[muyinit]

We were bumped from a Honolulu flight to Manila on 3/13/08 and told that the main thing going against us was that we had children (yes, we did have a 3 year old, and an infant)! They also bumped another mother and her 4 year old. At first they were not helpful at all, telling us the next and only other flight they had was in a couple more days, and that it was overbooked as well and no guarantee. We secured our tickets 2 months in advance and was at the gate/ check-in at the right times.

It seems an atrocity that this class of passengers (children), whom most all airlines give special treatment/ accomodations such as early boarding, can have this used against you. We know that traveling such long journey is not easy, and to do so with young children is even more challenging, especially having to do extra time at the airport, an extra stop over in Guam, and an extra early morning flight the next day, really took a toll on all of us, and we were sick within a week of our journey and are still getting over some flu bugs. What was supposed to be vacation and fun with family turned into seclusion within hotel walls, and emergency visits to the hospital because of the severe fever the girls had.

There fore, be warned those of you traveling with young children on Philippines Air lines, they could also just as easily do this to you. Unlike all the other airlines that operate in the USA, Philippine Air lines also charges for infants sitting in the lap of a fully paid fare. Not only will they try to capitalize on people with family, they will just as quickly use that as an excuse to bump you as well. They did not even try to solicit volunteers to give up their seats for comp packages. They just made sure they had extra security guards standing around at the gate when they announced to us that we would not be going on this flight.