Philippine Airlines Business Class deal: KUL to Australia under $1,400 return

[AFF Editor]

Philippine Airlines has some good one-way and return Business Class deals from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth via Manila. You'll get a lie-flat bed between Manila and Australia.

Kuala Lumpur to Australia Under $1,400 Return in Business Class

Philippine Airlines has some cracking one-way and round-trip Business Class fares available from Kuala Lumpur to four Australian cities.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks. Seems pretty goood value but a long transit from Perth may be a bit of downer.

 

[Melburnian1]

If looking for PR fares ex Australia to be cheaper than currently, the airline typically has a sale to celebrate Philippine Independence Day that's on Monday 12 June 2023.

I subscribe to its emails but strangely don't always find sales come via email. One must to look up Facebook or the PR website.

A guess is that this sale may be publicised from mid May 2023, although the forthcoming commencement of low cost competitor 5J's flights to MEL may hasten.

A friend travelled MEL-MNL on Friday 3 March (PR210) and said the A333 was almost full, which surprised as it's not school holidays and still a few weeks before a peak travel period in Easter.

As it's a cheaper J class origin than SIN, BKK or KUL, MNL is an excellent starting location for an open jaw J return to London and back from Europe (avoiding horrendous UK air passenger duty and killing two birds with one stone). Airlines such as once good but now allegedly mediocre EY, excellent but not well known WY and overpromoted EK and QR fly from MNL to many UK/;European destinations. So does GF that by review is not as good as WY. If doing this, allow at least 36 hours in MNL each way so that if anything goes wrong ex Oz or ex Europe, you still have a buffer.

WY's Apex Suites layout on the B789s offering direct aisle access is way superior to EK/QR's dated B773s ex/to MNL-Middle East. PR's A333 J class is not shown in mattg's article above but it's a good, pretty standard, comfortable 1-2-1 layout, Thomson Aero IIRC. Every second window seat offers more privacy so look up SeatGuru.

I am hardly an expert but the catering on PR and WY in J seems to more than meet my expectations. In comparison some meals served on cost-cutting EY ex MNL or other origins look decidely average at best.

Be aware PR uses the clinical, unattractive T2 with a mediocre lounge for most international flights including to/from Australia but the ME airlines above use either T1 (WY and GF, also with substandard lounges) or T3 (EK and from memory QR, where the lounges should be better). But for me, onboard comfort is much more important.

There are banks offering quite reasonable FX rates at the various terminals, so obtain Philippine pesos there instead of at ripoff Australian rates.

 

[Ewok]

I flew from BNE on their A321neo late last year (longest single isle flight in the world apparently). Actually the flight was surprisingly very good. No lounge available in BNE, and the lounge in MNL for a long-ish layover was ordinary at best.

 

[dajop]

No no no. If anything only for the novelty factor.

I looked at similar fares from SIN some time ago but decided coupled with the transit time and the fact this is an overnight flight would dissuade me, and would rather a direct day flight in economy on SQ (or now also EK) or on TR in ScootPlus. It worked out leaving 3 hrs later on PR would mean getting in about 9 hrs later to MEL (6am instead of 9pm) and my rational is that whilst it a cheap lie flat seat and they are nice to sleep on in a plane, a real bed with a real mattress and nice bedding and no noise is much better.

 

[roby]

Other than the cramped airport terminal and the small and dark lounge, they would make you go down to a transit baggage holding room to have all your checked in bags opened and checked. This is where your bags could easily go missing. Workers go through bags and put security stickers on them with no regard of ripped baggage tags or opened shrinkwrapped boxes. Outgoing and incoming bags all go through the same door and mixed together and your bags could be sitting in the corner or loaded onto a different aircraft. It's a nighmare.

 

[jase05]

Other than the cramped airport terminal and the small and dark lounge, they would make you go down to a transit baggage holding room to have all your checked in bags opened and checked. This is where your bags could easily go missing. Workers go through bags and put security stickers on them with no regard of ripped baggage tags or opened shrinkwrapped boxes. Outgoing and incoming bags all go through the same door and mixed together and your bags could be sitting in the corner or loaded onto a different aircraft. It's a nighmare.

Yeah, it is a bit of a nightmare. Touch wood I e yet to have any real dramas and my preference is always to do a stop over in MNL rather than a transit. PR hard product though is quite good IMO and I’ve used them a few times as nesting flights as you are only paying about $400-500 in J to get back to Asia from Australia

 

[jase05]

If looking for PR fares ex Australia to be cheaper than currently, the airline typically has a sale to celebrate Philippine Independence Day that's on Monday 12 June 2023.

I subscribe to its emails but strangely don't always find sales come via email. One must to look up Facebook or the PR website.

A guess is that this sale may be publicised from mid May 2023, although the forthcoming commencement of low cost competitor 5J's flights to MEL may hasten.

A friend travelled MEL-MNL on Friday 3 March (PR210) and said the A333 was almost full, which surprised as it's not school holidays and still a few weeks before a peak travel period in Easter.

As it's a cheaper J class origin than SIN, BKK or KUL, MNL is an excellent starting location for an open jaw J return to London and back from Europe (avoiding horrendous UK air passenger duty and killing two birds with one stone). Airlines such as once good but now allegedly mediocre EY, excellent but not well known WY and overpromoted EK and QR fly from MNL to many UK/;European destinations. So does GF that by review is not as good as WY. If doing this, allow at least 36 hours in MNL each way so that if anything goes wrong ex Oz or ex Europe, you still have a buffer.

WY's Apex Suites layout on the B789s offering direct aisle access is way superior to EK/QR's dated B773s ex/to MNL-Middle East. PR's A333 J class is not shown in mattg's article above but it's a good, pretty standard, comfortable 1-2-1 layout, Thomson Aero IIRC. Every second window seat offers more privacy so look up SeatGuru.

I am hardly an expert but the catering on PR and WY in J seems to more than meet my expectations. In comparison some meals served on cost-cutting EY ex MNL or other origins look decidely average at best.

Be aware PR uses the clinical, unattractive T2 with a mediocre lounge for most international flights including to/from Australia but the ME airlines above use either T1 (WY and GF, also with substandard lounges) or T3 (EK and from memory QR, where the lounges should be better). But for me, onboard comfort is much more important.

There are banks offering quite reasonable FX rates at the various terminals, so obtain Philippine pesos there instead of at ripoff Australian rates.

Not sure about EY being mediocre. Our last J flights with them were absolutely fantastic and no complaints at all really apart from a poor lounge in KUL. I still rate it WY flights as some of the best J flights we have been on though and I’d take them over most.

 

[Zanzara]

It’s cheaper for a reason.

Having done that flight recently from SIN, I would concur that the good thing is the flat bed & fairly attentive service. Certainly better than a night flight in Y back to MEL on QF. I’m glad I tried PR out.

Unfortunately the Terminal PR use in MNL is pretty chaotic, the onboard meal (and lack of choice - ‘sorry that’s option is not available’) was nearly as grim as the awful long wait and slop offered in the PR MNL lounge.

Depending on my SQ points balance, as VN are in Scaryteam and often similarly priced, I would probably choose them or a day flight in Y over PR next time.

 

[sydney slug]

At the moment PAL are offering a range of Asian destinations in J cheaper than MNL all via MNL. Anyone have experience no-showing a 7:30am MNL to Asia flight having arrived at 17:00 the day before?

 

[33kft]

At the moment PAL are offering a range of Asian destinations in J cheaper than MNL all via MNL. Anyone have experience no-showing a 7:30am MNL to Asia flight having arrived at 17:00 the day before?

If it's a return itinerary you'd lose the rest of the flights, and if you have luggage checked you'd need to have to short check it, which I suspect would tip them off that you were trying the hidden city trick. It's something you can probably pull off once if they do agree to short check luggage but don't expect them to be happy about it.

 

[sydney slug]

Well it is arriving at 5 pm, and the flight to the next location is at 7:30am so it is effectively a stopover - the luggage being collected for a night in a hotel should not be controversial?

 

[clifford]

Looks like these cheap business class fares might have been withdrawn. I searched google flights today and couldn't find anything under $2,500 ex KUL to anywhere in Australia on PR.

I booked one of these cheap fares recently for travel later this month, so I may have been lucky?

 

[jase05]

Looks like these cheap business class fares might have been withdrawn. I searched google flights today and couldn't find anything under $2,500 ex KUL to anywhere in Australia on PR.

I booked one of these cheap fares recently for travel later this month, so I may have been lucky?

They do come and go from time to time.