Philippine Airlines opens their new Mabuhay Lounge: how good is it?
This is a review of Philippine Airlines new Mabuhay Lounge at Manila’s Terminal 1.
Following their move back to Manila’s Ninoy Acquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1, Philippine Airlines (PAL) opened their new Mabuhay Lounge back in November. By chance, I was flying on the airline in Business Class on PAL from Manila to Singapore at the end of December meaning I had a chance to visit.
I spent approximately five hours in the lounge thanks to an unexpected three and a half hour delay. This meant I sampled a majority of the space’s offering across the breakfast and lunch hours.
Accessing the lounge
After clearing immigration and security, follow signs towards ‘Airline Lounges’. While the airport signs never refer directly to Mabuhay Lounge, you will eventually come across a temporary sign that points you towards the elevators. The lounge is located on the fourth floor.
Access to the Mabuhay Lounge is granted to:
Philippine Airlines’ Business Class passengers
Mabuhay Miles members travelling in any class on Philippine Airlines in the following tiers:
Million Miler +2 guests
Premier Elite +1 guest
Elite
Access is granted by a quick scan of your boarding pass by the front desk agents, all whom were very friendly and helpful - especially regarding our delay. I do not believe the lounge is used by any other airline at Terminal 1.
Lack of originality
The airline has opted for a very clean and modern design throughout the lounge. The entrance is probably the most interesting part of the lounge with this carved wooden feature from ground to ceiling which creates a comfortable feeling to the lounge. It also features these strange statues…
PAL have extensively used cool grey colours and splashes of their corporate blue colours here and there - as seen in the seats below. The colours and designs don’t feel particularly Filipino or distinct, even if there are some vaguely local designs on the cushions. These seats are the most common type throughout the lounge and are reasonably comfortable.
Split into three core zones, the layout is effectively a large rectangle that faces towards the apron - meaning great aircraft views and oodles of sunlight throughout the space. The first zone closest to the entrance, and which remained the quietest, is mostly for lounge-style seating arranged in blocks or rows of four. Some bar-style seating also features.
Power to the people, or not
Power at first appearance is a positive. The units between the seats feature two international and two local (US-style) outlets, as well as another 2 USB and USB-C ports respectively. While I did eventually find working outlets, about four I tested in this first zone didn’t work.
Equally, through this testing, I found most of this furniture moved easily when plugging into the outlets and felt cheap to the touch despite looking fairly decent. As their only premium lounge at NAIA, PAL could really do with locking these units down or having invested more during the build.
On a similar connectivity note, WiFi was fast but unusable. While I could connect and use Google, the WiFi configuration seemed to block certain websites on my devices such as Speedtest and Facebook. This seems a weird thing to do in a country that is very dependent on Facebook and Messenger for communication which makes me think this is a ‘cock-up’ rather than a conspiracy of PAL blocking specific traffic to popular sites. I could access 5G on Smart and 4G LTE on Globe as a backup.
To the rear of this zone is an area that was darker but with no designation as a relaxation area with the same seating as above. Not having alternative chairs suitable for sleeping, when the airline does cater to a limited number of North American to Asian connections, is a clear area for improvement.
On both ends, this ‘relaxation area’ is flanked by sectioned off by a zone for Million Miler members, which didn’t seem to offer anything that special - which seems amiss for their ‘most valued customers’. Meanwhile the other end was cordoned off for massage chairs which could only be operated by the lounge staff.
In between each core section of the lounge there is a self-serve drinks area for coffee, tea, soft drinks and beer.
Anyone for Rum?
The second core zone features fairly similar seating, with the addition of a bar. Lightly co-branded with local rum brand Tanduay, it was good to see the airline give so much presence to a non-foreign beverage company.
While I do not drink much rum on its own, the selection of Tanduay was vast while there was also a limited selection of other spirits and wine. Beer was limited to Tiger and Asahi - no San Mig here.
Here’s the full selection of coffees offered:
A highlight of this lounge for me was the Barista-made coffee. While my second coffee was a bit ropey owing to the barista being on a break, the other three (yes, don’t judge) were excellent. A good selection of coffee is available and easily, this is the feature I wish every lounge had.
CR po - Toilet please
Located next to the bar is the bathrooms where all passengers can utilise the shower facilities, regardless of whether you’re on a connecting ticket or not. I didn’t use them, but did manage to take a quick picture. All the required amenities are provided, although it consists on unbranded, generic items.
The toilets, or Comfort Rooms, are found in the third and largest zone. Following the same grey design from the bathrooms, they were perfectly usable and clean with an attendant on duty most of the visit.
In a quirky but notable design flaw, the airline have badly design the towel and soap dispensers to be really close to the wall. This makes it difficult to actually dispense the soap - questioning what the point of it is at all.
Food is a big winner
The final core zone of the lounge is focussed on dining. Most tables are in a two or four person layout, with some exceptions such as a long table for large groups. Breakfast seems to be served until approximately 11am after which the lunch offer takes over. I suspect dinner options, if any different, are changed around 3-4pm.
All food is served buffet style with a heavy emphasis on Filipino and broader Asian cuisine, with some basic ‘Western’ options like sandwiches.
Dishes included:
Chicken adobo (breakfast)
Salmon torta (breakfast)
Japanese siomai (all day)
Beef caldareta (lunch)
Chicken Inasal (lunch)
Pancit canton (lunch)
And, to my surprise, they all tasted really good with plenty of flavour to a standard that is at the higher end of lounge offerings. That being said…they need to better regulate the temperature of the dishes to keep them warmer for longer. Most of the dishes were lukewarm to cold once I got back to my seat, suggesting something is problematic with their heat maintenance.
Conclusion
Whatever way you look at it, the new Mabuhay Lounge is a step up from the old space at NAIA Terminal 2. While I never visited, images online do not present a particularly good image for the old lounge and this is easily a win. While the design is non-descript in areas, it is functional and relatively pleasing to this eye. Coffee was excellent and the food tasty, even if it needs to be warmer.
PAL do need to improve when it comes to the experience, whether that is the cheap feeling furniture that moves with a plug socket or power outlets and WiFi that is not reliable. These are quite basic requirements for a modern lounge in 2024.
On the whole, the lounge is a good place to spend an hour or so pre-flight - but no earlier than that. Besides, anything beats having to spend time in the aging public areas of Terminal 1.
