Melburnian1
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Posts
- 24,673
Full service carrier PR has a good I class sale on to 31 May (exception: MNL to 15 May) for travel from now until 12 December 2019 from SYD and MEL. School holidays outbound are excluded:
Australia April Promo
W class (PE) is also available on a few routes from A$1169 ex MEL only. Y class is available ex SYD or MEL from A$599 including taxes and meals.
Although PR has five flights a week ex BNE, it isn't included as PR is the only carrier to operate nonstop BNE - MNL and loadings are allegedly very good.
Travel ex MEL is on refurbished A333s with 1-2-1 lie flat in J. The seats don't have quite as much storage space as on some other carriers with this Vantage XL seating, but I find the Filipino crews to be generally very good and food fine. Unlike mainland Chinese carriers, there are never any language difficulties on Philippine Airlines.
Ex SYD, it's usually the A321neo with 2-2 seating in a small business class lie flat cabin: not as good as ex MEL, but intimate. It's been suggested to me that PR will put the widebody A333 back on some or all SYD flights but my source did not know when and how many per week. The seating diagram at seat selection should show travellers that.
There are nine flights a week ex SYD and six ex MEL (the exception ex MEL is no flight northbound on a Monday, or southbound on a Sunday night ex MNL. The SYD and MEL flights to and from MNL have two different schedules for various days so be sure to book at the times that suit if fares are available on both, and consider connecting times in MNL.
A very wide range of Asian destinations are available. The J fares in particular undercut most if not all other carriers and are very good value if one has the time to make a connection in MNL.
Connecting times in MNL vary. Not all connecting flights run every day.
As W class (premium economy) is also on sale, one way to check if the onwards flight from MNL is a modern configuration aircraft is to see if a W class fare is advertised. For instance it is to HND, so PR424, the 1900 hours ex MNL that makes a nice connection from SYD and MEL on some days is generally an A321neo. One establishes searching Google or Duck Duck Go 'PR424' and then looking at website www.flightradar24.com to confirm the aircraft type.
A good travel agent may be able to arrange an open jaw ticket: travel into cough and out of CTS, for instance.
Ask your agent about STPC (free hotel stopover with meals and transfers) in MNL if the connections are long. He or she will get in touch with PR reservations in Sydney and if applicable, arrange. For J bookings one normally gets a good hotel.
The PRi lounge in MNL is to my mind substandard (a poor refurbishment), but it is apparently building a new one at T1 not its current home for the majority of PRi flights of T2. In MEL, PR uses Maharba lounge that I believe opens early on the days PR208 operates.
If passengers want a longer stopover in MNL, for instance to visit beaches, this may be arranged (depending on fare availability) but there is a charge, though I'm told not huge. On a Y fare it might be an extra $60 or so, higher for J and W.
It's not specified, but by '12 December' may be the last date one can depart Australia, not the last date by which travel must be completed. A search of ITA Matrix fare conditions would reveal that.
There is an odd 'weekend surcharge' on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays ex SYD, but not MEL. The aircraft ex SYD is far smaller capacity at only 168 seats in total (12 in J) v a total of 309 seats ex MEL.
While travellers have to juggle the days around, for many on holidays that won't be a huge issue. It's more problematic for business travellers.
Australia April Promo
W class (PE) is also available on a few routes from A$1169 ex MEL only. Y class is available ex SYD or MEL from A$599 including taxes and meals.
Although PR has five flights a week ex BNE, it isn't included as PR is the only carrier to operate nonstop BNE - MNL and loadings are allegedly very good.
Travel ex MEL is on refurbished A333s with 1-2-1 lie flat in J. The seats don't have quite as much storage space as on some other carriers with this Vantage XL seating, but I find the Filipino crews to be generally very good and food fine. Unlike mainland Chinese carriers, there are never any language difficulties on Philippine Airlines.
Ex SYD, it's usually the A321neo with 2-2 seating in a small business class lie flat cabin: not as good as ex MEL, but intimate. It's been suggested to me that PR will put the widebody A333 back on some or all SYD flights but my source did not know when and how many per week. The seating diagram at seat selection should show travellers that.
There are nine flights a week ex SYD and six ex MEL (the exception ex MEL is no flight northbound on a Monday, or southbound on a Sunday night ex MNL. The SYD and MEL flights to and from MNL have two different schedules for various days so be sure to book at the times that suit if fares are available on both, and consider connecting times in MNL.
A very wide range of Asian destinations are available. The J fares in particular undercut most if not all other carriers and are very good value if one has the time to make a connection in MNL.
Connecting times in MNL vary. Not all connecting flights run every day.
As W class (premium economy) is also on sale, one way to check if the onwards flight from MNL is a modern configuration aircraft is to see if a W class fare is advertised. For instance it is to HND, so PR424, the 1900 hours ex MNL that makes a nice connection from SYD and MEL on some days is generally an A321neo. One establishes searching Google or Duck Duck Go 'PR424' and then looking at website www.flightradar24.com to confirm the aircraft type.
A good travel agent may be able to arrange an open jaw ticket: travel into cough and out of CTS, for instance.
Ask your agent about STPC (free hotel stopover with meals and transfers) in MNL if the connections are long. He or she will get in touch with PR reservations in Sydney and if applicable, arrange. For J bookings one normally gets a good hotel.
The PRi lounge in MNL is to my mind substandard (a poor refurbishment), but it is apparently building a new one at T1 not its current home for the majority of PRi flights of T2. In MEL, PR uses Maharba lounge that I believe opens early on the days PR208 operates.
If passengers want a longer stopover in MNL, for instance to visit beaches, this may be arranged (depending on fare availability) but there is a charge, though I'm told not huge. On a Y fare it might be an extra $60 or so, higher for J and W.
It's not specified, but by '12 December' may be the last date one can depart Australia, not the last date by which travel must be completed. A search of ITA Matrix fare conditions would reveal that.
There is an odd 'weekend surcharge' on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays ex SYD, but not MEL. The aircraft ex SYD is far smaller capacity at only 168 seats in total (12 in J) v a total of 309 seats ex MEL.
While travellers have to juggle the days around, for many on holidays that won't be a huge issue. It's more problematic for business travellers.
Last edited:
