Philippine Airlines Flight Review: MNL to GES, May 2010

Name of Trip: My Mindanao Family Affair 2010
Date: May 22 - 27, 2010

Destination: General Santos City, Sarangani Province & Davao city

Travel via: Air (Philippine Airlines & Cebu Pacific), Land (van, tricycle, bus)

Final approach to General Santos

Note of these codes:

GES - General Santos

MNL - Manila

PAL - Philippine Airlines

I went to General Santos City for two main reasons: first is to accompany my aunt who came to Manila for a visit and the second one is to have a break from work, which means MY VACATION!! :)

Good thing that Philippine Airlines has a Midnight Sale on domestic flights and I was able to book a one-way flight to General Santos for only PHP1500 all-in. If it was on regular price, it will range from PHP2,500 to PHP3,000. That's a huge savings! 

Note: Philippine Airlines Midnight Sale usually runs every weekend. It starts at 7PM of Saturday and will end at 7AM on Sunday. For more information please check their website:  http://www.philippineairlines.com/home/home.jsp

Our flight was at 7AM, my aunt was the one who woke me up at 3AM. It seems that my aunt was so excited to go back to her hometown. Actually both my uncle and auntie migrated from Luzon to Mindanao in the mid 50's to have a good life. It was a long story about their family. All their children, which are my cousins are now successful in General Santos City. I considered them as the first migrants of the city. 

General Santos. Source: Wikipedia

We arrived at NAIA Terminal 2 (Centennial Airport) at 5AM. My parents, aunt, uncle and cousins accompanied us to the airport. We went inside the Domestic Terminal for our check-in process. To our surprise, our baggage was overweight by 10 kilos and we went to the counter to pay the excess. During that time, per excess cost PHP100 per kilo. I have to pay PHP1,000 plus taxes. I didn't check on how much since my aunt was seem excited to be back home. I also asked for a window seat and the crew gave us immediately my need. :)

line up for check-in

check-in time

busy airport

I called my mother that we finished doing check-in and told her that we have an excess baggage. We paid PHP200 for our Terminal Fee and I asked if senior citizens have discounts but the staff said no. So which means, I have to pay PHP400 for both of us. After that, we waited at Gate S1 for our boarding.

my boarding pass

our big aircraft, Airbus 340-300

Flight Number: PR453

Route: Manila-General Santos

Airline: Philippine Airlines

Aircraft: Airbus 340-300

Flying Time: 110 minutes / 1 hour and 50 minutes

Departure Time: 0700H

Arrival Time: 0850H

boarding time

seated at 69K (Kilo)

comfortable seat. happy face! :)

me and my aunt

Our flight was full. The aircraft was huge - Airbus 340-300 that seats 264 passengers (44 in Business/Mabuhay Class and 220 for Economy/Fiesta Class). Boarding was a breeze. Flight attendants were helpful especially to my aunt. We were the boarded first since my aunt is a senior citizen. We departed as scheduled. And after one hour and 30 minutes flight, we were informed that we were on final descend.  

final descend, overlooking Sarangani Bay/Celebes Sea

quick side turn

my aunt was happy to be back

arrived. General Santos runway

went down from the rear door

General Santos Airport

That's our aircraft. Twin-engine and it's huge!

greeted us by Mt. Matutum

Travel was indeed smooth and we arrived at 10 minutes ahead of schedule. I wasn't able to take some photos at the arrival area due to busy checking our baggage. We were greeted my cousins, nephews, nieces and of course my uncle whom was so excited to see my aunt. It was a sweet moment for them. Actually it's my third visit to the Tuna Capital and excited for another "laag" (travel) moments.

Welcome to General Santos City! Daghang Salamat (Thank you) Philippine Airlines! :)

Continue to the next blog! :)