Philippine Airlines sports package

[josh]

I saw a post on anpother thread mentioning the Philippines airlines sports package, and thought I would post this warning on a separate thread as its quite important.

Philippine Airlines do several packages sports packages (which includes scuba gear, an additional 20Kg if I recall correctly), domestic, asia plus domestic and Whole world. I took out tha Asia and domestic package a while ago, and booked flights through the Philippines airlines web site from bangkok to Manila through to dumaguette. All went well on the international leg, BUT - the domestic leg is run by - wait for it - Air Philippines - a sister company - and they do NOT honour the sports package. We had real fun arguing with "Air Philippines" staff at 3 am in Manila airport, but they would not be moved. We were told - bluntly, pay the domestic excess luggage charge or find another way to Dumageutte.

The promotion by Philippine Airlines is deliberately misleading - they have no "domestic routes" at all as near as we could find out! Even more annoying is the fact that when booking it all goes through as one transaction, although billed separately - on reflection, we saw that the flight were billed separately one in dollars one in local currency).

The domestic excess baggage charges were not exessive, it it was extremely annoying to be hit with that charge at 3am in the morning. The sports package I took was worth it for the International leg, and I would have been happy if Philippines airlines had been "up front" about it from the begining. As it is, Philippines Airlines don't give a toss (and refuse to acknowledge that their advertising "domestic plus Asia" is misleading, and Air Philippines probably are quite happy about nailing people for the extra charges.

As a note, Air Philippines charged for every single extra kilo.

Anyway, planning a trip back to Philippines next month, so - one week, and I have dived PG and Dumagette previously - (and loved both). So where should be our next trip? we are mulling Subic (wrecks) or malapascua (threshers) - I would like to see the threshers, but my dive partner is a fanatic macro photographer, so I would pass on the threshers for some awesome (dumagettue pier type) macro stuff. Where would you go?

 

[Gunrock0811]

u can go subic and then travel couple of hours to Anilao, Batangas for more reefs and great macro shooting, just MO

 

[Babydamulag]

Uh.....I just got off a Philippine Airlines flight (Airbus 320 with about 150 passengers onboard) from Kalibo to Manila......is coming from Antique Province to Manila considered an International flight? <grinning......>

 

[Gen San Chris]

If you are into Macro Stuff, why not try General Santos and Sarangani Bay! Its a direct flight from Manila, if you fly PAL then if you upgrade to bussiness class you get an extra 10 kg of baggage and the other stuff that goes with the upgrade!
Check the threds on Sarangani Bay of my webb site formelry known as Tuna City Scuba Center to get a feel of the area! It is safe also!

 

[josh]

Uh.....I just got off a Philippine Airlines flight (Airbus 320 with about 150 passengers onboard) from Kalibo to Manila......is coming from Antique Province to Manila considered an International flight? <grinning......>

Were you lugging 40+kg of dive equipment and trying to use a "Sports card"?

Whether or not Philippines Airlines code share or retain some routes, I have no idea. However, the point is that overseas tourists need to double check and not assume automatically that a flight booked from overseas will be routed through on the same airline, and that Air Philippines does not honour the Philippines Airlines scheme remains.

Thanks for the grin. Reminds me of the guy at the airport explaining the difference between Philippine Airlines and Air Philippines.

Maybe I'll go to Indonesia.

 

[jigo]

Thanks for the heads up josh. i am quite surprised that Air Phils would not honor the sports card since they now interchange PAL flights with Airphil flights and one usually wouldnt know the diff until you get to the airport. i guess this serves as a reminder to ask which airline will be servicing the flight before booking and lugging your dive gear.

oh, pls dont mind BabyD too much. its his own brand of americakano humor. we all get a taste of it once in a while.

@babyD: hey, stop chasing away potential tourists!

 

[chip104]

man, that sucks. Thanks for the heads up.

Check out Anilao for fantastic macro - that way you don't have to pay any domestic airline fees as it's only a 2.5 hour car ride from NAIA. Both Anilao and Subic are day trips for Manila people so you could potentially hit up either/or for a day (and spend the majority of the week in one location).

 

[Babydamulag]

@babyD: hey, stop chasing away potential tourists!

Chasing them away? Heck, our two instructors are chasing them away because we are getting too many.....who said the world was in an economic crisis?!?!?!?

 

[bill22]

I used to have the Sports Plus card. I didn't bother renewing it because I didn't think I was really saving anything. When the price of jet fuel took a big jump last year, Philippine Airlines became the most expensive way to fly to the Philippines from Japan I'll likely fly Japan Airlines or Northwest on my next trip unless they drop their prices to something competitive.

I agree with Chip and Gunrock. Anilao has great macro. I did a week there last June at Club Ocellaris. They cater to u/w photographers. Had a great time

 

[HomelessDiver]

Honestly, I thought they were the same company, but yea, I've flown PAL within the country a few times.

Come to think of it, we had a couple girls come on a late flight and the plane went to Kalibo instead of Caticlan. They were kicked off the flight there even though the tix said caticlan and were getting told they were on a different airline. At the time, we thought they were being airheads - but it sounds kinda like this.