Horrible experience, locked 5 hours into a non working plane, lost all the connection flights, zero ground assistance. I've flown with the worst airline ever (Transaero, Poste Italiane) but honestly this is now the worst ever tried.

Worst flight ever, my sister flewed in the same flight a month ago and had terrible experience. I was supposed to fly in the morning and in just 12hrs time they canceled the flight. What if, if I hadn’t open my emails before I sleep. Customer service is horrendous. Never ever will fly with Phillipines Airlines.

I recently flew on PR537 from Manila to Bali (MNL-DPS) on September 28, 2024, and I was quite disappointed with how the flight attendant in my row treated me.

I asked the flight attendant, in Tagalog, if I could move to a different seat because the man beside me was coughing loudly, and I was worried about getting sick. She informed me that purchasing a seat onboard wasn’t possible and added that most flights are full. I understood that and didn’t push further, but I was genuinely concerned about my health due to the man’s constant coughing. What I didn’t understand was why his loud coughing didn’t seem to concern the flight attendants at all.

A short while later, a foreign passenger (an American woman) sitting across from me asked if she could move to an empty seat, and the same flight attendant immediately allowed her to switch seats without hesitation. The flight attendant even suggested that the Filipino man sitting beside the foreigner could also move to a different seat.

However, she never offered me the same courtesy, even though I had asked first due to a valid health concern.


I couldn't help but think:

* Was my request ignored because I’m Filipino? Why was a foreigner’s request accommodated while mine wasn’t?

* Why didn’t the crew offer a mask to the passenger who was coughing so loudly? I had my own mask on, even though I wasn’t sick.


Throughout the rest of the flight, the same flight attendant barely interacted with me, and during the meal service, she didn’t even ask me properly what I wanted to eat.


To be clear, I didn’t speak to her disrespectfully. I even mentioned that I was willing to pay to move seats because I didn’t want to cause any trouble. But I was left feeling dismissed and ignored.

I kindly request that your flight attendants show more consideration and empathy towards passengers, especially when they are being polite. As someone who travels frequently between Bali and other destinations, I have never experienced such selective and insincere hospitality.

For someone like me who rarely makes requests during flights, this experience was quite disappointing.

Wost airline I’ve ever used. Even cheap carries like airasia are better. The airline has very frequent delays, cancellations, flights always overbooked (chance not to get a seat ALTHOUGH you paid already) and in these cases there is basically 0 reimbursement for the customers. They don’t even let you use their own lounge when they make you wait 8 hours at the airport because THEY overbooked their flight out of greed. Avoid at all cost. Use cebu pacific or airasia

Flights good! Communication and Manila in general gross and bad.

Two bad experiences with Philippines.
To clarify, the flights themselves were great, good flying and nice crew etc, the rest of the service and transiting through Manila is actually pretty bad.

2023
Our connecting flight to Perth was cancelled after we had already departed Tokyo and when we arrived in Manila, no one told us it was cancelled. They checked our luggage etc and let us upstairs to departures. Then we didn't see the flight on the monitor, logged into airport wifi n saw the email saying the flight had been cancelled. No one told us anything and we had to argue with staff to let us go back down to arrival counter. We had to stay overnight in Philippines and the airport staff asked my wife for "money for coffee" after walking us into manilla airport shuttle bus -which looked like it was run by 18yo gangsters covered in tattoos with their girlfriends who def didn't work there lying/sitting on them or on lawn chairs nearby. One spilt their drink on my friends backpack and didnt say anything. Going from super clean and friendly Japan to super dirty and scary Manilla was definitely not how i wanted to end my trip. We thought the bus staff might actually drive us somewhere and rob us (photos of 'staff' provided) . We sat there with no communicarion for about 2hrs. We got hotel at about midnight, they said a shuttle bus for new flight was 9am so we can wake and have breakfast. We didnt get any wake up call went for breakfast and oir friends said the bus came at 6am and almost left without us, our friends were called by the hotel and we weren't. We had to run upstairs grab our suitcases and wait in line and check out. When checking out the hotel asked us why, they had no idea our bus had been waiting. The bus driver was angry at us for making him wait like he wanted a fight.

2024
Cheap flights and travelling by ourselves this time so didn't mind a delay in transit. Give them another go.
Flights etc super great so far. Got to Manila from Tokyo 5hr layover. The gate wasn't put on the board until 45-50min before boarding (which insisted some panic due to last time). Then we arrive at the gate and the staff said we had to go downstairs and open our under carriage suitcases for staff to see what's inside. We said Japan told us the suitcases would go through to Perth and we didn't have to do that last year. We also said why didnt anyone tell us this 4hrs ago?? Went back and down stairs to a room of about 10 people most sitting/lying around 2 actually working (which seems to be the norm for Philippines) and they pulled the suitcases out and opened them all up while everyone watched. It seemed sketchy as they were looming over me the entire time and I kept indicating for them to look away and not look at my lock combinations. One guy even suggested I don't need to re-lock my suitcase?! These are all Samsonite with TSA key locks for airport security. I only imagine they haven't been given these keys by TSA because the staff would probably steal all our luggage items. I also think if a woman had gone down it would have been very intimidating. The process was quite quick but I spent the next 45mins wondering if they had copied my combination codes or stuck something in my suitcase. I also heard many others on same flight making similar comments.

I've flown all over the world including South East Asia many times and never had to deal with that weird open my suitcases experience which looked like all passengers to Australia had to do. The flights can be cheap and the flying is very good, if you account for the unclean state of Manilla Airport, the possible flight cancellation when you are already midflight with no warning and no communication when you arrive and a group of Philippino men glaring at you in a room by yourself while they open all your suitcases and go through them and touch everything. Go for it.