You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Showing posts with label Airline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Airline. Show all posts

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Is airline food really so bad?

My column in Mindanao Daily, BusinessWeek Mindanao and CagayanTimes

I AM frequent flyer around the globe since my 21st birthday. 1974, my first international flight took me from Germany to Norway. 3 hours. Not a big deal. But, I remember, I  just peeled back the plastic off a freshly-delivered tray right off my airplane’s trolley cart and the mess looking back at you is a grim one. The fault may not lie with the chef, though, but in the plane’s design. Everything is reheated. Sure.
The very nature of air travel, as well as how the plane is built and how it adjusts to high altitudes, make food preparation fundamentally more difficult. There are some technical limitations to being high in the air that make it far simpler to just reheat pre-made food, rather than attempt to actually cook from scratch — particularly in the pressurised air of the plane’s cabin.
Although planes routinely cruise at altitudes of around 40,000 feet, the pressure of the cabin is brought back down to more comfortable altitudes of between six and nine thousand feet above sea level. Even those lowered altitudes, though, are still enough to slow down cook times considerably.
It’s not just the difficulties of cooking, though. Even the food service encourages heat-and-serve style meals. The preference in hot airline meals is for pre-cut, reheated meats, usually swimming in sauce, like boeuf bourguignon - actually one of my favorite dishes. In part, the sauce works to counteract the dryness of the pressurised air cabin. But both the sauce and the slow reheat time also suit today’s blunt-edged airline cutlery sets, which have either no knife or an un-sharpened one. Because it's been so overcooked, you can cut it with a fork.
“Airlines have discovered that, if you also pre-cut the meat, you practically don’t need a knife,” says Guillaume de Syon, a professor at Albright College in the US state of Pennsylvania who studies the history of technology, particularly aviation. "Because it's been so overcooked, you can cut it with a fork." Perhaps the biggest consideration, though, is simply available space.
Within the years, I traveled to Asia and the U.S. Yes sure: more passengers, bigger planes, less attention to individual meals. Please keep in mind, I haven't be a First Class Passenger. That's another story, isn't it?
Anyway, today’s passenger planes are designed to carry well over 300  passengers, all of whom expect to be fed on roughly the same schedule. Before the popularization of the jet in the 1960's, though, let's note that passenger manifests were small, usually fewer than 50 people, giving flight attendants time to devote attention to each passenger’s meal service.
Some of those early hot options would seem unrecognizably lavish to today’s traveller, with menus that featured cooked-to-order omelettes, or mobile carving stations wheeled from seat-to-seat by an attendant. With hundreds to serve instead of dozens, though, today’s flight attendants simply no longer have the time to prep individual trays. Instead, the trays need to arrive ready to go.
The large array of food options on offer to airplane passengers in the 1960's and 1970's simply doesn’t exist in most air travel anymore. But, that doesn’t mean the menu has completely disappeared. It’s just been replaced by menus of another sort. Free unlimited wine, champagne and liquors? Once upon a time ... ! I remember a flight from Berlin to Moscow in 1979: bottomless Vodka. Heaven forbid!
In the last decade, the number of entertainment options aboard the average airplane have exploded — and the design of the seats and cabin have changed to reflect this. Nowadays it's designed for your entertainment — not for your food.
Passengers are offered music, often WIFI, and, most importantly, a large menu of films and TV options served up on demand on personalized screens installed in their seat, instead of a single large screen up front. The installation of personalized screens has taken a lot of focus away from the food service, allowing airlines to cut back on food
.
Today, though, ticket cost is the primary measure of competition and cutting out a meal or two can either add to the airline’s bottom line, or give it a little extra room to undercut a competitor’s price. Profits [could be] gained from chopping the kitchen out of the plane almost entirely. "Nowadays airlines are breaking out the expenses and leaving it up to consumers to choose what they want,” said Bob van der Linden, who is the air transportation curator at the US National Air & Space Museum. “It’s the market. This is pure economics. After deregulation in 1978, airlines are free to compete anyway that they want — and they found the best way to compete is low prices."
The shrinking space for food doesn’t, however, mean that airline meals are completely disappearing. But, as airlines look for ways to trim budgets and save space, they’re turning back to those same ground-prepped cold snacks and sandwiches that airlines began their food service with decades ago.“We’re moving back to the box lunches that we started with in the US during the late 1930's, early 1940's. Something that can be easily transported. Nothing terribly perishable, basically a box lunch, a picnic lunch,” said van der Linden.
Happy trip guys! See you abroad!

Friday, February 9, 2018

Philippine Airlines becomes Philippines' first 4-star airline

ABS-CBN News


The Philippine Airlines has been certified as a 4-star airline by Skytrax, a London-based international air transport rating organization.
MANILA - Philippine Airlines has been certified as the country's first 4-star airline, the flag carrier said Thursday.
PAL joined 42 other 4-star airlines on the list of Skytrax, a London-based international air transport rating organization.
"PAL achieved this coveted rating after Skytrax conducted a rigorous audit of the airline's inflight and on ground service for both international and domestic flights and noted major enhancements on its end-to-end passenger experience and distinct whole-hearted service called Buong Pusong Alaga," the flag carrier said in a statement.
PAL chairman and chief executive officer Lucio Tan called the accreditation a "big win for the Philippines."
“We are elated by this recognition which is a victory for the more than seven thousand members of the Philippine Airlines family. Our achievement is the country's achievement and we share this with all Filipinos around the globe," Tan said in a statement.
Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said the rating "recognizes the great improvements that the airline has introduced over the last 2 years."
"New and retrofitted aircraft have played an important part in the quality improvement process, and this looks set to develop further when Philippine Airlines introduces the A350 into their fleet. We look for consistency of quality in the 4-Star rating, and we look to Philippine Airlines to ensure this is duly delivered to customers," he said.
PAL placed 67th in Skytrax's Top 100 Airlines in 2017, a 16-notch increase from its 83rd place in 2016.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

What's YOUR favourite Philippine Airline?

Honestly, it's very difficult for me to explain by mentioning several airlines. I got some very bad experiences with one! Let's talk about good things happened right now.

Just being back again from Manila in Davao, I really enjoyed Philippine Airlines: excellent service and very much being on time departure and arrival. The new slogan 'With us, you're ALWAYS NO. 1' let me really feel smiling.

By the way, if you plan to travel to Sydney you can avail the "777 only" (US$ 777) for round trip economy class, all-in-fare (excluding government taxes). Don't get me wrong, this is not a paid advertisement. I only got this information from  an Australian expat friend, who also kept on praising the nation's flagship Philippine Airlines.

Maybe you have some other experiences. Feel free to post your comment here on www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com.