Philippines 2019 trip, entry #1

Anitra and me on the Tampa-to-Toronto part of the trip.

It’s 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 9, 2019 as I write this, and we’re about to make our way to the airport to catch Philippine Airlines’ direct Toronto-to-Manila flight. It’s a 16-hour marathon, which puts us shy of the top ten longest flights for 2019. but it’s preferable to the 24-hour version of the trip, which includes a stop, typically in Korea or Japan.

We’re flying on a plane that’s new to us — the Airbus A350, or more precisely, the A350-900HGW.  It’s also new to Philippine Airlines, which has had them only since last year.

We’re in Economy Plus class on this trip, and lucked out with the seating:

Premium Economy is eight seats across, instead of regular economy’s nine:

…and even that is better than the Boeing 777, where they cram ten seats into each row:

Travel vlogger Josh Cahill flew on Philippine Airlines’ A350 from London Heathrow to Manila and had great things to say about it:

Here’s Jeb Brooks’ review of business class on Philippine Airlines’ A350:

And here’s Flight Report’s  video review of the Toronto-to-Manila flight:

I’ll post more pics as the trip continues!