The round trip came to €612, one checked bag included. That struck me as reasonable until I mentioned it to a friend who had paid €340 the previous March on the same route. The gap, roughly the cost of my return leg’s airport meals and a hotel night in Manila, is the thing to understand about Philippine Airlines before you commit to anything. I had booked ten months out, pinned by university dates and no margin for a last-minute gamble.
The long-haul product is honest about its limits. In economy on the A350, a six-foot passenger gets decent pitch, and the meals on the London route are properly Filipino rather than a generic approximation. The crew tend to be efficient in a way that reads as professional rather than warm. What surprised me was the island network — that is where PAL actually earns its keep. Getting from Manila to Cebu, Puerto Princesa, or the smaller Visayas strips is far smoother on one ticket with checked bags included than on the budget carriers that charge extra for every kilo and often cancel late departures without notice. The difference is tangible.
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If you are flying out of Manila this year, the domestic connections matter more than seat pitch. A three-hour layover sounds excessive until you have cleared immigration at Terminal 1 on a Tuesday morning, when the line can eat ninety minutes without breaking a sweat. Think about the whole itinerary, not just the long-haul leg. That is where the real value sits.
- Check whether your fare includes a checked bag on the domestic leg, because some PAL fares do not automatically bundle it.
- Compare the total journey time against the budget airline option, since a cheap island fare often means a separate terminal and a re-checked bag.
- Look at the fare calendar a month before you book, because PAL prices move in steps rather than smoothly, and the step can be €80.
- Read the change fee rules before you pay, because a flexible date on the return leg is worth real money when you are flying home around term breaks.
- Verify the terminal for your domestic connection, since PAL uses different ones for international and some regional services.
The seatback screens are functional, nothing more. The wifi sends a message home but will not stream anything. I have noticed the airline’s recent investment in new business class suites on its 787s, reported by Simple Flying in late August, which suggests the long-haul experience will improve at the front of the cabin even if economy stays as it is. That matters little for a budget traveller. Still, it signals the airline is thinking about its premium routes.
Flexibility decides everything here. If you can move your trip by a week, the fare difference on the Manila-London route can be several hundred euros, and the island connections shift with it. If, like me, you are pinned to term dates and exam schedules, the airline’s reliability and the simplicity of one ticket become worth more than the fare delta. I paid the €612, and did not think about it again until the boarding pass printed. That is the whole point for a student budget. And when I needed to check the current state of flights departing Manila for a friend’s trip this winter, the pattern was the same: cheap midweek departures in November, a sharp climb once Christmas begins.
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