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Ruminating at 30,000 feet

Unlike Jomari Chan, I have never found love at 30,000 feet. I have found airsickness though! But that is the title of one of Jomari's greatest commercial jingle hits. It is Philippine Airlines' signature song. Do real people meet their lifetime partner on a plane ride?

I'm sort of a PAL loyalist. I fly PAL if PAL flies to my destination. My uncle is even more of a determined PAL loyalist. He won't fly on another airline even if it were the last flight on earth.

Now with other reputable carries zipping across Philippine and ASEAN skies, my uncle won't even consider flying on the planes with yellow fuselages, old noisy 737s, and airlines with "Spirit"on their corporate identities. On a trip to KL, I flew on Cebu Pacific since it was cheaper than PAL (besides PAL codeshares with Malaysian Air and the flights to KL are operated by Malaysian). My uncle took the PAL flight only to find out he was on Malaysian!

I told him Cebu Pacific isn't that bad. The only thing is that they don't serve inflight meals but have a jazzy magazine.

As for airlines with Spirit on their names, I've heard morbid jokes about them, like landing as Spirits when you initially boarded as body and soul. These jokes seem to be related to the Bee Gees disco era hit "Spirits having Flown".

There is a new carrier that reminds me of a popular juice drink that made lots of people "kilig to the bones" in the 1980s. I thought their launching ad was a juice gimmick!

Anyway on domestic flights I like to have the window seat since it offers a geography lesson. Flying over the islands, I notice the extent of environmental degradation. Many mountains have smoky peaks, not because they are volcanoes but because of "kaingin"

On this flight I was beside a Malaysian airlines pilot. Well this so cool. If anything happens to the pilot and co-pilot, the stewardess (oooooops flight attendant) need not fly the plane! Our conversation was on how bad the travel market is and why Malaysia is a bargain. I never was able to ask the question "Are flight attendants trained to land a jet?"

I really don't know. But there is a Worst Case Scenario, Survival Manual that has a step by step procedure a "How to land a 747"

Fasten your seatbelts, have your tray tables in the locked position.......

Comments

Jego said…
I for one welcome the competition to PAL's monopoly of the domestic market. When they had the monopoly, PAL staff in the offices were incredibly arrogant schmucks and scmhuckettes who wouldnt give customers the time of day. If they didnt feel like serving you, they didnt. When it went under, I secretly went, 'Buti nga.' Fortunately for them nanjan si Lucio.
Ben Vallejo said…
I agree. PAL is now customer friendly

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