A rough transit security line, invisible lounge signage, a shaky elevator, and Wi-Fi that won't work with laptops — Manila Airport's transit experience falls apart fast.
PAL… is not your pal.
"I wish I had the confidence that Philippine Airlines has, having little QR codes all over the lounge, asking guests for feedback"
@Ben
Another rookie mistake.
You assume someone is actually monitoring the feedbacks.
I’m guessing since you didn’t mention the food and drinks, it’s nothing to write home about?
I'll beat Ben to this.
Those should come in as a separate review.
This is just a delayed quick summary trip updates.
Stay tuned.
Welcome to the Philippines 😂
NAIA is horrible, but also customer service is virtually non-existent here.
Well no.... it's actually exactly the opposite of what you're saying... you can criticize the dated infrastructure, the long lines, or the tight layouts all day long - fine - but there’s a reason the global CX and BPO market relies on the Philippines for over 40% of the entire world's customer support, 1.9 million people and $40 billion in service exports. That doesn't happen in a country with "non-existent" service; it happens because Filipinos consistently rank among the highest globally for customer satisfaction, empathy, and service delivery metrics. Try again.
Look, I'm not going to pretend that transiting through Manila Terminal 1 is akin to spending an afternoon at Singapore Changi, because clearly it has its friction points. But calling the ground experience "laughably bad" over a single busy transit security queue and some loud boarding announcements is a bit dramatic, no?
The review is basically judging an entire flag carrier's hub operation by one transit during peak hour. It conveniently glosses over the fact that airport infrastructure and security checkpoints are under the control of the Manila airport authority rather than the airline itself. Expecting a carrier to magically rebuild T1’s terminal layout or tear down staircase walls on the spot is completely unrealistic.
And this is where I think the PAL bashing gets a little gregarious. PAL has been operating out of a severely constrained hub for decades and still manages to connect millions of international passengers across a massive global network. You dont have to love every single boarding announcement to acknowledge that ground staff making sure passengers actually catch their flights to Melbourne isn't a crime.
There’s also the matter of the Mabuhay Lounge itself. Sure, the laptop Wi-Fi quirk is frustrating, but it's a dedicated space providing hot food, seating, and full departure coordination in a terminal that is notoriously capacity-constrained. At least the feedback o the gate area was positive?
PAL isnt perfect. No airline operating out of MNL is. But there is a massive difference between pointing out that Terminal 1 needs modernization and framing the carrier's whole ground product as a failure because an elevator felt old or a sign wasn't big enough. Maybe the fair conclusion is simply that Manila Airport needs infrastructure upgrades. Thats a much more reasonable take than blaming the airline for things well outside its control.
This is the second time you have used the word gregarious (which means talkative) incorrectly. Please discontinue use of the word until further notice
Jim, I meant to write egregious, not gregarious.... autocorrect got the better of me there. Now that aside, the core argument still stands, which is of course taking a single under four hohr sector or peak-hour ground transit and turning the drama up to 11 to slam an entire carrier's reputation remains unfair !
"basically judging an entire flag carrier's hub operation by one transit"
First impressions matter.
And Ben actually did it before, he even said it. So does many other passengers.HE
I'm not sure any of what you said matters. When a consumer picks an airline, or when someone reads a review of an airline, what they care about is the experience of flying said airline (and for many that need to connect, the experience of connecting at the hub). Regardless of what excuse one finds for PAL (legitimate or not), the fact of the matter is the overall experience is poor and most absolutely should avoid it if they can.
You should cover the other terrible MNL situation, where they forced CX to close their MNL lounge because of the airport operators. Completely downgraded the experience.
Love the people who are some of the nicest in Asia, but as you pointed out, the country barely functions. I pray the situation improves for the people there one day.
Just think, if you took advantage of the status match, those lounge complaints could have been submitted by a Mahubay elite member!
Philippine airlines has some pretty attractive one stop fares getting to/from SE to E Asia. I’ve considered but never done one these reviews make me think I’ve been making the right choice