Travel Agency/Consolidator

[Gray Wolf]

Here's our travel agent's email and contact info.  If any of you decide to give her a try, be sure to tell her that her Kuya Jack Bishop and Ate Glo in Louisville referred you.   


MAY MARQUEZ-DEMANO
Travel Consultant
Sky Bird Travel and Tours
24701 Swanson Road
Southfield,  MI  48033
Tel. No. (248) 727-1660 ext. 2254
             (888) 759-2473 ext. 2254
Email:  May@skybirdtravel.com

[medic3500]

What's the discount if we use you for referral, hehehehe

[John Edwards]

Probably cost us more

[Gray Wolf]

What's the discount if we use you for referral, hehehehe

If you mention our names up front and say we referred you, you'll get a "special" price.      I'd say somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 less than the prices shown on Expedia for the same flight, depending on which airline you choose and the date of your flight.  Seriously.   

I use Expedia to compare prices because they list all airlines and you can compare pricing, flight time, layovers, etc.  After determining which airline and flight time I'd like to shoot for, I then call May and check on their "specials".  One year we got talked out of flying Northwestern and into flying Korean Air instead.  That was the cleanest airplane I've ever flown on!  The service was great, food was great, we had interactive screens for each passenger allowing us to choose what movie we watched and when we watched them (no big screens at bad angles showing "chick flicks").  Plus she saved us about $500 each ticket versus flying with Northwest (2006).  Our trip in 2011 we saved over $300 for each ticket, totaling almost $1000 in savings overall for 3 tickets.

It's worth a phone call or email just to compare prices.  No guarantees, but better than advertised prices.

[wildbill]

gray Wolf I used philippine airlines before and they are high and don't give you anything but what they have to give on the flight for example Fly from Atlanta Ga to manila with one stop over in sanfrancisco costs was 2400 us dollars  round trip----- Korean Airlines  1200 us dollars round trip and fly to south Korea one stop then to manila and guess what I freakin love them if you get hungry or thirsty no problem no charge at allll just get up ask anything even all you can drink beers or whiskey what ever they have so nice to fly with them...or food its free..sorry just had to Bragg on them,

[John Edwards]

When I went to the Philippines I looked at several airline websites. Since it was going to take more than one airline to get from North Carolina to Cebu I tried to juggle the times around to make connections without having a huge layover. I finally gave up and looked at Priceline. I picked one and went with it. Flew United from Greensboro to DC and then from DC to Tokyo then JAL from Tokyo to Manila. I had to buy a separate ticket on Cebu Pacific to get to Cebu. The only problem I had was the airport in Manila. I had heard that that airport was bad and wanted to miss it but every flight I looked at came into Manila all at the same time. No matter where the flight started from, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Shanghai or Guangzhou the plane landed in Manila at 10:30 pm local time.
The planes were fine, Both United and JAL planes had TV screens in the back of the seats in front and there was a choice of 5 movies. Since the flight from DC to Tokyo was 14 hours long I watched all 5. Two chick flicks, 2 action movies and one spooky movie “Sixth Sense” it was the best one.
When we got to Manila there was 9 big jumbo’s all coming in at the same time. I don’t like big crowds and this was one huge mob, from the gate all the way to the exit door. Customs was a mad house. I am determined to never go through Aquino Airport again, even if I have to take a boat.
I have since found several airlines that will allow me to skip Manila and fly directly to Cebu. The leading contender right now is Cathay Pacific. I’ll fly something from Charlotte to the west coast, say San Fran or LAX then fly Cathay Pacific to Cebu via Hong Kong.
I know I’ll have to fly into Aquino several times if I stay in the Philippines for the rest of my life but I’ll be going through the domestic airport not the international one. Although I think it’s in the same airport there is a big difference in the terminals and the people that work in them. The people on the domestic side were some of the nicest people I ever met.
I got there around midnight and there were no planes out until 5:30 in the morning. Since I didn’t have a ticket they wouldn’t let me wait inside in the cool air. A cop carried my bag and led me up the street to a 24 hour travel agency I got a ticket. Then he carried my bag back down to the terminal and inside and picked out a cool section of the floor for me to wait.

I may go the travel agency route next time and let them do the juggling, so long as they let me miss Manila

[Gray Wolf]

gray Wolf I used philippine airlines before and they are high and don't give you anything but what they have to give on the flight for example Fly from Atlanta Ga to manila with one stop over in sanfrancisco costs was 2400 us dollars  round trip----- Korean Airlines  1200 us dollars round trip and fly to south Korea one stop then to manila and guess what I freakin love them if you get hungry or thirsty no problem no charge at allll just get up ask anything even all you can drink beers or whiskey what ever they have so nice to fly with them...or food its free..sorry just had to Bragg on them,

I agree WB!  We used Korean Air in 2006 and I could not imagine being in an airliner that was so clean and one that had such sweet, intelligent flight attendants who seemed genuinely pleased to take special requests!  I noticed that they also had a large crew so that you didn't have to wait long for anything.  They moved right along and always with a beautiful smile.  I'm a sucker for gorgeous Asian girls with big smiles and sparkling eyes.      
Their food was delicious and plentiful and there seemed to be no limit on drinks, but I didn't push it.  I was in a nice state of mind the entire flight.  Only drawback was a long layover in Seoul, but it was very nice, clean and comfortable there with food concessions, newstand, gift shops and large western style CR's.      We're seriously considering flying Korean Air this year, unless someone has a deal we can't pass up. 

[BudM]

I agree with everything that has been said about Korean Air.  In my opinion, of the ones I have tried, they are the best.  A couple of the others are decent but, the U.S. owned/operated ones usually stink it up.  When I have used them, I only had to deal with Delta between Jax and Atlanta.  Then KA from Atlanta to Seoul to Manila and everything the same on return.

[wildbill]

Yes I surely hope they always stay that way.me to Gray Wolf love those Asian looks,

[Gray Wolf]

I read somewhere that they traveled the country and recruited the tallest, prettiest, most intelligent girls from all over South Korea to be Flight Attendants and serve as ambassadors of Korean culture and class. 
They all looked like Miss Universe contestants to this old boy!  WooHoo!      

But the most important thing of course, is a very professional flight crew, well maintained aircraft and good weather.  We had all the above!

I just checked yesterday and they are currently using the Airbus 380-800 for the Atlanta-Seoul leg of the trip.  I'm looking forward to flying in that gorgeous airliner!

[BudM]

I used to fly National during 70s and until they went out or merged or whatever it was and they were very good.  My very first flight ever in a commercial airliner was with them.  I remember how friendly and pretty the stewardesses were on that first flight.  I flew American from Chicago to Tokyo, in I guess it was February of 2012.  I swear I think my eyes were deceiving me because all the female stews on that American flight last year I believe were the same crew that were on my first flight when I went to boot on National back in January of 73.

[Frosty]

Grey Wolf
thanks for information on Sky Bird Travel I will give them a call.
We plan on flying out of Denver to Cebu sometime after the kids get out of school in June.
Prices on line so far are between $1700-$2000 per ticket.
I will mention your name twice to see if that gets me a double discount.

[wildbill]

Gray Wolf it seems a little longer but its well worth the time  -don't forget when you cant sleep goto the back and drink all the Korean beers you want I did because its hard sleeping with your neck straight up. your so rite on about those flight attendants..besides I hated going threw sanfranciso so crowed there south Korea is not crowed at all.

[medic3500]

For anyone living on the Esat Coast near NYC, Cathy Pacific has non-stop to Hong Kong with less than two hour layover for connection to Manila. I used that routing once wasn't too bad. The flight from JFK-HGK is 16 hours and I was getting pretty restless and needed to walk the isles about three quarters into the flight.

[wildbill]

yep its about the same amount of time from Atlanta GA to south Korea 16 hours then 3 hours and fourty five min to manila.I layed over only like less than 1 hour .