Founded in 1941, Philippine Airlines (PAL) holds the distinction of being Asia’s first commercial airline. Over the decades, it has evolved into the Philippines’ flag carrier, maintaining a prominent role in the nation’s aviation landscape. Today, PAL operates a mixed fleet of Airbus A321s, A330s, and Boeing 777s, serving a wide network of domestic routes and international destinations across Asia, North America, the Middle East, and Oceania, from its primary hub in Manila. Within Asia, the airline also consistently offers flights with very competitive pricing, undercutting many airlines, particularly on non-direct itineraries.

Booking Philippine Airlines

For my journey, I booked a straightforward round-trip itinerary between Jakarta (CGK) and Shanghai Pudong (PVG), with a transit in Manila on both directions. Booking on PhilippineAirlines.com, I paid a fare of IDR 10,384,100 (~ USD 635, GBP 473). This was about half the price of other airlines, which is incredible if you ask me!

Check-in

Like most full-service carriers, Philippine Airlines flies from Terminal 3 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. As standard, I arrived at the airport three hours before this 00.55 departure. While this may seem very early, it certainly does not hurt to do so, especially when flying on an unfamiliar airline.

Philippine Airlines check-in counters are located on Island C, with a dedicated counter for Business Class passengers. Despite arriving three hours early, I was surprised to find that the queue was already packed with passengers waiting to check in, at least for Economy Class. Although there were a few people in the Business Class line, it turned out they weren’t queuing to check in, merely adding to the sheer chaos of the situation.

As I got to the front of the line, I had to wait for about 10 minutes before I was assisted, as the person in front was arguing about checking in her daughter’s stroller to Melbourne. When I was finally assisted by the friendly agent, however, I was checked in promptly. My bags were tagged, and I was handed my boarding passes and lounge invitation within minutes.

Lounge

In Jakarta, Philippine Airlines uses the Garuda Indonesia Lounge for its Business Class passengers and top-tier frequent flyers. The lounge is a reasonably decent facility, offering sufficiently comfortable seating and mediocre food and drinks. Although it still lags behind the Saphire Plaza Premium Lounge, the Garuda Indonesia Lounge has undergone remarkable improvement in recent months. I have reviewed the Garuda Indonesia Lounge in a previous instalment, which you can read here.

Boarding

After spending just over an hour at the Garuda Indonesia Lounge, I decided to head to the gate several minutes shy of the 00.10 printed boarding time. There, I was surprised to see a beautiful Xiamen Air Boeing 787-8 waiting to push back instead of our slender Airbus A321. At that instant, I learnt two things: Xiamen Air flies widebodies to Jakarta during summer months, and our flight hasn’t yet arrived from Manila. Oh a delay, what a surprise (not).

Sure enough, a scrwany little Airbus A321 showed up five minutes past our boarding time. Specifically, operating our flight is RP-C9905, an Airbus A321-200 delivered new to Philippine Airlines in October 2013. Owing to the late arrival of the inbound aircraft, the ground staff announced that boarding would be delayed to 00.40. An inconvenience it may be, though not a major one at that!

Boarding shenanigans

As the boarding time inched closer, a throng of people started to swarm around the gate. As the ground staff desperately tried to divide them into queues, Business Class passengers were requested to wait to the side of these queues. By 00.37, passengers requiring special assistance were invited to board, followed by Business Class passengers and Mabuhay Miles Premium Elite members. While this should have been simple enough, there were a few non-priority passengers who barged through in an attempt to board first.

Unfortunately, I was stuck in an unmoving line when one of these passengers cut in front of me. When the gate agents questioned the lack of elite status on his boarding pass, he pressed on, claiming that it was already in the system. Although the gate agents initially challenged his bluff, they finally relented after seeing the growing queue behind us. Oh dear… When I finally got through, there was annoyingly another bottleneck before we entered the jetbridge, as the crew wasn’t done with their final preparations. This ended up being in my favour, however, as I managed to get back to the front to take several empty pictures of the cabin. Yay?

Philippine Airlines A321 cabin

Our flight today is operated by one of Philippine Airlines’ dated Airbus A321-200s, configured in a high-density, two-class layout with 199 seats in total. Business Class consists of 12 recliner seats arranged in a 2-2 configuration, set in a single forward cabin with three rows. Although there had been talks of retrofitting these planes with newer cabins, the plans have yet to materialise.

In Business Class, the seats are upholstered in beige leather, giving the cabin a warm, if old-fashioned, ambience that harks back several decades. Specifically, the cabin is equipped with Weber 7070 seats, an older model ordered in its most basic form during the airline’s San Miguel ownership era. Apart from the bulkhead seats, the seats feature a pitch of 37 inches, which is slightly less generous than most airlines in the region.

As such, if you’re on the taller side, I’d definitely recommend choosing a bulkhead seat. Standing at 180 cm (5’11), there was about 45 cm (17.7 inches) between my knees and the bulkhead – certainly roomier than the non-bulkhead seats. At the very least, I do appreciate that the cabin is equipped with personal overhead air vents.

Upon boarding, waiting on each seat is a pillow and a large woven blanket, akin to those you’d find in Business Class on other airlines like Garuda Indonesia or Malaysia Airlines. Although the former isn’t very large, it is good enough for regional flights like these. Interestingly, the blanket wrapped in a paper belt instead of a plastic cover.

Seat details

Like any recliner Business Class seats, the tray table can be pulled out of the side armrest. The table can be folded and swivelled out, in case you want to leave your seat during meal service. On top of that, despite being folded, I found the table to be very sturdy. On the same armrest, you’ll also find the recline mechanism for the seat.

Furthermore, I’ll note that there is a flat surface on the centre armrest that can be used to place your glasses or mobile phone; a small cocktail tables can be pulled out of here, as well. Additionally, the centre armrest is also where you’ll find the in-seat USB-A port, as well as a pair of universal power outlets.

I’ll add that the seat padding is very good, although I found its default position to be too upright; this certainly made it uncomfortable for lounging during taxi, takeoff, and landing. Finally, I’ll note that these seats are neither equipped with footrests nor inflight entertainment screens, making these seats as basic as you’d get on an Asian carrier.

Departure from Jakarta

When I settled in my seat, Sophia introduced herself and welcome me on board. This was followed by Marlon coming over to offer a welcome drink of orange juice, passionfruit juice, currant juice, or water. I selected the great-tasting passionfruit juice, which was served with a hot towel on a plastic plate. Concurrently, Philippine Airlines’ soft background music played in the background, providing a nice contrast to the chaotic boarding process (does anyone know the name of the songs they play?).

As boarding continued, purser Jing went on the intercom to welcome us on behalf of Captain Josel, expecting a flight time of three and a half hours. Meanwhile, Sophia had come by to take our meal preferences. As for me, I had my eyes focused at the gleaming China Airlines Airbus A321neo next to us, which had just arrived from Taipei.

Bottles of water were distributed as the aisle cleared up. Boarding finally wrapped up at 01.10, with the cabin being full in Economy Class and one empty seat in Business Class. We pushed back two minutes later, at which time the crew started the manual safety demonstration.

We taxied to the end of Terminal 3, where the usual collection of aircraft lined the terminal. There wasn’t anything too interesting, until I caught a brief glimpse of a Brunei Government Boeing 767-200ER casually parked in the apron across the runway!

We reached Runway 25R at 01.24 and took off moments later, with a raging fire visible in the distance. Hmm…

Inflight Service

As we climbed to our cruising altitude, there was an incessant barrage of announcements. Lasting about eight minutes, this ranged everything between safety announcements to inflight entertainment (more on that later). This couldn’t be pleasant for people trying to sleep!

To make things worse, the cabin lights were turned on to full brightness for supper, just as the seatbelt signs were turned off seven minutes after takeoff; good luck getting any sleep, I suppose. Instead, our tray tables were set up with a white tablecloth. Mixed nuts and our choice of drinks were distributed as we waited for the meal to be heated.

Impressively, if you ordered any wine or champagne, it would be poured at your seat (they were serving Champagne Chanoine Freres NV). What a nice touch from Philippine Airlines! Anyways, for reference, the following is our full menu for the flight.

Although the tables were set soon after takeoff, there was about a 15-minute wait before the meal trays were brought out. Interestingly, Philippine Airlines requires cabin crew to suspend service and sit down anytime there is turbulence. Considering how bumpy this flight was, you could pretty much imagine how long this meal would be.

Supper

When the meal trays were brought out, however, I was surprised to see that they were serving the cold appetiser independently of the main course! While this would be nice on a long daytime flight, this seemed out of place on a short redeye. The chicken roulade and terrine appetiser tasted nice and fresh, though, so credit where credit’s due.

For my main, I opted for the ‘Pan-fried Salmon in Celeriac Cream Sauce’, which tasted light and fresh. Although the fish was rather overcooked (probably due to the frequent service interruptions), it was flavourful and well-balanced. Had it been taken out of the oven earlier, this probably would have been one of the better Business Class meals I’ve had out of Jakarta in a while.

For reference, the following is what the ‘Roast Chicken in Honey Soya Sauce’ looked like.

The supper service was concluded by a simple cup of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, with vanilla or chocolate on offer. This was frankly more palatable after the meal, compared to the spongy, rich, and cream-heavy tropical fruit tart (if that makes any sense).

The supper service was wrapped over an hour after takeoff, which seemed awfully long for a short red-eye flight such as this. Despite that, I do commend Marlon and Jing for serving the meal as fast as they could, despite the weather and policy constraints they faced. Disregarding, the initial service Regardless, considering the turbulence policy and how drawn out the meal service was, I’d recommend skipping it if you intend to get any sleep on this flight.

Service

Despite that, Marlon and Jing, in charge of serving Business Class, were exceptionally friendly. On top of the many smiles, they were attentive in clearing plates and offering more drinks. Marlon, in particular, loved laughing and threw around lighthearted jokes. They were truly fitting reflections of the airline motto, ‘The Heart of the Filipino’.

Entertainment

Despite the lack of in-seat monitors on this fleet of aircraft, inflight entertainment can still be streamed on laptops, phones, and tablets through a dedicated network, myPAL_Media. Connecting to it is simple enough, as no login credentials are required. Simply opening myPAL.everhub.aero on a browser connects you to the system.

Available were a modest selection of films and TV shows, as well as music and games. Specifically, there were a total of 96 films across the four categories of ‘Fresh from the Box’, ‘Blast from the Past’, ‘Across Asia’, and ‘Filipino Flicks’. Of that, 48 films were in the second category, which is made up of contemporary releases from the last several years. Frankly, not an incredible selection but certainly better than nothing. For reference you can check out the full list of films here.

A live flight map feature was also available with the system; funnily, it didn’t look like the map has been reset after the incoming flight from Manila. As the map thought we were still destined for Jakarta, while making a U-turn to Manila, there wasn’t any meaningful information about our estimated arrival time.

Unfortunately, that was the extent of inflight entertainment available onboard. Mabuhay, Philippine Airlines’ aptly-named inflight magazine hasn’t been published since the Covid-19 travel downturn.

Lavatory

Before attempting a quick nap, I went to check out the lavatory in front. Although it was nothing more than your standard Airbus A320 family washroom, a few amenities were offered by the sink. In particular, this included Philippine Airlines-branded cologne and body lotion, as well as a small bottle of mouthwash.

Arrival in Manila

About 20 minutes before landing, the cabin lights were turned up, waking me up in the process. Soon after, Captain Josel announced that we were starting our descent and conveyed the details of our arrival, with an earlier expected arrival time of 06.15. By this time, I’ve managed to cram about two hours of sleep, which wasn’t great, but certainly better than nothing.

Sure enough, 10 minutes later, the seatbelt signs were turned on and the cabin was prepared for arrival. From Manila Bay, we banked towards the right. Flying over Parañaque, we approached Ninoy Aquino International Airport from the west.

We had a soft touchdown at 06.13, landing on Runway 06 seven minutes before our scheduled arrival time. The airline’s soft instrumental boarding music started playing once again as we taxied to the terminal. The calm melodies were only interrupted later by an announcement from Jing, who welcomed us to Manila.

Planespotting galore!

As we taxied to our gate in Terminal 1, we virtually passed by every aircraft present at the airport. This included the myriad of interesting jets being maintained at Lufthansa Technik Philippines! Despite being tired from my lack of sleep, this still woke the aviation geek inside me (if you pardon the pun!). 😛

Although most of the planes at the airport belonged to Philippine Airlines, I found myself fixated on a few aircraft in particular. This included the Sunlight Air ATR 72-500 on its way to Cebu and the Air China Boeing 737 MAX8 on its way back to Beijing!

As we neared our gate at Terminal 1, we even passed by RP-C7773, the Boeing 777-300ER that will be taking me to Shanghai later on!

We ended up arriving at our gate at 06.22, just two minutes after our scheduled arrival time. It seems that Philippine Airlines pads their schedules enough to account for possible late departures! Sure enough, the front door was opened soon after, and I made sure to thank Marlon and Jing for the flight as I disembarked.

Verdict

Overall, Philippine Airlines provides incredible value for money for the service offered on board. It certainly is difficult to beat their pricing, especially compared to the fares offered by other airlines in the region. Even so, disregarding price, I found the inflight service to be excellent. While Marlon and Jing ensured excellent service, I was surprised to find that the quality of food and beverages was quite nice as well!

Despite that, the airline has a long way to go in terms of hard product. For one, a refurbishment is long overdue, especially considering the uncomfortable seating, lack of entertainment, as well as the lack of WiFi connectivity. Assuming the airline goes ahead with its Airbus A321 retrofit plans, I have no doubts that Philippine Airlines would easily rival its world-class regional competitors – well, at least in the air.

Read more from ‘A Summer in Shanghai’ here!