Pampered with the Pinoy life

During my recent eight-day media junket to the Philippines, I criss-crossed the country courtesy of small and big birds belonging to Philippine Airlines, one of the major sponsors of this media tour. I found the young flight attendants attentive, polite and service-minded and its in-flight service of high quality. To be fair though, I travelled exclusively in PAL’s Mabuhay (business) class, a rare luxury for a reporter. 

We left Bangkok on an Airbus A340-300. The business class was spacious, modern and quiet, with plenty of legroom. It was attended to by a group of well-trained flight attendants who, unsurprisingly, were fluent in English – and receptive to small requests. Like my compatriots, they sounded polite, but with better mastery of the English language.

On the Manila-bound flight, one stewardess was concerned with my wellbeing and asked if she could get me anything to while away the hours: a drink, a newspaper, or a magazine. 

I don’t have any objection to airlines keeping on older flight attendants though I did notice that PAL boasts a very young crop.

The in-flight entertainment was more than adequate for a short flight, though I had time to use it to browse the news but I did like the individual “goose-neck” reading lights.

The food was agreeable, with a selection of Western, Filipino and Japanese Kaiseki dishes. PAL has celebrity chefs designing the in-flight menu every now and then as part of its recently launched Master Chef series. 

One of them is Fernando Aracama. He’s an avant-garde advocate of Filipino gastronomy and executive chef of the eponymous Aracama at The Fort in Taguig City. 

On PAL’s domestic and international flights, Aracama creates Filipino menus that evoke the rich ethnic palates of the islands. These include manok sa tanglad (grilled chicken in lemongrass) with kalo kalo (annatto garlic oil fried rice) and cucumber cilantro salad. 

There’s also legendary Irish chef and restaurateur William “Billy” King who’s cooking, for international flights, slow-cooked US Angus beef with balsamic jus, horseradish cream with pureed carrot and potato, and leek confit. 

In terms of in-flight experiences, the interior of the A340 that I flew in looked new. But then this was the first and only time I flew on this aircraft type (of PAL).  For other legs of the tour, we were invariably aboard an Airbus A320-200 on our way to Bohol and Palawan and back to Manila. 

The real workhorse of this airline, the A320 represents the world's first fly-by-wire jetliner family. There’s room for comfort in this compact cabin. On our flight to Manila from Palawan, the captain even came out to greet us in person, saying how much fun he had while training to be a pilot in Hua Hin.

We experienced smooth landings both in Bohol and Puerto Princessa, but not in Manila. Runway 17/35 of Bohol’s Tagbilaran airport is only 1.7 kilometre long, which is rather short. On landing, I felt the plane used much of the runway and the pilot had to slam on the brakes. 

PAL is currently modernising its fleet. Another new fuel-efficient Boeing 777-300 ER is now augmenting the airline’s trans-Pacific routes, with more to come this year and next. The 777 has a personal TV on every seat in both Business and Economy classes. The business class on the 777 is special with individual “goose neck” reading lights, laptop charging ports and USB ports for passengers to listen to their personal mp3 collection or view photos and PDF files.  

PAL will also launch in-flight iPads soon for a minimal charge for both business and economy passengers, which sounds attractive.

 

      Off you go

<< Philippine Airlines operates daily flights between Bangkok and Manila. 

<< Visit www.PhilippineAirlines.com.