I am looking to book a flight BNE-MNL and PAL's web and customer service systems leave a lot to be desired.
Firstly, I can accept that I will get an A320 seat which is only 5 inches extra seat pitch and 3 inches wider than economy. Except you won't find this info on their website. Mabuhay class photos will show you the angled seats on their other metal. These seats are one inch more than Starclass so I don't even know how they can classify them as J seats, they are much closer to premium economy.
Secondly, I can also accept with MNL-BNE as a trial service, I won't actually get any lounge access in BNE or DRW although they have agreements with New Zealand in Melbourne, etc.
I think they should be able to get some sort of lounge agreement going, but there is no information, just blank spots on their list of lounges for BNE, DRW, PER on their website.
What I can't accept is that after spending heaps of time filling out my info, it won't accept my newly registered Mabuhay miles account number, and then my 28 Degrees Mastercard gets declined and it kicks me back to the start instead of asking for a different card. And I can't choose to pay in USD instead of AUD and accept their terrible conversion rate of 92 cents.
When Manila is the call centre capital in the US market for voice, why do I have to use Skype to actually talk to a real person in their Manila call centre? They can't even set up a local DID? And then of course they will only accept Philippines credit cards for voice bookings.
The CSR just had no idea what to do to help me about this issue, and this is after pressing two for Mabuhay class. You would think they might have a system in place for Mabuhay customers to get better CSRs, hahaha you have to be joking.
If my only other option under $500 OW wasn't so much more of a hassle I would look elsewhere. MEL-SYD on Jetstar, SYD-SIN on FlyScoot and SIN-MNL on Cebu Pacific or MEL-KUL on AirAsia (who's website is down) then on to Manila are my only other options.