While Los Angeles has largely been the exclusive haunt of the 777-300ER for Philippine Airlines after the airliner retired the last of its 747-400s in early 2014, they will very, very occasionally send their A350-900s there. On June 19th of this year, I was planespotting at the famous In-N-Out off of Sepulveda Boulevard, when I saw an unusual sight. Not only was the usual Philippine Airlines 777-300ER replaced by an A350-900 on this route, but it was RP-C3508, which has a decal reading “The Love Bus” on the nose, as a tribute to an A300B4-100 registered RP-C3002 that bore the same logo as a play on the then-popular “The Love Bug” series of movies and as a tribute to PR’s 50-plus years as an Airbus customer. I’ve had this flight on the backburner for a while, since I couldn’t figure out a way to fit it easily into a trip report series, but the release of the A350-1000 made it easier, as I could do this flight as a continuation of a Cathay Pacific A350-1000 flight to Hong Kong and a CX A330-300 flight to Manila. In any case, it was fun flying one of the few Philippine Airlines A350-900 routes to North America and I hope y’all enjoy this as much as I did!
Server: Solo
Airline: Philippine Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, Philippines (MNL)
Destination: Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Flight Number: PR102
Route: RPLL-KLAX
Seat: 8A (Business)
Time En Route: 13 Hours 7 Minutes
Preparing to board at Terminal 1 on a rainy night in Manila. The thunderstorms that have been in the area the past day have largely disappeared, but the rain is still coming down at a steady pace. Good thing we’re going to be in business class, where it’s dry and at a comfortable temperature!
Leaving the T1 ramp to turn onto the taxiway. While we’ve only ever flown in business class on Philippine Airlines’s A350-900 once before, when we flew from here to New York, it’s just as good as we remembered. The seats are based on the Thompson Vantage XL, meaning we have ample space both for our legs and elbows. Most importantly, they have what the 777-300ERs dont: direct aisle access. If the rest of our flight is as good as our seating is shaping up to be, then this’ll likely be high up on our “to fly on again” list.
Lifting off of MNL’s Runway 06 with rain streaming over the windows. Terminal 2, visible in the background, is pretty full, even this late at night. With an expected flight time of just over 13 hours due to some pretty stiff tailwinds, this is going to be one of the fastest flights across the Pacific from Southeast Asia that we’ve ever been on. Off to L.A. we go!
Our climbout from Manila is taking us over the hills north of the city. Due to the upcoming meal service, the cabin crew has taken the unusual step of setting the business class mood lighting to feature alternating stripes of green, purple, orange, and red, like a popsicle. It’s by no means an unwelcome one, though, as we are pretty hungry. Luckily, the menu on this flight is looking pretty good.
A few hours into our flight, we’re ready to kick back and get several hours of sleep as we cruise through the North Pacific night at 37,000 feet. Dinner was, in fact, as good as it looked on the menu, with the main course for us being pork adobo sa pula. It came with cabbage pulawo, grilled eggplant in toasted cocoa cream, green mango salsa, and steamed mountain rice. The pork itself was cooked to the perfect degree of tenderness and the sides were equally delicious. The obly complaint was that the tea we ordered with dinner was typical store-bought fare, making it seem something like an afterthought for business class. This minor inconvenience aside, though, dining in business class on PR is another mark in favor of the airline in our book.
Waking up over the East Pacific at 41,000 feet a few hours out from our destination. Sleeping in our lie-flat seat was blissful, with no distractions to disturb us as we crossed the Pacific. Despite our dinner being quite substantial, were hungry again once we’ve awoken. These time zone changes really work up an appetite! Luckily for us though, Philippine Airlines offers an expansive menu of mid-flight food options, so picking something out as we navigate the high-definition, easy-to-use IFE system isn’t a problem.
Final descent over Westlake Village as we near L.A. The past couple hours or so have been pretty quiet, without much action in the business class cabin. As a result, we’ve been able to relax and enjoy the view as we finished the feet wet stage of our flight and reached the coast of California. As we prepared to arrive in the City of Angels, we’re getting our personal item under the seat in front of us repacked while we’re periodically serenaded by the sound of the flaps extending through their range of deflection.
Landing at LAX on Runway 24R at sunset. Despite it being a slightly bumpy final approach due to strong winds coming in off the Pacific, we set down smoothly on the North Complex. As we slow down, we’re getting a great view of evening traffic out of LAX, with the highlight being a taxiing French Bee A350-900 going to Paris-Orly as BF731 HEAVY.
Taxiing by the main Tom Bradley International Terminal as the French Bee A350 starts its takeoff roll. While the lead flight attendant is going through the usual post-arrival spiel, we’re double-checking to make sure we’vegot everything packed up. It’d be really inconvenient if something of ours made the trip back to Manila!
Deplaned from our aircraft at Gate 221. Before starting on the long trek under the taxiways to the Tom Bradley International Terminal, customs, and the baggage claim, we’re spending a moment watching the ground crew unload baggage and cargo containers from RP-C3506. Philippine Airlines, despite having a rougher time of things than many of the major Asian carriers, has embarked upon the ambitious journey of joining the ranks of the region’s premium carriers. To this end, they have been centering much of their long-haul flying around the A350-900 and now the new A350-1000, which currently have more modern cabins than the older 777-300ER. PR’s food and service have also increasingly gotten better, with the airline’s current business class product a far cry from the airline that barely made it out of the 1990s and clung on into the mid-2010s. We’re definitely impressed with Philippine Airlines’s newer business class product, which was as good as we remembered on the MNL-JFK flight around a year ago, and we’re very likely to return to it soon.