Philippine Airlines

better than those

Philippine Airlines angled like flats.

Yeah, I said it right.

You go all Kroger's and

So you can't like filter out airlines you don't want to fly.

So you might see lots of Emirates and Philippine Airlines.

I think

they

But I think the problem with Emirates is that the fees and charges are extremely high.

So that already puts people off.

For Philippine Airlines, they fly through Manila, so I'm not sure if that works for your plans or not.

If it does, great.

Travelers can connect between Southwest and LOD at Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco.

Southwest began developing its international partnership strategy with Iceland Air in 2024 and has since added China Airlines, EVA Air, Philippine Airlines, Condor, Turkish Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air Premier, and TAP Air Portugal.

The partnership significantly increases Southwest's international reach without requiring the airline to operate its own long-haul aircraft.

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It's the Asian carriers, which are really important as well to the Southeast Asian market.

Cathay and Singapore are scheduled to return by the end of the year, and also Philippine Airlines, which is obviously very important to a lot of Filipino nationals who live here.

Those who haven't announced any returns for this year, the US carriers, which we know that's been a struggling market, but the UAE has announced how important that market is for them.

So they are the beneficiary of the US carriers not flying here.

Now, here's an intriguing one for lounge lovers.

Philippine Airlines has launched a paid status match promotion through the website statusmatch.com. You can match to their Mabuhay Miles Elite tier for one hundred and ninety-nine dollars or to Mabuhay Miles Premier Elite for three hundred and forty-nine dollars.

The matched status is valid through the end of February twenty twenty-eight.

Here's the catch, and it's a big one.

Philippine Airlines is not yet part of any global airline alliance, so the perks are fairly limited right now.

However, Philippine Airlines is expected to join the Oneworld Alliance sometime in twenty twenty-seven.

Once that happens, Premier Elite status could map to Oneworld Sapphire status, which gets you into American Airlines Admirals Clubs and even Flagship Lounges.

Yes, even on domestic itineraries.

For people who are willing to be flexible, are willing to position, and don't feel incredibly loyal to [laughs] one specific airline in North America, I'm curious, are there any other specific routes that consistently surprise you in terms of having really great award availability to Asia?

Oh, recently, Philippine Airlines has the full award redemption partnership with Cathay Airways.

It is something that really surprising me [laughs] because Philippine Airlines, they, in general, release two to six business class seats on their own metal.

And if you consider the Filipino Canadians, Filipino Americans, they are kind of huge number of population in North America.

So Philippine Airlines, they fly from San Francisco, LAX, Honolulu, JFK, and Chicago in the future to Manila very frequently, and including cities like Vancouver and Toronto.

Actually, there are a lot of flights flying there, and it is really kind of very refreshing to see four to six business class seats on the same flight, on the same cabin.

So I would say it is the most recent surprise that I talk about recently after they have this partnership.

So if you take advantage of using this transfer bonus, you can actually bring the miles down to very acceptable redemption rates, like below 100,000.

We have helped clients book using their Alaska or Bilt points, which are the only things that transfer into Alaska.

British Airways, Philippine Airlines is a new one that a lot of our clients are excited about, Condor business class, Starlux, Hawaiian Air business class, because we get a lot of clients who want to fly to Hawaii, or sometimes just booking American Airlines flights for cheaper than it would be on AA's own website.

So there you have it.

Those are the seven programs that I recommend still checking out for amazing sweet spots in 2026.

rushing into converting your whole system into AI has downsides.

And I think in the next couple of years, because of AI taking over conversations on the phone, which I can see even happening in Philippine Airlines or in local businesses, Human experience is going to be a premium service.

That's the way I think about it.

Because people will crave about Having the genuine person that you're talking to, somebody who can sympathize with you or empathize towards your problem and give you that human touch.