hello! Just wanted to ask from someone here who have experiance travelling for the first time here in the Philippines.... can you give me some ideas on how long does it takes you to get your luggages and get out from the airport? TY PO
hello! Just wanted to ask from someone here who have experiance travelling for the first time here in the Philippines.... can you give me some ideas on how long does it takes you to get your luggages and get out from the airport? TY PO
That really depends on airport loading, how many immigration officers are on duty, if it is holiday/break time, if the LA and SF flights got in just before you, etc,etc,etc but normally my bags are on the carousel before we clear immigration but the fastest we ever did arriving from Hong Kong with quite a lot of luggage was 25 mins from parking at the gate to getting in an airport taxi, and one more if you are not being met DO USE and airport taxi. I woud allow one hour to be on the safe side
hi Grace, i just want to share with u our funny experience about that,when my fiance first came here for a visit we expected two to three hours before he can really cleared out to the airport and to get all his luggages..
His arrival time is 8:45 in the morning, Dad and I were at the airport already waiting for him till I decided to went to the loo to fix myself at around 9am since it was our very first meeting, on my way to the loo I saw him walking towards me and then hug me tight..so I was really surprised because I knew it will be long hours to go before he comes out but he said he's the first on the line so he came out very fast, so there's no need for me to go to the loo..he he he
so my advice for u is make sure u be there early on his time of arrival and already fix urself..that was really an embarrasing experience for me because it is only our first time to meet but still I have proven how much he loves me..
hi Kms, thanks for the reply and yeah it was really funny but i am not going to meet him in the airport, thats why i am asking if how many hours would it take as we need to book his flight going here in my hometown, is 3 hours is long and okey?
Hi Gracia,
Where is your hometown?
Hi Gracia,
Im from Baguio City.
I think 4 to 5 hours allowance to get him to his flight to Bukidnon that will be fine. Its the peak season and sure that the airport is very busy. For me, I prefed to wait than to take the risk to miss my connecting flight.
when the plane lands, get off quick as you can and head for the que at immigration, and hope your bags are not the last ones to go on the carousel ..
i would say 30 mins to upto an hour from when plane lands to you leave the airport, but like others have said depends on other factors to
I've only been to Philippines twice, but both times they were quite quick...(I went to Davao Mindanao) I find it's actually Heathrow when I get back that is the slowest!! haha Hey I think I'd like to show you a pic of me and Vimvie! Oh it wont let me attatch, is it 'cause I'm not a respected member yet?
Hi there. The same thing that happened to Kimmi also happened to me. I didnt expect airport personnel to be that efficient to have let my fiancee then now my husband to get out of the airport so fast.
To true i have seen people who checked in the same time as us in heathrow get there bags first out and others along with me wait ages
But always something to laugh at while waiting, some of the packaging and size of suitcases and things people bring with them is just unbelivable. Also watching a man apear from no where out of the ground always makes me chuckle (i guess its way to much free sm on the plane which does it along with no sleep)
Always worth being there early particularly the first time, the first time i turned up dazed and confused in manila i stood in the wrong letter area then had a guy hassling me to get a taxi and then to find my wife for me. She was still getting out of the taxi at the time and my scam meter was off the roof and luckily i had kept a 20 or 100 note seperate from all the others and said it was all i had and he buggered off looking for another hopefully richer mug.
May sound over the top but with the tirdness heat and general chaos for a brit is tough, worth planing the place you will stand to the dot. Also maybe a big sign if a popular filght as at certain times i have been it is rammed pack full of people on both sides of the meeting road.
Guys stay where you are let the lady or her driver/brother/aunt walk to you the security guards can get a strop on if you walk over at the wrong time a phill will know when to walk you won't and cause a petty official a chance to wind you up. Basically stay still and out of the road sounds common sense but thats is hard when your mind is all over the place.
Ladies get there early have a decent load on phone, let your Brit know what you will wear and who will be with you do grab a brother, uncle or son/ even just the driver to carry the case/s your boyfriend will be most likely be wilting in the heat, sweating like crazy, disorenietated (a pack of tissues, alchol for hands and arms and a cold water bottle will be as lovely to see as your good self and help put at ease your mahal. Also have change for taxis,tips or any water or snacks much easier for you to pay the taxi and do the tips untill your brit as acclimatised a little.
Hi Gracia,
I never take the chance of booking an ongoing flight on the same day as I arrive in Manila. I arranged a flight on the day after my arrival the first time I went there and still ended up arriving a day late and missing that flight. When I did arrive, my suitcase was missing so I was still in the airport for ages after everyone else on the flight had gone filling in forms.
I had it all planned and the ongoing flight to Cagayan De Oro was booked for the day after my arrival because my flight was due to arrive at about 4:00 in the afternoon and there were no flights to CDO after about 2:00pm.
Unfortunately after my flight with KLM from Birmingham was delayed, I missed the connection at Amsterdam and because it was KLM's fault, they put me up in a hotel in Amsterdam overnight. The next direct flight to Manila was not until 8:00pm the following night so they then booked me on a flight at about 2:00pm to Hong Kong with an ongoing flight with Philippines Airlines to Manila the following morning. This was supposed to get me to Manila at about 11:30am compared to 4:00pm for the direct Amsterdam to Manila flight.
When I eventually got to Hong Kong Philippines Airlines wouldn't take me because my suitcase was missing and as they were transferring me from one airline to another they said if they accept me, they accept liability for the suitcase. I was supposed to fly to Manila with Philippines Airlines at about 9:30am and after being shunted (escorted) around Hong Kong airport from one airline desk to another by a very charming young Hong Kong Chinese KLM assistant, I was eventually booked on a flight with Cathay Pacific at about 2:30pm to arrive in Manila at about 4:30pm - half an hour later than the direct Amsterdam-Manila arrival time.
Meanwhile, my G/F, now wife, had arranged to get a midday flight from CDO to be at NAIA to meet me at 4:00pm and luckily she had arranged for friend of hers to meet her at Centennial airport because she was a little worried about being in Manila alone. If she hadn't arranged to meet her friend she would have been stranded in Manila completely alone when I failed to turn up.
Well, while all of this was going on, my G/F and I had been keeping in touch by text and her friend had managed to sow a seed of suspicion in her mind and by now she had become convinced that I had another G/F in Hong Kong and had gone there to spend a night with that G/F before coming to see her. Then when I was stuck in Hong Kong airport and my phone battery died and I stopped replying to her texts for a while she became even more convinced of this.
Anyway, I eventually found a place in the airport where I could get my battery charged just in time to text her my flight details from Hong Kong to Manila before I boarded my flight. By then I don't think she really believed that I was actually going to come to Manila, but she decided to give me one last chance and when I landed at Manila she was waiting there with her friend. As soon as I landed in Manila I texted her as the plane taxied to its stand. But she was not convinced I really was there and said she would only believe it when she actually saw me walk out to the arrivals area.
I had been told by KLM at Hong Kong that my suitcase would be traced and would be on the Cathay Pacific flight when it took off - no chance. I watched the carousel go round and round until 99% of the bags had been collected, no more suitcases were being loaded on and it had become obvious it had not arrived. So off I went to the Cathay Pacific people to fill in all the forms while my G/F outside across the road was becoming even more convinced I was some sort of a wind up merchant.
Eventually at sometime after 6:00pm I got through immigration and customs and emerged at the road outside. It was lashing down rain and I was extremely stressed as walked across the road and turned left down the ramp (the wrong ramp for my surname) to the road with the waiting area on the other side. Well, I was in the wrong place and with the rain it was extremely noisy and chaotic. I was trying to call my G/F and she was answering but with noise of the rain etc, we couldn't hear each other.
Then eventually a policeman who was on duty there asked if he could help and I reluctantly gave him my phone as my G/F was still on the other end trying to talk to me. He told me very firmly to wait there as he wandered off up the road and I thought, great, there goes my phone already and I've only been here 10 minutes. I couldn't have been more wrong.
After a few minutes he came back and gestured me to follow him which I did. We walked up the road about 50 or 60 yards and he started gesturing, waving his arms in the air. Then I realised he was waving at my G/F and her friend. I saw them very briefly with a big sign with my name on it (just as I had instructed her to do) then after disappearing again for a few seconds, all of a sudden they just seemed to appear right nest to me - what chaos.
Then, after refusing a tip, the policeman left us to it and walked off. Then before I knew what was happening we were in a cab, we'll van I should say without any negotiation - big mistake. It was lashing down rain like I had never seen before in my life and these two wise guys in the van were asking for $60.00. Neither my G/F or her friend were, shall we say Manila Street Wise and neither of them knew how far the hotel was from the airport but they both looked quite shocked by the taxi drivers demands. Anyway, I told him I didn't have any dollars and he didn't want £'s Sterling so after a bit of negotiation, I grudgingly gave him nearly all the Pesos I had, just under P3000 - what a mug. Like they say, you live and learn
The moral of this story is: Don't make firm plans, just some loose arrangements. Remember Sod's Law - If anything can go wrong, it will.
I should have posted this in "Rants" a long time ago really.
Hi, Gracia and Louella..magsilingan ra diay ta ninyo hehehe! I am from Don Carlos, Bukidnon.
Grace, based of my experienced I met my fiancee before (bana na karon) in Cebu where i stayed with my grandma on that time. Then, we flew from Cebu to Davao City it was an hour flight we visited my Aunty and next we travel from Davao to Bukidnon where my parents live.
Ok, pag-amping silingan!
hmm andypaul, i think becuase my bags are sent direct from manc airport to manila, then they are one of the first lot of baggage to be put on the plane, you being a pc geek like me will know what FIFO means, i'm one of the first off the plane, being 6ft 2" and i can sprint past most to the front of the que at immigration, only to be one of the last to leave the airport , as my bags are one of the last to be put on the carousel...
one way around this i've seen, you see some cheecky , with what look like cases which are way toooooooooo big to be hand luggage, so carry all your luggage with you..
, when my wife came to the uk, she had like 20 heavy medical books, they were that heavy, most had to go in hand luggage, even our daughter had to carry some , i carried many in my hand luggage bag, just b4 we got on the plane, the secuirty guards were checking bags , i put the bag on the table, the security lady tried to pick it up, she couldn't move it at all ... we were well over our baggage allownce but no one said anything
hi Husband of louella, Thanks a lot for sharing your experience sir, it helps us a lot to plan for his arrival here...
Goodluck Grace, I understand how are u feeling right now..lots of butterflies in ur stomach he he he
thanks sis Grace..he he he i dont know when all these nervousness and stress will left me..I am counting the days now for my flight..
looking forward on chatting with u again soon..Goodluck
I just notice i am a full time MEMBER now, not just a newbie... yeheeeey! hehehe Thanks....
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