When I was booking this trip, I was thinking… should I choose the morning flight or the afternoon flight? Both have its pros and cons. If I choose the morning flight, I could arrive in Hong Kong earlier, but the premium economy seats are sold out. If I choose the afternoon flight, I will arrive in Hong Kong late, but I could ride in the premium economy class. In the end, I chose the premium economy class.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you go to the airport ahead of time. The traffic in Manila is terrible.
Ninoy Aquinio International Airport Terminal 2 is not like most airports. They do not allow people other than passengers in the check-in area. You will need to show your ticket and passport before you go inside the airport.
The airport has four terminals. Terminal 2 is used exclusively for Philippine Airlines.
The airport is very small compared to other airports like Hong Kong and Singapore. Cleanliness is average. We passed through immigration and security to go to the transit area. By the way, before I continue with the report, this is a warning for frequent travelers - check the stamp on your passport after immigration to avoid error. There was once when I checked my passport and the date was wrong. That could cause you trouble when you arrive to your destination's border. Below is the duty free area. The duty free area is very small. The goods there are very limited.
The restrooms at the airport are clean but limited. They are all congested on one side. There are 11 gates at the airport (international side). There are two restrooms between gate 1 and 4. Other than that, there are no more. If you are already at gate 11, you will need to walk to the far end to go to the restroom. Anyways, the airport is not that big…
Food at the airport is not that classy. There is no restaurant at the airport where you could sit and relax. All of them are just stalls and overpriced compared to the city. Unless you travel in business or invited to the Mabuhay Lounge, I strongly recommend you to eat first before going to the airport.
We boarded the plane at Gate 5. Below is the picture of seat 21A (premium economy class). It is a bulkead seat.
Not bad…
They even gave me a welcome drink!
Below is a picture of Terminal 2.
The plane took off 30 minutes ahead of schedule but still landed on time. It was a good thing that the flight was not that turbulent since there was a typhoon in the country.
Taking off using runway 06, you can see the tall buildings of BGC and Makati.
After reaching cruising altitude, food was served.
After the food service, I went to the back to take a picture of the cabin of premium economy class. There are only very limited seats on premium economy.
I also took a picture of the economy class (which I took back to Manila).
I took a shuteye for about half an hour. When I woke up, I realized that we were starting to descend. I found out that there is free wifi for 30 minutes or until you use up 15mb.
We were told by the Captain that we were to fly 15 more minutes due to the heavy air traffic. We did two 360 degree turns before we had our initial approach. Saw this on our final approach. This is the Hong Kong - Macau - Zhuhai Bridge - the longest "cross-water" bridge.
AT LAST! Landed at HKG!
Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is one of my favorite airports because whenever I go there, the airport never disappoints me with its efficiency. This time, I don't know why but this is the first time I waited for my luggage for so long at this airport. Immigration was fast but when I got to the baggage claiming area, I really got disappointed. Other than that, everything went well. HKIA still will be one of my favorite airports.
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Verdict
Philippine Airlines
9.6/10
Cabin10.0
Cabin crew10.0
Entertainment/wifi9.5
Meal/catering9.0
Manila - MNL
6.3/10
Efficiency6.0
Access5.0
Services5.0
Cleanliness9.0
Hong Kong - HKG
9.3/10
Efficiency8.0
Access10.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness10.0
Conclusion
Airline: Philippine Airlines improved a lot through the years. Its IFE, seats, cabin, everything improved. I hope the next thing Philippine Airlines will improve are the small aircrafts like the A320 family. The cabin crew of this airline are very friendly, kind, and accommodating. IFE improved a lot but I wish there will be a bit more choices.
MNL: I hope they will add restrooms so they won't be congested only at one area. The internet in this airport is really slow. There should be more food options and a comfortable ambiance for the restaurants/stalls for the benefit of the people who are not travelling in business or are not invited to the lounge.
HKG: Only one thing: I just got disappointed on the baggage. Other than that, no complaint. Immigration officers are very efficient. Very fast immigration even though the lines are very long.
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Strange. They don't use trays for the meal service, only table cloth. But in business and economy they do. On flights to Australia, they do use trays for premium economy but using metal cutleries and napkin. That's the only difference from economy. If they want to become 5-star, they still have a lot of work to do. They don't even offer lounge access for premium economy, not even a glass of sparkling wine as welcome drink, compared to ANA and EVA. But that is understandable since the Mabuhay international lounge at T2 is very small. But a new international lounge is being constructed. In the future, they might want to send premium economy passengers to the old lounge while business class passengers be sent to the soon-to-open lounge. Including their outstation contract lounges. As a premium economy passenger I wouldn't want to sit in the departure area together with economy passengers enduring the tropical heat. Not so 'premium' to me. Today's premium economy service among the best airlines is now akin to a 'business class lite' service.
Agreed on everything about the terminal 2 in Manila. Manila has the worst airport out of all the airports I've flown to in Asia. Thanks for the review of PE on PAL. It looks pretty nice.
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