I was just making domestic travel arrangements now and saw that they have a new facility where you can book tickets and have until the next day to pay for them in any PAL office, selected San Mig Convenience store or Petron with EC pay. This will make my life easier because of the flexibility it provides - I can hold onto the fare and I schedule for my family but have time to double check with my husband before we finally pay. I can't count the number of tickets (and money!) I've wasted making ticket purchases in haste and realizing I've made mistakes. We've literally had to throw away those tickets as it would cost more to rebook. Another big plus is that there's no need to always use my credit card online!
On another note, the Airphil Express website is easier to use now too! When comparing flight costs, Airphil can be a bit misleading though because unlike other airlines, the add-ons it adds are pretty big. Make sure you check the total cost before deciding as it can throw you off. What I do like about it is that there's luggage included already. We made costly mistakes before on Cebu Pacific when we didn't notice the tickets booked for us didn't buy luggage allocation.
I recently started to use Zest Air (despite my apprehensions!) because our company would use their vouchers. It's a pity they stopped selling these booklets of 11 tickets usable anytime (almost) even with just 1 day notice. It made our lives so much simpler as we didn't have to plan way in advance or have to pay a fortune for last minute tickets. The smaller airport of Zest Air was much easier to manage especially traveling with children. Their staff at the desk were really kind and helpful. The airport also has free wifi. At first, our staff were making hints how they found the planes "shaky." When we flew Zest, it was true. For some reason, they were "maalog." I don't know why but it did get us to Tagbilaran and Manila safely.
Cebu Pacific is my least preferred among the 4. The airport is too big and difficult to manage when traveling with children and handcarry. Past security, there are no more little carts you can use so you have to carry everything on top of having to use stairs to go down to the gate. And they have this bad habit of always changing the gate where you are about to depart even if you're already settled in the original gate. I would buy Cebu Pacific for technicians we need to send to Bohol because I can pay via LBC and have no need to give my ID and credit card copies to people I don't really know.
Overall, if prices aren't too far apart, we always choose to ride Philippine Airlines. The little comforts like better airport, water on board and bigger luggage allowance make traveling just more pleasant. We also like the Yakun Kaya toast in the airport. It's been a little tradition to have the yakun kaya bread and eggs there as we wait. The quality has dramatically declined over the years though. I'm so happy the period of bad service last year has been put behind them. It was actually that period that forced us to use the other airlines more regularly.
Our daughter has learned to ask beforehand if this is the plane that gives free food or not. I don't know why she loves those peanuts so much! At age 2, she was so sad the first time she rode Airphil when the stewardess didn't give out water and peanuts. "Mommy! Tubig lang walang binibigay!!!" "Oops, sorry Ava, we're flying budget!" "Ayoko dito mommy!" She was wailing the whole trip as she couldn't understand why her peanuts and water weren't being given out despite my explanations.
She knows better now. And I know better too. Choose PAL if the price difference is under P500 per ticket.
Nice blog!
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