Philippine Airlines

Pros: Food, service; clean, neat planes; up-to-date in-flight movies; excellent seats/legroom; smooth landings; Mabuhay lounge.
Cons: Sometimes late (due to small fleet?); no presence in Europe, nor in US east coast.

Why PAL? Since embarking on my annual visit to the crazy, exciting, troubled, colourful and much-missed motherland last year, I chose to take the Philippines’ national carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL), once more for this year’s trip. This, ...

Pros: Service, cheap compared to other airlines, souvenirs, food, only direct flight to the Philippines
Cons: Frequent delays, not much entertainment given

N.B.: These are thoughts from an Economy class passenger.

Being a quarter Filipino (person from the Philippines) and having travelled there on different flights throughout the last 5 years, I have to say that Philippine Airlines...

Pros: Good airplane food.
Cons: Ridiculously bad service, rickety aircraft.

I lived in the Philippines for years, and I've flown PAL several times on international flights. I've been fortunate enough to have good experiences in the past. Sure, there was the one time my flight, after a day's wait, was cancelled due to...

Pros: Great ground and inflight service, New aircraft, truly distinct filipino touches
Cons: small international network, lack of connections, innovation in Business Class offering

Two words summarize my experience with Philippine Airlines. Surprisingly exceptional. I must say I had my hesitations when making my PAL reservations, knowing full well that SIA, JAL or CX was a readily available option. As this was my first trip to...

Pros: Attentive flight attendants
Cons: Airline personnel not informative regarding delays, mediocre inflight food service

The ticket agent at check-in was very friendly and made sure that I was aware that I had an invitation to the Mabuhay Lounge. He was very efficient. I received my boarding pass promptly. Since PR was using a 747-400 for this 349-mile journey, I asked...

Pros: A much improved business class service at half the price of competing carriers.
Cons: Check-in and security is still drudgery. Agents could be more pleasant to counteract this.

BIG IMPROVEMENT Apparently, Philippine Airlines has been working hard improving itself. An early December round-trip Mabuhay (business) Class from Los Angeles to Manila (and onward to Kalibo for a Boracay Island transfer) was actually a better trip than ...

Pros: Uniquely Filipino, cheap, direct flights.
Cons: Schedules, frequency of flights.

One of the many things I have realized about traveling to the Philippines is the feeling I receive when entering a plane. This may not make sense to non-Filipinos, but I actually have this emotional excitement upon enter PAL. I feel as if I've enter the ...

Pros: I could not find a single good thing.
Cons: Philippine Airlines:  syn. faulty, malfunction, trash can, rubbish, good for nothing airliner.

Pardon the title, but I could not resist not writing a little something about this airline.  I feel obligated to inform all those who are trying to get a bit of information prior to purchasing ticket under this carrier.  Well here's the ordeal ...

Pros: Non-stop flight Experienced pilots
Cons: Late departure (to and from) Poor service Cramped airplanes

My wife and I had the opportunity to take a business trip to Manila on May 23, 2005. Our tickets were booked through Philippine Airlines. We were skeptical when we found out our employer had booked through PAL but after reading some recent reviews had ...

Pros: Unfortunately none
Cons: very rude staff, delays galore, old plane

Philippine Air return trip from Vancouver to Las Vegas. Horrible experience all around. First of all the flight to Las Vegas was delayed by two hours. Then it was delayed an additional 2 hours. Calling in to Philippines customer service I was told the ...

Pros: Philippine Airlines is unreliable.
Cons: The staff are incompetent and discriminate passengers. They would deny boarding you without valid reason

This is regarding my bad experience with Philippine Airlines concerning my supposed trip to Costa Rica.

I have planned for my trip to Costa Rica as early as August to visit my fiance. I've checked with the different travel agencies to get a...

Pros: New aircraft, Tasty meals, Smiling and attentive flight crew, Generous legroom
Cons: Limited network.

Travelling PAL for transpacific routes from the Philippines to the U.S. West Coast last November was a pleasant surprise.
What a vast improvement they have made on practically all aspects of the flight. Starting from new aircraft servicing the...

Pros: LOTS of food, toothbrushes, current movies, calm pilots, digital maps
Cons: cramped quarters if you're not in first or business class

Although I'd heard some worrisome stories about PAL, I found my experience to be a lot smoother than I expected.

I'd heard that PAL is always late. I'd heard that PAL has low safety standards. I'd heard a lot of things, but luckily they...

Pros: Pilots have good flying skills, reputedly.
Cons: Highly inefficient. Rude employees. Treats customers like baggage. Evil, clueless management.

Travelling around 4 times a year to and from the Philippines, I flew Philippine Airlines thrice. 3 times, and all 3 times the plane was late. The first time it was 2 hours late, the second time it was 3 hours late. Being a Filipino, I decided to give...

Pros: Only direct flight to Manila
Cons: Poor service/Delays

I booked a flight from Honolulu to Manila via Philippine Airlines. I had chosen Philippine Air because it was the only Airline that offered a direct flight to Manila. Although the fare was slightly higher than other Airlines, I felt it was well worth the...