Review of Mabuhay Miles – Award program of Philippine Airlines!

Updated 2019: Mabuhay Miles is the award program of Philippine Airlines (PAL)the oldest Asian airline. Find out how to earn Mabuahy miles, how to redeem and what they are worth. Read my Mabuhay Miles review to find out about Mabuhay Elite levels, Mabuhay Lounge access and wether it’s worth to join for you!

Reach – how far will it take me? Philippines Airlines is flying to 105 destinations in 25 countries. In addition to flights within the Philippines and across Asia, PAL also has flights to Australia, Canada, the US, London and the Middle East. They are investing into their long-haul fleet and are looking to grow their network around the world. Read all the Facts & Figures!
PAL has partnerships with ANA All Nippon Air and Etihad, giving you access to partner destinations. Despite many efforts to join an alliance, PAL has not managed to do so yet.

Earning – how to earn Mabuhay Miles? You (still) earn miles in the PAL Mabuhay Miles program based on flight distance and the class of service, ranging from 10% of distance flown for budget economy to 150% for flexible Business Class. There is no minimum mileage for short domestic flights, so you’ll get very little for a budget economy ticket on a domestic flight! As an Elite member in the program, you receive a 25% bonus on all PAL operated flights and as a Premium Elite member the same 25% for most flights and 75% on flights to the US or Europe!

You can also earn miles with partners Etihad and ANA as well as on codeshare flights with a long list of other airlines, including WestJet of Canada, Hawaiian Airlines and Malaysian Airlines on specific routes (complete list here).
Philippine Airlines has a number of credit card partners, allowing you to earn or transfer points with credit cards from most of the larger local banks as well as international banks like HSBC and Citibank cards (reviewed here). Mabuhay Miles also has hotel partners (including Hilton), car rental (including Hertz and Avis) and telecommunication partners, giving you a pretty long list of options to earn points, in addition to flying!

Redeeming – how to redeem Mabuhay Miles? The redemption of Philippine Airlines Mabuhay Miles is based on distance and class of service. PAL has gone through a number of devaluations and have introduced multiple award categories (EcoFlex 1, 2, 3 and Business Flex) as well as a separate award category for their new Premium Economy cabin, making it more difficult and expensive to redeem:

All mileage awards are one-way and you’ll have to pay taxes and fees, including a booking fee! Recently, the Philippine government eliminated the ban on fuel surcharges, so you are facing those too.
The upgrade award will now get you from Premium Economy to Business Class or from Economy to Business on routes without a Premium Economy Cabin. On routes with Premium Economy, an upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy is available for 1,000-4,500 miles less – a terrible value!

PAL Premium Economy

Based on researching cash fares for the routes above, on average economy class tickets reflect a value of about 1 US cent/mile and business class tickets 2.5 cents/mile. The sweet spots in the Mabuhay Miles program are business class redemptions on long-haul routes, for example to Australia or the US. Another sweet spot are the Premium Economy awards as they are just a little higher than economy class, but cash prices are usually much higher!
The single best miles value is during Mabuhay Miles Getaway promotions (a recent one here), when award tickets for select routes are 50% off! It’s worth waiting for!
You can also use them for tickets on Etihad or ANA for routes from their hubs. There are a few great value redemptions here, for example ANA First Class from Tokyo to Frankfurt/Germany for 67,500 miles or to San Francisco for 65,000 miles – less than you’d pay on United for Business Class! The Etihad redemptions are generally very expensive, I wouldn’t recommend it!
The biggest problem with the Mabuhay Miles program is the fact that you (still) cannot redeem miles for flights online. You can book the award via the phone or at a reservation office and will receive an eTicket by email. It’s a convoluted process that involves multiple calls to make the reservation and pay the fees – in the case of my last award booking, it took 5 calls and over 2 hours on the phone to get a simple, one-way award done! Earlier this year, PAL announced that online booking is coming, but the launch of the new feature had to be postponed and hopefully, finally will arrive sometime in 2019!

Status – Mabuhay Miles Elite Benefits? Mabuhay Miles has a base level, which allow you to earn miles (after paying PHP150 for your membership card!) and the only benefit is that you can earn/redeem miles in the program.

PAL MM Benefits TableThe next step up is the “Elite” level after flying 25,000 miles, which gives you priority treatment at the airport, Mabuhay Lounge access additional baggage allowance and 25% of bonus miles. Keep in mind that it will only give YOU access to the lounge. mnl-mabuhay-lounge-2The top level “Premier Elite” gives you all that plus 2 upgrade certificates and 75% bonus miles for flights to the US or Europe. You also can bring ONE guest into the Mabuhay Lounge – much more restrictive than other award programs! There is also a “Million Miler” program, which should be pretty rare given PAL’s network. It gives you all the “Premier Elite” benefits and waives all the fees associated with the Mabuhay Miles program. Considering that PAL is not a member of any alliance and has a fairly limited network to earn status, these benefits are rather thin. If you are locked into PAL, it’s better than nothing, but I wouldn’t direct my spend to the airline just to earn status with them.

Customer Service: My experience with customer service is pretty mixed. It was very friendly when visiting their main reservation office in Manila (despite long waits in line), but they are non-responsive to email. In my 12 months as an “Elite” member, I was never able to actually receive my membership card, despite contacting them 5 times – I only received one email offering to fix the issue, but nothing ever happened!
On another occasion, one of our bags was damaged on a PAL flight (broken into, to be more precise), yet PAL did not respond to a request to take responsibility for the incident and reimburse us for the damage. So, trying to get anything done with PAL or the program via email or phone is pretty fruitless and visiting the office is very time consuming. 
My latest experience booking an award was similar – staff was very friendly, yet it took 5 calls with 4 agents and a total of 2 hours on the phone to book a simple, one-way award. They validated my booking and my personal data at least 10 times in the process!

Recommendation: If you are based in Manila and fly Philippine Airlines regularly, I’d recommend to sign up for their program – you wouldn’t want to waste the points earning potential and you can top off your account with points from a credit card. The business class redemptions to the US, Australia or London are attractive and I’ve enjoyed it when traveling on paid business class tickets. Once PAL updates their Mabuhay Miles website and allows award bookings online, it will become more attractive to travelers outside the Philippines, especially the many Filipinos abroad who return frequently to their families and friends at home. And then, there is hoping to Philippine Airlines joining one of the big airline alliances to give the program a needed boost!


Comments

Review of Mabuhay Miles – Award program of Philippine Airlines! — 77 Comments

  1. I find the Manuhay Miles rubbish. Comparing it to Virgin Frequent Flyers and other airlines you pretty much can use points to book it right away. Mabuhay Miles needs like 22K points for me to book international. Domestic starts 3,500 but seriously what if you’re from overseas. You need to be able to use that points and pay the difference, so you Can at least arrive Manila first.
    Mabuhay Miles is f’ useless way to rip off people. I don’t encourage people signing up cause there are other airlines that can do far better and has excellent customer service.

    • Thanks for sharing your insights. The best miles program for you really depends on where you fly and how you want to use your awards.
      Virgin Australia’s program is revenue based – so you earn for money spent, not miles flown, which means you earn more on expensive flights, but not so much on cheap ones. If you fly a lot of last-minute or xpensive business class tickets (maybe for work), you can earn more with revenue based programs. If you fly a lot of cheap, long-distance flights, a mileage based program like Mabuhay Miles often works better.
      And, yes, one of the biggest problems with Mabuhay Miles is that you can only get a reward ticket in person. It works best for people who live in the Philippines or fly PAL frequently. Because PAL doesn’t have many partners, the choice is between earning points or not earning points for any PAL flights you make. I wouldn’t encourage you to purchase Philippine Airlines flights for the Mabuhay Miles program. But I’d encourage anybody who is flying more than once to sign up and earn points rather than not earning them!

  2. I am a Mabuhay Miles member since 2006 but all my points earned were forfeited. I usually use my card when going back to Davao, twice or thrice a year. Last November 2018 I was informed by the Lady assigned for senior citizen at PAL office ALI MALL branch that I can use my 4,000 plus points for my next flight on January 2018. So after my Christmas vacation in Manila another lady assigned for senior citizen told me that I could not avail the use of my earned points for my flight to Davao. As of today I’ve learned that my earned points of 5,537 points expired last January 31, 2018.

    • Mabuhay Miles expire after two years of inactivity, ie you didn’t earn or redeem miles for 24 months. If your points expired on January 31, 2018, you can call Mabuhay Miles and reinstate them for a fee.

  3. I have just over 15,000 Mabuhay Miles that expire in 2020. The problem is, I’m in the UK.

    Firstly, Mabuhay Miles is possibly one of the worst frequent flyer systems in the world. The biggest downfall of the entire scheme is that you can not book flights online.

    So I am really not sure what to do with them. 15,000 is a fair amount of miles. I made the mistake of signing up to Mabuhay Miles instead of using Etihad Guest; a much more rewarding scheme.

    The amount of miles to fly to Manila from London is 32,000; which is just over double my current amount. However, I have seen once a “50% off miles on international flights” which interested me, as I could almost afford with my miles. However, I don’t intend to travel to the Philippines any time soon…

    So that kind of leaves me with one option. Etihad… but… A ONE WAY TICKET TO ABU DHABI FROM LONDON COSTS 35,000 MILES. EVEN MORE THAN FLYING TO MANILA; OVER TWICETHE DISTANCE FROM LONDON. OUTRAGEOUS.

    All in all, I made the fatal mistake… and now I’m left with 15k of Mabuhay Miles which may have to be voided.

    Live in Europe? Don’t join Mabuhay Miles. Instead sign up (if you haven’t already) to Etihad Guest to pool miles if flying Philippine Airlines. Don’t get me wrong; Philippine Airlines is a very reasonable and hospatible airline; but their frequent flyer scheme is attrocious.

    • I agree – the lack of online booking is a serious limitation for the Mabuhay Miles program. You can now book over the phone, which makes it a little better than before.
      The lack of airline partners or an alliance membership makes Mabuhay Miles less attractive to anybody not living in the Philippines or traveling in Asia, their main area of operation.
      The points needed for redemption on partner airlines often depend on the partner – and are typically much higher than when redeeming for flights of the airline itself.
      I agree with your assessment: If you live in Europe, have only one flight on PAL and no plans to return to Asia, signing up for Mabuhay Miles is of limited value. Signing up and earning miles with Etihad is a good alternative, if you are planning future trips to the Middle East, Africa or Asia – but still gives you very limited choices in Europe, with the bankruptcy of airberlin and alitalia…
      An even better solution might be to sign up for ANA Mileage Club, as you will be able to redeem for flights on StarAlliance airlines, like Lufthansa, Swiss, SAS and LOT, giving you lots of options from Europe! You can read my review of MileageClub here!

    • Hi Anglian. How I wish to have your 15,000 mabuhay miles points if you cannot use it before they expire on 2020. If you decide to donate it to me then I will highly appreciated. Let me know if anyone wants to donate their mileage..thanks.

      • While a member can donate miles for free to the PAL Foundation for less fortunate, transferring/gifting miles to another member costs $15/1,000 miles plus a transaction fee of $10…

  4. I fly on PAL for one reason from LAX. It is the only non stop airline. Just thought i would confirm if you have any problem with that airline outside of the plane. Good luck. You are screwed. They usually have a sale around early March for business seats. Around 2600 US. But the service inside the plane is okay. No complaints.

    • The new Boeing B777 are good (not great), the service is wonderful and business class food has improved recently. I enjoyed my PAL Business Class flights (see my review here) and the non-stop flights from the US are a big plus!
      Price is the main consideration. Lately, Mainland China carriers (like China Eastern) have offered business class flights between the US and Philippines (one stop) for as little as $1,200! I recently purchased a business class ticket on ANA (via Tokyo) for $2,200. I’d rather fly ANA for $2,200 with one stop than PAL for $2,600 non-stop.
      Another consideration is customer service when there are issues. In one recent case, PAL changed equipment for my flight and I was downgraded from Premium Economy to Economy as a matter of policy. I had to fight for my rights.
      If you get a good price and prefer a non-stop, I think you’ll enjoy flying PAL. And as this is a non-stop, operational issues have less of an impact. I do recommend to check around for other business class fares, there have been lots of deals lately!

  5. 1) We bought a ticket online (family -total of 7 people)…just wondering if the whole purchase was added as points to my husbands mabuhay miles? or only my husband’s own ticket? because when I tried entering the membership code to my childrens name, it doesn’t go through…
    2) If it was only for my husband’s own ticket, can I use my own mabuhay miles to earn points for my own ticket even if it was purchased months ago?

    • Miles are only credited for the flights of the account holder (your husband).
      You can go to your account online, click on the “Claim Missing Miles tab and fill out the claim form. Click here to get started!
      You can claim miles up to 12 months after your flight. You can also do it by phone or in person at a PAL office.

    • You can check out my review of the best credit cards to earn Mabuhay Miles here!
      You can apply for the cards online or in the branch of each bank!

  6. I became Mabuhay Miles Elite just by flying PAL within 3 months on business class RUH-MNL-SYD and RUH-MNL-SFO in 2017. I’m based in Riyadh KSA and PAL is the cheapest direct flight to MNL although they utilize an A330 bi-class with No IFE for 10 hrs flight. Hoping theyl use better aircraft soon with IFE. Long haul on business class is the fastest way to reach Elite level. Enjoying Lounge access at Riyadh airport, but not at NAIA since RUH flight departs at NAIA T1 with no lounge, theyl just give Starbucks voucher worth php400. I stayed at Mabuhay Lounge at T2 when i travel to SFO and SYD. I wonder what will happen after August 2018 when all Int’l PAL flights departs at T1. I availed their 50% miles promo and it took 30nmins to book by phone when i booked my RT business class flight RUH-MNL for my June2018 trip) and they emailed me the Eticket. I tried booking flight MNL-AKL but their airfare is expensive and aircraft is an old A340 with no IFE for 10hr direct. Understandably theyr taking advantage as the only direct flight between PH & NZ. Instead I just booked my flight with China airlines via TPE for $250 less than PAL airfare and CI aircraft is using new A350-900. Also I took advantage of my Elite status when I applied my NZ visa streamlining visa application for Mabuhay Miles Elite members.

    • Thanks for sharing your experience! I also got Mabuhay Miles Elite with long-haul business class flights, it certainly is the quickest! Your award booking experience was much quicker than mine – thanks for that data point, looks like they are improving! They also now allow online booking of awards – have you tried that?
      The A330 bi-class are supposed to be renovated to their latest 3 class A330, including 1-2-1 business class, Premium Economy and regular Economy cabins – I hope you get to try them soon!
      I haven’t heard any updates on the lounge situation in Terminal 1 – every time I ask, the plans seem to be changing, so I won’t hold my breath!

      • Hi Rupert, further to my experience above, recently I was so surprised and disappointed when I checked in with PAL at NAIA T1 2 days ago since i noticed that I was not given access to the lounge nor priority baggage. I asked them why, they told me since i’ve used my miles to buy my ticket, it resulted to my current miles below 25K (now at 11K remaining) thus they’ve downgraded my Elite status without prior notice eventhough my Elite membership is valid until Feb2019. I’ve asked them to show me which part on the T&C that says an Elite member has to retain his/her 25K miles all throughout the card’s validity period in order to enjoy Elite member benefits. I think this part is not stated clearly in their T&C. Still waiting for their explanation. However, it gives me an impression that this loyalty program is not really beneficial in a long run thus I will not be booking with PAL on my future flights. Still they’r using bi-class A330 for middle east flight which does not really represent 4stars. I plan to fly with a Skyteam airline member on my future flights.

      • The denied entry to the lounge must be a miss-understanding: Once you achieve Elite Status, it is valid regardless of the miles in your account and you should receive lounge access and priority even on award tickets. Please do let me know, how they respond. This might be an issue of the airport stuff not knowing the rules.
        The bi-class A330 are being upgraded and will all be three class, with lie-flat & direct aisle access business class, Premium Economy and Economy, very nice cabins you can see here.

    • You should be able to see the points/miles earned on your credit card statement each month. How/When it shows in your Mabuhay Miles account depends on the card you have. Some cards, like the Citibank PremierMiles card, require you to transfer the points earned to the loyalty program of your choice. Some cards will automatically transfer the miles and you should be able to see them in your Mabuhay Miles account every month

  7. Is it possible to transfer mabuhay miles to ANA or ethiad?
    I have roughly 30k in mabuhay miles due to my travels between sfo and mnl

    • Sorry, you can’t transfer the miles to ANA or Etihad, but you can redeem Mabuhay Miles directly for flights on either airline. You can find more details here.
      Alternatively, you might want to wait for a Mabuhay Miles Sale – they release award flights at 50% discount a few times a year, a great deal for your next trip SFO-MNL!

  8. We went to the Philippines Dec 2017 and signed up Mabuhay Miles given by one of the PAL staffs at NAIA airport. She said that our card will be sending to our home address here in California but until now we haven’t receive it. This coming Sept 15, 2018 we will visit again the Philippines. How can we use the Mabuhay Miles we signed up last Dec since we have no cards yet?

    Reply ↓

    • You should have received a temporary (paper) card or form with your membership on it. You can register an online account with that number, book flights and earn miles, without having the physical card.
      PAL is notoriously bad for not shipping the card – I have been a member for 5 years, including a year as Elite, and never received any card, despite trying 5 times by email of phone to get the card shipped!

  9. Mabuhay miles is a shitty programme! I flew with Etihad Airlines registering with my mabuhay account, which is theoretically possible according to mabuhay website. However, these flights have not been successfully included into my mabuhay account and 1 month and 6 e-mails to the client service later, there is still no answer from this shitty company.

    • You can earn Mabuhay Miles on Etihad Airlines, but promotional fares (N, I, O, S, T, X) are excluded. You’ll have to submit copies of the ticket and boardingpass via email. I agree with you that PAL’s customer service, especially by email is poor – I’ve had similar issues with not receiving responses to email inquiries myself. I recommend to re-submit the copies by email, then follow up with a phone call – phone service is better and it’s easier to address questions or problems on the spot.
      I wouldn’t go as far as dismissing the whole program – issues with earning points across partnerships (especially outside the big 3 alliances) are not unusual and this problem could be Etihad’s or PAL’s fault…
      You can find the details on what fares earn miles and how to contact PAL here! Good luck – please let us know, how it goes.

  10. I am a senior citizen and wish to experience a business class learning the length of travel to Toronto. I have my mileage plus little cash. Please I plea to your prestige company to allow me experiece business class. Thank you track # HIBBPG.

  11. Nice website. A person with experience.

    Last year I needed just 5000 miles more for Mabuhay Elite upgrade. I had my return ticket from Manila to London but didn’t end up travelling, not was there any benefit in cancelling that I could see. I am pretty sure you have to actually fly the leg, not just buy the ticket…but can you confirm this please.

    Also, I have formally complained for years that PAL needs an online redemption of awards. I noticed whilst browsing a few weeks ago that there was a button on the website to use awards. But NOW I can’t find it again. Any clues?

    • You have to fly the ticket to earn miles. PAL does charge a “cancellation fee” as well as “no-show” fee, so I recommend to check your specific ticket to see, if it makes sense to cancel the ticket ahead of time, rather than just not showing up!
      PAL did release an online award redemption to members by invitation earlier this year – I reported it here! The feature is not generally available on the website yet!

      • Thanks sir.
        As we all now know, PAL Mabuhay miles can be redeemed online. But not on Android. I assume this is for everyone and not just for me, because of years of complaining. London also has pretty decent planes now and I tried Business Class for my 58,000 miles and it was okay, but nothing special. I left my list of “improvements” for that and 3 other PAL flights and despite promised feedback, no emails received from COO.
        The annoyance is that fees for all classes are c.$90 out from manila but return from London the fees are similar to a low season one way ticket on Thai Airways, up to $400. So I guess I will use the rest of my miles on one-way outbound from Manila.
        PAL are trying and there are definitely staff client facing improvements thanks to Jimmy’s, COO, efforts and excellent team-building skills.
        I also went to check my login for my miles and they printed me a MM card, the first one that has caught up with me, in 20 seconds. There are booths now for MM in all terminals.
        Can you confirm how long the Elite and Premier Elite status last? I am assuming it is the year following the accrual?
        So looks like PAL are improving, but they still need to take onboard the comments of their customers, because there are airlines which knock them sideways still and prices are still high.

      • Thanks for sharing your experience and insights.
        The online redemption appears to still only work for invited members, not everybody is able to book online yet…
        Yes, the fees from London (LHR) are very high, but those are set by the UK authorities and the same for all airlines.
        Thanks for the update on the Mabuhay Miles booths at the airport – I have a flight on PAL tomorrow and will check it out.
        Yes, Elite status is valid for one year.
        I agree with your assessment – PAL is improving and they still have ways to go.
        Save travels

  12. Using ANA for my Mabuhay Miles redemption looks a great idea. 60,000 from Tokyo to London instead of 58,000 from Manila to London. PAL also seems to over-complicate the levels of tickets. Given that Philippines normally add lots of hidden extras.But will ANA charge more taxes and fees than PAL?

    I know PAL will charge an increasing “rush fee” of between $34 to $79 for less than 10 days 9 round-trip / per ticket charge (joke really when they complicate their own system), same day being $79. I know the taxes on a 64,000 mile round-trip MNL to LHR to MNL are 9,621 PHP on top of this rush fee( c.$190 ).

    I was surprised that the helpful PAL staff kept advising me to buy a cheap economy ticket, as long as Q class or above, and it was better to upgrade to Business. But that is 80,000 miles round-trip, so apart from saving the $ fees, what is she getting at? PAL tickets are NOT the cheapest.

    • PAL is currently not allowed to charge fuel surcharges (which might change soon), but charges as you have found out all kinds of other fees. ANA is usually pretty reasonable, with minimal fees, but I have not redeemed MabMiles for ANA flights and don’t know if there are any extra fees.
      If you are flexible, your best bet is to wait for the (roughly) quarterly Mabuhay Miles promotions that offer 30-50% discounts on the award miles needed, making for fantastic deals!

  13. I’ve been a PAL customer for many years I’ve also been a PNB credit card holder since 2011.
    Recently I requested PNB, through their call center, to transfer my accumulated points to my Mabuhay Miles acct. This was on Sept 9, 2018. Up to now the transfer points have not appeared on my acct with you. This was 92,000 points.
    Please try to trace this transfer. I will appreciate a feed back from you.
    Thank you.

  14. The Mabuhay Miles rules that says PAL can audit your miles and adjust without prior notice is rubbish and unfair. PAL does not include the 25% gained Elite miles on eligibility for PRemier Elite —- after receiving an email that I only have to do maximum 5K miles to be a Premier Elite, all of my gained 25% Elite miles were removed from the total miles which set me back to 9K miles to be Premier Elite.

    Answer from Mabuhay email support — “unfortunately you still have 9K to reach Premier Elite but within the time period”…

    • Elite tier bonus miles do not count towards elite status – this is stated in the terms of the program and explained in the FAQ you can read here! While it does make it a little harder to achieve status, it is not unusual for loyalty programs and PAL is transparent about it.
      Your award miles you can use to redeem for free flights and your elite status miles are two separate “pots” of miles, so you’ll have to look at your elite qualifying miles, not your total award miles for status qualification.
      So, I’m not quite sure what you are referring to with “audit” and “removal of miles”. Did in your case PAL take away award miles previously awarded to you? That would indeed be unusual. Or is this a mis-understanding how elite qualifying miles are calculated?

  15. Hi Rupert, just to update about my last comment re not given access to Mabuhay Lounge even if Im still ELite status due to having less remaining miles after redeeming it for free flights, i did not received any email reply from PAL. I have tried their business class from MNL-NRT on their reconfigured A330 and the experience was quite nice. As of this writing, PAL has no plans to upgrade their A330 bi-class aircraft being used to Middle East flights to reconfigure into tri-class with IFE, giving us the impression that PAL thinks OFW routes like the Middle East doesnt deserve better aircraft. While they are acquiring new aircraft deliveries, they will retain this no IFE planes to M.E. while increasing frequency to other Western countries using newer planes. Also i wanna share my experience flying with Etihad RUH-AUH-MAN crediting to Mabuhay Miles instead of Etihad miles, you need to send PAL email for them to retro-credit the miles earned from your Etihad flights and you have to wait 60 days before the miles actually appear on your account, which i find ridiculously slow verification process. They havent credited the miles yet on my account.

    • Thanks for the update. 60 days to receive your points from Etihad is a very long time, that’s shocking. I’ve had mileage claims with other airlines take up to 30 days, but never this long. It’s disappointing service….
      Thanks also for the info on the reconfiguration of the old A330 – that must have been a recent change. When they launched the new A330, they said they’d upgrade the old A330, so I’m surprised that they now would cancel those plans – there is nothing 4-star about those planes and they need to go, if they want to achieve a SkyTrax 5-star ratings.
      With regards to your elite status, you should be able to see it in your online account, including how many elite miles you have earned. Keep in mind that the elite qualifying miles and redeemable award miles are different. For example, the elite tier bonus miles are redeemable award miles, but they don’t count towards elite qualification!
      Please keep us posted on your PAL experience – these are very valuable data points for all travelers!

  16. Hi,I have mabuhay miles account and I flew last October 6, 2018 from Manila to Hongkong. Can i still earn mabuhay miles?Is it possible to reflect that in my account? How?

    • Yes, you can: Log into your Mabuhay Miles account online and go to the “Claim Missing Miles” tab, enter your flight information and you should be credited the miles for your flight. Click here!

  17. hi
    anyone familiar with Mabuhay Miles Travel Card?
    its basically a debit card, wherein you need to “load” cash to use it.
    need help with the Pin Code…
    because its asking for one so i can use it for purchase(just like a debit card).
    not sure if it was my mistake of not jotting it down, but i don’t recall
    seeing a default pin code in the letter they sent me together with the card.
    thanks in advance for the help!
    -james

    • Sorry, I’m not familiar witht he Mabuhay Miles Travel Card – I’d recommend to contact the issuing bank to retrieve your PIN number. Good luck

  18. I have been a Mabuhay Miles Premiere Elite member for the past 3 years now. I fly SFO-MNL-SFO about 4 to 5 times a year and with the latest fee structure, it is getting harder and harder to accumulate miles if you dont want to pay full price for a Y-class ticket which costs about USD 1,800 R/T. UTCs are a joke since you can’t use them if you don’t have a Y-class ticket, and pay around USD 500 additional one-way fee (subject to space availability). The Mabuhay Lounge at SFO is in such a rotten state with unsavory half sandwiches masquerading as hors d’ouvres with cold soup. Involuntary upgrades are very rare especially if you do not know the “big bosses” at the check-in counters.
    Unfortunately, PAL has no other competitor for a non-stop route to MNL from Norther America so they are really dictating their fees. Instead of spending $1,800 for an economy class ticket, if you don’t mind the extra stop, China Eastern Business Class tickets starting at $2,350 R/T is a BETTER option. Come on, PAL, where the heck is “The Heart of the Filipino Shining Through” with your fees and services?

    • Yes, I noticed that PAL fares between the US and Manila have gone up.
      If you are flying back & forth that often, you might want to book a one-way ticket from the US to Manila on miles, then purchase tickets MNL-SFO-MNL during sales in the Philippines – it can be much cheaper!
      And you are correct, you can frequently find business class fares on the mainland Chinese carriers for around $2,000 on that route, including one (not very convenient) stop-over!

  19. Can I cancel my awarded ticket and put it back on my mileage? My flight to Boracay in June 2019 was changed by PAL and they sent me an email if I accept the changes. However, out of my mind, I accepted the new flight but it was too early, that means I will be leaving Boracay 4 am in the morning and travel by bus to Kalibo in order to catch the flight. I redeemed roundtrip ticket but I’m just planning to cancel one way.

    • When an airline changes your flight, you are entitled to a refund, if the new times don’t work for you. Because you accepted the new times, you have to hope that PAL will still do a partial refund.
      I’d call them an explain that you accidentally accepted the new times and ask for a refund of the miles. Good luck, hope it works out for you. This is a borderline case, so let us know how it goes!

    • You have to register at the Solaire Rewards counter at the hotel with your Mabuhay Miles number. You will earn points going forward.

    • Flights to Guam start at 14,500 one-way.
      Later this month, PAL is rolling out miles & cash awards, so you could use your 4,000 miles and pay the remainder in cash! Read more here!

  20. I called Mabuhay Hotline this January 2019 and got confirmation about all the flights and miles I accumulated since 2016. What I got during that call is that they can provide me with a Mabuhay Mile Card and send it by post in my NCR residence within the quarter. Today since its almost the end of March I called their Hotline and learn that since end of January 2019, they discontinued this practice. I never been inform either via email or SMS. Now I just called their hotline and though they apologise, they cannot even provide me with an email transaction regarding my call. No Service Request or SMS. Nothing.

    • Despite many calls and emails, I was never able to receive a Mabuhay Miles card, even though I was Elite level. I printed the card and used the paper copy without problems.
      The easiest way to get a physical, plastic card is to go to one of the booths at Manila’s NAIA airport. I gave them my info and they were able to print the card right then & there – it took less than five minutes. So, the next time you fly through Manila, just stop by their booth (in Terminal 2, near lounge) and have it printed!

  21. We flew economy supersaver from Toronto to Manila in Feb and got 823 miles. If we would of flown Premium Economy for an extra $1500, we would have got 8228. what kind of miles program is that? penalizing you for saving money! Cathay Pacific doesn’t differentiate like that.

    • Mabuhay Miles awards miles based on the cabin and fare class or purchase price and PAL has recently reduced the earn rate for SuperSaver Economy fares to 10% of the distance flown. I’ll update this review with the latest devaluation soon.
      Unfortunately, that’s true for most airline rewards programs these days, including Cathay Pacific’s AsiaMiles. The more expensive your ticket, the more miles you earn!

  22. My mom has a Mabuhay Miles card and she agreed to let me use it. She has accummulated 50,000 points already. What are the fees that I would have to pay since I will be the one who will use the points and not the member herself?

  23. The Philippines Mabuhay Miles Frequent Flyer number +63 2 8558888 does not answer no matter when you call it. It has been this way for weeks at June 23, 2019.

    As at June 23, 2019 you can book a Mabuhay Miles flight, but you cannot pay the taxes. Their payment system has been down for one week. This means any flight you book cannot be confirmed as you’ve not paid the taxes. There is no other way to pay the taxes except using a Mabuhay Miles call centre agent.

    Welcome to the Philippines where nothing works and Manila a city of 12 million people now has such severe water shortage that most of the city has no water and the rest is about to lose what little restricted water they’ve been allowed. Supreme incompetence. Did not anyone think to build dams to keep up with the city’s unchecked growth? I think I’ll leave the Philippines using my remaining Mabuhay Miles. I’m heading for a civilised nation.

    • Thanks for letting us know about the service issues with PAL – they have made changes to their IT systems and they apparently didn’t go well. Sorry you are having so much trouble, hope you are able to resolve it over the phone.
      The problems in a developing country like the Philippines can be overwhelming, sad to hear you might decide to move away because of it.

  24. People should start writing to Mabuhay Miles or PAL to atleast make them aware of how ridiculous they have made earning miles to be. I’ve personally lost interest in maintaining an elite status as you have to buy premium economy seats or the next highest to earn 100% miles. Same goes for upgrading to business class. Considering other airlines now despite the one stop when flying in and out of North America.

    • I agree, earning Mabuhay Miles has become more difficult and upgrading to Business Class more expensive.
      You still earn based on distance flown (different from most US airlines who award miles based on price paid) and at 100% for full-fare, flexible Economy (similar to other airlines).
      Check out my reviews of ANA All Nippon Air, Eva and Asiana for great alternatives between the US and the Philippines.

  25. I’m booked for a flight to the Philippines and I have earned 9570 miles as of now, can I use this to pay for choice seat?

  26. It’s been more than a month since my last flight and the miles don’t reflect in my latest statement. I tried to claim the missing points on their website but it just won’t go through when you type your information. Please don’t tell me to visit your office in Manila because I live in Tokyo.

    • Sorry to hear about this, unfortunately the PAL website has a lot of problems since their update.
      If the website doesn’t allow you to claim the miles, you’ll have to call their service center to claim them.

  27. I wanted to claim the miles from my previous flight I had (LAX to Manila) last October 2019. Is there any another way to claim my points since I couldn’t get through the PAL website.

  28. Mabuhay Miles is garbage!

    Do not trust anyone when you call the hotline, they are not trained to help but to give your hard time.

    • Sorry you had a bad experience with the Mabuhay Miles call center – would you mind sharing what happened?
      In my experience, they are friendly and helpful with standard requests, but may not have the training to handle complex issues or authorization to make exceptions from the rules in common sense cases.

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