SixMileMtn

I am on MH805 from MNL-KUL in early April. The flight departs at 6:50 AM.
The lines at NAIA are notoriously long and slow-moving, but do not want arrive 3 hours early, as recommended by the airline and airport.
I assume there is a Priority check-in lane?
Any thoughts on how early to arrive would be appreciated!

kaffir76

Here we go - the ALMOST complete guide to NAIA :

1. For such an early morning flight (ouch), you should be fine - I'd leave the hotel between 4am - 4.30am depending where your are staying (Makati, BGC, Ortigas, Quezon City etc.) & arrive at the airport by 5am - 5.30am for your 6.50am flight.
Airline lounges at NAIA are dire, so no need to get there too early.
But at the same time, you don't want to risk running into bad traffic so just give yourself an extra 30 min. buffer

2. What lines? Immigration & security, check in counters or the security check outside the terminals?
The lines do move pretty fast, more so if you have an APEC card or similar (diplomatic)
I'd be more concerned about getting to the airport on time & not getting stuck in traffic.

3. Priority check in for business class, as per usual. In many outports MH only opens their counters 2 hours before dep. (sometimes 2.5 hr) since they mostly operate smaller aircraft like the 737's
But the good thing about NAIA is that airline (SQ, TG, CX) check in counters close 40-45 min, before dep. so that gives you extra time in case of bad traffic.

As a general rule, I always get to the airport 2 hrs before dep. & 2.5 hours before otherwise if the airport has a nice lounge (e.g. HKIA)
I'd never arrive 3 hours early unless I have a late night departure (e.g. 10pm) & the hotel has unceremoniously kicked me out at 5pm