Crossing the Pacific on one of Philippine Airlines’s classic routes to its first West Coast destination on the 777-300ER. Back in 1962, PAL began service to San Francisco via Honolulu with Douglas DC-8-50s. The DC-8s served the Bay Area until 1974, when they were replaced with McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-30s, which themselves lasted for only half as long as their predecessors before being replaced by the Boeing 747-200. Next in line for the MNL-SFO route was the 747-400, which debuted in the early 1990s and allowed for the elimination of the technical stop in Hawaii. The Queen of the Skies connected the two cities until the early 2010s, when she took her curtain call to be replaced by Bigfoot, the 777-300ER, which remains active on the route today, with occasional A350-900 substitutions. Today, Philippine Airlines flies to San Francisco 7 days a week, in competition with United Airlines’s twice-daily service, also using the 777-300ER.
Server: Solo
Airline: Philippine Airlines
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Origin: Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, Philippines (MNL)
Destination: San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California (SFO)
Flight Number: PR104
Route: RPLL-KSFO
Seat: 4A (Business)
Time En Route: 12 Hours 10 Minutes
Ready to board our aircraft, another 370-seat 777-300ER, at Gate 4 in Manila. The 370-seaters are the subvariant most commonly deployed on the airline’s long-haul routes, although the 393-seaters acquired from Garuda Indonesia for high-capacity regional routes, e.g. MNL-TPE, MNL-HKG, MNL-HND, and MNL-SIN, although they do occasionally feature on flights to the U.S. and Canadian West Coasts, with both RP-C7783 and RP-C7784 visiting Vancouver within the past week, and the latter going to LAX at least once last November. In any instance, we’re glad to be on the less-dense aircraft this evening.
Turning onto the taxiway as we head to Runway 06. Once again, we’re in business class aboard our aircraft and once again, we have our row to ourselves. The flight isn’t going to be nearly as long as the JFK-MNL leg of our journey, but it’s still going to be around half a day in the air. Certainly, PAL business class is the best all-around way to spend it flying between Manila and San Francisco.
Thundering airborne from MNL with the ATC tower and Terminals 2 and 3 in view. The latter one looks pretty full this evening, with widebody airliners getting ready to head to or coming from destinations in Asia, Oceania, and North America going out or coming in. Meanwhile, we’re once again getting an earful of GE90 roar.
Climbout from Luzon on our way to 35,000 feet. We’re going to recline our seat, relax, and get some much-needed sleep. Nothing like being serenaded to sleep by 2 of the most powerful jet engines ever built at climb thrust.
Briefly waking up of the coast of Japan near the island of Kōzu-shima. Even though it’s 111 miles southwest of the center of Tokyo, Kozushima Village is still technically part of the city. The things we learn about the places we’ve flown to, over or, by!
Afternoon over the North Pacific with only a few hours left in our flight. Sleeping was easy and excellent on our flight, and we woke up just west of the International Dateline. Currently, we’re about halfway through F1: The Movie, and it lives up to the hype for the most part.
Turning onto final approach over Blair Island, which isn’t so much an island as a bunch of marshes and mudflats sticking out into the Bay. People enjoying lunch at the Marina here get the enviable experience of having a near-constant stream of widebody airliners making the turn for final directly overhead. Are we a bit jealous? Yes, yes we are.
Evening arrival on Runway 28L. Flight crew absolutely nailed the touchdown on this one, even if we floated down the runway in ground effect for a bit. No bumps or jolts, just the 6-wheel main gear trucks settling back onto solid ground.
Taxiing by the hills of Millbrae on our way to the International A Pier. Though we’ve had an extremely pleasant experience, it’ll be nice to get to sleep at the Grand Hyatt at SFO, with a front-row seat to aircraft movements at the International Terminal.
Viewing our aircraft at Gate A5 being prepared to go back to MNL as PR105 from our hotel room. Flying with Philippine Airlines the past couple days was a lovely experience, and we’d definitely recommend them and definitely will be back on them in the future. Right now, though, it’s time to enjoy our 2-day layover in San Francisco.