrated, again. For dessert, a mango crepe and
ice cream. I do believe my crepe was crepeless. But at least it tasted good.
The bathrooms were kept very clean throughout, but my trips there were what made me conclude the
purser on tonights flight truly was the laziest I’ve ever seen. I don’t use that word lightly
at all. I understand flight crew have difficult jobs and what might look like not working hard to
us might be a different case in reality. So now the cabin is dark. I wanted to get
some sleep. The bed is fully flat but that light keeps turning on. I asked the flight
attendant about it again. The purser then came over, touched the light button and walked away
as I was talking to her. That was the only time I actually saw her not sitting in the galley.
So they cut the power to my seat completely. Which meant no IFE, no power outlets and no moving seat.
I got up to goto the bathroom to film the shot I showed you already and was told to sit down
because the single bathroom for the cabin was occupied. I just went on the other side of the
curtain. The flight attendant and the purser were talking about my seat, my flight attendant for the
most part was pleasant and seemed genuinely sorry about the problem with the light and was trying
to troubleshoot the problem and asked the purser something along the lines of, “what if we tried…”
the purser cut her off and said, “just forget it.” Perfect timing for the bathroom to free up and
me to walk into the galley, the crew packing up from dinner, the purser sat with a cup of coffee.
Somehow in the process my headrest also got jammed in this forward position.
Ok, time for breakfast. Those plain rolls were good, similar to hawaiian rolls, but I
can't remember the last time I saw a business meal service wish such a limited basic supply of bread.
Choices were an ube waffle or a cold cuts and cheese plate. My thought was precisely “how could
they get that wrong” so I went with the cold cuts. Did you know ham could taste gamey?
I certainly didn’t. And the chicken was that super artificially juicy kind.
I ate the tomatoes and had some coffee.
If ever there was a saving grace for this flight, it was certainly the view coming into land,
the opera house and harbor bridge on the far left of your screen.
It really does amaze me how beautiful this city is each time I come here.
Sydney has quite the collection of aircraft at any given moment too.
We pulled into our gate after an extended but beautiful taxi and that is that.
A seat that wouldn’t work, food that ranged from edible to vile, a sour Purser, a chaotic
gate. I mean, there really is no redeeming factor in this flight today. As they would,
Philippine Airlines just recently announced they’re ordering new A350s, the -1000s this
time and they’re going to introduce yet another new business class product to them. I really do
hope next time around their execution and planning are as good as their advertising and intention.
I hope you enjoyed this video today, if you did, please be sure to click that thumbs up button and
subscribe with notifications on so you don’t miss any of my three times weekly content. I’ll see you
next time from the incredible Marriott Momi Bay in Fiji. Oh and thanks for watching until the end.