Transiting In Manila - What Have I Gotten Myself Into

[albatross710]

Semantics, but I don't think they've "moved" to CRK as such, more that supplementary flights (extra frequencies) have been added to CRK instead of MNL, to complement those flying to MNL. I think there's only 2 carriers (Jin Air and T'Way Airlines) that don't operate at MNL, all other carriers operating international flights from CRK operate to/from same cities at MNL.

I understood that PR had been encouraged by Ph govt to relocate flights to CRK. The one that I know is Siargao which they used to operate MNL-IAO and now it's CRK-IAO

 

[watermelonbrain]

And hope that QF honoured its checked baggage transfer policy from QF to JL. Yep.

This would certainly make things a lot easier. How much "hope" should I be placing in these guys (MNL airport staff).

I guess as long as everything is tagged to final destination, then if bags fail to make it, thats when travel insurance kicks in/the airline will be responsible to locate and transport the bags to final destination.

 

[albatross710]

This would certainly make things a lot easier. How much "hope" should I be placing in these guys (MNL airport staff).

I guess as long as everything is tagged to final destination, then if bags fail to make it, thats when travel insurance kicks in/the airline will be responsible to locate and transport the bags to final destination.

you cannot control that. so just relax and enjoy.

interestingly when I transited via HKG to Cebu one time, bags missed in HGK, travel insurance takes 12 hour wait on delayed bags. Bags arrived about 11.5 hrs.

 

[dajop]

I understood that PR had been encouraged by Ph govt to relocate flights to CRK. The one that I know is Siargao which they used to operate MNL-IAO and now it's CRK-IAO

Ah, yes, I think you are right re some domestic flights. PR haven't done so for international flights though, although PR do operate to ICN from CRK (as well as MNL).

 

[Melburnian1]

This would certainly make things a lot easier. How much "hope" should I be placing in these guys (MNL airport staff).

I guess as long as everything is tagged to final destination, then if bags fail to make it, thats when travel insurance kicks in/the airline will be responsible to locate and transport the bags to final destination.

I've never had a problem in MNL with my suitcase being transferred but have only experienced international to domestic.

 

[Haplo]

I am a regular visit to MNL and he flown Qantas out of T1 (previously) and T3 and CX out of T3. There is no airside connection between T1 and T3 so you have to go through customs.

A condition of entering the departure terminal for philippine national or those with working visa is that they must print out their booking confirmation and show to the security guy outside. As a foreigner you just need to waive your passport and they will let you though (10+ times and counting).

 

[lucky52]

Hi all,

So, I booked business reward flights with Qantas to get from SYD - HND. It involved a transit in Manila (I know!!!).

The flights are QF from SYD - MNL and then JL from MNL - HND with a 4 hr 55min hour layover. I assumed the capital airport would be similar to other major airports and transit would be relative simple until I did my research and basically found out MNL is basketcase of an airport for transiting.

QF flies into T3 @ 1830h and JL departs out of T1 @ 2325h. Does anyone know if the luggage is checked all the way through to HND from SYD given it's a single booking and both airlines are OW partners. The complication here is a change of terminal which seems to require passing through customs and then re-entering customs at the departure terminal? Anyone had experience on this route/similar route can advise?

Apparently there is now a free terminal transfer shuttle bus, but its located in the arrivals hall which requires passing through customs, what happens to the checked luggage here? Any advice on transiting from T3 to T1 in general and rough idea of time required.

Change your flight! The transfer through Manila is hopeless. Bags are not checked through (of which the Qantas business class clerk at check in did not advise us) and the process at Manila airport takes around 3 hours and is reminiscent of an episode of Fawlty Towers. We did it on the 30th of August.

We were met coming off the plane at Manila by a person holding signs with transiting passengers' names and told to clear immigration (no mention of what to do about collecting bags) and so we headed off to immigration who refused to let us in and told us to go to the Transit Desk. We did that and that's when the fun started. It took over 3 hours waiting around in the unairconditioned transit area to then get on a rickety old bus to take us on the 20 minute trip to the terminal from which JAL flew. The Qantas agent wanted to keep our passport as this transfer took place and he travelled on a seprate bus! He couldn't undertstand that we did not want to be separated from our passports. t is lucky that the time between flights was as long as it was, otherwise we would have missed it.

There is simply too much to this story to go through it all but was the biggest farce I have ever experienced travelling. Qantas should be ashamed for allowing this to happen.

Asking the staff at Manila 'does this happen every day', they said 'yes, it does' and we were lucky as we got through quicker than most! The Qantas agents couldn't have seemed less interested if they tried.

 

[exceladdict]

Change your flight! The transfer through Manila is hopeless. Bags are not checked through (of which the Qantas business class clerk at check in did not advise us) and the process at Manila airport takes around 3 hours and is reminiscent of an episode of Fawlty Towers. We did it on the 30th of August.

We were met coming off the plane at Manila by a person holding signs with transiting passengers' names and told to clear immigration (no mention of what to do about collecting bags) and so we headed off to immigration who refused to let us in and told us to go to the Transit Desk. We did that and that's when the fun started. It took over 3 hours waiting around in the unairconditioned transit area to then get on a rickety old bus to take us on the 20 minute trip to the terminal from which JAL flew. The Qantas agent wanted to keep our passport as this transfer took place and he travelled on a seprate bus! He couldn't undertstand that we did not want to be separated from our passports. t is lucky that the time between flights was as long as it was, otherwise we would have missed it.

There is simply too much to this story to go through it all but was the biggest farce I have ever experienced travelling. Qantas should be ashamed for allowing this to happen.

Asking the staff at Manila 'does this happen every day', they said 'yes, it does' and we were lucky as we got through quicker than most! The Qantas agents couldn't have seemed less interested if they tried.

Now I'm feeling glad that I'll be doing a terminal switch overnight rather than same day!

 

[albatross710]

Change your flight! The transfer through Manila is hopeless. Bags are not checked through (of which the Qantas business class clerk at check in did not advise us) and the process at Manila airport takes around 3 hours and is reminiscent of an episode of Fawlty Towers. We did it on the 30th of August.

That sounds like a mess. I wonder what happened with the bags. I guess it shows thing can be inconsistent at best.

 

[Melburnian1]

That sounds like a mess. I wonder what happened with the bags. I guess it shows thing can be inconsistent at best.

Perhaps, but let's not forget at times international travellers transiting in Australian airports such as MEL have claimed it's a less than ideal experience. MNL is adversely affected by its four separate terminals, none of which are physically linked to each other, although T1 and T2 are not a huge distance apart.

And SYD international to domestic or vice versa can be challenging at times, and very slow.

 

[jase05]

Perhaps, but let's not forget at times international travellers transiting in Australian airports such as MEL have claimed it's a less than ideal experience. MNL is adversely affected by its four separate terminals, none of which are physically linked to each other, although T1 and T2 are not a huge distance apart.

Yeah, I reckon MNL gets a bit of a bad rap sometimes. It’s not perfect and I’d never try a short connection through there but I can honestly say I’ve never had any real issues either arriving, departing or transiting through MNL. Mrs Jase is a bit of a worry wort at the best of times so to put her mind at ease we usually choose a next day departure and head into town for the day/night.

 

[Melburnian1]

Yeah, I reckon MNL gets a bit of a bad rap sometimes. It’s not perfect and I’d never try a short connection through there but I can honestly say I’ve never had any real issues either arriving, departing or transiting through MNL. Mrs Jase is a bit of a worry wort at the best of times so to put her mind at ease we usually choose a next day departure and head into town for the day/night.

Yes, next day is best unless one is on an early morning arrival. If it "must" be same day, five hours would be my minimum if it was a different airline and there wasn't through baggage check available from the origin.

There seem to be many more transiting through MNL than occurred a few years ago. Makes sense because PR and 5J have expanded to new destinations and often their fares are very competitive. Bemoaned understandably by some on AFF, but lots of passengers choose only on price.

Better to be a worry wart than someone who's overly complacent as it's the latter who miss their flights due to stupidity.

 

[lucky52]

Perhaps, but let's not forget at times international travellers transiting in Australian airports such as MEL have claimed it's a less than ideal experience. MNL is adversely affected by its four separate terminals, none of which are physically linked to each other, although T1 and T2 are not a huge distance apart.

And SYD international to domestic or vice versa can be challenging at times, and very slow.

That’s true about Sydney and Melbourne but Manila is in a different league. From the garbled explanation I got from the agent it seems there is some sort of demarcation dispute going on between Philippine’s immigration and the airlines which has something to do with some changed rules which mean you can no longer enter and leave the country on the same day. Hence not allowing transiting passengers to go through immigration. Probably explains why overnight transfers work ok. In any event Qantas should be aware of the problem and explain this is likely to happen when transitting and should advise that even though boarding passes are issued through to final destination the bags will not be checked through.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

MNL and Phils in general are a basket case - if there is anyway to coughk up anything the Filipinos will find it - if it doesn’t exist they will invent it - wanna fly PAL or transit MNL you will need a serious sense of humour.

 

[Ric]

Yes, next day is best unless one is on an early morning arrival. If it "must" be same day, five hours would be my minimum if it was a different airline and there wasn't through baggage check available from the origin.

Hence, I would not recommend the OP to have some leisure time at Resorts World!!

 

[Melburnian1]

MNL and Phils in general are a basket case - if there is anyway to coughk up anything the Filipinos will find it - if it doesn’t exist they will invent it - wanna fly PAL or transit MNL you will need a serious sense of humour.

PAL (PR) actually has a more modern mainline fleet than QF, and (despite MNL congestion) pretty good timekeeping towards and from Australia. I patronise it on occasion and find overall it's a very good value airline, not perfect, but vastly improved compared with 15 years ago.

And while I share your annoyance at Philippines' love of paper-shuffling (not the only nation to engage in this too much) and road traffic congestion, its economic growth for several years has been in the 5.5 to 7 per cent approximate range, way above Australia's. So before giving it a bad rap, we need to look in our less than perfect mirrors.

 

[jase05]

PAL (PR) actually has a more modern mainline fleet than QF, and (despite MNL congestion) pretty good timekeeping towards and from Australia. I patronise it on occasion and find overall it's a very good value airline, not perfect, but vastly improved compared with 15 years ago.

And while I share your annoyance at Philippines' love of paper-shuffling (not the only nation to engage in this too much) and road traffic congestion, its economic growth for several years has been in the 5.5 to 7 per cent approximate range, way above Australia's. So before giving it a bad rap, we need to look in our less than perfect mirrors.

Totally agree. PR have really upped their game and for direct flights from Australia to the Philippines they are the only ones I’d consider and can’t recall any great problems flying them domestically either. Will definitely fly with them again as the aircraft is comfortable and the service is quite good. And yes the Philippines aren’t perfect but it’s a fantastic place to visit and worth the extra effort

 

[Limewood]

Few years back was transferring in MNL international terminal after J flight from HKG, was a minefield, lucky my friend had a young guy come from his city office to guide us through the maze, once in we took a seat, then it was announced Gate 5 go to gate 9 and gate 8 go to gate 4, so about 1000 people merged, suitcases, backpack etc., like dodgem cars we near got run over!.

 

[Melburnian1]

Totally agree. PR have really upped their game and for direct flights from Australia to the Philippines they are the only ones I’d consider and can’t recall any great problems flying them domestically either. Will definitely fly with them again as the aircraft is comfortable and the service is quite good. And yes the Philippines aren’t perfect but it’s a fantastic place to visit and worth the extra effort

I've also occasionally used PR to 'beyond Manila' (different from the OP's case since same airline, and thus far for me, no transferring terminals) and it's been most satisfactory. Only once have I used it out of BNE (not with the new lie flat in J A321neos) but have used it a couple of times ex or to SYD and more than that to or from MEL.

I don't even consider 5J from MEL or SYD to MNL (or beyond) as for flights of above two hours, I dislike its cramped A333 seating (no recline) while QF can have staff who treat travellers as interruptions. QF's punctuality on the A333/A332 international Asian routes is variable to put it politely, even though its base is Australia. For anyone outside of SYD, it means a transfer there...no thanks.

The PR service on board usually beats QF and PR has regular sales so outside of school and Christmas/Easter hols, there's no need to pay high fares if one is lucky enough to be able to arrange travel well in advance. Many AFFers are savvy enough to do this.

Using lesser known airlines like PR, CI and BR (to name a few) has much to recommend it. Of the three, PR is often cheapest and BR the most expensive. BR has very limited flights into and out of Oz, but PR is the most frequent of the three. I'll put up with some inconvenience in MNL if it means greater comfort and better service at a lower price on board.

 

[jase05]

I've also occasionally used PR to 'beyond Manila' (different from the OP's case since same airline, and thus far for me, no transferring terminals) and it's been most satisfactory. Only once have I used it out of BNE (not with the new lie flat in J A321neos) but have used it a couple of times ex or to SYD and more than that to or from MEL.

I don't even consider 5J from MEL or SYD to MNL (or beyond) as for flights of above two hours, I dislike its cramped A333 seating (no recline) while QF can have staff who treat travellers as interruptions. QF's punctuality on the A333/A332 international Asian routes is variable to put it politely, even though its base is Australia. For anyone outside of SYD, it means a transfer there...no thanks.

The PR service on board usually beats QF and PR has regular sales so outside of school and Christmas/Easter hols, there's no need to pay high fares if one is lucky enough to be able to arrange travel well in advance. Many AFFers are savvy enough to do this.

Using lesser known airlines like PR, CI and BR (to name a few) has much to recommend it. Of the three, PR is often cheapest and BR the most expensive. BR has very limited flights into and out of Oz, but PR is the most frequent of the three. I'll put up with some inconvenience in MNL if it means greater comfort and better service at a lower price on board.

Yeah, we use PR SYD-MNL and try to use them domestically aswell. We have friends in Capiz we visit and RXS is the closest airport but has limited flights so we have to take 5J but apart from that we will use PR to Boracay and Puerto Princesa. The quality of PR has increased noticeably in the last few years and like you we have found some of these “lesser airlines” offer the best prices and service