United to Start Direct Los Angeles to Manila Flights

[GeoffH]

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

We had a huge hassle with Cebu Pacific NAIA terminal 3 last December but this last Wednesday no issues with Air Asia terminal 3.  No lines to speak of at immigration whereas in December that was the biggest issue.

Yes Immigration can be either very quick or very slow... but that's really outside of the control of the airlines.

As to Air Asia I found them to be reliable and (for a budget carrier) efficient but they don't have direct flights from Manila to Melbourne (or vice versa) they go via Kuala Lumpur and if I'm going to have 2 flights I'd prefer to break at Changi than KL so I tend to use Scoot if I'm not flying direct.

I'm a little nervous about using Cebu Pacific to take a later international flight but not having to change terminals at NAIA was too tempting haha (and I should have plenty of time at NAIA).

[OnMyWay]

48 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

Yes Immigration can be either very quick or very slow... but that's really outside of the control of the airlines.

Just to be clear, it was outbound immigration that was the main issue.  Cebu Pacific had their own set of issues.  I think I made a post about that.

[JJReyes]

On 7/30/2023 at 3:58 PM, Mike J said:

We, actually the wife now, fly into Seattle and any flight from Manila to Seattle are have one stop in transit, so from Cebu would make it a two stopper plus the expense, travel time, hassle, etc. of the Cebu Manila flight.

Sometimes, if you are traveling on the same carrier, such as Philippine Airlines, there is no separate domestic charge to make the international flight connection.  The quote from Manila to Honolulu might be the same as Cebu to Honolulu.

There are situations when adding one or more transit points is cheaper.  We have a cruise is three weeks that starts in San Pedro, Los Angeles and terminates in Brooklyn, New York.  For the return flight from New York to Los Angeles, non-stop direct were quoted at over $1,100 business class and less than $600 if you agree to at least one stop.  The reason is NY airport authorities are discouraging airlines from flying more than 1,000 domestic miles because it is not environmentally friendly.  Aircrafts flying transcontinental have to carry more fuel adding weight and burning more fuel taking off and flying across New York.  Another is to discourage airlines from using large aircrafts.  The landing fees are much higher which is passed on to passengers.  We will therefore fly to Indianapolis in a small plane and switch to a larger one for Los Angeles.