I feel I must comment here. If the OP is starting in Manila, and so did his wife - are you Philippine? If yes, then my experience an hour ago - when PAL sent me an email (with a noreply address) telling me my booked, confirmed and paid-for business class flight to the UK (HK-MNL-LHR) was changed to the following day. Or to be precise, MNL-LHR is the following day, they didn't bother to update the first flights so now they have me spending 25 hours in MNL - for no good reason. Ringing up to try and figure something out there was "nothing they can do". I WISH I HAD BOOKED CATHAY! At least Cathay would have put me on another flight the same f'ing day. And as for your comment about Cathay's lounge in MNL - what year are you travelling? Since moving to T3 some years back, the lounge is now international standard, with great food, plenty of seating, toilets that flush (yeah!) and a nice view. Even the internet works some of the time.