Upgrade To Business Class Philippine Airlines – BEN Says: Pleasantly surprised with the excellent seats in the modern A350, although there is room for improvement with the soft product.
After my experience on the ground in Manila, I was extremely excited to board my Philippine Airlines flight to Toronto. So, how is Philippine Airlines’ A350 doing? Can they compete with the other great airlines in the region or do they still have a long way to go?
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Philippine Airlines does not belong to any of the world’s major alliances, although they have reasonable business class fares in many markets. In particular, they seem to have great prices from Taipei, which worked out well for this trip.
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I was able to book the following for ~$1200 one way, with the first segment on an A321 and the second segment on an A350-900:
I’m always excited for a long flight, but I was especially excited to get comfortable after the ground experience I had in Manila. Boarding was supposed to start at 15:45, and of course, that’s when boarding started (although the whole process was chaos).
I arrived through the second set of doors where I was directed to the business class cabin on the left after my boarding pass was validated.
Philippine Airlines has a Thompson Aero Vantage XL seat variant on their A350 aircraft that you can find on several other airlines. Philippine Airlines has a total of 30 business class seats, arranged in eight rows in a 1-2-1 configuration.
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As is standard with these hidden seats, the seating configurations in each row alternate, as the legroom for a special seat is on the side of the seat in front.
Along the windows, and in equal rows, there are seats closer to the aisles and farther from the windows. These would not be my preferred seats as they have no privacy and it is difficult to see out the window.
Instead, I recommend odd row window seats, which are much more comfortable – they are close to the window, away from the aisles, and feel like they have more privacy. I chose seat 7A, the last “right” window seat on the left, in the penultimate row.
Storage was exposed on the side of the seat, as were the seat controls, entertainment controls, 110v outlet, USB outlet and headphones.
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The tablet table was ripped out of the side console and couldn’t be folded in half or something. If it extends, there is no way you can get out.
The only major downside to the staggered seats is that legroom can be limiting, although those legs were on the wider side as staggered configurations go. It wasn’t as restrictive as the “throne” seat you find in some striped layouts.
When I boarded there was already a pair of quality headphones waiting at my seat, but definitely not Bose or B&O.
There was also some half-decent bedding, including a pillow and blanket. The bed isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either. Luckily, I was able to grab an extra pillow from an empty seat next to me.
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Accessories with ACCA KAPPA products are also waiting on my seat. There were body lotions, lip balms, socks, eyeshadows, dental accessories, combs and some perfume.
Just a minute after they were deployed, the flight attendant who would be looking after me, Four, introduced herself. Philippine Airlines proactively offers champagne as a pre-flight drink – Fourth appeared with a glass and bottle of champagne and carried them to my seat. That’s good!
A few minutes later, my dinner and breakfast orders were already taken, including being asked what I would like to drink with each meal. It’s always a bit too much for me – it’s one thing when we’re talking about a short night flight where you want to rest as much as possible, but I really don’t know what I can’t drink at 2pm.
What made this flight special was that it was empty in business class, even though it was full in economy and premium economy. There were nine passengers in business class and they all chose to sit in the front rows. It was a bit surreal to have the back half of the cabin to myself.
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It’s not often you get a cabin view like this on a long flight!
Around 16:10, Captain Emmanuel introduced himself and his three co-pilots, informing us of our flight time of 14 hours and 30 minutes and our transition altitude of 41,000 feet. A few minutes later Purser Eve welcomed her aboard.
As happened in the last flight, both remind us that Philippine Airlines is “the heart of Filipinos” (which they always so easily exaggerate).
At 16:20 the main door of the cabin closed, and five minutes later we started our return journey. At that moment, the security video (again, proudly from the “Filipino Heart”) was shown:
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Not surprisingly, several Gulf carriers were parked at the terminal based on the volume of traffic between the Philippines and the Middle East. There were 777 from Saudia, Etihad and Kuwait.
We then drove past the Philippine Airlines maintenance bay where a dozen planes were parked/worked on.
We had quite a long taxi ride, and at around 16:50 we got permission to start. We had a long initial turn and a gradual climb.
I planned to work most of the flight (since most of the flight was during US daytime hours), so I bought an unlimited ticket for $40. That’s a steep price, but not entirely unreasonable without data caps.
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The sign to fasten seat belts was extinguished about 10 minutes after the start, and a few minutes later real scabies slippers were handed out.
A few minutes later, free Wi-Fi cards were distributed. Business class passengers get 100MB of free Wi-Fi. I didn’t realize this when I bought the Wi-Fi pass, although I realistically planned to use more than 100MB of Wi-Fi, so I guess it wasn’t a big deal one way or the other.
I find it interesting that the Wi-Fi pass is how you can use your 100MB, including calling loved ones for more than 10 minutes. Don’t most airlines ban Wi-Fi calling?
Food service began shortly after the start. There was a meal service after take off and later in the flight you can order a hot snack and/or breakfast at your convenience.
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25 minutes after the start, they served me chorizo and shrimp canapés. I had a glass of champagne and they served Louis De Sacy Grand Cru.
About 35 minutes after the start, the tables were taken out, and five minutes after that, the aperitif was served. Philippine Airlines serves the entire meal on your tray instead of taking the tray out, which is convenient.
There were two starters to choose from, and I chose the laswa soup, with prawn flavored consomme and local vegetables. I was also offered a choice of bread from the bread basket.
He received light cargo in business class, the service was personalized and everything was brought out when each passenger was ready.
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There were four main courses and I chose Coconut Cream Prawn in Fresh Turmeric Sauce, Braised Coconut Milk Prawn with Fresh Turmeric served with Braised Kailan and Crab Fat Fried Rice.
Honestly, this sounded a lot better than it tasted. There were only two small prawns and the whole dish was surprisingly tasteless.
Dessert was served about 10 minutes later, and I chose the yogurt cheesecake with milk crumble and crème anglaise, which was very good.
Service throughout the meal was polite and efficient, and my tray was cleared within 90 minutes of starting. When the meal was over, I was treated to a beautiful sunset from the window.
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There were two toilets in front of the cabin and two behind the cabin, and they were pretty standard for the A350 and had no special amenities.
At this point we still had about 13 hours to Toronto and I was glad I had a very good night’s sleep. I woke up a little over seven hours before landing in Toronto, so I slept for almost six hours. Although there were no individual vents, the cabin was kept at a reasonable temperature.
When I woke up, I tried to connect to Wi-Fi, but I had problems. It didn’t matter. I thought we might have been in an area where the Wi-Fi would occasionally cut out, although briefly, the Wi-Fi didn’t work for the rest of the flight.
Of course, it’s possible that something really is broken, although I wonder if they even bothered to start over. I spent most of the flight editing and editing pictures from trips that didn’t require Wi-Fi.
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I ordered a cappuccino, which was delicious and beautifully presented on a tray, with chocolate. The crew was not proactive with the service between meals, but when the call button was pressed, they opened quite quickly.
I decided to order a hot snack from the menu at this point. I also ordered Thai shrimp cakes
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