Philippine Airlines is having a promo – 12 Days of Amazing Low Fares!
Selling Period is from Dec. 8-19, 2014.
Travel Period is from Jun-Oct, 2015.
If you are the type to plan your travels way ahead of time, better take advantage of this deal. If you have a bit of leeway with your budget, I really recommend flying by PAL instead of the other carrier. PAL has better amenities. It’s generally more comfortable than its competitors. And they provide food and water. And also give you a bigger baggage allowance.
I rarely fly by PAL because it’s more expensive. If budget is an issue I usually go with the cheaper competitors, but they are not without their drawbacks. I only fly by PAL when I find promos like this that make the price difference with its competitor worth it.
If the price difference between PAL and the competitor is less than P800 for domestic roundtrip, or less than P2,000 for nearby roundtrip international routes like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, I go with PAL. The additional comfort and less hassle is worth it.
When you make your comparison, make sure to get the competitor’s final price (including the additional baggage allowance fee, add in any food you might be forced to bring or buy) before comparing with PAL’s.
Also keep in mind that in Hong Kong, at least, PAL is the only Philippine airline that will accept a city check-in. I flew on Cebu Pacific (I got a great deal! Less than $80 for the roundtrip!) on my last flight from Hong Kong, and it was a bit embarrassing to find out that they didn’t have any counter to accept city check-ins. I’m not complaining. I got an awesome price and I understand there are trade-offs. But on a previous trip, I flew on PAL and city check-in was a breeze at IFC, and I just expected the same process and assumed all airlines had city check-in counters.
What is City or In-Town Check-In?
For me, it just means I don’t have to drag my luggage everywhere on the way to the airport – up and down stairs, turnstiles, cabs, buses and trains. This is especially helpful when you are travelling on your own (not on a travel package with airport transfers).
I’m familiar with Hong Kong’s process so I’ll talk about that.
In HK, the best way to get to the Hong Kong International Airport is by Airport Express. Budget HK$100 for each Airport Express trip. There are 2 stations – one in HK (IFC Mall near Central, Hong Kong MTR Station) and one in Kowloon (Elements Mall, Kowloon Station MTR Station). The Airport Express stations are at the lower levels/basement of the malls.
When you check out of your hotel, usually by noon, you can choose to leave your luggage at the hotel and come back for it before you go to the airport, or, you can take your luggage to the Airport Express check-in counters, check them in, and be free to wander around some more until it’s time go to the airport.
Let’s say you choose to do a city check-in at IFC. You go to IFC, go down to the Airport Express area, buy a ticket from the machine, and go to the check-in counters. Look for your airline. Check-in. They take your luggage and give you your boarding pass. You’re as good as checked in. You never have to see your luggage again until you pick it up from your destination airport’s baggage claim carousel.
If you have time before your flight, you can go up to the mall and look around, shop some more, have a meal, do whatever you want to do, free of your luggage! 😉
When it’s time to head to the airport, just go back to the Airport Express area and take the express train to the airport. The ride takes about 30 minutes.
When you get to the airport, you don’t need to do any check-in again. Just head straight for the security / immigration processing.
If this comfort and advantage is important to you, you should definitely pick PAL over other local airlines.
Note: If you are a senior citizen, you get half price on all your fares in HK – Airport Express, MTR, Tram, Bus, etc… just press the Senior Citizen option. This is an honesty system type thing, so please don’t abuse it.
Oh, and another advantage of PAL over other local airlines? The boarding gate is relatively NEARER! At least, that was my experience. With Cebu Pacific, the boarding gate was way, way, way out in the middle of nowhere, on another building that felt more like it was for domestic air travel. I had to take a short train ride and another bus ride to get to the small terminal where the Cebu Pacific flights had their boarding gates. Just getting there from the main terminal took 20 minutes, at least.
If these comforts are important to you, you really should take advantage of this Philippine Airlines 12 Days of Amazing Low Fares promo!
*This is not a paid post. I think this is useful information that you’d need to consider if you’re planning to travel and still deciding which airline to go for. But I wouldn’t mind if I was compensated, too! *wink*free flight*wink*
