I'm going to the southern Philippines in December using a "C" award ticket (UA miles) and am trying to figure the possible routings.

The best routing from SEA is SEA-ICN-CEB on OZ but SEA-ICN is getting filtered by Starnet and the UA flight to ICN arrives right after the CEB flight leaves meaning a 23 hour layover in ICN.

The routing I have on hold is SEA-LAX-ICN-MNL and I'll just buy a cheap onward ticket on PAL or Cebu Pacific. The connection in MNL is 3:30 so that should work OK. The drawbacks are having to fly to LAX and having to deal with the MNL airport (I hear bad things).

I asked about routing through Vancouver but nothing showed. I looked at China options and, while there were lots of options to get to China, I couldn't find any good China-Cebu connections.

Any other ideas?

On the bright side, you may be able to get a tour of the call center

Silk Air flies to Cebu out of Singapore and fares are not terribly expensive.

As an aside, sad to hear UA is filtering OZ.

HKG

5J always have good fares out of HKG.

Not really, depends on what dates you are looking. Also keep in mind OZ had tons of blackout dates that you may not aware about.

MNL can be a PITA but I don't think it's that bad except for the one time it took me 1 hour to get through immigration. That being said, 3.5 hours should be plenty of time to transfer to Terminal 2 (Philippine Airlines) or Terminal 3 (Cebu Pacific).

The HKG-CEB nonstop flight on 5J (Cebu Pacific) has a good connection with the SFO-HKG flight, and fares are cheap. The only problem is that, at last report, 5J has no transfer desk so you have to go airside and check in for the 5J flight.

Absolutely correct. Also applies to NH and some others.

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,3224,1147,00.html

A good reference to check for some folks before we get into Starnet blaming routine...

December is the busiest time in the Philippines (all Filipinos seem to find their way home at this time of the year), and I think avoiding Manila is a good idea - specially if you are thinking of traveling closer to Christmas. I think Cathay Pacific still has direct flights from HKG to Cebu. Not sure about the schedule. United flies to HKG directly from SFO or ORD daily (I think), so you might be able to go to CEB directly w/o using Cebu Pacific (there might be some baggage issues if your bags are not checked through directly from your original destination).

I've done this over 10 times now. Fly UA in upgraded C from USA to SIN, rest up in the transit hotel, then take the 9am Silkair flight. The Silkair flight goes to both Cebu and Davao, and alternates in direction on different days. So, if you want nonstop service to either city, you may have to adjust your dates by one day. The flights have been running $4-500 USD, and you get to completely avoid the horrible mess that is MNL. UA interlines baggage with them too.

Thanks for the feedback.

One option I came up with is the SFO-ICN direct flight on UA or SQ. Both carriers arrive in ICN before the OZ CEB flight leaves. Is an hour enough time for a UA-OZ international connection in ICN? Can I make the connection airside or would I have to clear immigration?

A tight connection makes me nervous because ICN-CEB doesn't operate every day. Missing it might mean being stuck in ICN for two days unless OZ is willing to accomodate me to MNL instead.

My Starnet filtering comment was based on award flights showing in the ANA system but not available from UA. It's not a wholesale filtering of OZ, just selected flights. For example, OZ appears filtered for SEA-ICN but UA put me on OZ for LAX-ICN when I changed the destination to MNL.

The options of flying Silk Air from SIN or Cathay Pacific from HKG are a bit too pricey for me.

Did you try pricing HKG - CEB on Cebu Pacific? In the Denver - Manila thread, somebody mentioned that you have to go landside to checkin on Cebu Pacific in HKG, so take that into consideration. edit: It was this thread, in the post from BangkokTraveler.

An hour connection is risky. Does it work better if you take the OZ flight out of LAX? What about the return?

-David

Cebu Pacific makes it less painful from HKG although the high excess luggage charges on their international flights (I'm carrying dive gear) quickly cut into the savings.

The OZ flight from LAX arrives early morning and the CEB flight leaves in early evening so the layover is still around 14 hours. Going to MNL instead and grabbing a domestic flight gets me to CEB at 4pm rather than 11pm. The connection time in ICN is only 1:35 but since it's OZ-OZ, I figure (perhaps wrongly) it's a bit less risky.

OK, that's better than 1 hour, and I thought you said 1 hour on a UA-OZ connection.

I guess it's worth a shot. I've never connected in ICN. If it's all airside, hopefully, it should be ok.

Oh, In MNL, you are going to have to change to the other terminal for the domestic flights. PAL and PAL Express and Cebu Pacific are all in the newer terminal. Everybody else uses the old terminal.