Philippine Airlines

The Filipinos are world famous for their hospitality. During my long trips to the Middle East, I always look forward to being served by a Filipino service staff. They are always friendly and efficient. And more often than not, mistake me as one of their own.

As such, you can imagine my excitement to learn that I was going to be flying Philippine Airlines for my trip from Kuala Lumpur to Davao via Manila!

The flight started out pretty much the same, we had the usual boarding announcements requesting families with young children to board. I quickly got hold of my Friend Suan, and told her, “let’s board my overgrown daughter!” So we were the first to board. I was looking forward to being greeted by beautiful Filipinos on board the aircraft. To my utter disappointment, the crew turned out to be a bunch of elderly and overweight people. However a sweet but slightly plump stewardess happily welcomed me on board.

I found something very interesting on the flight. A senior stewardess and a tall and quite attractive (but slightly overweight) steward seemed to have a serious attitude problem. You simply had to see the look of utter disinterest on the steward’s face as he did the safety demonstration. He seemed more interested on what was happening outside the aircraft. He kept staring outside the window. The senior stewardess on the other hand looked more like a school headmistress than a stewardess!

To be frankly honest, there was nothing really wrong with this flight! Philippine Airlines is in fact so much better than many airlines in this world. During the domestic sector between Manila and Davao, the service onboard had improved tremendously! In fact the age and weight of the crew had dropped substantially as well. The problem is, I compare every other airline with our very own Malaysia Airlines. I travel a lot, and till today, I have yet to find an airline better than Malaysia Airlines.

I had the fortune of flying Philippine Airlines again from Manila to Davao and then back again to Manila. My perception of the airline this time totally changed. The crew were young, good looking and seemed to go out of their way to make our journey a pleasant one. A few drawbacks for the airline however was the fact that no inflight magazine or any reading material other than local newspapers were carried onboard. It’s times like these that I truly appreciate the little extras we get on Malaysia Airlines. The food on this domestic route too left a lot to be desired. The meal was served in plastic bags and comprised a bun, peanuts and chips. Really pathetic!