Their labor row notwithstanding, I hear it from sources that our very own flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, is slated to fly to India starting next year. This should be good news to us since India is one of those must-go countries in terms of scenery, culture and history. We just hope the fare is affordable, as it seems some PAL tickets can be more expensive than the competition on some international flights.
Anyway, for our trip to Vietnam, we booked Philippine Airlines. The PAL planes going in and out of Manila to Ho Chi Minh were quite small – the A320-200. But overall, I had a nice experience with Captains Arellano and Nave in command 😀
There is one main reason why I prefer to fly PAL than its nearest competitor, and that is enjoying a hot meal. PAL inflight meals taste good, would give it an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. For this trip, I had fish with some delectable sauce, and the dessert was by Bizu Patisserie. They even serve wine, beer and other alcohol on request, even when you’re in economy.
I also browsed through the December issue of their Mabuhay Magazine. It was quite thick, which means that the publication is earning, even while the company is losing. Ouch.
The only bad thing is that we were charged $10 per kilo of excess baggage on the way back to Manila. Hubby and I shopped a lot in Ho Chi Minh and paid dearly for it with excess baggage charges that was more than the cheaply advertised web fare 😀
Anyway, here’s a picture of Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh. It didn’t look busy when we arrived, and there was even an old mlilitary helicopter on the field which reminded me of the Vietnam War.
i know one chef friend who works at PAL, she is very skillful, however inflight meal is a team effort.
@ John, they must have good chefs then 😀