Philippine Airlines J class review LHR-HKG via MNL.
Feb 7, 2019, 7:17 pm
#16
Join Date: Dec 2017
Programs: AS MVP
Posts: 3
Great review. I just flew my LHR-MNL-HKG last weekend and I agree with your comments on their great but inconsistent services. For example, I did ask for the dine on demand on the LHR-MNL, they happily do it but when I woke up in the middle of the flight, they first forgot what I have ordered and then served me the main course only, without starters and dessert. They didn't bring me the newspaper selection as well on the LHR-MNL leg (maybe because I'm one of the last passenger boardings?). The weirdest thing was when I board the plane, they asked me if I would like to switch seat with the gentleman in front of me (I said no cause I am in 7A and I didn't want to lose the true window seat I booked in advance.) Also, I got a FURLA washbag (with Acca Kappa's content inside) instead of L'Occitane.
Their airport is terrible, and you wouldn't believe this: they were actually allowing passenger passing the transit security when they are boarding passengers from that gate to Singapore. At first, I am quite surprised why there are passengers keep coming down from that lift. There is a security guard who was holding the line to guide the departing people to board the bus and then let us board the lift. But when we got back to the Third floor (Departure), we saw people queuing for our lift out and nobody is guiding us. We are all clueless about whether we should walk out of the lift here or on other floors. Only until I walked back to the departure floor did I realise that they are boarding from this exact same lift. A mind-blowing transit experience.
You could say that UK (at least LHR and LGW) are the same. You have no separation of domestic and international departure and airside transit is only available in LHR, LGW and MAN. A plane to New York can be parked next to a plane to Edinburgh. But intl-intl transfer was easier than in the US, for those with a visa-exempted passport. You go through counter that do some
Then it's off to the transit security lane (i use the term in the singular - there is one security lane) and then up a lift back to departures. You actually arrive at the airside of a departure gate from the terminal. So this leads to a situation where if there happens to be a flight boarding from that gate, no transit passengers can pass through security until the boarding from that gate is complete (to avoid chaotic confusion of people departing and people arriving). So you can wait downstairs in the transfer lounge for anything up to thirty minutes as I did on my return. I dunno, maybe the transit hub thing isn't the angle PAL is going for.
Correct, the US has no facilites for international transit, so everyone has to go through immigration as exwannabe pointed out. At US airports you can have a flight going to Detroit from gate 52 and to Frankfurt from gate 54 right beside it, there's no separation at all. The US immigration system is unique in the world regarding airport arrivals and departures, I can't think of any other countries I've seen quite like that.
