I’ve generally been a fan of Alaska Atmos Rewards, using it to book business class itineraries, such as with Japan Airlines and Condor, but also cheap American Airlines flights. However, unfortunately there’s been a significant decrease in the availability of business class award flight availability on some Alaska’s most interesting partners. However, as of a day or two now, Philippine Airlines (PAL) has become the newest Atmos partner for flight redemptions, and that includes business class redemptions for a very reasonable cost. This could be very worth it! Let’s look at the details.

Atmos Rewards adds Philippine Airlines flight award redemptions

Since a day or two you can now redeem Atmos Rewards points for flights on Philippine Airlines. Philippine Airlines (PAL) flies to multiple destinations across the US from their hub in Manila, allowing for a variety of one-stop connections from the US to various points in Asia.

Currently Philippine Airlines flies to new York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), Honolulu (HNL), Seattle (SEA) and Chicago (ORD), as well as Vancouver (YVR) and Toronto (YYZ) in Canada. So from any of these cities you’d be able to fly to a multitude of destinations in Asia, including Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta and Hanoi, but also for example Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul and Tokyo, among many others.

As a side note, PAL is working on becoming a full oneworld alliance member, but this partnership and integration with Alaska’s Atmos Rewards had been in the works for a little while now.

This is a pretty well-priced way to get to South East Asia!

So what are prices like? Most redemptions run between 85k and 110k, depending on your origin and destination. For example, a direct flight from the US (e.g. New York JFK) to Manila (MNL) will cost 85000 points and $26.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether you depart on the US East or West Coast, a sall prices seem to be the same. For example, here is LAX to Manila:

However, if you were to connect (because the direct flight has no availability) you would typically pay 110.000 points and $26:

While of course you’d want to take the direct flight, even if just to circumvent a layover, it’s good to know that it’s possible to get these connecting itineraries as well, even if it comes at a significant extra cost.

Now, what if you don’t want to fly to Manila, but somewhere else in Asia? Let’s have a look. Taking that same flight from JFK to Manila, you can see that there’s options to connect. For example, here a connection to a flight to Bangkok, which costs 110.000 points plus $43:

Or, flying from JFK via Manila to Hong Kong, for the same price:

However, if you want to fly a bit further, such as Tokyo, the price goes up to 130.000 points plus $41:

However, do keep in mind the distance from Manila to Tokyo, which means that this is a rather long itinerary. 22 hours to get to Tokyo is not necessarily unreasonable, but there’s certainly much shorter itineraries out there, given how well-connected Tokyo is to most of the world.

Similarly, rather than flying all the way north from Manila, flying all the way South to Sydney will also cost you 130.000 points, plus $72:

Again, this happens to be a very long itinerary, clocking in at 42 hours. Of course Sydney is very far away, but the 15 hour layover is not particularly great, unless you’d like to step out the airport and see Manila for an afternoon. You could try to optimize this by checking flights from different cities in the US that may better align with the connecting flight from Manila to Sydney.

Overall, there some good value to be had here. While the prices to fly to Tokyo or Sydney are on the high side, the redemptions to Bangkok and other South East Asian destinations represent a pretty good deal, especially given the low taxes and fees.

What can you expect on board Philippine Airlines?

Not many may be familiar with PAL’s on board product. I have not flown them myself, but have generally read favorable reviews. Unfortunately, the experience can differ depending on the plane you’re flying.

Probably the nicest passenger experience is on their A350s. Of these, the A350-900 variant is the most common among PAL’s fleet, which has Thompson Aero Vantage XL seats in a 1-2-1 layout in business class. Scandinavian Airlines uses the same seats, which I flew a few years ago. This seat is not the most private but is perfectly comfortable:

Note that Philippine Airlines has been slowly taking delivery of A350-1000 aircraft as well, with a further improved business class experience featuring Collins Aerospace Elevation seats. These are reverse herringbone seats in a 1-2-1 configuration of the newest generation, and are based on the very popular Collins Aerospace Diamond product, but with doors.

Philippine Airlines currently uses its A350s on flights to Toronto, Seattle, Chicago and New York, though it doesn’t seem there is a clear differentiation between the 900 and 1000 variant.

For all other destinations in the US, so that would be Honolulu, San Francisco, Los Angeleas (LAX) and Vancouver, Philippine Airlines uses its Boeing 777-300ER. This plane comes in two flavors, and one has a better business class product than the other. If you’re unlucky, you’ll end up one of the Boeing 777s with the Zodiac Aura Enhanced seats, which are in a 2-3-2 configuration. Meanwhile, the other configuration features the Stelia Aerospace Solstys II seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. Unfortunately, the 2-3-2 Zodiac-fitted planes tend to fly to San Francisco, LAX and Vancouver, whereas the other ones reportedly heads for the Middle East and sometimes Honolulu.

If I were to book flights on PAL via Atmos Rewards, I’d certainly prioritize flying either from New York, Seattle, Chicago or Toronto, or if I can’t, connect via one of these cities. I would avoid flying from or connecting in San Francisco, LAX, Vancouver or Honolulu, if availability lines up, since that would be a significantly worse flight experience.

Summary

Philippine Airlines has recently become available as a new partner for flight rewards redemptions on Alaska Atmos Rewards. These enable some practical one-stop itineraries from the US to many destinations in Asia, though I’d say that destinations in South East Asia are best-priced, at 110.000 points, all with a stop in Manila. Flying further, such as Tokyo or Sydney, will cost 130.000 points, which is not as good of a price, and may also amount to a long itinerary. Personally I’d be happy to try Philippine Airlines for flights from the US to Bangkok.