Saturday, March 17, 2012

What Beats the Manila Shuffle??

I recently had occasion to try the Tiger Air flight to Bangkok out of Clark (Diosdado Macapagal International).  They service other Asian destinations such as Singapore. The price beat all other airlines by miles. The best part was not having to go through the Manila cesspool.

Check-in was easy. Immigration was a little slow but doable. With so few flights the line went quickly. Much quicker than the other end. Thai immigration was at least an hour. The Clark waiting area was just fine with comfortable seating and varied, inexpensive food and drinks.

Interesting passengers on flight. The plane held 150. All full. About 50% were foreign men. 25% foreign women and 25% Asian. Foreign men are a diverse group with no dress codes. Wife beater shirts, shorts and flip-flops didn't even raise eyebrows. 

Ah....but the stewardesses. Great looking Asian women. Brings back memories of the 'coffee, tea or me' flying glory days.

2 comments:

  1. My experience with Tiger Air was vastly different. My flight also went to Bangkok with a connecting flight to Chiang Mai. I found the Philippine immigration officers at Clark to be rude and arrogant but that is not much different from Manila.

    An hour into the flight to Bangkok, which is roughly a third of the distance, the captain announced we would return to Clark for maintenance. That and the refueling ate up two hours. By the time we reached Thailand I had missed the connecting flight. There was a rescheduling fee and a five hour wait.

    Aboard the aircraft the comfort rooms backed up. Standing in line I realized why. One had a sign 'Out of Order." Eight days later I took the return flight back to the Philippines. I knew I was on the same plane because the sign was still on the same comfort room.

    Even with these inconveniences I tend to agree. Anthing is better than going through Manila gridlock.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The things we have to put up with in order to stay away from Manila.

    ReplyDelete

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