5J, PR, MH, AK… these are airlines I’ve flown to Manila coming from Singapore or KL. I’m a fan of Philippine Airlines (PR). Today I got to fly SQ to Manila after snagging > S$300.00 tickets. Standard price on SQ Singapore to Manila is about S$600+.

It was okaaaaaaaaay. (I guess all these weeks watching the SQ commercials and then experiencing SQ on an average Joe kind of Wednesday spoils it…)

I guess mainly the damper was the aircraft was a bit old. I was onboard a 777 retrofitted (?) aircraft. The IFE was remote control-operated. Think late 90s or early 2000s feels. I flew on a fairly new Emirates aircraft recently so the differences were there.

The food was also “okay”. I was starting to hear a colleague’s rant that SQ is overrated. Huhu. Perhaps it was just this particular flight. The FA were going about busy as bees. The mythical “Singapore Girl” smiles… and yet, somehow felt less as “magical” as my first flight with SQ in 2005. What does that even mean lol.

I asked for a Singapore Sling. And after a few moments wondering if the FA put me off, she did come back with one. And it tasty. Very bitin but refreshing. Makes me want to try the original at Raffles Hotel.

IFE was rough because of the older monitors on the seats. I could barely read the captions in “Selma” which I managed to watch. The audio was horrible… But forgive me, because I edit promos for television.

Will I repeat SQ? Perhaps if it were on a more recent aircraft like an A330 (I think my return flight to Singapore is on an A330). I’d like to fly on an Airbus A380 one day… these fly to New Zealand and SQ was the launch carrier.

Singapore to Manila and vice versa? Philippine Airlines is your answer. No IFE (bring your own!)… but for a 3.5 hour flight, it is more economical.