Philippine Airlines (PAL)

My reservation was affected by changes in their internal operations. They don't care how important your flight is why you booked it way ahead of time. I booked multi-city economy reservation (international & domestic). They cancelled the domestic flight. The resolutions they can offer me is to refund the whole reservation and if i re-book the international flight, my fare cost will be higher than the original OR leave the original reservation without refund of the cancelled domestic flight. MEANING - WHATEVER OPTION YOU CHOOSE - YOU LOOSE. They only want to take money from their customers and the agents does not care about how you feel or how it affects you. They will let you call them until you give up because you're not being heard anyway.

I have not yet flown with this airline but will probably never will for a number of reasons. Firstly, earlier in the year I booked a flight that due to family illness had to be cancelled. I must point out I accept there are terms and conditions with cancellations and I may be out of pocket. I booked the flight, online, from the UK. When I contacted the PAL London office I was told I had to contact a different number, in London. I called it and they referred me right back to the first number I called. Frustrated I was then told that as my booking was made online, from the UK I had to call a Manila PAL office for a (partial refund). I did eventually get a refund, at a great loss and the telephone call to Manila cost me £36.67 about PHP 2444. First bad experience.

So this year I am going back to Manila to plan a wedding and to celebrate my birthday. So dates and time are important. Booked a flight from TUG to MAN for my fiancée on 26th December to meet me in Manila. Last week I received a flight status update after I paid and made booking weeks ago: Original schedule 26 Dec 17, New Schedule 27 Dec 17. A day lost for us both and no compensation offer just an e-mail saying re-schedule.

Plan was to stay in Manila a couple of nights then fly domestic to TUG and enjoy the family and spend New Year together. Having already lost a day together okay but 30 minutes later get an e-mail stating our flight back to Manila on 2 Jan 18 is cancelled and STANDBY for your new itinerary! My birthday is 2 Jan 18 and we had massive family plans but PAL have not yet told me what that new itinerary is and can I find somebody to speak to....NO! Trying to find a way from PAL website for the domestic flight is impossible, to ensure we get to Manila for my birthday I have now arranged for a 12 hour van trip as too much is planned already. I have lost money on hotel bookings by a couple of nights here and there.

I had previously written a review (not on this site) which was quite flattering relating to an actual flight, but this is regarding reservation woes.

I booked a flight online from Dumaguete to Manila and a flight from Manila to Bangkok both on PAL (not on same ticket - too expensive.

Later I received a flight advisory changing the domestic flight to half an hour later, meaning the connection (arrive T3, depart T2) became tight. I asked the office at DGT airport to change to the morning flight but they said I have to pay more than P2k each (3 pax). I asked why I have to pay, since PAL changed the schedule, but they said they can't change it unless I pay.

I looked around for somewhere to complain and found PAL Feedback. They ask for loads of info they could simply get off their computer with ticket number or reservation reference, I guess that is because most feedback are complaints, few people bother to "commend", so they make it difficult, so you will give up. So, I filled up the form and sent it off.

I guess it's no coincidence that you cannot keep a record of your submission, since they didn't bother to acknowledge or reply to my submission. So I tried again with a reminder through the same feedback site. This proved to be even more difficult. After filling up all info again, I couldn't send because I forgot the Captcha, so I did that and clicked send again. But it came back because it said I hadn't entered my e-mail ad twice, so I did. then it came back for another Captcha which I completed and clicked sent, only to find that all the information I had entered had been wiped out and I would need to enter it all over again.

At which point, realizing I'd been beaten by stupidity, I gave up.

Used Philippines Airlines (PAL) for a trip to the Philippines for a couple weeks of diving the waters of the Philippines then to Thailand to visit a friend. Philippine Airlines has terrible customer service, their "PAL chat" is not user friendly and that is really the only way contact customer service when traveling - Trying to upgrade is impossible it's like they don't want your money when it comes to upgrades - But when it comes to economy seating they will charge you to change seats and call it "Premium Economy" which is nothing better than any other economy seat - They really don't have an on time schedule it's a given that they will be late so don't have a close connection - If you are flying back to the US through Manila the holding area is hot, uncomfortable and crowded you are forced to sit or stand with hundreds of others in the area for 2-3 hours then you get to sit in economy seating for 12- 13 hours - Bottom-line if you are traveling to the Philippine avoid Philippine Airlines if possible - The above experience was between 21Sep17 and 17Oct17 and is a fraction of the disappointing experiences we had flying with Philippine Airlines - I now see way they are rated so low on this web site and others - Philippine Airlines never again!

On the 17th December 2016 I was supposed to depart from Manila at 12.15pm, but it was cancelled at very short notice with an announcement just an hour and a half from the boarding time. Whilst the airline provided their statutory obligations by providing overnight accommodation etc, as you can imagine the problems this caused with serious trouble and inconvenience for me and my fellow passengers.

The UK agents for PAL are AVIAREPS PLC . Despite writing to them and following up with 2 emails, neither company has had the courtesy to respond to my request for out of pocket compensation. Apart from this and the fact that this route only provides entertainment from small iPads. There is no way to recharge your laptop for this 14.5 hour flight so trying to use their inflight WiFi services is only available for the life of your laptop batteries. Do not expect to get the standard of service offered by the likes of Etihad and Emirates who I will be returning to forthwith for future flights. Not a recommended airline if you like those little extras like good customer service, responses to complaints or even an occasional drink during the flight. I am told that other routes are better.

We travelled with Philippine Air on January 2017 from Busuanga Airport to Manila. While doing our check in and bag drop we were disappointed to discover that we were asked to pay extra for anything over 10kg in luggage per person. This was shocking to us because when we initially booked these flights online (May 24 2016 Budget economy ticket - PHP 3545 per person) we called back and spoke to someone and they reassured us that if we paid an upgrade fee to a Regular Economy ticket (an extra PHP 448 per person) we could have 20kg per person. Naturally we took this offer up and made sure that we brought all the paperwork with us to the airport for the check in. Unfortunately, the staff at the airport told us that it was a mistake and that no one is allowed extra baggage unless paying the fee on the spot at the airport. Despite it being the fault of the customer service operator back in May, we were told that we had to to pay a very high PHP 3000 for the extra luggage! Again we were shocked and disappointed that even though it was Philippine Air's fault, we were still being asked to pay extra. But to make matters worse, we tried three times to reshuffle the bags to make the weight less and because the weight was just over (11.5kgs per bag) we were turned back and told we would still have to pay. We then asked the service counter if we could then get a refund for the extra fee we paid back in May (PHP 448 per person - we still don’t know what this fee is for??) given we were told the wrong thing and we were paying this fee for nothing. They told us that they couldn't refund anything and it was unlikely that we would ever get our money back. By this time we were very annoyed and frustrated and by the fourth try we were able to get our bags back down to 20kgs total (10kg each). But now we were taking a lot of bags on board! What a waste of time and energy this was for everyone! Either way the luggage was going onboard, and given they were the ones who made the mistake, they should have simply allowed us to check all original bags in!

Philippine Air staff were very rigid in helping us by declining our weight even though it was close to the 20kgs required for two people (NO OTHER AIRLINE IS THIS RIGID! - WE HAVE FLOWN AROUND THE WORLD OVER 30 COUNTRIES AND NEVER HAD THIS PROBLEM!) We asked for grace with the baggage limit, but were plainly refused.

How many of us carry only 10kg each while travelling? Philippine Air should have the option of 20kg baggage check in, instead of charging per kg at an astronomical rate at the airport!!!

I have used Philippine airlines for the first time in 23 years for return trip from London Heathrow to Manila. I was attracted back by the direct flight and a great promotion on business class.

I was a little dubious at first due to some poor reviews but these proved to be unfounded.

Both outbound and return flights left bang on time and the service and attention I received from the cabin staff could not have been any better. Admittedly thebr4e were not many passengers in business class so this probably helped a little, although at times you almost got too much attention.

The food was well prepared and tasty and although catering to more Asian cuisine, it is an Asian airline at the end of the day, was more than acceptable.

The aircraft itself was an older style A340 and whilst the business class cabin was a little tired looking the seating was very comfortable with fully reclining to flat bed position ensuring a very comfortable flight throughout.

Minor grumble would be the in air entertainment which was either by pad or, my choice, the in built seat screen. Thought the selection of movies was a little poor and dated compared to say Cathay who I have used a lot although I still found three decent films to watch over the two trips.

The only other minor disappointment was there was the in flight wi fi that PH websites indicates that you have, apparently this is not up and running on all aircraft yet.

Those two points aside though an excellent value for money flight, would use them again.

Want to have your vacation ruined? Book PAL, works everytime. Delays are simply a given. You will miss your connection. It is a full-service airline, yet their planes are cramped as the worst low-cost carrier from the US.

Domestic flight? They will give you water or coffee, that's it! Regardless of the lenght of the flight. International is slighltly better, but decades behind from any other asian competitor.

Crew sometimes try, sometimes don't. They have a horrendous business product that many economy class from other airlines would put to shame.

I live in the Philippines and it is hard to avoid them, given that the other option (Cebu Pacific) is as bad as then, but at least acknowledge their low-cost status. It is truly a shameful flag carrier for this wonderful country.

My Pal flight on November 13,2013 was delayed for 4 long hours I was bound to Cebu and going to Singapore I was already at the airport then i told them cancel because its no use i'm going to miss my international flight.a staff member said its ok just go to the old airport they will fix it I went there another staff told me go to pal online,

they assured me for a full refund that was November 13 now its already May 2014 I got no response. this is frustrating all I want is my refund THIS IS NOT MY FAULT there flight was so delayed. That flight was for 4 people. Never ever buy from this carrier.

I recently flew from Manila to Taipei. I checked two bags that each weighed 50 pounds. PAL charged me $32.00 US for excess baggage fees. On my return flight to Manila I checked two bags each now weighing 19 pounds. PAL extorted me for $92.00 US for my bags. Never, ever will I fly with this carrier. It is sad that such a wonderful country like the Philippines would condone this sort of action by PAL.