I thought some might be interested in my recent experiences flying. In February 2010, I flew on Delta airline from Manila to USA. In April 2010, I flew from USA to Manila. Both had their respective good and bad. Also, I listed below some tips I learned in searching for and booking an airline ticket.

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MNL - USA, DELTA (formerly NORTHWEST).

-- Check in.

My route comprised of three flights: Manila to Nagoya, Japan; then to Detroit; and onward to the nearest metropolitan city of my destination smallville.

In Manila, I telephoned Delta and its automated answering did not appear to have on option to speak to a live person in order to give my local telephone number. I tried my Skypass account on the Delta web site and the web site would not accept my local telephone number.

I arrived at the international terminal at 3:55 am, a little late for the recommended 3-hour checkin prior to the scheduled 6:30 am flight departure. There was two long lines of people waiting at the single entrance into the terminal. It took about 30 minutes before I got inside the terminal and to the entrance's x-ray machine. Next there was a long line of people waiting to checkin at the Delta counter. It took exactly one hour before I got to a computer checkin terminal. Behind me in line were about 100 people.

Next paying the terminal fee of 750 pesos or US $16.30 took a few minutes. The next stop for Immigration took over 20 minutes. Immediately followed by another x-ray scan.

Now 6 am, I walked pass the shops in the passenger area and noticed that the coffee/sandwich counter among the center line of shops was gone. I continued to the downstairs area with gates and noticed that the coffee/sandwich counter was closed. Delta gate had staff, another x-ray scan machine, and no waiting passengers, because boarding had already started.

The Delta aircraft left the gate about five minutes before 6:30 am and ten minutes later we were in the air.

By contrast, my seatmate told me that he arrived at the terminal at 2:30 am, so he was one of the first people in line. But, the terminal did not open until 3:30 am. Also, he told me that he set his cell phone with Smart SIM for roaming, so his friends in the Philippines can text his usual number (without any international numeric prefix) for one peso. But, he replied with a text through his Canadian cell phone for about 60 cents.

-- Flight to Nagoya, Japan.

We arrived at 10:40 am (Japan time), deplaned, and passed through an x-ray. Building was big and new, but with few shops opened. We walked to Gate 12, but had to wait in a slow line for an item-by-item search of person and hand-carry bag. I was near the end of the line, so it took over an hour before I could get into the waiting area.

The stop in Nagoya was scheduled for two hours, with departure at 12:45 pm. However, at the gate the overhead board said that the flight was delayed to 1500 pm and a cryptic "crew legality". A fellow passenger said that the Delta/Manila checkin staff had mentioned the delay was due to the requirement that the aircraft crew gets enough rest.

I checked my boarding pass for the 3rd segment of my journey from Detroit and the 1.5 hour Detroit stop was extended to a later flight. Good. But, I needed to notify my pickup ride. To the far side of the gate was two clusters of cubicles. I visited and saw that there were four free computers for a maximum of 15-minute internet use. Everything was written in Japanese characters, but I saw the Internet Explorer icon and clicked on it. The trick was to figure how to type the @ symbol. Also, do not hit any unfamiliar keys, which I did in trying to find the American English keyboard, and ended with a totally screwed up keyboard. Somehow I got to my email account and sent an email to my pickup person.

-- Ocean Flight.

Most of the flight over the Pacific Ocean was turbulent. Flight attendants interrupted the drink service and delayed the dinner service. They were unhappy, especially at the passengers who continually hit the service button. They made an announcement asking such passengers to stop hitting the service button, because they were not allowed to move around during the air turbulence until the pilot captain said ok.

As usual for Northwest flights, this Delta flight served a dinner, a mid-flight snack, and a breakfast. However, the snack was just a small bun of bread.

-- USA.

Security exam was slow, as expected, and slower than usual due to the December's air passenger incident. However, I was traveling light, having left much of my stuff in my Manila hotel's baggage storage closet. Nevertheless, even Customs x-rayed my checked bag, which I had to pickup at the first USA port-of-entry and to re-check for my third flight.

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USA - MNL, CONTINENTAL and KOREAN AIR .

My route comprised of three flights: metro city to Los Angeles, then to Inchon airport; and onward to Manila.

-- USA, United (Continental-operated).

Airport. Airport signs indicated that Continental domestic flights were in one terminal and international flights were in a different terminal, two buildings away. Since my first segment was to Los Angeles, I went to the terminal for domestic flights. A Continental representative inside the terminal that I should have gone to the international terminal, because my destination was international even though I was changing from a domestic carrier to an overseas carrier in Los Angeles. My boarding pass showed my flight would be at domestic terminal gate. So, had I checked in at the international terminal, I would have had to walked through two terminals to get to the domestic terminal gate.

Check-in. Continental check-in computer would not recognize that I had a reservation. An airline agent said that a second way to check in was to use my airline reservation number. However, my Expedia document had a United reseration number and a Continental reservation number was needed. Then I mentioned that there might have been confusion with my last name because I am a Jr. So, I typed my last name and (no space) jr and the computer showed my reservation and issued my boarding passes.

Security examination. The lines were about 100 people long. My backpack was pulled for another x-ray examination, which involved removing and diving some contents into two other trays. The guard explained that the first x-ray indicated that I was carrying a lot of electronics. This was correct, because I had many items like two digicams, two cell phones, two mp players, two external hard drives, memory cards, emergency crank radio/flashlight, rechargers, cables, batteries, etc. These stuff were cheaper in the USA and for some items, not available in PI and Thailand. This process took about 45 minutes.

Boarding. An airline staff at the gate repeatedly shouted only one carry-on and any other item had to be stowed underneath the seat in front of your seat. Although the aircraft was a new-looking B757-300, its overhead compartment was barely high enough vertically to fit my backpack and deep enough to fit the length of my backpack.

Flight. I have to admit Continental service was professional and aircraft seat was adequate. Except for the terminal check-in and limited carry-on storage space, Continental flight was acceptable and I will probably no longer avoid flying on Continental.

-- Ocean Flight, Korean Air.

Connection. Connection time was 1.5 hours. I prefer three hours, in case the first flight is late, my cheap ticket placed me in a seat at the back of the aircraft, and in a window seat (it happened) the security examination line is long, etc. But, there was no low-priced choice. Continental aircraft landed at a LAX domestic terminal, number 6.

My Expedia document listed my LAX departure was from the Tom Bradley terminal, which was the international terminal. This was my first-time at LAX in many decades. A terminal employee told me to go outside and take the A bus. I did, but an A bus just drove off and the waiting area on the middle island in the driveway had no sign to indicate it was an A bus stop. I had to wait about 15 minutes for the next A bus. Then the A bus drove about 75 percent of the roadway looping around the various terminals to get to the Tom Bradley terminal. I do not know if there was a walkway between terminals and if walking would have been faster. Getting off Continental aircraft and getting to the international terminal took about 40 minutes.

Check in. The A bus drop off stop was in front of a terminal close to the Tom Bradley terminal, with no nearby signs to indicate which terminal was which. I walked up a flight of steps to get to the entrance of the terminal and then walked to the middle rows of airline counters.

No one was in line for the Korean Air counters, although it was about an hour before the flight departure time. Even though Continental gave me two boarding passes for the Korean Air flights, I decided to check in with Korean Air. A Korean clerk tore up my Continental boarding passes and issued me new passes. She also asked for my luggage claim tags and entered their numbers into a computer. This process took a few minutes.

Security examination. The lines were about 50-people long. At the x-ray machine, I removed some contents from my backpack. No delay to examine further my backpack. This process took about 20 minutes.

Boarding. At the gate, Korean Air boarding was in process and my section of passengers had already been called. The B747-400 overhead storage compartment was barely high enough to fit my backpack, but was more than deep enough to accommodate the length of my backpack. About 15 minutes later, the aircraft left the gate.

Flight. This flight took about 12 hours. In early April 2010, there was hardly any air turbulence unlike in late Feb 2010. Overall, the Korean Air flight from USA was better than earlier Northwest flights from USA.

With behind-seat individual video monitor, I had a selection of movies to watch at my own pace. Free booze was available upon request, although there were no bottles/cans on the service cart and flight attendants almost ran through the aisles and were difficult to stop. I saw one male passenger received and drank two cans of beers and three liquor minatures. Wine was offered and served with the first meal.

Meal services were acceptable, but a little strange. Unlike Northwest flights leaving USA serving a dinner, a midnight snack, and a breakfast about two hours prior to arrival, Korean Air served a dinner, a snack, and a lunch about four hours prior to arrival. The Korean Air snack was a little more substantial being a small bun with a tiny chopped meat core, but the attendant distributed them with a tong dropping the bun into bare hands and no napkin. It reminded me of tossing tidbits to animals at the zoo.

-- Flight to Manila.

Incheon Airport, Seoul, Korea. Deplaned. Security examination involved sending my backpack with half of its contents (other half passed without question) through the x-ray machine a second time. Last time I was in the Seoul airport terminal was in the late 1980s. This time, ther terminal was a very large, modern building filled with high-end shops. I looked for coffee, but it was priced starting at 3300 wons at an exchange rate of 1080 wons to a dollar.

Mileage. When I purchased my USA-MNL ticket three weeks earlier from Expedia, I checked the Korean Air web site for my reservation. I enrolled for Skypass membership. The web site said that I would receive a letter advising me of my Skypass member number in two weeks. I did not receive the letter, but online I logged into my Skypass account and saw the number assigned to me and my reservation. I forgot to ask about mileage when I checked in at Korean Air at LAX. My Skypass number was not on my boarding pass. At the Incheon Airport, I asked Korean Air gate clerk about mileage. She shooed me away from the counter saying that the computer took care of that and she did not check her computer or look at my boarding pass.

Boarding. A large posted sign advised economy passenger to sit in the area to one side and all others in the area on the other side. Korean Air gate clerk told economy passengers standing near the gate counter to sit down. Just before boarding time for economy passengers, everyone stood in a long line in no particular order and were boarded in line.

Flight. This flight was about four hours, an hour longer than the Northwest flights from Japan to Manila. There were some videos shown on a flip-down small monitor, but no movie.

A dinner was served, but my beef chunks were almost all fat. During the post-meal coffee/tea service, I requested a beer. A few minutes later, I saw an attendant returning with a can of beer on a tray, I looked away, and when I looked back the attendant was gone having apparently served someone else the beer. I was not able to stop one of the attendants who were running the aisle ignoring passengers. So, I never received my beer and after half an hour I was no longer thirsty for a beer.

Immigration and Customs forms were distributed to the front rows along my aisle. After 15 minutes, I reminded an attendant that most passengers in my section had not received the Philippines forms. No health form were passed out, unlike previous flight to Manila. I guessed the avian flu watch was over.

-- Manila.

We landed about 11:20 pm, about 20 minutes later than scheduled. Other flights had landed before us, so in front of each Immigration booth were 40-50 people. The booth at the far left not only served diplomats and wheelchaired passengers, but also listed ACR-I card holders and other special visa types.

Baggage was filling up the luggage carousel, but it took me about 40 minutes to get my suitcases. Another hundred fellow passengers were waiting for their bags after I got mine.

Outside the terminal to my left on the sidewalk was a taxi booth and a line of taxicabs. At the booth, the clerk wrote down my destination and gave me two copies, of which one copy was to be given to the driver. The posted rate was 70 peso/base and 4 pesos/300 meters.

In the taxi, the driver asked me for the paper and I gave him one copy. He asked me to write down the number of suitcases placed in the car trunk on the back of the paper. I did. Then he asked me to give him my copy. I did. Then I asked him to give me back one copy. He ignored me. I repeated my request several times by asking which color copy I was supposed to get. He finally gave me one copy.

I noticed that the taxi meter looked non-standard and had two sets of numbers. I asked which numbers showed the fare? He said the smaller numbers. I asked what the larger number were? He said kilometers. I said that the smaller number of 105 for pesos could be confused with the larger number of 335 for kilometers. He said that 335 meant 3.35 kilometers and begin to ask me a continuous series of questions. For example, what country I was from, my first visit to Manila, many Filipinos living in your country, etc?

At about 5.5 kilometers, the smaller numbers read 320. I shouted that there was something wrong with his meter. It should not be reading 320 pesos. He asked how much I paid before? I said in previous trips, from the airport to my hotel I paid about 150 peso and from my hotel to the airport the taxi meter said about 100 pesos.

Near my hotel, the meter said under 9 km. So, I told the driver that at 70 pesos for the base (street taxi's meter usually start at 30 pesos) and 4 pesos per 300 meters, which was about 14 pesos per km, the meter should be reading under 200 pesos. After a bellboy unloaded my suitcases in front of my hotel, I handed the driver 250 pesos and told him to get his meter fixed, and the driver looked at the money and then at me as though I had cheated him. The next day, I read the paper given to me by the taxi booth and it had a telephone for reporting or texting a problem with the taxi ride.

Welcome to Manila.

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BOOKING VIA WEB TRAVEL AGENCIES.

1. Lowest-priced round-trip USA-MNL airline tickets started about three weeks from the date of search. This means that after I return to USA, the earliest I can leave on a low-priced ticket is three weeks later.

2. Delta flights were not listed for the next two weeks (from day of my online search).

3. Delta flights were not listed on some days in the third week (from day of my online search).

4. Price of same Delta flights on the Delta web site were priced starting over $2,000, while web travel booking sites (like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity) priced them starting at about $1,350.

5. Travel agencies that advertised on the web showed low prices like $800 and require you to telephone an agency employee. But, such prices supposedly excluded taxes, terminal fees, fuel surcharge, etc such that the final price was slightly lower ($20) than the travel booking sites. Also, these travel agencies claimed that my credit card failed authentication and could not be concluded, unless I emailed/faxed copies of my passport, credit card, and a completed/signed airline ticket purchase for credit card charge form within 24 hours. Meanwhile, my online credit card account showed three $1 test charges by an airline, similar to Amazon's $1 test charges, which will disappear after ten days.

6. Maximum return date was ten months (although stated are eleven months) from the day of my online search. Stated also was that a ticket could not have a return flight date more than one year from the date of online search/booking. Next year, I will find out the how and cost of changing a return flight to a later date can be accomplished through Expedia for United/Continental and Korean Air flights.

7. After booking my trip on Expedia and selecting airline seats, it took several days before my airline web account showed my reservation. Then, I had to select my seats again.

8. I selected United for my CONUS flight segment, instead of Continental, because in the1980s, a stewardess accidentally rammed a cart into one of my knees which was not extended into the aircraft aisle and I had never flown on Continental since then. After my ticket purchase, Expedia showed my itinerary and that the United flight was operated by Continental. This was a problem at my airport check-in at Continental, because I had a United reservation number and I needed a Continental reservation number. Related to this is a possible issue with which airline is giving me mileage credit, because the airline's airport check-in computer had no provision for inserting my frequent flier number, which would be United's.

Hope this will be useful to fellow travelers.

I wish delta would fly it's phils route out of a decent hub. why the hell would anybody want to fly to detroit in the middle of winter for a connecting flight.

You had more issues with these flights then I've had in over a million miles logged. Then again, I don't fly Delta or Continental...

Oh my God. And someone else got your Beer. Thats wrong. My favorite part is when you say that the stewardesses ask the passengers to stop hitting the stewardess assistance button. Bahahaahahah!

Oh shit...