Review of Philippine Airlines flight Kuala Lumpur → Manila in Business

We live in Iceland and we went to Australia for the end of the year holidays to see relatives who live there – we haven’t been there for five years. And as Australia is quite far from Iceland – the distance between Keflavík and Melbourne would be 16,960 kms if there was a direct flight – I went to a few places in Asia before and after Australia.

I booked the following flights:
Keflavík to London, Icelandair, business class, B737
London to Abu Dhabi, Etihad, business class, A380
Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, Etihad by Wamos, business class, A330
Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur, Air Asia, economy, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Manila, Philippine Airlines, business class, A321
Manilla to Sydney, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Canberra to Melbourne, Qantas, economy, B717
Melbourne to Hobart, Virgin Australia, economy, B737
Hobart to Melbourne, Jetstar, economy, A320
Melbourne to Manilla, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Manilla to Kuala Lumpur, Philippine Airlines, business class, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, Malaysia Airlines, business class, B737,
Bangkok to Hongkong, Emirates, first class, A380
Hongkong to Manila, Air Asia Philippines, economy, A320
Manila to Panglao, Cebu Pacific, economy, A321
Cebu to Singapore, Singapore Airlines, business class, A350
Singapore to London, Singapore Airlines, business class, A380
London to Keflavík, British Airways, business class, A320

Philippine Airlines offered the lowest price from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney in business class for about half of the price of its competitors such as Malaysia Airlines or Singapore Airlines.

We stayed at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur, an excellent hotel at a very competitive price located at KL Sentral (Kuala Lumpur’s central railway station) with a direct KLIA Ekspress train link. This train gets you to the airport in only 28 minutes over a distance of 55 kms. A one-way ticket costs MYR 55 (about US$ 12). The same route would take about one hour by taxi and would cost around MYR 180 (US$ 39).

Kuala Lumpur International Airport – usually called KLIA in Malaysia – has two terminals. Terminal 1 is the main one and Terminal 2 (formerly KLIA 2) is mostly for the low-cost airlines. Philippine Airlines use Terminal 1.

There was a queue at check-in for economy class passengers but we were checked in with no waiting time at the business class check-in.

Priority security is available for business and first class passengers – a very useful feature.

Priority passport control was also available.

Philippine Airlines use the Plaza Premium Lounge which is upstairs.

The lounge was designed to be luxurious with private rooms, massage rooms and showers but it's now just a cheap place with too many passengers, cost cutting catering and staff unable to keep it clean.

I took only a few photos of the seating areas as most seats were taken.

Showers are available.

The choice of food looks good at first glance but everything is low quality.

I had a noodle soup prepared on the spot. It was not very good but better than any other food I tried at the lounge.

It takes quite some time to get from the lounge to the gate area. You need to take a bus to Gates C.

This part of the terminal is also quite nice.

Some of the airlines that use KLIA:

On the way to our gate.

There was an additional security control at the gate.

Our plane seen from the gate: an A321-200, registration number RP-C9929, built in 2016.

Priority boarding was available for business class passengers.

The cabin crew welcomed all boarding passengers.

This A321 has three rows of business class seats in a 2+2 configuration with US Domestic first class type seats.

Legroom is good.

I would not say that the cabin was in poor condition but the seats and the fold-out tables were definitely worn. There was a USB charging port that was barely charging.

A welcome drink was offered: a choice of orange and pineapple or four seasons juice. We had two orange and pineapple juices.

The cabin crew was very friendly.

A hot towel was offer shortly after.

An expected flight time of three hours and 30 minutes was announced. We were also informed that we expected a 15 minutes delay at departure due to ATC restrictions.

Push-back was at 16.15 for a scheduled departure time of 15.45.

We could see some interesting planes during taxi such as this Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

Malindo Air is now called Batik Air. It’s a full service airline with a very affordable business class that I would like to try. Its domestic flights can be as cheap as 84 euros one-way in business class, and even their 5 hour and 40 minute flight to Delhi only costs 360 € in business class. 

US-Bangla is a Bangladeshi airline little known outside of Asia. It has a fleet of 20 B737-800, ATR 72 and Q400 aircrafts and offers 8 destinations in Bangladesh and 15 in other Asian countries. 

Ready for take-off.

Take-off was at 16.26 from runway 32R.

Drinks and meal orders were taken before take-off. Here’s the menu:

Nuts and drinks were served 40 minutes after take-off.

The appetizer, bread and dessert were served together on a tray.

Gambas Ajillo on Quinoa Salad. It was quite good.

Beef Koftas in Yogurt Dili Sauce
Served with fresh tomato and cucumber relish, French beans, and steamed basmati rice.
It was an OK meal.

Coffee cake.

Tea and coffee were offered after the meal service.

We still had another two hours left from the flight. There’s no screen or other in-flight entertainment so I spent the remaining time reading.

We arrived to Manilla at 19.55 and were at the gate at 20.02 for a scheduled arrival of 19.35.

I spotted this Kuwait Airlines plane at Manilla Airport. About 268,000 Philipinos live in Kuwait so there’s more than enough demand for a daily B777 flight.