FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Manila and Boracay: GH MNL, JL J, and The Lind Hotel Boracay

Nov 5, 2022 | 3:36 pm

#1

benjahman

Join Date: Nov 2008

Location: New York, NY

Posts: 357

Manila and Boracay: GH MNL, JL J, and The Lind Hotel Boracay

After 2.5years, it was time to head back to the Philippines to see my wife's family and friends. This time with our newest (already 20 months) addition, his sister, his stroller, his activity bag, his diapers, his wipes, well..you get the picture. You ask yourself, what could go wrong? (albeit in the context of very lucky, thankful, and privileged travelers). Well, just a few hiccups, but all and all a great trip.

Routing:JFK to MNL via HND aboard JL J class, a stay in MNL at GH Manila for a week, a quick flight to Boracay for 5 days at The Lind hotel, and then back to JFK via MNL-NRT-JFK on board JL J

Terminal 1 was moderately busy with a number of long-haul departures all within the noon-1pm window. With that in mind, I stumbled upon VIPOne a few weeks before, which is T1's version of CLEAR. For $35 per adult, we had a separate security area, with a private escort who took us to the front of the Pre-check line and helped us through security. With the two kids and all their accessories, this helped greatly and was well worth the cost.

Inside the VIPOne "lounge"

The door that leads to the front of the security line

JL J gives you access to AF Lounge, as well as the PrimeClass lounge. We made it to the AF lounge and were initially directed upstairs, which was extremely crowded, with no seating available for our family of 4. We headed back downstairs and found some seats by the windows. The lounge had a fine spread, with fresh fruits, salad, a few hot dishes, snacks, and full bar. The lounge itself has seen better days and is in serious need of updated furniture and flooring. Most of the chairs were torn and carpet terribly stained.

The White Claw was an interesting choice

Needs a good refurb/cleaning

Left the lounge and made our way to the gate. Some excellent wide-body plane spotting along the way.

The 777 taking us to Haneda

When we arrived at the gate and boarding passes scanned, the attendants informed us that my wife's seat was broken and did not recline. Obviously, this was really disturbing news to find out for a number of reasons, one that it is a 14hour flight and two that we were traveling with a 1.5yr old. I was a bit annoyed, and they said that they had been paging us at the gate. I mentioned we were in the lounge, and they should have attempted to locate us there. They switched my wife to an aisle seat in row 8 and my daughter and I were in row 10. Thankfully, the crisis was averted when we arrived at the seats, a lovely woman sitting in the middle seat was happy to switch to my wife's aisle seat. The "broken" seat was not occupied and actually ended up working, so low and behold, we had 4 seats to choose from.

So happy to see my little one in my happy place. She had a tough year, after finding out she had a rare brain tumor in January. She had immediate surgery to remove it and is happy and healthy these days. I promised her we would take her to the Philippines to get mango shakes once she was recovered.

PDBs were offered

Yes, I wear shorts on a plane and yes, I've thrown out my yeezys.

A glass of rose, along with some nuts and olives to start

Japanese starter

Japanese set plate

The extra seat came in handy

Mid-flight snack of salted chicken and pork katsu sandwich

Pre-arrival meal

One of the most important flight accessories, highly recommend it

Landed in HND. He's already an AvGeek

Making our way to the transit security area, which was not terribly crowded and moved quickly.

Through transit clearance and onto the Sakura Lounge, which was recently re-opened. First up was a shower, which is located in a lower satellite lounge that is closed, except for the shower rooms. Rooms were tight but we took 2 of them and were refreshed for a long layover at HND.

Closed satellite lounge where showers are located

Back at the lounge and we headed for the food. No buffet at the moment, but a fair amount of a la carte options, with quick and efficient service.

The curry was delicious as usual

Was happy to see iced coffee available, along with Pocari

Sweat

Lounge lockers

Plenty of lounge seating

Available

Helpful and friendly staff, who were really sweet and accommodating with the kids

Left the lounge and stretched our legs in the terminal. Most of the stores were closed, with very few available food options open later in the evening. If you did not have lounge access and had a late flight, you were likely stuck with vending machines, which in Japan, is actually not that terrible of an option.

FamilyMart vending

JL 77

Departs HND at 1:25AM

Arrives MNL at 5:00AM

Boeing 767-300

A 15yo 767 was taking us to Manila, outfitted with the JL Sky Suite II. My first time in the Sky Suite II and while it's a bit narrow and while I'm a bit of a giant, it was perfectly fine for a quick hop to MNL.

We all slept most of the way and landed in Manila a bit earlier than scheduled. Quickly through immigration and customs, where we collected our bags and found our Grand Hyatt representative

A GH van was waiting to take us to the Grand Hyatt, where we checked in quickly and were in our room shortly thereafter. After dropping our bags, we headed directly to the club lounge for breakfast.