RustyC

Here's a quick review of the trip back (MNL-AUH and AUH-IAD)

Got to terminal 1 of MNL airport three hours early and there were already three long lines for economy class, and one shorter one for elites/Web, plus business and first class. Should have looked into a pre-printed boarding pass option, though I had a bag to check. Took a solid hour to get through the line for economy. The problem was too many different situations with people not having their act together on papers, visas or bags. Locals would be subject to travel tax but not the terminal fee in the case of OFWs, plus the usual overpacking problem by some. To further complicate matters, tickets bought before 2/15 like mine would have to pay the P550 (or $12.35) terminal fee in cash (though later, and they stamped the boarding pass), while those bought afterward had it included. But the main problem was locals and their paperwork being in order, and problems there jamming up the line.

OTOH, those who tried to talk their way into shorter lines were generally batted back, so there was a "fairness" in that (just a bad process).

Immigration was also a mess because of construction limiting the number of posts, and the air-con wasn't working at the gate. Terminal 1 of NAIA is one of those really nightmarish drab facilities (reminding me a bit of the old terminal at GUM). Renovations aim to make it brighter and will have some positive effect, though in richer countries they'd just tear the thing down, build something bigger and try seriously to solve the inter-terminal transfer problem.

Surprisingly the flight was only about 60% or so full, so I got an empty middle seat. It left late from Manila but made up most of the time on the way, arriving around 6:30 a.m.

I had about a five-hour gap, during which time the airport became a lot busier. Got to the pre-clearance facility around 9:30 a.m. and there was no line...the L.A. flight had left and most of the JFK people had gone through. Had filled out the paper U.S. customs form they'd handed out on the previous flight. Those with U.S. passports were sent to the machine to scan the passport, get a bad photo taken and get the receipt that may or may not have the big X on it.

Compared to customs on the U.S. side it was fairly easy (for me, at least), with no baggage claim/re-check to do and only a couple of questions (where to, how long, purpose).

OTOH, they were a bit late getting the boarding started, and the plane was nearly an hour late in leaving. At first it was late-arriving connecting passengers. Then the captain explained that some passengers had to be removed (no-flys? Didn't see any unrulies.) and they had to find those peoples' bags in the hold and offload them.

The flight was around 80-85% full. It was a very diverse bunch but reminded me a bit of Spirit flights and the bus crowd, and unfortunately there was material for a number of "etiquette" posts in TravelBuzz. Like one guy who just figured on leaving the overhead bin open. Bathrooms were pretty gross in a few hours. The flight route went over Iraq (eastern part, on a cloudy day) and then snow-peaked mountains in eastern Turkey or western Armenia that had lots of people looking out the windows. Also later the vary tip of Greenland.

Mid-flight snack was the apple-slice bag. Compared to the long flight over it had better FAs and worse pax, but everyone was glad to get out after 14.5 hours and the delay. Cleaners had quite a mess on their hands.

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Overall I'd say The flying experience in back isn't quite as good as you get with most Asian airlines for transpacific flights of comparable length, but is about at the level of the U.S. ones, though with different plusses and minuses.