a) From Thailand: Ehotelthailand.com allows you to pay for your flight before you arrive in BKK. This is a good idea if you are afraid that the flights might be booked. I chose Philippine Airlines and a RT ticket costs $258. Thai Airways flights costs about $300 and Egypt Air has a flight that leaves at 3am and costs about $215. The PI Air flight leaves at 1:40 pm and arrives about 5:45 or so...my flight arrived early at 5:30. You lose an hour going to PI. Another suggestion to purchase tickets is to wait until you get to BKK and use the many travel agents on Kho Sahn Road.

b) From U.S.: If you are traveling from Cali., Travelocity.com is your best bet during low season. During the summer, I got the best rates through consolidators. Go to Filipino neighborhoods and you will see several travel agents that will give you flights cheaper than face value. I purchased a flight that was $300 cheaper than the face value of the ticket and it includes a shuttle service from San Diego to LAX. $900 total during summer time is a great price as all the Pinoy are traveling back to their homeland. I think the best airline to use is Eva Air for service, Philippines Air for direct flights and Cathay Pacific for prices. It is a good idea to join Cathay Pacific's club as they will send you emails when they have specials, which is where I found a deal for $499 in October. The service at Cathay is poor but the planes are well maintained and safe. The only airline I would avoid is China Airlines which has a horrible safety record.

c) From Airport to AC- Tough to cart around your luggage to Swagman Hotel or to Rabbit Bus Station. Swagman does offer a van ride for 350 pesos(I think) but it's only worth it if you were staying in Manila the night before. Almost all of the taxis charge about 1,500 pesos($28). It's probably best to have your hotel provide the pickup as it is guaranteed. The price is a total ripoff but you have little choice. The ride can take an hour and a half without traffic and as much as 5 hours with it. Unfortunately most of the flights from Thailand arrive during rush hour....schedule accordingly.

Another convenient route is to fly with SEAir. They have a web site at flyseair.com and it will give you reservation options. As of now, you can fly for 500 pisos if it is from an international flight. You will be given an allowance of 20 kilos of luggage and charged an additional 20 piso per kilo thereafter. They now provide a shuttle for 100 pisos that picks you up from the international airport to domestic airport. Dont use a taxi to get there. They will also have a shuttle bus for 100 piso to your hotel in Angeles. The flight takes 20 minutes and leavs M-F at 5:30 pm. They have added additional flights so you should check out their web site to give you more details. They are updating their website so that you can make reservations online.

AIRPORT TIPS: After getting your luggage and going through customs, you will be overwhelmed at the amount of touts and scammers flying at you. Take a deep breath and go directly to one of he bank exchange booths and exchange $100 if it is during the day(better rates in Angeles kiosks) or more if you arrive in the middle of the night. After you get your money, people will be coming out of the woodwork to get you to use their taxi service. They are all the same. They will open a book and point to a guide the says, "Angeles City 2,600 pisos". Tell them 1,500 pisos and that the driver pays for tolls. They will not do it. Walk away and they will change their minds but qualify the price and who is paying for tolls. If they refuse, there are infinite other taxi drivers who will take this price. Stick to this price or lower if you can. The driver may cry and beg for a tip when you arrive or say "Merry Christmas" with his hand out. Only tip him if he tried to get you their safe and quick and if he wasn't an asshole. It's up to you. Wait to discuss the tip until you have your luggage out of the car.

I have racked up over 75,000 base miles flying China Airlines. I'm sitting at my computer writing this post so I must have made it safely home each time. Their LAX to TPE route is one of the safest in the industry, and the most reliable I might add. China Airline's bad safety record is mainly between their TPE hub to other Asian destinations. So far every MNL bound flight I've flown was on a brand new 737 or A330.

China Airlines’ bad record has been primarily caused by pilot error. There has been a huge push in the last year to improve on this. I was recently in Taiwan for 6 weeks and it is still a big deal there. The country wants CI flights to be the flights of choice. I personally recommend others to try it.

...(prog)

It was a plane from china airline that almost crashes against a hotel in Haway about one year ago... remember the news?

Another thing to add to the guide is that Asiana Airlines has a fligth from LAX to Clark AFB(Angeles City) Last month there was a deal for $515 plus tax for this flight which does include a 10 hour layover on the way back in Korea. It saves some time and money to have your flight directly to Clark AFB instead of Manila so let's hope Asiana has more deals like this in the future and that the route continues.

If you live in San Diego, I recommend you contact the Travel Network 619-299-5161 for reservations as they have the same prices as online and can get you a flight out of San Diego for $10 more...they give you a $10 cash discount so you can actually get the San Diego flight for free.

Asian Spirit airlines also has a daily commuter flight between Manila and AC, leaving Manila at 1 PM. Don't know much about them, but the cost is about 1000 pesos, the flight from Manila leaves at 1 P.M. according to their online schedule, and like the SEAir flight, it takes a bout a half hour.

Ken from SEAir ensured my reservation on SEAir for this trip without getting it canceled because I didn't pay for the ticket within 24 hrs. of reservation, and told me that there was a FREE shuttle to the Balibago area hotels, which made things VERY convenient. The price is now 815 pesos for a ticket, and there is a 100 peso fee for some airport usage tax. They have also supposedly loosened the luggage weight restriction for those using international flights. The normal weight limit is 10 kilos.

I also used the Apartelle Royal van service on this trip (picked up cherry boy at the airport with some 'company', as Epi OH, so graciously did for ME on my first trip, and the whole trip went extremely smoothly, and the van was much bigger than the Orchid's that I had used before. John the driver was also seVERELY cool about EVERYTHING on the trip.