Your Favorite Airline - Manila to Los Angeles

[OnMyWay]

On 10/19/2016 at 10:41 AM, OnMyWay said:

That hotel is outside the airport and/or outside the bonded transfer area?  My wife and older daughter can't leave the transfer area without getting a visa.  I'm not sure if we want to take that on.  Or, maybe it is simple to apply for a "transfer" visa.

In Singapore they could leave the airport without a visa so we booked a nice place just off the airport.  That worked out really well, especially since the transfer hotel in the airport was booked.

I would not mind at all to stay a day in Seoul and do a tour.  I have only been to the old airport and have never seen anything else in Korea.

I found out that Philippines passport holders can exit the airport if they are transiting to one of the visa waiver countries, but if you are on the way home, no can do.  So we might consider a short day tour in Seoul.

Visa exemptions are as follows:

If using Philippine Official and Diplomatic Passport.

If transiting only and going to the U.S., Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.  But must not stay beyond 30 days and with confirmed onward ticket to the 3rd country.

If the individual has been to Korea for four (4) times within the past two years with a C2 or C3 visa.  Or has been to Korea for more than ten (10) times already.

If Nationality is among the list of those exempted from securing a visa.  For information, or list of these nationalities, you may visit the website. 

http://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/en/info/popup/icis/VisaWaiver_pop.htm

for other visa information , you may also refer to this site:

 http://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/main_kr.pt

For further inquiries or clarifications regarding visa matters, you may contact us at 

Telephone Number +632 856-9210

[OnMyWay]

On 10/18/2016 at 8:55 PM, Tukaram (Tim) said:

I love Korean Air.  Great service, good in flight entertainment, and good food.  For the flight to the US it won't be important, but coming back they do have free showers at Incheon.  After 14.5 hours from DFW a shower is a good thing

I checked into Korean and actually you can fly from Clark with their partner Jin Air.  The Korean website would not show anything for our dates in May 17, so I plugged in mid January and mid-Feb, and the fare shown is double Asiana!  I'm sure they must have better fares than that but I don't know how to find them yet.

[OnMyWay]

Well, this sucks.  The past few days the lowest adult fare (in May) on Asiana, Clark to LAX, was $843.  Today it jumped to $909.  I wonder why that would happen for a flight 7 months away?

[Old55]

Our agent is close Filipina friend will ask her and PM details.

EVA Evergreen Deluxe is $1600!!!!!

I just found EVA has an exclusive in airport hotel for EVA passengers. Will share details when I know more 

[robert k]

7 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Well, this sucks.  The past few days the lowest adult fare (in May) on Asiana, Clark to LAX, was $843.  Today it jumped to $909.  I wonder why that would happen for a flight 7 months away?

Oil moved a centavo.

[Old55]

On October 20, 2016 at 2:04 AM, OnMyWay said:

That must be EVA regular economy, right?  Very cheap!  I think I remember you saying you have a travel agent?  Can they do bookings originating outside the U.S.?

Our agent can get your family tickets.

[OnMyWay]

17 minutes ago, Old55 said:

Our agent can get your family tickets.

PM the e-mail and I will check it out!  Thanks!

I think we decided Asiana out of Clark is going to be our best bet, after reviewing all the options including Manila.  Korean Air from Clark too, if the price is right.

All of the departure times in Manila are miserable for us.  EVA is 0400.  Asiana, Korean and other put us in the middle rush hours, making for a huge lead time to get from Subic to NAIA.  Asiana and Korean leave Clark at ~0100, so we leave Subic at 9-10 pm and we are there an hour later.

[OnMyWay]

On 10/21/2016 at 11:40 PM, OnMyWay said:

Well, this sucks.  The past few days the lowest adult fare (in May) on Asiana, Clark to LAX, was $843.  Today it jumped to $909.  I wonder why that would happen for a flight 7 months away?

I finally booked our flights a few days ago.  Asiana does not make it easy but by far they have the best fares, and we leave from Clark.  Their software bugs and/or fare algorithms make it very hard to book the lowest fare.

Through trial and error, I narrowed it down to this bug that was causing me issues.  If you put in 1 adult, you find the lowest fare on many dates.  2 adults or 2 seats, same.  3 seats, same.  When you add a 4th seat, adult or child, you don't get the lowest fare usually.  E.g., on the 4th seat, instead of $843 per adult, it jumps to $908 per adult.  

However, sometimes it would come up with the $843 fare on dates I wanted, and then disappear later.  Finally, this past Friday, the $843 came up on dates I wanted and I made it through the entire online booking process.  Total for all 5 of us, 3 adults, 1 child (75%) and 1 lap infant (10%) was a bit over $3300.

I hope I will survive the trip with the little ones!  They will be 1 and 3 when we leave.  What have I done!   However, I just remembered that AFTER our Auckland trip last year, our pediatrician said he can give us something to help keep the kids calm and rested.  I will have to find out more about what it is.

[intrepid]

51 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

However, sometimes it would come up with the $843 fare on dates I wanted, and then disappear later.  Finally, this past Friday, the $843 came up on dates I wanted and I made it through the entire online booking process.  Total for all 5 of us, 3 adults, 1 child (75%) and 1 lap infant (10%) was a bit over $3300.

I hope I will survive the trip with the little ones!  They will be 1 and 3 when we leave.  What have I done!   However, I just remembered that AFTER our Auckland trip last year, our pediatrician said he can give us something to help keep the kids calm and rested.  I will have to find out more about what it is.

Sounds like a great price to me.  Like many other things, children are a gamble when traveling 50/50.  Never know what will happen until you are into it.  Then all you can do is cope.  Be prepared, but hope to relax.  Good luck, well be thinking about this too.