As far as I know, MC does not generate PLA files. I believe MC generates M3U playlists by default. You can change this by clicking on the options button of your handheld sync, then: Files Paths and More > Playlist format > (select format here)
I just re-read some old threads on this and found that at least one person had a situation where that option did NOT show up. I think we tracked it down to him using an MTP connection from his phone to computer. As opposed to using a direct "disk" connection, where the internal storage of the phone shows up as a disk drive in Windows.
You can normally select which mode to use, on the phone, when you plug it in. It's usually a dialog box, or perhaps a selection in the notification area. Also, all Android phones (as far as I know) can use the Android File Transfer tool. This would be a two step thing: Define a staging folder on your hard drive to hold the music and playlists you want on the phone, then have MC sync to that folder. When that's done, you would then use Android File Transfer to copy the staging folder files to your Android device.
Good luck.
Brian.