Philippine Airlines is working on transforming themselves into a better airline, and part of that includes overhauling their business class product. The airline is taking delivery of Airbus A350 aircraft, which they’re using to operate their longest flight.
The airline now flies the A350 nonstop to both New York JFK and Toronto, and the plane has a very nice fully flat staggered product in business class, which is a huge improvement over their old seats (which I reviewed on their 777, for example).
Anyway, the airline pretty frequently has attractive business class fares, and I figured a couple of them were worth highlighting.
Philippine Airlines has very cheap business class fares for travel from Taipei to North America. Availability is excellent through the end of the schedule (except for travel in the next month, as there seems to be a roughly one month advance purchase requirement).
The best fare is from Taipei to Toronto via Manila, which you can fly for 990USD in business class:
That’s pretty incredible, given that it includes the 15+ hour A350 flight from Manila to Toronto.
Fares to New York are only marginally more expensive, at 1,135USD:
While not quite as good, there are also reasonable fares from Singapore to Toronto, which you can fly for 1,487USD:
You can search for these fares in ITA or Google Flights, then book through an online travel agency like Priceline. If the specific dates I’ve linked to above sell out, Priceline has a “Flexible Dates” search that might be useful as well.
I figure this is useful not only for those originating in Asia who are looking for a cheap one-way premium cabin ticket to the US, though this could also be useful for anyone looking to return to North America from Vietnam. 😉
Unfortunately Philippine Airlines doesn’t belong to any of the major global alliances, so these tickets aren’t great for earning miles. In terms of crediting miles, wheretocredit.com notes that you can earn 125% redeemable miles with either ANA Mileage Club, Etihad Guest, or Philippine Mabuhay Club.
The Platinum Card® from American Express
American Express® Gold Card
If you do want to fly Philippine Airlines there are some options for redeeming miles, though in my opinion paying cash is a better deal. For example, Etihad Guest has distance based redemptions on Philippine Airlines, and a one-way flight of over 8,000 miles costs 155,556 miles one-way in business class, which is obscene.
Bottom line
While these fares won’t earn you valuable miles with many programs, these are some excellent business class fares to get you from Asia to the US. Some even allow a stopover in Manila, should that be of interest to you.
I’m planning to review Philippine Airlines soon, so would like to take advantage of one of these fares.
Anyone considering flying Philippine Airlines on a cheap business class fare out of Taipei?
(Tip of the hat to Phrantic)
I had the fortune of flying this fare, TPE to YYZ, about a month ago.
Summary:
Lounge in TPE is the China Airlines Dynasty lounge in T1 which was pretty good.
Flight to MNL on A321. Big recliners seats. No IFE but iPads distributed for streaming (limited selection but it was a short flight). Food was ok. Service pretty good. Flight was delayed by 3 hours cutting into out transfer time. I enjoyed the...
I had the fortune of flying this fare, TPE to YYZ, about a month ago.
Summary:
Lounge in TPE is the China Airlines Dynasty lounge in T1 which was pretty good.
Flight to MNL on A321. Big recliners seats. No IFE but iPads distributed for streaming (limited selection but it was a short flight). Food was ok. Service pretty good. Flight was delayed by 3 hours cutting into out transfer time. I enjoyed the short flight.
Transfer at MNL: pretty NOT good. Started ok. We rushed off the plane (because arrival was in NAIA T2 but YYZ takes off from T1. Went to transfer desk. Website says you have to clear immigration and pick up your bag for re-check but apparently not anymore. Transfer desk looked at our passports and kind of shrugged. So far so good and now no more rushing. Go to a sterile area, pass security (1st time), and get led to the transfer bus to T1. When arriving after about a 10 minute ride, we are led to a holding area and wait for about 30 minutes for someone to arrive, to allow us up an escalator. No real explanation. They actually block us from using the escalator while waiting. Finally someone shows, and just says we can go up. So weird. Then we go through T1 security ( I dont know why as we have not left airside but whatever). Finally in the main T1 area. It is very average, and there is not much signage. We have to flag someone down to tell us where our gate is (not on ticket) because the signage only shows gates 1-7, and we are somewhere from gates 8-16. No time for the lounge at this point, but that's ok since I heard it's pretty dreadful. Arrive at our gate and it is jammed with people. Plus we have to go through security a 3rd time. Yes, 3 times. We stand around for while and finally board.
Flight MNL-YYZ on A350. All is forgiven when we board. The J cabin is really nice. Service very friendly & genuine. Seats are comfortable but maybe a little tight in the footwell when sleeping. IFE has a good selection but not as varied as some bigger carriers. The food is tasty (western options are Wolfgang Puck inspired, but I had the Filipino menu). I managed to sleep almost 7 hours out of the 15hour flight. Really really good flight.
Arrival in Toronto. our checked bags did not come with us. They were apparently still in MNL.
Long story short: In flight excellent, ground experience in MNL not very good. Don't check a bag as this seems to happen often. The bag transfer is not automated as apparently your bag will come out on the carousel and a ground staff member will have to re-check it. As our arriving flight was late and we had a short transfer window, this process was blown. I will fly them again for sure but carry-on only!
Just a suggestion If you live in Asia you can book Philippine airline business class ticket tpe to yyz for 1450 round-trip through kayak I booked it for that super great price and I also played around with the dates and it's pretty consistent as far as price is concerned.
PAL is painting their 5th A350 in 1980s retro livery with the 'Love Bus' logo of their A300 since 1979. This is in celebration of their 40th anniversary of partnership with Airbus. I hope you'll catch it in your flight Lucky.
Thanks for the tip of the hat Lucky! The least I can do after the CX deal you made me aware of.
Matt.
@Robel You can do whatever you like...just make sure you allow enough time for potential delays of inbound flight to TPE... and to clear immigration and re-check bags if need be.
Am I allowed to do a positioning flight out of Taiwan? Arrive in Taipei a few hours before leaving?
Crediting to ANA is a good idea for their 88,000 miles round-trip business class ticket to Europe. You get about 11,500 miles for TPE-MNL-JFK trip.
Booked for $935 from TPE to JFK. Thanks!
I flere PAL on the maiden flight of this aircraft. Smelled like a new car and really really nice experience. A shame the service was only to Hong Kong for a weekend trip.
Usually I fly Singapore Airlines but PAL is getting there!
Dennis
7 hour + connection in MNL though.
Kayak has this for just $935 TPE-MNL-JFK. Example date of April 7th and many other dates.