Just out of curiosity, did his wife's luggage have the priority tags that they place on business and first class luggage?
because of the immigration queues at NAIA, maybe people should look into the clark option. (same staff issues, of course, but lower traffic.) i've used clark twice for air asia flights and have been pleasantly surprised.
This 5-hour early scheme is great! It gives us more time to enjoy the splendid amenities at NAIA, savor the pleasant smell of its surroundings, and marvel at the technological efficiency of the airport service. Such a wonderful place to be in while waiting for flights out of this country. Anytime this changes, I will be disappointed...
that was one of the first questions i asked. yes, it had a priority tag. PAL/NAIA had plausible deniability; it could've happened in shanghai. but the bags daw came out so quickly in shanghai vis-a-vis the hours they sat idly for hours in naia. gives new meaning to "idle time is the devil's playground". grrrr. but that was just salt added to the injury. PAL switched planes to one without a business class. PAL gave them free business class tickets to the same destination, valid for one year. wanna bet they'll switch planes for that too? clever *loyalty program*, eh? as i suggested long ago, PAL and Cebu Pac should just merge and rebrand the merged airline, PALPac.
Actually, Zurich Airport is a notch above NAIA, but not for the best intentions... They actually ask you to come 2-hours early for your flight because of their stringent security checks, coupled with a load of deliberate racist tones (like, you Asians carry way too many gifts, what for? You have large families at home don't you?) They have 4 of them; let me repeat, 4 security checks: Main Lobby (guard with scanner), Baggage Drop-off, Immigration Entry, then Final Checkin...they save the best for last tho' You are given the full body search treatment even after having gone through a full body scanner...your shoes, socks, belts, pocket contents, eyeglasses, jewelries (including, get this, nipple rings, nose rings, etc), go through the proverbial pat-down, pat-up, mash here and there routine... Your carryon luggage gets opened, searched thoroughly, even thru dirty laundry and all, packages opened, sales tags read and sometimes scanned (in case you lifted them off the store), and then with the bags opened up they are made to go back thru the baggage scanner AGAIN... I actually hate Switzerland...they ask you so politely to change your euros and dollars to Swiss francs...they also ask you so politely to throw away your burgers and fries before entering the body scanner...indeed, I hate their politically-correct politeness...
No lines so far. Check in counter told us that the queue earlier was 'til the terminal entrance though.
^It's a miracle! Apparently, that 5-hour scheme drove everyone to come 6 hours earlier and look what it had done...but this looks like Terminal 2 and in any given day, long queues here are a blessing (because I take Terminal 3 since I abhor riding the flag carrier...not that am unpatriotic or what, but you know the people who run that airline deserve to be shot in Luneta for all the snafus they cause)
Left for our trip on April 8, 2017, NAIA Terminal 2. Immigration was really no slower than usual, so no real problem there. The shit really hit the fan though after immigration and security check. When going to our gates, the hall was jampacked with people like sardines. The AC system was overwhelmed, so it was very hot and humid inside the airport. I've always thought Terminal 2 is too small to be considered for international flights, and that day really proved my point. There weren't enough seats, so many foreigners were sitting on the floors, by the walls, drenched with sweat and with expressions of frustration on their faces. There were babies crying, the stench of cooked food wafting from the stalls because of the heat, basically your wet market atmosphere in our nation's international airport. There are a lot of times when I'm embarassed for our country, but that day, I was just donwright ashamed. There were lines snaking around everywhere. There were queues to the gates, queues to the food stalls, and the worst of all, there were loooooooongg queues to the bathrooms. Luckily, I didn't have to go. But my wife did, and as usual, the lines for the ladies rooms were four times longer than the lines for the men. Eventually, a lot of the women, just went to the male WC to relieve themselves. It's just so stupid that Terminal 2 is still used for international flights. Its great hall is no bigger really than a single storey of one of SM's malls. The shame though is that they cannot even provide enough bathroom stalls for the volume of people that they want to handle in the tiny terminal. Of course, to add insult to injury, our Plane Always Late was true to its oath, and was delayed by an hour. We should thank our lucky stars that it was just an hour, I know. If anything, going from this very third world airport to a huge, first world one in Narita was a very stark reminder of how far behind we are. NAIA should rename Terminal 2 to Terminal Cancer.
Mm..San Miguel's Ramon Ang has submitted unsolicited proposals to build a new airport......twice. the first proposal (along Manila Bay) was promptly ignored by the previous admin. The second one (in Bulacan), well, I am not holding my breath.
I think I saw an episode of Service Road where James Deakin had a guest & they were talking about the Sangley airport. If I remember correctly, they guy (sorry can't remember his name) said that it has already been approved & has or will already start rehabilitation to make it an international airport.
I can confirm (don't ask me how, as I'll say no further) that the Sangley airport development has been greenlighted. This is going to be BIG. It's being done quietly, which is probably the better way to manage these things.
Mm..Sangley is the pet project of Japan. Major problem is the two-lane road to/from Sangley. If I remember, Sangley will only have 2 runways (parallel). That will not be enough. Ang's proposal calls for 4 runways to make it future-proof. If we are to build, we might as well build big para isahan na lang.
building the road will be part of the deal, and i suspect it will be someone other than the japanese involved in this.
Mm..Sangley or Bulacan...Godspeed! I just hope and pray it will be something that we can be proud of....and serve the traveling public well in the next 20 to 30 years. --------------------------- In the meantime, please do something about the hotconditioning system in NAIA. India is building her first bullet train system. Can we at least provide proper airconditioning (all PH airports)?
Thanks for bringing this up professor. Sangley is the most logical relocation area not just for the international airport but also for the seaport. however, this will require a lot of reclamation work to be done in & around the area; primarily for the port areas & the needed road infra (extending/expanding Cavitex). I think what's been greenlighted is only for the rehab work, which will only be useful for general aviation and a couple of domestic flights using small airbus or B737 aircraft. the rehab option will only require providing pavement for the existing land area (to extend the runway) but no reclamation work. The main proponents for Sangley are batting for full development of the port area as an international airport & seaport. If approved, we're looking at a period of 6 to 8 years of 24/7 construction time, including reclamation. Funding for this project won't be an issue as I know for a fact that there's a lot of interest from foreigners to be involved in such a project, whether as lenders or equity partners. Also, the proponents feel that the rehab option will only serve as a hindrance to further development of Sangley & will prevent it from reaching its full potential as a substitute to NAIA & North Harbor. Try to imagine Manila without NAIA & North Harbor. All those lumbering cargo trucks coming in & out of the metro ports will be a thing of the past; bringing stuff that's not even meant to be consumed or used in Metro Manila but primarily for south or north luzon and adding traffic to congested metro roadways. & perhaps, we can start the rehab of Manila itself as a city.. convert North Harbor into one of those commercial boardwalks or an extension of Roxas boulevard/ & use prime real estate occupied by NAIA currently for other purposes... & make Manila a coastal city similar to Sydney, San Francisco, Tokyo, LA, New York, Paris, London, Istanbul, HK, Singapore, etc......you get the drift.. http://www.cntraveler.com/galleries/2016-06-24/the-25-best-coastal-cities-in-the-world/25 there's active opposition to the Sangley option. by guess who? those pushing for Clark as the alternative. but really now, Clark is nowhere near a seaport so how can it be a successful commercial transpo hub? besides, it's a 100 miles away from metro manila (where most of the hard investments still are), even a hi speed train will still require an hour's worth of travel to bring you from clark to balintawak. (HK's airport express train only uses up 25 minutes from the airport to Central).
Indeed, full development and not just a rehab is what I've heard. As in one of the biggest if not the biggest infrastructure investments we've seen in this country. The people involved are some of the most dynamic and visionary executives I know (not the taipans). Abangan
Ot: mm...speaking of new airport design, this revolutionary proposal from the Netherlands may be the airport of the future. The endless runway: https://www.internationalairportreview.com/news/33509/circular-runways-exclusive/
