We booked tickets early (3 months early) and bought it online at
cebupacificair.com, it is user friendly and will notify you of flight changes (ours was changed to 30 minutes later, and I was notified around a month before the flight date). Departure is at the Clark Freeport AKA
Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. It was a bit hard to find information about this airport, or how to get there. DMIA has its own website, but it is not fully functional yet.
How To Get To Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA)
You can easily get to DMIA via Philtranco buses located at the Megamall Building A in Ortigas, Pasig City. Philtranco has a website that says their latest trip is at 3PM but if you call their office, you can confirm the schedule. We reserved for a 4PM trip. It is hassle-free and has no stop overs. The trip is around three hours.
The Philtranco driver and collector were polite. They gladly answered to our inquiries regarding trips back to Manila from the DMIA. They said that there are buses for each arriving flight (ours was at 420 AM), so no worries.
In Diosdado Macapagal International Airport
In DMIA, you’ll easily see the departure gate. But don’t forget to ask the guard at the entrance where you should go first, because you have to pay the travel tax first (Php 1620.00) and the terminal fee (Php 600.00).
Airport food is pricey at Php 180.00 a meal. I also find the terminal fee costly because the NAIA Terminal 3 is much better (bigger, cleaner, more friendly) and only collects P200 terminal fee.
There is a lot of walking before you finally get to the final boarding area, and once you are inside, you cannot go out. There is no smoking area, and there is only one restaurant for a decent meal (that is pricey).
Some personnel are snobs too. So the DMIA is not getting a good review from me.
Going Back To Manila
We have acquired a lot of things from Ikea and other souvenirs from Singapore, so we hired a Department of Tourism (DOT) line cab. These are FX and sedan types of services – depending on the number of baggage you carry.
We were four people with a total of 13 baggage (bags, luggages, paper bags) so they gave us an FX type. Ticketing of the DOT line cabs are at the arrival area. We paid P3,500 for the ride. Which is actually worth it, though it almost tripled our fare per head, because we were able to stop over at Mcdonald’s for breakfast. The driver was also nice and polite.
* for other questions that you think I can answer, don’t hesitate to leave a comment ☺
