FT4vr

Great job Kixman!

by any chance, do you have pics of the Priority Pass airside lounge in NAIA 1 ?

I've been to DL, OZ, SQ lounges at MNL NAIA 1. My comments on them, if anyone needs to choose or is interested:

SQ -- most comfortable and best restrooms out of the three (no shower though)
DL -- least comfy with no windows at all


For food items, go to DL and/or OZ.

OZ is right across the hall from SQ. I leave my stuff in SQ and mosey on over to OZ to get food ;-)

Akiestar

The Priority Pass lounge at NAIA-1 is the PAGStop Lounge on the fourth floor. This was the former Sampaguita Lounge of PR when PR was still based in NAIA-1, and is also one of two non-aligned lounges in the terminal: the other is the MIASCOR Lounge which is used by OZ.

JRGAY

It's many years since I saw Heinz Sandwich Spread but it's still the staple in the BA business lounge.
If you can sneak into 1st class it's real cheese between the slices!
Take care with the dim sum, if you're first in, it may be from the last opening.

FT4vr

Akiestar -- thanks for the info. Do you have recent pics of the PAGstop lounge? Most likely i will be flying KE coach this summer with no access to the airline lounge. I might have to use my Priority Pass. By the way, i found out that PH Amex plats get access to MIASCOR. Do you know if they'll let US Amex plats in as well?

JRGAY -- i had cold siopao (steamed buns) at SQ once. It was horrible. The server apologized and promptly gave me freshly steamed ones.

Mabuk dan gila

Understatement of the year. The entrance is the nicest part of this lounge. It goes down hill from there.


PAGstop lounge is decent by MNL standards. By Asia lounge standards in general, not so much. None the less it's an oasis in NAIA terminal 1. I'd probably take it over the KE lounge if I had a choice since it has better view.

tentseller

Are you sure you were in the DL lounge? It always had windows even in the NW Worldclub days.

KIXman

Hi FT4vr,
Thanks for the compliment! Sorry I haven't been to the Priority Pass lounge so I don't have pix or know what's inside
I'll be flying to MNL again next week and this time I get to pass through Terminal 3. It'll be my first time to see it so I'm actually quite excited

FT4vr

tentseller -- i'm sure it was the DL lounge. But now after having read your post, i'm not so sure about the windows All i remember was it was claustrophobic and we couldn't see the outside. I'll go and review my my pics from that trip.

Kixman -- My 5J Philippine domestic flight a couple of years ago was thru MNL term3. It is by far the best terminal in MNL -- we noticed that even the airport workers seemed happier, or should i say less jaded, than their T1 and T2 counterparts ;-)

tentseller

Maybe due to the early predawn departure of the old scheduled first flight to NRT it seem too dark to look like windows.

Akiestar

Okay, since this is the only thread which I think is appropriate to have this, I'll post it here.

If anyone has been following local media lately, there's a big brouhaha over how NAIA (the entire airport) was ranked the worst in Asia and the fifth-worst in the world by Sleeping in Airports (http://www.sleepinginairports.com). Not sure why the media in the Philippines made such a big deal out of it, to the point that local forums are speaking about it as well, but the reaction has led to several calls for improvement of the facilities: improvements which I believe people here have seen when passing through NAIA-1.

The question now is this: do people on FT, especially those that have passed through MNL, think that NAIA is deserving of all the flak it has received over the last 1-2 weeks? Or is it all hype and hot air?

KIXman

I saw it on some internet news sites, personally I think it's good that it got the attention of local media so that there's more push to improve the airport (if at all possible).
I fly through regularly and I agree that NAIA-1 is one of the worst based from the what I've seen so far (around 80 airports, 30 of which were in Asia)
For me it could use more streamlined security and more creature comforts.

Mabuk dan gila

I kind of have to agree, in the league of "gateway to the country" airports in Asia I would have to rate MNL almost dead last. Maybe CGK could nudge out MNL to claim the bottom position.

I have passed through Terminal's 1 and 2 countless times and neither is a particularly pleasant place to spend much time. Despite a marginally more modern and open design, I don't count terminal 2 as that great an improvement either. Haven't tried terminal 3 yet but I'm booked on ANA a couple of trips later this year.

If it's any consolation, I don't rate LAX much higher than MNL so at least they have good company at the bottom.

whughes3

NAIA T1 is certainly pretty ordinary; having lounge access makes it tolerable, but only just. I wouldn't like to depart from there with no status!

However, that said, I have found it to be remarkably efficient on arrival at least; I often find myself stepping into a taxi barely 10 minutes after walking off the plane, which is not something I could say about most other international terminals.

tentseller

It all depends on your arrival time and how many flight are arriving around that window.
If your flight is the only one then 10 minutes is possible.

FT4vr

tentseller, it appears that the curtains were down when we visited the lounge. I did not realize until i took a closer look at the pics last night that those were actually windows and not walls... (bah! i must have been still in an early morning daze!)

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...L/IMG_5201.jpg
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...L/IMG_5203.jpg


note too this was back Jan 2009 - pre-DL conversion.