Review of my Philippine airlines Manila <->London flight.

Mrs gorilla flew Philippine airlines this week said it was ok but had to ask staff for simple things like a coffee or a water. But it was over a thousand pounds cheaper than Emirates buisness class so I'm one happy monkey

What is the best way to get the flight with PAL, pls? Do I have to book it or can Andrew book from UK? On line or travel agent here?

Welcome to the forum. I am guessing you are @Methersgate other half. Congratulations on your visa finally being granted.

I booked the PAL single tickets (Manila to London) that my wife and her kids needed, from the website, whilst I was in the UK - and I used a UK card to do it. However, I was travelling with them.

Sometimes they are a bit funny about the cardholder needing to travel with the booking.

If Andrew isn't flying with you, you might want to consider booking and paying for it using your card yourself if that's a possibility. I don't know whether the carrier would make a fuss if the cardholder wasn't flying.

It is cheaper to book from the UK. Andrew can use Skyscanner.net which trawls several agencies for the cheapest provider and you tick the checkbox to opt just for PAL flights on the Skyscanner website. @ChoiAndJohn made the mistake of booking via The Philippines and paid well over the odds for flights.

No. I booked in the UK. Not the Philippines site. I think what @Howerd means is that I booked direct with the airline.

I just transferred some money to the wife's account and she did the rest, at least that way you will not encounter any problems.

As @ChoiAndJohn has stated if someone pays for your flight using their credit card the airline may ask to see the card at check in, I'm guessing it is some form of fraud protection.

This has happened to me personally on one occasion but it is a long time ago and I cannot remember the circumstances.

Easier if you book and pay from your account or cash. But if you opt to have your fiancé book and pay in the UK,just to be safe, I suggest he writes a letter (with photo or scanned copy of the credit card used) stating that he is your fiancé and the photo shown is his card and was used to book your flight, etc. . Plus signature. No need to post, just scan and send thru mobile or email.

You could compare flights online to check as prices may vary. Ingat

Check with the airline you're considering flying with, ask about ticket payments using someone else's overseas credit card.

Using cash out of your own account will be the stress free way of doing it as Dave and Aisa stated in his post above.

Why am I thinking that a ticket must be bought in the Philippines?

It's not the mechanics of using the card - K has a card on my account which either of us can use on line to book -its that I have at the back of my mind some regulation about the tickets having to have been bought in the Philippines. Or am I dreaming?

I flew on December 6 2016 to Manila and return on January 15th 2017 and I have to concur with you on the hard seats, but not on the boarding process.

The seats were very very uncomfortable to the point that I had to walk a number of times on flight to Manila, coming back I bought a neck cushion and sat on that, but that too was uncomfortable.

The fight attendants suggested that the airline will change the planes to Boeing 747s later in the year.

The flight crew were very nice, but potentially they have lost a customer.

I suppose things are going to be a bit more comfy anyway for those who are a foot or more shorter than myself.

With small bellies and bums you mean.......
Can't help thinking that they wanted to cram as many people into the plane as possible

No they won't! They've got rid of them all bar the one that's used for air cargo between Manila, Cebu and Davao. The Manila-London recommenced using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft but switched to A340s after about 9 months and switched them to new, more profitable routes to Australia and the US. PAL has ditched its plans to fly Manila-Madrid and Manila-Frankfurt and is likely to stop flying to London - it simply isn't economic due to low load factors and stiff competition from Emirates, Qatar and KLM, all of whom fly to Europe faster, cheaper and in greater comfort.

Emirates killed my ears with the sound of their engines last time I flew in 2006, after that I flew twice on Singapore Airlines - I invested last year in a pair of Bose noise reduction headphones and they did the trick.

I flew Etihad in November to Abu Dhabi and would fly this to Manila.

What's Air Oman like?

Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, all three are amongst the best in the world, Oman Air, I've only flown them once from Dubai to Muscat (around one hour flight time) so I cannot comment on what they are like long haul.

I would stick with the three airlines you mentioned to be honest, I do not believe you will find much better.

Sit ahead of the engines if you want a quieter ride.