Philippine Airlines - A Small Rant!

[bastonjock]

1 hour ago, stevewool said:

Just trying to book ours for Venice it’s taken me a couple of weeks to get the flights ,accomadation plus car hire as we are driving to Austria, and yes I am nearly there well sort of.

Steve , take a look at Jacks flight club

They get amaizing deals for flights

Back on the subject  , i preferr to use PAL because of the journey times i can get to davao in 19 hours , as im still working the flight times are excellent, i get the 22.30 flight from london which means i can leave after a days work , get to heathrow on the 13 hour flight i can sleep for about 8 hours , so i stay awake for the first 4 then sleep. 

I could have got the flight to davao about 100 quid chraper through singapore but they do a 16 days later return , im maxed at a 14 day return 

[OnMyWay]

BTW, PAL, the subject of my rant , extended the 78th anniversary sale for another week until the 17th.

All the base fares end in 78.  The Manila - Auckland base was $578 + other stuff = $694.  You won't find the best fares on busy dates, so you have to hunt the dates a bit.  We are leaving on the 12th of Dec and returning on Jan 7th.  That was the closest to Xmas that we could find the low fare, but other dates were just a bit higher, like +30.

Edited March 11, 2019 by OnMyWay

[OnMyWay]

Rant continuation... part 3...

In my last post, I described the PAL booking problems for out Auckland flights this coming December..

Our flight is 4 months away and the problems are ongoing!

We made our bookings just before they did a major system upgrade.  We never received a PDF attachment of the bookings by e-mail, only a receipt.  We needed a PDF version for our NZ visa applications.  So I try to go into our bookings on the website and it tells me "Bookings made before March 24th, 2019, are not accessible online.  Please call or visit a PAL office".  So everything I need to do with the booking has to done by phone or visit.  No online check-in, etc.

I get frustrated if I call them (or other airlines) to try and get something done.  I prefer to do it in person.  I had to go to their Clark office to get my wife's name changed on the booking.  $25 and our marriage certificate to get it done.  No issues there and they are nice there.  The next day I realized we did not have the PDFs, so I emailed the Clark office and asked if they could send them.  And they did.  No problem.

Before that time, I had gotten a few e-mails, automated, I assume.  "Your flight time has changed.  Old departure time 0710, new departure time 0655".  And then within a day, I would get another e-mail, same format, changing the time back to the original!  This has happened 3 or 4 time in the last 3 or 4 months!

It is this last set of e-mails that is the problem, for our return flight, AKL-MNL.  First, I get an e-mail, "Your flight number has changed from 219 to 1219".  This has me worried right away as a 4 digit flight number is usually a codeshare.  Then I got another e-mail "Your seat # has change for flight 1219, from 53D to 38D".  WTF!  Nothing about my family on the same booking, and I paid for choosing our seats.  Then another mail say flight number 1219 is changed to 219.  My BIL also got the same mails and was changed to 40 E.  The seating is 2-4-2 and we had chosen to sit in six seats in row 53 for good reason. 

I thought maybe they cancelled the flight and we would now be on another carrier.  I tried to make a test booking and there were no flights showing on that date!  In fact, while it still showed flights to AKL 3 days a week, for AKL-MNL, it only showed a Friday flight.  So I sent another mail to the Clark desk.  No reply and it has been about a week.

So I go into the booking system again today.  Now it shows the AKL-MNL as 3 days a week again, and the flight number is 219.  But they have totally screwed up the seats that I paid extra to book.    Look at the picture below.  We were in the 6 seats in row 53.  The entire area is open.  They moved me and my BIL in row 39/40.  My family, who knows?  They could be in any of those grey boxes.  

I'm going to Clark again this next Wednesday and will visit the office again to get this sorted.  What a joke!

 

 

 

[LUFCinMakati]

I'm not a fan, even in business the food is terrible, save for one time BKK to MNL, the rest of the time it was terrible. 

[Mike J]

2 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I'm going to Clark again this next Wednesday and will visit the office again to get this sorted.  What a joke!

You might have to change your forum name to "MaybeOnMyWay"  

[OnMyWay]

7 minutes ago, Mike J said:

You might have to change your forum name to "MaybeOnMyWay"  

I already have travel insurance for the trip.  I wonder if they will honor a claim for "can't fly due mental illness caused by idiots at PAL"?

[Dave Hounddriver]

Oh I sincerely hope its not that bad for me.  Philippine Airlines have a deal with Air Canada so my flight to Canada is a combo of P. A. and A.C. and both have been known to mess it up.  But its cheap and fast . .  . and so am I  . . so its the way to go for me.

If it screws up on me I will come back to this thread and allow an "I toldja so"

[GeoffH]

I have had an issue with Philippine Airlines 2 of the 3 return trips between Australia and the Philippines, seat reservations gone missing, change of flight time causing extra long wait at the terminal and sundry and persistent web site issues.

Cebu Pacific have been less trouble on the 3 return trips I've done with them, only small delays flying out if Manila which is to be expected.

Scoot and Air Asia were ok but the stop at Singapore and Kuala Lumpur makes for a really long trip.

I'm pretty much a Cebu Pacific customer now.

[Old55]

I sure hope it all works out well Don. Can only imagine how frustrating this would be.

[OnMyWay]

9 minutes ago, Old55 said:

I sure hope it all works out well Don. Can only imagine how frustrating this would be.

I'm sure I will get the current issues sorted!  I just hope more don't come up!