Redemption of Mabuhay Miles for our Beijing trip

Around the end of May 2009, I received an email from Mabuhay Miles promoting their 50% Great Miles Getaway Promo. I thought wow, now is the best time to redeem our remaining mileage that is due to expire in a few months! Considering that we have only earned a few miles (since most of our recent trips have not earned mileage anymore), we can actually be able to fly because of this promo.

I computed the total miles that Rene and I have and we reached about 21,000 which means we have enough to redeem for an international flight! I narrowed down our choices from among the available options requiring 10,000 each for a roundtrip ticket. I also considered the best miles-to-dollar value (meaning those that are usually expensive in airfares). My choices were Japanese cities (Fukuoka, Osaka or Nagoya), Beijing (Shanghai and Xiamen are also available in Cebu Pacific so I excluded these) and also possibly Guam. I excluded ASEAN cities as there are a lot of available cheap airfares for these. The same goes for Hongkong, Macau and Taipei.

I made a lot of mock booking at the PAL website to check for airfare / taxes and flight dates and times. Since the travel period for the promo is July 1 - Nov 30, I had to select the best time to take a long vacation. My plan is to have a 5D4N trip and my choices were from Aug 19-23 (since Aug 21 is a holiday, and 19 is a holiday for those working in QC like Rene) and Nov 26-30 (Nov 27 and 30 were already announced by GMA as non-working holidays). My 1st choice was in August but Rene preferred the Nov date (which I thought was too far along and I can't wait) ;).

Trying to get through the PAL hotline was such a pain. Expect to wait at least 15 mins to get through and another 15 mins to be on hold. That is the minimum. Most of the time you won't even get through at all, it's usually just a busy tone. As a last resort, I tried to email the Mabuhay Miles contact email and fortunately, they did reply immediately!

We got reserved for the Nagoya trip. All we had to do was go to the nearest PAL office to transfer miles first to my husband by filling out a form and then book that flight. It wasn't as easy as it sounded.

When I went to the PAL ticket office and finally got to the counter, I paid the ~5k mileage transfer fee. I was told that the mileage will only be updated in about 2-3 working days! The promo deadline was approaching and I was afraid our reservation will get forfeited (as it is only valid for I think 3 days). I was advised to call PAL to confirm if the mileage transfer has been reflected before going back. I had to take a leave from work a few days later to go back to the PAL ticket office and complete the booking.

The final trip we booked was Beijing on Nov 26-30. Turns out on the day I was about to book the Nagoya trip, the PAL lady asked me if I already have a visa and I said No. She said she could not book me without a visa (wtf?!). I wanted to yell at her and ask why no one ever bothered mentioning that during reservation and even before I transferred miles to my husband! But I started thinking fast and remembered my other options, I then asked her if it is also a requirement when booking for Beijing. She said that it is not and I was relieved and immediately she checked if there are still open slots for the same date for Beijing. Fortunately there was and I booked it right away. We paid about ~7k each for the taxes (inclusive of the Php1620 travel tax, the terminal fee of Php750 is still to be paid at the airport). 

So based on my experience, these are my tips if you're planning to redeem Mabuhay Miles with PAL:

1. Do a lot of mock booking of your intended award flight at the PAL website - create a list of flights that you want as there are normally limited award tickets per flight. Create a list of options by cities, dates and priorities. Note the amount of taxes as well as it varies by city. When you have made a list, do step 2.

2. Call or email PAL for available award flights - inquire if there is an available award flight from your list of choices, and if there is, reserve it immediately. You will be given a booking reference code. Also inquire if there are any specific requirements upon booking, say you need to show your visa or passport.

3. Check that you have enough mileage for redemption - This is a given. However, if you're planning on buying / topping-up or transferring miles, you better do this ahead of time as this is still being processed manually. Aside from having to personally go to the ticket office to fill out a form and pay the fee, you have to wait for a few days to confirm if it has been updated and then you will return again to the ticket office to book the award flight.

4. If you need to do step 3, you will need to call PAL again to extend your booking reservation as this is only valid for at most 3 days. 

After you have already booked an award ticket, make sure to check from time to time if your flight is still on schedule. For our case, I did some mock booking at least once a month in case the time changes. What happened was when I checked our flight schedule by the end of Sept, there was no return flight on Nov30! 

I again attempted to call PAL. However, the lady I spoke to had no idea why it happened (she did say they are in the process of rescheduling flights but no explanation why) and she assured me that we were rebooked on Dec 1 instead. I requested her to email the final booking details however she refused. She said that our eticket is sufficient enough. However, I could not believe why she would not resend an eticket when our original eticket is already void (I am afraid that when we leave Beijing showing a Nov 30 return flight on Dec 1, it might cause confusion).

Again, I had to email PAL Mabuhay Miles to confirm if our flight was still on schedule. The reply 2 days later was a simple greeting informing me that we were rescheduled on Dec 1 and there was no apology! If I had not bothered checking our flight, I wouldn't have known that our original return flight was cancelled!

Now I guess they really did not bother informing us since we were practically on a free ticket. And if we wanted to complain they can just refund the taxes we paid.

After these experiences, I really wouldn't bother earning Mabuhay Miles anymore. But for those who still have miles to redeem, keep in mind the tips I advised if you're planning to redeem yours in the future.

Booking a plane trip at the last minute

I learned the hard way that booking a flight at the last minute, particularly with PAL, is quite a hassle. If you can do it online, which should be at least 2 days before the flight, that's a relief. But I am disappointed that the rates are in dollars. They should have placed an option there to quote and pay it in pesos since it is quite obvious that a large chunk of their passengers are Filipinos. So you have to keep in mind that the price you would pay through your credit card is higher than your computation based on prevailing exchange rate. In our case, I estimated it to be around P45=$1 but turns out the actual charge in the credit card (for $717.60 roundtrip for 2 to Bangkok) is P33,938.43 making the exchange rate to be P47.29=$1.

I noticed that the PAL booking page has changed. They no longer have an online profile where you can login and view your trip itinerary. This was useful when we went to Davao, because this is where I noticed that they changed the departure time of our return flight. PAL did not even bother to notify me. I think they tried to call me once, when i had a missed call on my cellphone but they did not call again. I did not even receive an email.

Another thing to note when booking online, it does not include the travel tax yet which is P1620 for international flights, as well as the terminal fee worth P750 per pax.

If you have 1 day or less left to book for a flight, you have only 2 options left: go to a PAL office or book it over the phone. I attempted to do both for Rene's officemate but was unsuccessful. Over the phone, it is so hard to get through the trunkline which, if I remember correctly, is 855-8888. I think i redialed the number for about 15-30 mins before i got through and after you're already in, you have to wait another 30mins or so before you get to talk to a PAL agent. While waiting i even left the phone to talk to someone who called me at another phone and dress up as I was about to leave for another errand. Ganon katagal bago ako may nakausap. It's a good thing I didn't miss it when the agent finally talked to me kundi sayang yung inantay ko! =)

I was able to reserve a flight schedule but did not book it yet as I had to ask the person I was booking for if the rate is ok. From the day before, the rate rose by about P8000! After getting the go signal, I decided to go straight to the PAL office in Cubao, so that i could pay here directly and get the ticket since it's on my way back to Meycauayan. Big mistake! It took us about 2 hours waiting time only to find out I couldn't book my husband's colleague as I did not have his passport with me! The agent I talked to over the phone with whom I reserved the slot did not even mention this when I asked her if I could just pay at the PAL office. Grrr! Anyway, the option they proposed is for him to fax his passport. But his officemate already left the office in QC and he still had to go home in Alabang. So we thought he'll just have to make it early to the airport and take his chance if there are still available seats, or maybe book the evening flight.

I asked the lady in the PAL office why they require the passport when you book in person while booking online only requires the names of the passengers. She just says it's the policy. Anyway, someone said it's probably to avoid people like criminals from leaving on short notice. Hmm, it still doesn't make sense to me kasi sa online mas maluwag. And you cannot leave without a passport.

Again, if you're going to book at the last minute (1 day or less before the flight), if you can book it over the phone, do it there. I think they send the ticket details either through fax or email. If you don't have a phone, fax or internet access, go to a PAL office and bring the passport of the passenger/s. They have a senior citizen counter, so if you're with a senior citizen, sign him up so you get priority. This counter is much faster since there are less people on queue. In the normal counter, I think the average time it took was about 4 people in an hr. I don't know why it takes so long when there are several counters (at least 4 i think for the international) and the cashier is separate. PAL needs to improve their service. They are too far behind in terms of efficiency.