Avis du vol entre Singapore et Manila en classe Economique avec Philippine Airlines

Welcome to the Flight Report for my first flight in the year 2023! This is an extremely special trip, as I am going to return to Taiwan after almost 3 full years.

While I am based in Singapore, I make frequent trips back to Taiwan pre-pandemic, as more than half of my family stays there. This habit was abruptly discontinued 3 years ago due to COVID-19.

The last time I returned was for Chinese New Year (CNY) 2020, and this time it will be for CNY 2023. While my wife and I had already made 7 overseas trip since borders opened in May 2022, this trip to Taiwan is definitely one that I have been looking forward to day and night. Taiwan has a special place in my heart that no other place in the world can replace.

Arrival at The Airport

As usual, our trip begins from Changi Airport. This time round, I’m flying with my wife and sister, travelling on Philippine Airlines (PR) from SIN to TPE, via MNL.

After entering from Door 5, we made our way to check in zone 14, where there was already a snaking queue formed up by at least 50-60 other Economy Class passengers.

While the check in queue was long, it was thankfully a moving queue, and hence it did not feel too terrible. It took us around 20 mins to finally reach the “starting point” of the actual queue, where the “Philippine Airlines Economy Class” signage was located.

A point to note was that we actually completed our online check-in on the airline’s website 24h prior to scheduled departure, but upon arriving at the airport, we noticed that there was no designated counter for passengers who have completed online check-in, and proceeded to just join the queue with everyone else.

Online Check-In

Nonetheless, let me just briefly share the screenshots taken during the online check-in process for your reference.

After keying in your booking reference and last name, you will first be prompted to select the passengers to check in. This probably means that you may be able to only perform online check in for specific passengers and not everyone.

Next would be the standard message advising passengers not to bring along any prohibited items when flying.

After clicking to acknowledge the message above, we go into the "Journey Summary" page.

Actually, I was not too concerned about whether we were able to successfully check-in online, and rather just logged onto the online check-in portal to confirm again that our previously selected seats were not changed.

Unfortunately, they were.

And the only 3 seats (that were together) left were those extra legroom seats that we needed to pay to select; not gonna do that.

After confirming that we were unable to select seats together, I moved on to complete the rest of the online check-in process.

This was just the screen for verification of personal details.

More security and safety questions to answer.

And then contact details such as email address and mobile number need to be keyed in as well.

After that's done, I was then prompted to select the preferred mode I would like to receive the boarding passes. Note that for the SIN-MNL sector, it was not a boarding pass provided but rather just a "confirmation document".

This section allows users to print the documents.

While this part below is mainly for adding of boarding pass(es) into our iPhone.

As the online check-in process ends, I was prompted once again some important information of our upcoming flight.

Queue for Check-In (& Poor Experience)

It would have been a very boring 40 mins if I had been travelling alone and queueing by myself. This day, however, both my wife and sister were with me, and we started discussing the topic of “Philippine vs. Philippines”…

Have you ever wondered about this before?

Here’s the “fun fact of the day” before we get back to the check-in queue!

After almost 45 mins, we finally reached the front of the queue and went ahead with check-in as per normal.

There was a slight disappointment when the agent told us bluntly and coldly that “the flight is full and I cannot put all 3 of you together, you just have to take whatever is assigned to you now”.

Well, even though I did specifically selected three seats together back when I booked the flight, such a situation was totally reasonable and we accepted it as it was.

What happened next was, however, unacceptable.

As our agent was printing our boarding passes, my wife and I overheard a slight commotion going on beside us. A gentleman was raising his voice at the Duty Manager from SATS, and the conversation went…

Agitated Man: “I have already done my online check-in, and we only have one checked baggage. Why do we still need to queue for so long?”

Duty Manager: “Ok sir, you may come forward to use this counter instead.” (Points at the Business Class counter)

Confused, we asked our check-in agent…

Me: “Just to check with you, if we had done our online check-in, could we actually have used the Business Class counter instead of queueing?”

Our Check-In Agent: “No. You still have to queue as per normal, there’s no online check-in counter.”

Me: “Oh, but your colleague just told that gentlemen otherwise?”

Our Check-In Agent: (Slightly taken aback and took a look at what was happening at the neighbouring counter) “That man is my Manager, this is beyond me.”

Me: “Are you able to check this out for us? Otherwise I would like to escalate this issue.”

Our Check-In Agent: (Looks at me silently) …

We could see that our agent was as confused as we were; she decided not to continue the conversation and just remained silent. At the same time, the couple had left the queue and came forward to the Business Class counter.

Agitated Man: “We have done our online check-in.”

Business Class Counter Check-In Agent: “I understand, sir, but you will still need to queue as per normal.”

(Agitated Man mumbled something and pointed at the Duty Manager.)

To our surprise, the Duty Manager said to the Business Class Counter Check-In Agent “What to do? They are already here, just serve them.”

So, in conclusion, this happened:
- An agitated passenger tried to ask for expedited check-in upon seeing the extremely long queue
- Duty Manager went against airline’s SOP and handled the situation by directing him to the Business Class counter
- Business Class counter’s agent correctly rejected the passengers (she was not aware of conversation between Manager and the passenger in question)
- And here’s the questionable part: Instead of standing firm on the SOPs, the Duty Manager overruled the agent and told her to just allow the man to “cut queue” and check them in

I was not ready to swallow this and pretend we did not just queue for a good 45 minutes.

Me: (Walked to the Duty Manager) “Excuse me, sir. Can I check if we had completed online check-in, we could have actually used this counter? If this is the case, there should have been clearer signage to indicate that the Business Class counter is also meant for passengers who have checked in online, isn’t it?”

Duty Manager: “No. There is no online check-in counter for Philippine Airlines.”

Me: “In that case, can I understand why did you allow them to cut the queue? We have just queued patiently for over 40 minutes, and this is pretty unfair for us and the rest of the passengers.”

Duty Manager: “Sir. I was not here just now. I did not know there is no online check-in counter. If I was here just now, and you asked me, I may have allowed you to use the Business Class counter too.”

Me: “I am sorry, but that’s not the point. If there is no online check-in counter, then you should not have made the exception. Right?”

Duty Manager: “You need to know it was out of goodwill. I mean, if I see elderly passengers or passengers with young kids, I won’t ask them to queue so long, right? It was goodwill.”

This did not make sense. The couple who bypassed the queue was definitely considered as “young adults”.

Furthermore, the Manager kept emphasising that if we asked then he might have allowed us to bypass the queue too. It was clear that he turned up at the Philippine Airlines check in zone late and handled the situation the "easy way". We don’t want to assume, but it seemed like he made this exception because the agitated man was raising his voice.

Me: “Sir, you are missing the point. Even if you were here earlier, I won’t ask you for permission to cut the queue as well, since the signs state very clearly that there are only Economy and Business Class counters. None for Online Check-In.”

Duty Manager: “You can write in to Philippine Airlines if you want to. You can quote my name.”

At this point, he was not interested in speaking to me anymore. I asked for his name and left.

By the time we completed check-in formalities, it was 11.02pm, which was approximately half an hour more to the scheduled boarding time. After passing us our boarding passes, the check-in agent also weighed and tagged every cabin bag. 

Airside

We bid farewell to our family members who came to send us off and passed through departure immigration, which was still as efficient as ever.

Immigration took just a few seconds (literally) and we dropped by the food hall to grab a drink before heading to Gate D40.

Security screening was well underway at 11.40pm, and it took us around 10 mins to go through security. The security screening officers were extremely friendly and professional. So it’s never a stressful task to go through security here at Changi Airport. What a stark contrast to our experience at the check-in counters just now.

Recently, there was even a story of how the officers went above and beyond their duty to help passengers who had trouble with their liquid containers in their hand carry bags.

Security screening has always been one of the most stressful part of commercial air travel, but with Changi’s security screening officers displaying such high level of professionalism and top-notch service standards, I am sure many passengers travelling through this airport don’t feel that pressurised when putting their bags through the x-ray machines.

Flight Delay

An empty bay at Gate D40 greeted us as we went through into the boarding lounge area. It seemed like our inbound aircraft is going to be arriving late. 

And a quick search on FlightRadar24 verified this assumption. The inbound PR509 was delayed by around 45 mins.

With this flight to Manila expected to be totally fully, the boarding lounge was extremely crowded and there were not many seats available.

I spent the time standing by the window awaiting for the arrival of our aircraft.

PR510 that night was operated by RP-C9918, an 8 years old A321-200, delivered to Philippine Airlines in Mar 2015.

Just had to do this mandatory Instagram shot with the boarding pass and aircraft xD

Boarding

Boarding was conducted by group, and we were in Boarding Group B.

By the time we set foot on the aerobridge, it was already 1h behind the scheduled boarding time.

PR proudly displays their Skytrax 4-star rating beside their aircraft doors.

Is that a significant achievement by an airline? I guess this has now become a pretty debatable topic.

Actually it would be nice if it was an airline alliance logo that was displayed at this spot; many years ago, rumours had it that PR was looking into the possibility of joining oneworld Alliance. Being a long time oneworld Sapphire member, this news definitely got me excited back then.

Several years have since passed with no further updates to this, and I am inclined to believe that “joining an alliance” is no longer an agenda in PR’s business plan at this stage(?)

PR’s A321 consists of 3 cabins: 12 Business Class seats in 2-2 configuration, 18 Economy Plus seats & 169 Economy seats in 3-3 configuration. I only managed to photograph the Economy class seats on this flight and will add on photos for the other two cabins in the next Flight-Report. Here is the seat map for this aircraft.

These blue leathered Economy seats look identical to that on PR’s A330 aircrafts. They don’t look exceptionally sharp, but at least they do look comfortable and durable. For an aircraft that is slightly less than a decade old, this looks perfectly acceptable.

Typically on A321s, there will be a few Economy “couple seats” near the exit rows. For anyone travelling in groups of 2, these seats would definitely be the top options to choose from. Do note that pre-selection of these seats is chargeable most of the time, though. Couple seats are available on Rows 41 & 54 on this aircraft type.

Apart from the couple seats, there are also quite a few emergency exit rows in an A321. Seats at these rows offer much better legroom space, but of course, selecting these seats will come with an additional price tag too.

(For this flight PR510 SIN-MNL, these seats can be selected during online check in at SGD66 per seat.)

The rest of the standard Economy seats are pretty basic, with good padding and hence decent level of comfort.

I was initially assigned Seat 69K (Window), and my sister was allocated to 68K. During boarding, the gentleman at 69H gladly agreed to swap his seat with us so that the three of us can sit together. Eventually, I took the aisle seat at 69H, while the ladies took 69J and 69K.

As much as I love sitting by the window to gaze at the skies whenever I fly, I value the freedom to head to the lavatory as and when I want to even more. So here’s a look at Philippine Airlines A321’s lavatory.

I used the washroom several times on this flight, so I can safely conclude that it was kept at pristine conditions throughout the flight. The only issue was this compartment door that didn’t seem to be closing properly during the flight.

Perhaps the airline should consider taping it up like that too?

Further Delay, Push Back & Take Off (Finally)

Our Cabin Manager made an announcement at 1.04am informing that while all pax were onboard, there were still “some documents” to be completed and hence we would not be leaving the gate yet.

The photo below was taken at 1.18am and there were still no signs of departure. The flight was delayed for 58 mins at this point in time.

We finally commenced our push back at 1.20am, exactly 1h after the scheduled departure time.

(UTC+08:00)
0120 Push Back
0125 Taxi
0137 Crew Prep for Take Off
0139 Take Off from Runway 02L
0146 Signs Off

The seatbelt signs went off at 1.46am and cabin lights were turned back on.

Seat Tour

Let us take a further look at the Economy product offered on this aircraft type.

Starting from above our seats, we see the ever-important individual air vents that more and more airlines are eliminating from their cabin. These air vents came in handy on this flight when I felt that the cabin was a bit warm but my travel mates felt cold. There were also individual reading lights, and 2 crew call bells for every 3 passengers. 

The size of the tray table was good, and it was pretty sturdy too.

And even though I don’t look forward to flying on narrow body aircrafts, especially on red eye flights, this Philippine Airlines flight on their A321 turned out to be very okay.

Officially, the legroom was supposed to be 30” but it felt quite spacious for me (my height is 1.77m). 

On top of that, the seat had a good recline angle, but even if fully reclined, it did not seem to impede too much into the space of the passenger seated behind.

However, while most aspects of the seat seemed pretty decent, there was a slight issue with my seat. Whenever I reclined the seat, it did not seem to be unable to stay in the recline position and will automatically revert to the upright position after a while. This happened a few times during the flight, but I couldn’t identify exactly what was the issue with the seat.

Well, at least the headrest was adjustable in many angles and well padded, making it very comfortable despite looking a bit hard. 

There was also a seat pocket that was deep enough for us to store our belongings, such as water bottles or iPad. The safety information card and air sickness bag were also kept in the seat pocket of each seat.

Unfortunately, PR has also joined the “digitalising-in-flight-magazine-so-as-to-reduce-touch-points-in-view-of-the-pandemic” group of airlines. I would think it’s more for cost cutting purposes. In the past before COVID-19, flights onboard any aircrafts without IFE were usually spent reading articles in the airline’s magazine, but with these magazines becoming less common on commercial aircrafts, passengers would probably be better off downloading their own videos or shows on YouTube or Netflix. 

Or maybe you can spend some time reading the safety information card in detail too? xD 

I do like the design on both the safety information card and air sickness bag, which was pretty elegant! 

The flight that night was quite turbulent and, due to the first instance of turbulent weather, our captain had to turn on the seatbelt signs again just 5 mins after initially turning it off. 

At the same time, I decided it was time to wipe down the tray table before using it for the rest of this flight. This is an important habit I am trying to build up after the pandemic. On this trip, I am using the wet wipes that Vietnam Airlines gave us on our previous two flights to and fro Ho Chi Minh City; so the photo below is definitely taken onboard Philippine Airlines and not a wrong photo used. 

Thereafter, the crew came through the cabin to give each passenger a bottle of water each.

SIN-MNL is not exactly a particular long flight so it was actually very nice of the airline to still distribute a bottle of water to everyone; thumbs up to PR! (In comparison, EVA Air doesn't even provide bottled water in on our SIN-TPE Business Class flight in Feb 2023)

Supper Service

The smell of food started to spread throughout the cabin around 40 mins after take off at approximately 2.20am, signalling the start of supper service on this flight. This was a super high level of efficiency; definitely commendable given that this was a super red eye flight and many passengers were likely looking forward to catch some sleep after eating supper.

Meal service was done efficiently, with the first crew member informing everyone about the choices available, and a second crew member handling all drink requests.

I asked for two drinks: an apple juice and a white wine. The white wine served was very smooth and pleasant to drink; it also turned out to be a very suitable drink option for the meal, which was very salty in my opinion.

There were two options: Fish with white rice, or beef with fried rice. My sister managed to get the last available fish meal on the plane.

While she was lucky, she told me that the meal was nothing to rave about.

I chose the beef option, and was unsurprisingly disappointed with the food too.

From experience, catering from SIN by SATS Catering is frequently a "miss" more than "hit".

Most of the beef cubes were overcooked and hence pretty hard. The rice was tasteless but pretty well cooked, fortunately(?) the sauce was on the salty end and hence it ended up quite decent when mixed with the fried rice. By itself however, the sauce was very salty and not to my liking at all.

For the other items on the meal tray, we have a bread that was stale and not appetising at all, a vanilla cake that did not quite taste like vanilla but rather an orange cake. The cake was not too dry, thankfully, but too sweet to be served as a supper at 2.45am. I also felt that the “vanilla cake” reminded me of the night snacks that we were issued back when I was serving the army. Fun fact, some of our army camps outsource food preparation to SATS as well. (It's no wonder that meals served onboard Singapore Airlines were recently compared to "army food")

The salad tasted the most acceptable, albeit a little more sour than a usual coleslaw. Ingredients wise, it was however disproportionately overwhelmed with carrot slices.

Plastic utensils came with the meal, as expected in an Economy Class product. There was also a toothpick included in the utensils pack.

Cruising

I mentioned about the turbulent weather we encounter on this flight earlier, the same situation happened very soon after meal service. And weather was pretty rough at that point in time, to the extent that all crew members were asked to halt service and take their seats.

This resulted in our finished meal trays sitting on our tables for at least 35 mins. Quite a bummer to the otherwise efficient supper meal service.

It was of no fault of the crew members that they were only able to resume service at 3.30am, and all of them immediately sprung into action clearing meal trays and other trash from all of us. 

Overall, I would rate the meal quality as “below average”.

Well, at least the food quantity was generous, but just exactly the most appropriate amount of food and food choice to be served as supper on a super red eye flight.

By 3.38am, just under ten minutes after the crew was allowed back in action, they were almost done with clearing the meal trays, yet again displaying the extreme level of service efficiency on this flight.

The crew members working on this flight were doing a return trip on PR509/PR510 between Manila and Singapore. This roughly translates to a duty time of around 10h. It was clear that all of them were tired by the time we were halfway through our flight, nonetheless, all of them still remained super professional and polite at all times. At no time did their tiredness result in subpar service standards, which left us with a very good impression of PR on this flight.

The last time I flew on PR was in 2015 from TPE to MEL via MNL (and that was a good 8 years ago!), generally the experience remained similar. With polite and friendly crew members following strict SOPs with little to no other interactions with customers. 

With the meal service finally concluded, it’s lights off time! There isn’t much time left before we arrive at MNL though.

On this flight, I tried to sleep at around 3am (just after finishing my meal), hoping to get at least 1.5h of rest. That did not happen, and I remained largely awake throughout the rest of the flight, and instead got started on writing this Flight Report on my iPad.

Approach & Landing

Just to be clear - I still found this Economy product to be quite a comfortable one even though I couldn’t get myself asleep. Before long, our pilots turned on the seatbelt signs one final time at 4.38am; this time in preparation for descent and landing into Manila.

At 4.51am, we had an extremely smooth landing with the pilot flying almost buttering the aircraft on the runway. It appeared to be a landing at quite a higher speed than usual though, as we experienced some super hard braking as we rolled down the runway, presumably so that our aircraft could exit at the assigned taxiway.

We took just another 5 mins to taxi to our gate and arrived at 4.57am, clocking a final delay of 52 mins.

Our next flight was scheduled to depart at 6.25am, and thus we were not in a hurry to disembark.

As we left the aircraft at 5.08am, we walked pass the Premium Economy section of PR’s A321. The seats look largely akin to that in Economy, but just with better seat pitch and a different seat colour.

That's my sister posing in the photo. It's been long since we last flew together!

Transit

My transit experience in Manila was not exactly the most pleasant memory 8 years ago, so this time round I can’t say I am looking forward to it.

But at least the airport terminal had nice and clean windows that allowed me to take a good photo of RP-C9918, the A321 that flew us from Singapore to Manila. (Notice how the airline's official name is Philippine Airlines, but on the aircraft's livery it says "Philippines")

The walk to transit security was very lengthy and it took us about 10 mins.

8 years ago, I vividly remember how absurdly crowded and disorganised the transit security area was. This time round, I was happy to see it empty when we were there. Nonetheless, it still seemed to be as tiny an area as how I remembered it, so I can’t imagine how uncomfortably crowded it can get during peak hours.

Made it through security at around 5.20am, which was smooth and eventless.

Found a seat to place our bags before we board our next flight in around 10 mins’ time. The terminal was already crowded and packed at 5am, no wonder I didn’t have good memories of my 8h transit in this exact terminal 8 years ago.

Thankfully for us, PR510’s delay meant that our transit time in Manila has now been minimised to just 1.5h. The time we needed to spend in Manila’s airport terminal was further cut down to just 10-20 mins because our Taipei bound flight commenced boarding right on the dot; 1h before scheduled departure.

With this, we have come to the end of PR510’s Flight-Report. I will summarise our Philippine Airlines A321 Economy Class experience in the next report.

See you on our next flight from Manila to Taipei!