Wheels up

[top_secret 2,456]

Success at port of entry LAX!!

[top_secret 2,456]

On 10/27/2021 at 12:16 AM, seekingthetruth said:

There should be porters around who can help, for a tip.

 

Hopefully you are back in San Diego when you read this, and the long journey is over!

 

I'm curious about the flight.  How many PAX, etc., if you have time.  I saw that PAL is trying to sell extra seats so that people can book an entire row, etc.  48 hours before flight, $35 and up but I couldn't find actual prices by segment.  I figure that they have a lot of empties and are trying to generate some revenue from them.  I always look at the seat maps before a flight to see how full it is.  No need to pay if the flight is empty and if the flight is almost full, you probably can't get the seats anyway.

 

P.S., is that still the old terminal at Clark?  I assume so.  I think the new one is ready but they keep postponing because of what you said; no passengers.

 

We have been busy the last few days.  Even though it is a bit longer Singapore Airlines was an awesome choice for us.  Departing from Clark one-way to LAX was $491 each which was pretty cheap for these days.  Clark was much easier for them to depart from than NAIA.  For them to transit Singapore they had testing standards that are stricter than the US.  Singapore requires a PCR test from a Phil DOH accredited lab within 48 hours of departure, as opposed to the US which would be happy with a rapid antigen test from any ol’ lab within 3 days.  They got tested at Medical City Clark which checked all the boxes for Singapore transit.  PCR tests are capped at P3300 now so it’s pretty much the same price anywhere.  Clark was absolutely devoid of passengers.  It was quite literally my wife, stepdaughter and one other passenger there for the Scoot connecting flight to Singapore.  Check-in gave her allot of grief over some silly Los Angeles specific web form that asks name, phone number, address and e-mail address.  We had filled that stupid form however when you submit it you simply get a generic response the says "Submitted successfully".  There is no confirmation you could print and this fact confused the hell out of Scoot check-in leading to a lengthy debate.  Terminal fee is now included in ticket which is new for Clark.  Travel Tax was not but easily paid there.  Immigration was a breeze since it was only the 3 passengers in the whole terminal and he didn’t even look for the CFO.  It was the same 'old' Clark terminal as always.

 

The Scoot flight to Singapore was an A320 with 180 seats, 2 pilots and 4 flight attendants all for the THREE passengers to Singapore.  At Singapore they got green ribbons attached to their wrists and were driven by golf cart to a waiting area.  Transit passengers are escorted and are not allowed to wander freely around the terminals in Singapore but they had reasonably priced food and stuff in the waiting area.  An hour before the US flight they got another golf cart ride from the holding area to the gate.  The flight to the US was a brand new A350 only maybe a third full in economy.  They had a row to themselves as well as the row ahead of them, behind them and to the side.  The Singapore Airlines flight attendants were fawning all over the step daughter so she felt pretty special.

 

LAX was a bit busy in Immigration.  It took her 1 ½ hours to get through which she attributed to Chinese passengers ahead of her taking allot of time.  She says there was a crazy American guy being dragged away in handcuffs kicking and screaming nonsense the whole way.  Welcome to Los Angeles.  The Agent who processed them was friendly and efficient.  The only controversy was that my wife didn’t know if I live in an apartment or a house or for that matter what the difference is between apartment or a house.  The IO was just trying to make sure it was correct that there is no apartment number in the address.  Yes, it’s a house.

 

[seekingthetruth 1,248]

15 hours ago, top_secret said:

Even though it is a bit longer Singapore Airlines was an awesome choice for us.  Departing from Clark one-way to LAX was $491 each which was pretty cheap for these days.

Thanks for the great info!  That was a great price and everyone loves Singapore Air!  We prefer Clark too.