CRK Turnaround on OZ
I've been making regular business trips to the Philippines for many years, sometimes as frequently as once a month, flying into/out of either CRK or MNL, depending on availability and my schedule. Over 90% of the trips are in business class, and only economy if no C is available. Usually my trips are booked well in advance and are booked as part of a transpac trip. Several times I've needed to cancel or reschedule my meetings in the Philippines, but cannot change my ticket to match, so rather just do a immediate turnaround on the Philippine segments, so that I can still use my transpac segment(s). I've had about four cases of this for my trips to CRK over the years.
Being I'm in business class, I'm the first off the plane. Immigration staff is very limited at CRK, and if you're the last in, you'll be waiting for quite some time. Of the few times I've been in economy, I noticed they sometimes deplane from the front and rear, but usually just from the front. Once I was in the middle when they used both exits, meaning I was the last off, and it took about 45 minutes to be processed. About a year ago they installed air bridges, so it should be a rare case now that you need to deplane down stairs and onto the tarmac. Thus getting a seat near the front will almost always be more advantageous to getting out quickly.
When I first started flying to CRK, OZ was the only carrier at that time of night, but more recently there's been a Cebu Pacific flight from somewhere that lands at a similar time. If that plane arrives before the OZ plane, there may already be a plane-full of passengers that immigration needs to process before even starting on the OZ passengers. However, a large percent of those passengers are Filipinos, whereas the OZ flight is mostly Koreans. Filipinos and foreigners have separate queues, so if you're a foreigner arriving after the Cebu Pacific flight, it won't be as bad if you're near the front compared to being the last off the OZ flight even without the Cebu Pacific flight passengers.
Anyways, there is no ability to do an airside transfer at CRK. I've asked a few times and always am told the same thing - that it's impossible. You must go through immigration/customs, then check-in, pay the departure tax (600 php), and back through immigration/security. For needing to do all that, the process is quite painless at CRK. CRK is much preferable to me than is MNL, especially the old NAIA terminal where security and other checks are a real pain. CRK is much more relaxed about everything and fewer checks. Note, if you don't have 600 pesos on you, you'll need to use a money changer. Use one of the money changers in the arrival area immediately after customs. There should be someone there manning at least one of the booths. If not, ask/wait for someone. If you wait until you go back inside at departures, you may not be able to change money immediately, and have to wait quite some time.
Well for each of my CRK turnarounds, I've always been in C, the first off the plane, and never had the Cebu Pacific flight arrive first. With no checked luggage, it takes me less than 5 minutes from deplaning to exiting the terminal. Less than a minute walk to departures, bag through the scanner, to the business class check-in, pay the departure tax, and normally not much of a queue at outbound immigration, then another security check. Total time from deplaning to the lounge is maybe 15 minutes.
BTW, as of 2 months ago there hasn't been any lounge to use being they're building a new contract lounge for OZ to use. What was scheduled to take only a couple months has taken them about a year so far. Not sure if it's open by now, but wouldn't be surprised if it's still delayed. All versions of the old lounge were very basic, with a normally poor selection of snacks that I almost always passed on. Always enjoyed the mango juice though.
One important point is about arriving late. You're leaving on the same plane you arrive on, so no chance of a missed connection due to your plane leaving before you arrive. This flight does seem to have a tendency to be late departing ICN, sometimes by up to an hour. It's not been a big deal when I'm staying in the Philippines, but when doing a turnaround and having the plane be late once was nearly a problem. You cannot get your return boarding pass in ICN, and when I was late in arriving and went to the check-in counter, I was the very last passenger and my reserved seat had been given away already. They ended up shifting the passenger in that seat so that I got it back. There was an announcement that immigration was closing soon and for all remaining passengers to proceed to immigration. I wondered what would have happened on that occasion if I had been stuck in immigration for 30 minutes or more. Since that experience, if doing a turnaround, I always tell OZ staff at ICN to inform CRK of my situation so that they'll hold my seat for me and be expecting me, even if the plane is late.