For this year (2010) we decided to take a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore, Singapore. It's our second time on both places so, we're pretty familiar with some things there.. :D
The best part of our trip? SINGAPORE AIRLINES!!! Wooohooo!
Be packing my things, getting a haircut and all the pre-travel etc's a day before the flight to Kuala Lumpur. How exciting is that?! Not to mention the pressure on me.. XD
I'm excited, nonetheless.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Economy Class Seat Review: Philippine Airlines
Alright. Like the blog's heading suggests, I am an economy class traveller. I have ridden airlines numerous times and 99% of them are in economy class. In this blog, I will rate them according to MY satisfaction and experience. This does not serve as a general reference to the public since: (1) the only airlines I'll rate here are the ones I've been on, (2) I do not know Skytraxx standards, (3) ratings come from personal experiences and (4) the satisfaction of one person from the other differs variably.
Rating, by the way x/5 where x can be any number from 1 to 5. 5 is the highest and 1 is the lowest.
PHILIPPINE AIRLINES (PAL/PR)
I've been riding PR constantly until Grand Air and Cebu Pacific entered the market. From what I can remember when I was a child, PR served decent meals which included rice, viand, dessert and drinks even in a DVO-MNL run. That was then.
PRESENT DVO-MNL RUN
The company might be cutting cost or increasing profit or both, I don't know the real reason but the service I used to like was now just a thing of the past. Instead of a decent meal in a modern aircraft, they now only serve a pack of biscuits and a cup of juice or coffee or tea or water. Talk about cheap.
PR's INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT
Just last November 2009, we went to San Francisco, CA to visit some relatives and we took PR. I was pleasantly surprised when we boarded their B747-400 and find that we chanced upon their newly-refurbished cabin. Everything in the cabin now looks like PR is really ready to take on the international market.
SEATS AND INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (IFE)
The New Seats
The old PR seats are now replaced with new ones (duh) from Recaro; each seat is equipped with a touch-screen monitor. Their IFE features current movies, music albums, games and some (recorded) TV shows. Their media library could use more selections, though. From what I remembered, there were only a few international flicks and music, a few Pinoy ones, a few games and a few music selection.
Seat pitch is quite generous for a coach cabin. I was able to recline (but not so much) and take a short nap during the 12-hour trip. If it matters, I really meant to take just a short nap* so that I could adjust to the new time zone in my destination faster.
Legroom for the refurbished aircraft is above-average; enough to give you "breathing" space but not to give you enough leeway when you're on the innermost seat and you need to go to the washroom.
For this I give it 3.7/5
The Old Seats
The old PR seats are still found in their fleet, specifically in PR's A330-300s, A340-300s and in one of the B747-400s. The old seats are as exciting as a cucumber and a snail. They (seats) have no IFEs, just headphone jacks to plug in the headphone they'll provide and listen to the audio of the movie on the big screen or the pre-compiled music playlists. Imagine the boredom I had to endure during the nine-hour flight from Manila to Honolulu.
The old seats, however, are more comfortable (again, IMO) than the new ones. The legroom is about the same as the new ones.
I rate the old seats as 2.9/5. +3.6 for comfort, -0.7 for not having IFE.
*Tip: If your destination has a difference of/more than (+/-) six hours and you know that your arrival time is sometime night time, try not to fall asleep. If you can't avoid it, a short nap should be enough.
If, however, your arrival time in your destination is sometime in the morning try to get as much sleep as you can.
INFLIGHT SERVICES AND FLIGHT ATTENDANT COURTESY
Food
On two separate instances that I rode on Philippine Airlines in its trips to the US (SFO and HNL), they served Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet or Chicken Adobo (somewhat similar to Soy Chicken) along with a few slices of fruits, a salad, a dessert and drinks.
On PR's Food
I found it amusing that PR serves traditional Filipino food (pertaining to adobo) to its passengers. At least, foreigners get to taste what we eat at home. I got the fish, by the way; I'm not so much into chicken adobo, not when the chicken is hormone-rich (broiler). My companion got the chicken--she didn't finish it.
I finished mine but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it; finishing my food is a habit of mine. First of all in its name, Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet, the only justfied part was Fish Fillet. The sauce used to glaze the food was neither sweet nor sour; it was salty. The rice? It was nothing short of *oh how do I describe it..* undelectable.
The rice was fried or I think it was. It was oily and had carrots and peas mixed with it so I figured that it must've been fried...insufficiently.
Good thing the breakfast meal was better. I had sausages and hashbrowns, kinda like the breakfast they serve in Mabuhay Class (Business Class) in their domestic flights.
Of the two long-haul PR flights I've been on and eight (8) meals they served the passengers, I was satisfied with only three (3).
Oh and if you look at their inflight magazine, you'd see that they would serve yummy-looking snacks from Goldilocks or Red Ribbon--they DON'T. On our return flight from Honolulu, I got hungry after the meal so I got up and went to the rear of the aircraft, to the galley (they didn't respond when I pressed the FA Call Button). I was expecting a fluffy mamon or something like that. I got what seemed to be a miniscule burger--it said "Asado Bun" on the label and a small cup of water. WTF?!
The snack was disgusting! The bread was hard and tasted really stale. There was hardly any asado taste in the filling. Then I realized:"Ohh! So that's why they gave me water; to soften the bread a bit."
For this, I rate PR's food service with 1.9/5 for the meals and 0/5 for the snack.
On PR's Beverages
The only choices we had during and after the meal were: water, orange/apple juice, red/white wine, two kinds of soda, coffee or tea. Somewhat limited for an international/intercontinental flight. I guess they were saving up so they could pay for the B777-300ERs they had coming.
If I remember correctly, the sodas were of the Virgin brand, the wines weren't seasoned/aged very well, and the coffee and tea were both diluted. At least the OJ/AJ were good.
Weak sauce, if you ask me. I give it 1/5.
On flight attendant (FA) courtesy and conduct
In all fairness, I stood erected err corrected about my bias when it comes to PR's FAs. They were really not that uptight while serving the passengers, at least most of them weren't. Most of them were actually warm while greeting the passengers who were boarding the aircraft, while handing out the meal tray and on some other occasions.
On one occasion, actually, two of the flight's FAs conversed with us like we were friends. They were very much like fish in the water or gays in the parlor.
Two cents. First: on our return flight from Honolulu, I got hungry after eating a late lunch. I went to the back of the aircraft, the galley, to ask for something chow on. I was expecting a smile that comes with the food but I got a mocking stare from that fat, gay cabin crew and the oger it was with! I think they were irritated at me for cutting their conversation. Well sorry. I forgot their job was to stand in the corner and gossip. (Hindi na raw biased, oh?! I said most of them, not all of them.)
Second: why does PR still keep those attendants that seem to have broken loose in the galley?! You don't see that in other airlines; you just don't.
I give it 3.9/5.
So there. Getting all ratings and averaging them, it all comes down to 2.68/5. It's above 50% (54% actually) and it's weak! Come on! Just because you're Asia's First Airline, doesn't mean your services/facilities have to be antique!
Rating, by the way x/5 where x can be any number from 1 to 5. 5 is the highest and 1 is the lowest.
PHILIPPINE AIRLINES (PAL/PR)
I've been riding PR constantly until Grand Air and Cebu Pacific entered the market. From what I can remember when I was a child, PR served decent meals which included rice, viand, dessert and drinks even in a DVO-MNL run. That was then.
PRESENT DVO-MNL RUN
The company might be cutting cost or increasing profit or both, I don't know the real reason but the service I used to like was now just a thing of the past. Instead of a decent meal in a modern aircraft, they now only serve a pack of biscuits and a cup of juice or coffee or tea or water. Talk about cheap.
PR's INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT
Just last November 2009, we went to San Francisco, CA to visit some relatives and we took PR. I was pleasantly surprised when we boarded their B747-400 and find that we chanced upon their newly-refurbished cabin. Everything in the cabin now looks like PR is really ready to take on the international market.
SEATS AND INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (IFE)
The New Seats
The old PR seats are now replaced with new ones (duh) from Recaro; each seat is equipped with a touch-screen monitor. Their IFE features current movies, music albums, games and some (recorded) TV shows. Their media library could use more selections, though. From what I remembered, there were only a few international flicks and music, a few Pinoy ones, a few games and a few music selection.
Seat pitch is quite generous for a coach cabin. I was able to recline (but not so much) and take a short nap during the 12-hour trip. If it matters, I really meant to take just a short nap* so that I could adjust to the new time zone in my destination faster.
Legroom for the refurbished aircraft is above-average; enough to give you "breathing" space but not to give you enough leeway when you're on the innermost seat and you need to go to the washroom.
For this I give it 3.7/5
The Old Seats
The old PR seats are still found in their fleet, specifically in PR's A330-300s, A340-300s and in one of the B747-400s. The old seats are as exciting as a cucumber and a snail. They (seats) have no IFEs, just headphone jacks to plug in the headphone they'll provide and listen to the audio of the movie on the big screen or the pre-compiled music playlists. Imagine the boredom I had to endure during the nine-hour flight from Manila to Honolulu.
The old seats, however, are more comfortable (again, IMO) than the new ones. The legroom is about the same as the new ones.
I rate the old seats as 2.9/5. +3.6 for comfort, -0.7 for not having IFE.
*Tip: If your destination has a difference of/more than (+/-) six hours and you know that your arrival time is sometime night time, try not to fall asleep. If you can't avoid it, a short nap should be enough.
If, however, your arrival time in your destination is sometime in the morning try to get as much sleep as you can.
INFLIGHT SERVICES AND FLIGHT ATTENDANT COURTESY
Food
On two separate instances that I rode on Philippine Airlines in its trips to the US (SFO and HNL), they served Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet or Chicken Adobo (somewhat similar to Soy Chicken) along with a few slices of fruits, a salad, a dessert and drinks.
On PR's Food
I found it amusing that PR serves traditional Filipino food (pertaining to adobo) to its passengers. At least, foreigners get to taste what we eat at home. I got the fish, by the way; I'm not so much into chicken adobo, not when the chicken is hormone-rich (broiler). My companion got the chicken--she didn't finish it.
I finished mine but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it; finishing my food is a habit of mine. First of all in its name, Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet, the only justfied part was Fish Fillet. The sauce used to glaze the food was neither sweet nor sour; it was salty. The rice? It was nothing short of *oh how do I describe it..* undelectable.
The rice was fried or I think it was. It was oily and had carrots and peas mixed with it so I figured that it must've been fried...insufficiently.
Good thing the breakfast meal was better. I had sausages and hashbrowns, kinda like the breakfast they serve in Mabuhay Class (Business Class) in their domestic flights.
Of the two long-haul PR flights I've been on and eight (8) meals they served the passengers, I was satisfied with only three (3).
Oh and if you look at their inflight magazine, you'd see that they would serve yummy-looking snacks from Goldilocks or Red Ribbon--they DON'T. On our return flight from Honolulu, I got hungry after the meal so I got up and went to the rear of the aircraft, to the galley (they didn't respond when I pressed the FA Call Button). I was expecting a fluffy mamon or something like that. I got what seemed to be a miniscule burger--it said "Asado Bun" on the label and a small cup of water. WTF?!
The snack was disgusting! The bread was hard and tasted really stale. There was hardly any asado taste in the filling. Then I realized:"Ohh! So that's why they gave me water; to soften the bread a bit."
For this, I rate PR's food service with 1.9/5 for the meals and 0/5 for the snack.
On PR's Beverages
The only choices we had during and after the meal were: water, orange/apple juice, red/white wine, two kinds of soda, coffee or tea. Somewhat limited for an international/intercontinental flight. I guess they were saving up so they could pay for the B777-300ERs they had coming.
If I remember correctly, the sodas were of the Virgin brand, the wines weren't seasoned/aged very well, and the coffee and tea were both diluted. At least the OJ/AJ were good.
Weak sauce, if you ask me. I give it 1/5.
On flight attendant (FA) courtesy and conduct
In all fairness, I stood erected err corrected about my bias when it comes to PR's FAs. They were really not that uptight while serving the passengers, at least most of them weren't. Most of them were actually warm while greeting the passengers who were boarding the aircraft, while handing out the meal tray and on some other occasions.
On one occasion, actually, two of the flight's FAs conversed with us like we were friends. They were very much like fish in the water or gays in the parlor.
Two cents. First: on our return flight from Honolulu, I got hungry after eating a late lunch. I went to the back of the aircraft, the galley, to ask for something chow on. I was expecting a smile that comes with the food but I got a mocking stare from that fat, gay cabin crew and the oger it was with! I think they were irritated at me for cutting their conversation. Well sorry. I forgot their job was to stand in the corner and gossip. (Hindi na raw biased, oh?! I said most of them, not all of them.)
Second: why does PR still keep those attendants that seem to have broken loose in the galley?! You don't see that in other airlines; you just don't.
I give it 3.9/5.
So there. Getting all ratings and averaging them, it all comes down to 2.68/5. It's above 50% (54% actually) and it's weak! Come on! Just because you're Asia's First Airline, doesn't mean your services/facilities have to be antique!
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