If you look no further than "Sully" Sullenberger as a role model, he transmitted neither a PAN or MAYDAY call but there has been nothing but praise for his handling of his incident.
Gotta call BS on that one.. (His mayday call was garbled)
From the NTSB report:
At 1527:33, the captain reported the emergency situation to the LGA departure controller, stating, "mayday mayday mayday this is Cactus fifteen thirty nine hit birds, we've lost thrust in both engines, we're turning back towards LaGuardia"