MANILA TRAFFIC MADNESS, CHEAP AIRPORT EATS & AN OVERNIGHT FLIGHT HOME! An 8.5hr Journey, Plenty of Legroom, a Water Bottle Drama
✈️ GENERAL FLIGHT INFO
✈️ AIRLINE: Cebu Pacific
🔢 FLIGHT NUMBER: 5J39 (5J 39)
🌏 ROUTE: Manila, Philippines → Sydney, Australia
🛫 DEPARTURE AIRPORT: Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL), Manila
🛬 ARRIVAL AIRPORT: Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD), Australia
📅 TRAVEL PERIOD: December 2023
🕚 SCHEDULED DEPARTURE: 11:25 pm
⏱️ FLIGHT DURATION: Approximately 8.5 hours
💰 RETURN AIRFARE: AUD $1,475
🧳 CHECKED BAGGAGE: None on this journey
🚗 HOTEL TO MANILA AIRPORT: 12 km – approximately 1 hr 20 mins
☕ AIRPORT FOOD: Coffee & panini – approximately AUD $9
🚪 DEPARTURE GATE: Gate 116 (changed during departure)
💺 SEATING: Extra empty seats available towards the rear
😴 ONBOARD EXPERIENCE: Comfortable overnight flight with good legroom
💧 CABIN SERVICE: Water bottle refill request declined; water provided in cups
🛬 SYDNEY ARRIVAL: Approximately 1-hour wait for an available parking bay
⭐ OVERALL VERDICT: Comfortable budget-airline flight with a few frustrating moments
🌐 AIRLINE WEBSITE: Cebu Pacific Official Website
MANILA TRAFFIC ~ 12 KM IN 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES!
My tip? If you’re flying out of Manila, don’t underestimate the traffic… even if the airport looks close on Google Maps!
Right, let’s talk about Manila traffic!
It took us 1 hr 20mins to get to the airport… its 12km!!!!
Still in shock about the extent of traffic in Manila, I feel for these guys! here its like organised chaos with tuktuk mopeds cars buses jeepneys people crossing
And somehow, amongst all of this madness, the traffic kept moving… Well, sort of!
At one point, 6 kids ran out onto the road in front of our car and simply started running along ahead of us without a care in the world!
With our Cebu Pacific flight departing at 11:25 pm, we’d decided to leave our hotel at 6:30 pm.
And thank goodness we did!
That extra time turned out to be a VERY good decision
MANILA AIRPORT ~ BUSY, BASIC & SURPRISINGLY EASY!
The airport was busy but not as busy as the streets!
Clean and basic we were the first in line and easily checked in, no luggage
Last flight there were a lot of free seats available at the back with 2 seats instead of 3 in a row and much more quiet
We had heaps of time to walk and explore the airport, by the time we got through passport control and scans (we were fast tracked there as well for some reason) it was around 8:30ish by now
CHEAP AIRPORT FOOD? IN MANILA?
The shops there were really interesting as they werent typical airport high end shops, dont think Manila is there yet with the brand names etc, its mainly random food stores with sit down areas
They sell local sweets and nuts and cakes etc and all for normal / affordable prices
Not 3-4 times the price that you would pay at other airports
Example : we had a coffee and a panini and it cost us equivilent of $9AU – cheap as!
Not bad for an airport dinner!
This is probably the cheapest airport Ive been to 😃
Many coffee shops lined the waiting area and even though there were so many people there were many options and areas to sit
ANOTHER BAG CHECK? ~ I DONT GET IT…
Right… so, they manually checked each of our bags when we were at the gate… flight was changed to gate 116 and guards (who were older ladies and young guys and girls) checked our bags, not sure why as we were already passed security, must have been for the liquids as they dont allow liquids from Manila to Sydney
They then patted each passenger down before giving our bags back – necessary? I dont know but nothing makes sense these days so I shrug now
The plane was very spacious – same as the plane from Sydney to Manila
They boarded us from midplane and we made our way to the back – ended up having a few free seats in front of us so I grabbed one from the beginning
The only thing that erked me was that they didnt want to fill my water bottle! I told then you guys made me throw out my water and now you dont want to give me any on an 8hr flight? She ended up pouring water in a cardboard cup and I filled my bottle with 3 cups 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️ again, very inconsistent as the previous flight were more than happy to fill water bottles up
Plenty of leg room to move – this time brought a neck pillow which helped but was just happy to have 2 seats and basically slept the whole 8.5hrs
I woke when we were about to land so was pretty happy with the rest I got on the flight on this flight
We had done so well with the flight and leaving on time but as we landed in Sydney, our bay was occupied and we were waiting on the tarmac for around 1hr as it looked like the plane in our bay was delayed
All in all good flight, air hosesses were stingey with filling up water bottles and said it wasnt allowed, I had to pour 3 cups of water from the paper cup to fill my bottle (UGH)
First time tbh Im so happy to be home again!
DEC23
