Philippine Travel Notes

This air route has been on for a time now. It started as a regular route via a hype-up (or command?) of the president (Duterte) to decongest MNL by moving some flights to CRK. Was that 2016? I guess so. Hmm, before I proceed, let us do some 'tsismis'.., I heard, many stakeholders in/at/of Region VIII were vehemently opposed to the Department of Transportation picking TAC as one of the cities with flights to/from NAIA that would be transferred to Clark. How vehement? Ah, many of them (such as business chambers) trooped to their lawmakers or leaders that be, for the needed intercession to Malacañang! Lo and behold.., by the end of 2016August, the Regional Development Council VIII (RDC8) submitted a resolution to the DOTr declaring opposition to making MNL-TAC-MNL flights become CRK-TAC-CRK. I remember there was even an online (hashtag) campaign for this - the #NoToClarkForTaclobanFlights. So what happened? Interesting! At first, all 3 airlines (PAL, Cebu Pacific and Air Asi...

Hah! The ' tight connection ' from domestic to international terminals may have been "a little bit unsettling" , but here I was, still 'gliding' hahaha! Lucky is my 'middle name'! At 1:37PM, check-in was a breeze! It had to be, counters were to close in 3 minutes! That (check-in counter closure) was the 'crucial moment' I have all along been trying to catch! Had I been 3 minutes slower, this story may have been totally different. Ta! The check-in lady told me to immediately do immigration clearance, and proceed to the gate, as boarding for this flight has already commenced. Gosh, one hour BETD? Well, no time for "pilosopo questions" . She said it's already boarding, so I ordered my royal highness to be at that gate ASAP. This time though, I was calmer and collected ! Calmer as in I was back to my usual inquisitive atrevida self! Like I still had the time (or is that audacity?) to watch that group at right. They were send...

My final flight of the day, but just the 4th in my 13-flight Circle Trip . From the earlier story , it was a quick free shuttle from Noi Bai International to this Domestic airport. Let's go sago! Ample time to bum around. Three hours to be exact! This was the first thing I saw: Of course I had to tinker with them. Ako pa na curious sa lahat ng techy things! Just to see for my self, if they work fine. What did I do? Nag-print ng boarding pass hehe! Eh that was the only thing I could do, to try and use a kiosk - since I already did web check-in last night! Verdict: ayos lang, gumagana, mabilis parang sa Changi Airport! Compared to self check-in kiosks in the Philippines? Yung sa pula at sa dilaw? Mas mabagal ang computer systems sa atin. Pero, laging merong staff na naka-antabay! Is that good or bad? Ah eh, the system response sa atin is parang negligible naman. It's just that not many of us Pinoys like using the kiosks - kelangan pilitin (ni AirAsia) ! And t...