Manila Embassy Interview

[Sheriff Uling 3]

Since it is a "slow news day" in the Manila forum, I'll share that last night Jenalyn and I got married. We were married by the Camp Hill Mayor at the Cornerstone Coffee House (and wedding chapel) and then everybody walked down the street to the Lebanese restaurant for a feast (complete with belly dancers) prepared by Mike the owner. Not exactly a "traditional" wedding night, but it was a blast, and everybody and a great time (some more then others based upon the number of wine bottles we went through).

CONFREAKINGRATULATIONS!!!

In my eyes, there is no such thing as "traditional" anymore. I wouldn't change my "non-traditional" wedding for anything in the world. I'm so happy for you my brother and your new family. May your days be blessed with incredible prosperity, health, and most of all love.

Edited January 21, 2007 by Sheriff Uling

[Ken_Maria 0]

Here is the response directly from PAL concerning the "Firt Time Immigrant fare". I know I saw the link to the fare and I wil find it, but this is the email respnse I got from PAL. Ken

Dear Mr. XXXX,

We regret that we do not have a special discount or lower airfare for first time immigrants. However, you were quoted the lowest fare at the time of your booking. In the event that a lower fare becomes available online and you would like to avail of it, you will have to refund your confirmed ticket first to avoid duplicate bookings. Refund will be subject to

relevant fare rules and penalties.

Thank you.

Julia

PHILIPPINE AIRLINES

I asked for quotation from my travel agent here in Manila and they quoted me these Philippine Airlines airfare for Feb. 15 departure MNL-LAX one-way:

First time immigrant fare - $554 (inclusive of US taxes) + P1,620 travel tax

Regular airfare - $691 (inclusive of US taxes) + P1,620 travel tax

You may want to ask about "first-time immigrant fare" for your ladies guys! I think it's only Phil. Airlines that offers this fare type.

[dims1 0]

Hi.

I'm curious how much a cell phone text message costs to send from Philippines.

Thanks,

Mike

[Ken_Maria 0]

Mike too many factors to give you a definite answer. It depends on the provider (Smart/Globe), depends on whether they are sending the text to your cell with Smart/Globe roam, ur U.S. Cell, using Chikka...etc.

If I remember right it is between 2-3 peso per text via chikka. My daughter's cell is on Smart roam and it is like 3 peso for her friends to text her here in Hawaii but like 20 Peso for her to reply. My Nextel cell charges me 20cents to reply to a text messgae from the PI.

It is a lot cheaper to use Chikka via you computer. Ken

Hi.

I'm curious how much a cell phone text message costs to send from Philippines.

Thanks,

Mike

[StarProg 0]

Mike too many factors to give you a definite answer. It depends on the provider (Smart/Globe), depends on whether they are sending the text to your cell with Smart/Globe roam, ur U.S. Cell, using Chikka...etc.

If I remember right it is between 2-3 peso per text via chikka. My daughter's cell is on Smart roam and it is like 3 peso for her friends to text her here in Hawaii but like 20 Peso for her to reply. My Nextel cell charges me 20cents to reply to a text messgae from the PI.

It is a lot cheaper to use Chikka via you computer. Ken

Hi.

I'm curious how much a cell phone text message costs to send from Philippines.

Thanks,

Mike

Yes I agree, Chikka is the cheapest way I've found yet. Although I heard T-Mobile had a cheaper way, but not sure of that. My wife used to send me texts from her Global phone at 15P each, and my replies were 25 cents fro Verizon. We were spending nearly $100/month just for text messages. Then we switched to Chikka. It costs here 2.5P to send a phone message to my email account, and it is free for me to send to her. Now our text messaging costs are negligible. It's not as convenient when it doesn't go to my phone, and it's not always reliable (occasional messages never delivered), but the cost savings is worth it. And if I wanted I could have her messages to me forwarded to my cell phone, but that would cost more.

[dims1 0]

Thanks Ken_Maria,

Yea, I know she can accept my text messages I send her from yahoo to her cell for free.

And She buys a $6.00 load every monday but lately she is running out of load by Sat. And she only texts me maybe 30 times a week so I was curious how much she pays per text msg. I can't remember if she uses Smart or Globe. It's my undersatnding there is basically no difference between the 2 with what she uses them for.

I guess I'm curious where all these extra rext messages are going, hehehe. Cuz I want as many as she sends to her friends since I'm payin the bill, hehehe!

Thanks again and good luck on the 7th. I pray God blesses you!

Mike

Edited January 21, 2007 by dims1

[sunandmoon 450]

I tried online booking with PAL yesterday, but the website would not accept my credit card. when called PAL Reservations, they would keep giving me different answers and please call back in an hour. today when i called told me nothing they could do. the system was having trouble validating some credit cards. they would not take payment by phone for online booking. they quoted me $200 more than the online rate to book by phone, so I booked thru LBC Travel. hope no one else experiencing same problem trying to book online with PAL.

[RonMay 1]

Thanks Ken_Maria,

Yea, I know she can accept my text messages I send her from yahoo to her cell for free.

And She buys a $6.00 load every monday but lately she is running out of load by Sat. And she only texts me maybe 30 times a week so I was curious how much she pays per text msg. I can't remember if she uses Smart or Globe. It's my undersatnding there is basically no difference between the 2 with what she uses them for.

I guess I'm curious where all these extra rext messages are going, hehehe. Cuz I want as many as she sends to her friends since I'm payin the bill, hehehe!

Thanks again and good luck on the 7th. I pray God blesses you!

Mike

30 times a week? ur blessed! lol... $6 that'll be almost P300 and the cost per text if you're in a pre-paid is P15 so most likely she's into prepaid... 300 devide by 15 = 20 ... i think i only send at least 10 msgs or less per week to my fiance. he seldom text anyways so every text that he sent is HEAVEN for me...

[StarProg 0]

Another thought about the text messages. The last time I visited Fely I noticed that she'd run out of load quickly even though she was only sending 1P messages to her friends and family. Since she always let me carry her phone for her, I got to playing with it one day. And I discovered she was subscribed to several daily "hints" messages from Globe. She thought they were free, and I found otherwise. She was being charged about 10P per day for useless messages. Of course, I unsubscribed her to all of them.

[dims1 0]

Hi Ronmay,

wow! I thought text messages she sent were only about 5p. Man we need to budget our text msgs better heehehe!

Maybe you can answer another question for me.

What is the best way for her to buy plane tickets there in Lapu Lapu when its time for her physical and interview?

Thanks!

StarProg....

Good tip! Thanks! Lorna would have no idea that was happening. I will check with her.

Mike

[w1n78 0]

to communicate with my wife in philippines we use vonage. she has DSL at home. for $25/month i can talk to her locally. just get the vonage unit here and send over there. i have t-mobile with nights and weekends on the plan. i'm on the phone w/ here all weekend long and mostly nights. plus 1000 anytime minutes. she also can call anyone in the US and canada "locally". with that in mind, we charge people to use it during the time we don't use it - it's great and we get pocket money for beer whenever i go back. drawback is the internet access, how reliable is it. example, the taiwan earthquake killed my wife's internet for a couple of weeks.

as far as texting, t-mobile i believe has the cheapest rates. 20 cents to send and 15 cents to receive (last i checked). and in philippines i think it cost 15 pesos to send text and free to receive incoming anything

if my wife and i have to text, she uses her Sun prepaid and pays i think either 10pesos per day or 100 pesos per week to get unlimited yahoo sms access. Sun isn't the best as far as coverage but it's tolerable. then on my side, i pay $15 per month on top of my plan with t-mobile to get unlimited msgs. so i log onto yahoo as well via sms and communicate that way.

monthly i'm averaging 4,000 minutes on the cell phone and 1,500 sms. i can't think of any better way of communicating with my wife in the philippines.

[GaryC 7]

First BJZags, CONGRATS!!!!!!

Second, Luz and Robin just left for their medical. Luz is really nervous about it because she doesn't like shots or the peeking "down there" but she is screwing up her courage to do it. While she is in Manila she will also get updated NBI, BC and Annullment papers. I have everything done here paperwork wise other than getting my I-134 noterized. I'll do that monday. It looks like we are about ready for the interview next month. God! 23 more days 'till I get there and 25 days 'till the interview!!! I cant wait!!!!

Edited January 21, 2007 by Iniibig ko si Luz forever

[Ken_Maria 0]

Gary, Maria was looking for Luz on 18-19 Jan, as we thought she ahd said she would go then. Now we know why she did not see her. Even though Maria was finished with everything b4 noon they still made her come back the next day for shots. She only got the MMR as they said they were out of the other shots???

The CFO ws easy and short, Maria went after her shots on the 19th and was still finished by 3:30 pm. Good luck to Luz, see yall on the 14th. Ken & Maria

First BJZags, CONGRATS!!!!!!

Second, Luz and Robin just left for their medical. Luz is really nervous about it because she doesn't like shots or the peeking "down there" but she is screwing up her courage to do it. While she is in Manila she will also get updated NBI, BC and Annullment papers. I have everything done here paperwork wise other than getting my I-134 noterized. I'll do that monday. It looks like we are about ready for the interview next month. God! 23 more days 'till I get there and 25 days 'till the interview!!! I cant wait!!!!

[GaryC 7]

Gary, Maria was looking for Luz on 18-19 Jan, as we thought she ahd said she would go then. Now we know why she did not see her. Even though Maria was finished with everything b4 noon they still made her come back the next day for shots. She only got the MMR as they said they were out of the other shots???

The CFO ws easy and short, Maria went after her shots on the 19th and was still finished by 3:30 pm. Good luck to Luz, see yall on the 14th. Ken & Maria

First BJZags, CONGRATS!!!!!!

Second, Luz and Robin just left for their medical. Luz is really nervous about it because she doesn't like shots or the peeking "down there" but she is screwing up her courage to do it. While she is in Manila she will also get updated NBI, BC and Annullment papers. I have everything done here paperwork wise other than getting my I-134 noterized. I'll do that monday. It looks like we are about ready for the interview next month. God! 23 more days 'till I get there and 25 days 'till the interview!!! I cant wait!!!!

Luz was going to go on the 18-19 but her son had final tests on those days. She also had a bit of a cough and she didn't want them to think she had TB and make her come back for more tests. We still plan on being in Manila Feb 14-15. I am hoping that we can make it a party one of those nights.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Since it is a "slow news day" in the Manila forum, I'll share that last night Jenalyn and I got married. We were married by the Camp Hill Mayor at the Cornerstone Coffee House (and wedding chapel) and then everybody walked down the street to the Lebanese restaurant for a feast (complete with belly dancers) prepared by Mike the owner. Not exactly a "traditional" wedding night, but it was a blast, and everybody and a great time (some more then others based upon the number of wine bottles we went through).

Congratulations, Brent! That sounds nice! Weddings should be memorable and it seems like so much fuss is put into the big ones that they are more headache than anything. We plan to wait and have a church wedding next year in the Philippines, so nothing fancy for the civil ceremony.