Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA Terminal 3)

[Itinerary]

Ninoy Aquino International Airport is the airport serving Manila and its surrounding metropolitan area. The airport is named after the late Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr who was assassinated at the airport in 1983 - Wikipedia

30^th September 2015

The time for my flight to Manila was around afternoon which was also lunch hour so my friend had pre-order In-flight meal for us. This was my first time to eat Air Asia meal.

In flight, stewardess had distributed Health Declaration Form and Arrival Card to be filling in. Remember to bring a pen for it.

When in flight, usually I will read magazine and I had saw the advertisement of “CAB2KLIA” looks so attractive because it same price with take bus to KL Sentral which is RM 10 per trip. This service is available within Klang Valley.

When in Manila, the flight had kept turn in same place due to weather problem. A man beside of me told me about this as he sat near with window. This also starts for our convocation. He from Sabah had been gone to Manila for few times and this time, he brings his friends to travel around. After that, they will travel to Sibu before back to Sabah. He also told me that he will back on Sunday because in weekend will be less traffic. He also shared some travel pictures in Manila to us.

He shared a story of his friend in Manila. His friend is a loan shark so he is very brave to travel alone in Manila. When he took for tricycle, the tricycle driver had bring he to a place and asked him to take out all the money. The loan shark plan fights with the driver by one to one. Lastly, the loan shark had given all the money to driver when he took his gun out. I felt quite scary when heard of this story.

When arrived airport, we had saw a long queue for yellow taxi. Yellow taxi is airport taxi so can be trust while white taxi is common taxi so it is has some risk of taking of it. Last, we took for white taxi after negotiate for driver and discuss about it. The white taxi driver charged us 1,300 peso to The Oasis Paco Park Hotel.

In airport has a booth stated “Free SIM for Tourist” so I took a look. Actually the SIM card is free but you need to top up 300 peso or 500 peso to activate it. Last we did not buy any SIM card as we plan to use WiFi in hotel. Airport also provided free WiFi to be use.

After came out from airport, I was so surprise with the traffic in Manila because it did not have rule of it. On the road has a white line show that only two cars can move but sometime you can see three cars in line move together so the motorcycle did not have chance to move to front. The driver seat in Manila did not same with Malaysia, the seat in Manila at left side.

5^th October 2015

Two of my friends need to check in their luggage so we need to go to airport early. We scared will met with traffic jam so we had took the taxi at 6 o’clock in the morning. The taxi we took cost us 500 peso and we need to pay 20 peso for pass away or toll so that can go to airport earlier compare with big road.

Luckily, we safety arrived airport. The check in luggage counters for Air Asia did not have many people compare with other airline which have a long queue. After checked in luggage, we were having breakfast at Cowan Aisan Express.

I ordered Teriyaki Chickendon which is grilled chicken with teriyaki sauce which cost me 155 peso. I choose to eat rice to avoid I feel hungry during the flight.

After breakfast, we moved to boarding gate. At the entrance of boarding gate has a terminal fee counter. In Manila, it is required to pay 550 peso of terminal fee when departure from Manila. All of us prepared to pay for it, suddenly a staff stopped one of my friends and I to pay for terminal fee because we took the Air Asia online printed boarding pass while three of them who holding an Air Asia ticket need to pay for it. Actually three of them are also having same boarding pass with me but when check in luggage, their pass had been replaced with another type of pass.

Before this, our terminal fee 2,750 peso (550 peso X 5) had been gathering together for one of my friends kept it for payment purpose. In this case, when three of them paid for the terminal fee, the staff did not return the change to my friend so end up two of us who did not need to pay for terminal fee only took back 100 peso per each person. It means that 2,550 peso of terminal fee for 3 people (actual fee is 1,650 peso). I am not sure whether the staff is purposely not to return the fee or not and we did not ask for he.

It is better early arrive airport because need to walk quite long distance to arrive departure hall. The gate number for Air Asia is 101. When having final checking for flight ticket, one of my friend and I had been stopped by staff because we did not pay for terminal fee after she checked in system. Then I told her that we had been told to not need to pay for terminal fee. The staff answered that as our flight ticket booked in last year so need to pay for terminal fee. Therefore, we wait for terminal fee staff come to collect the fee.

While waiting, I still confuse about terminal fee so I asked for another staff for clarification and he told me that start from February 2015, passengers not need to pay for terminal fee. At last, Air Asia staff asked us to pass the money to her so that she helps us give to terminal fee staff and we can enter into flight. Luckily I did not spend all pesos, if not sure I cannot back to Malaysia.

I had done some searching about the terminal fee and the latest news as below:-

All ticket for flights departing from Manila’s NAIA and sold after February 1, 2015 do have the terminal fee included. During some months there will be a terminal fee counter for those passengers who bought their ticket before this date. There will also be a control booth where your payment will be verified – Silent Gardens