Getting exit row in advance...Upper Deck Mabuhay Class Philippine Airlines
 

Is there any secret to getting this seat? They tell me it is open but they can't assign. Another agent said if I pay 50 extra I can have it....took my payment info, then came back and said it was aiport controlled.

Any ideas?

anyone?

Beuler?

It's probably blocked because it's either a seat for disabled passengers or for Mabuhay Miles elite members. If there are no elites on your flight who want that seat, or disabled passengers who will be assigned that seat, you should be able to get it.

PR elite status is insanely easy to get comped. CO Plat should fetch a pretty high tier.

As a Premier Elite I personally haven't been able to detect any blocked elite seating privileges prior to check-in. At the airport when I have had less than optimum seating I have been refereed to a supervisor at check-in who was magically able to get me good seats that were not available to the ordinary check-in agent, but on the phone, in advance, I have never personally gotten anywhere requesting blocked seats.

Can you elaborate? Thinking of using PR a lot more on the TPACs.....But so far I gotta be honest, it's been a very frustrating experience.

I use them effectively for 1hr hops in the Pilipins.....But this TPAC booking as been a real frustrating let down.

Booked online....got a wrong departure date. Called them to change it because it can't be done online. That is where the fun began.

I called LA and Manila, kept getting referred back and forth to the other. Finally got them to change the date...or so I thought.....kept looking for my new itenerary...which never came. They could not process my transaction over the phone with the mabuhay business class number.

Fine...no problem...will wait till next day when they run the transaction out of the LA office. But it never happened. Went back and forth every day for 8 straight days and FINALLY yesterday, got it around 4pm.

Just for grins....has anyone ever tried to call the LA ticket office? It is nothing more than a loop of voice commands, busy signals where you have to start over, and voice mails that nobody ever returns a call from. Seriously.

One advantage of Elite Status with PAL is that once you key in an Elite MM number and IVR PIN it sends you strait to an agent without holding.

I think it is widely understood that PAL does more or less OK when everything goes exactly as planned, but tends to completely fall apart in the face of IRROPS or even fairly basic changes. They just don't have any sort of plan B if plan A does not go through.

Also, since I have been flying them regularly I have reverted to purchasing tickets from an old fashioned travel agent. It's actually a bit cheaper and I have someone other than the airline to make sure everything is right.