"Philippines to re-open to vaccinated foreign tourists"

Interesting that the article says no China or Taiwan travelers.

It’s the Philippines and Duterte, though. This could change faster than my daughter’s moods…. 😊

It’s good to know, though, and I do hope it stabilizes.

Thank you for sharing!

For all the articles went out so far, they always added "with existing tourist visa" in the end. )

Fantastic news!

Thanks for the info mate

https://dfa.gov.ph/list-of-countries-for-21-day-visa

https://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippines-o … zr_qqmxk4j

Open... Finally... 👍🏻

Thanks for the wonderful info, but can you extend your stay by requesting in-country 9A visa after arrival?

I plan to start my SRRV while there next month.

My wife's inbox is already filling up with SRRV requests.

Concerning the lates announcements, the internet has gone crazy.
I believe this is for tourists and VOA only, maximum stay 30 days.

I am not sure if those visa can be extended (as before). Let's wait and see for the clarifications next week.

Unrelated but I saw on the news Chinese Expats in the US (New York City) can fly back to China, some fares as high as $10,000 USD.

Yes... Passport is 30 days... But I believe you can request additional 30 days(for a fee of course)

To be precise  visa on arrival  is valid for 30d.
We don't know if the same extension system as before will apply.

Very true... More will come out in February as they reopen to tourists.

I might give it a couple of months just to see how things go before planning to visit.

Cherryann01 wrote:

I might give it a couple of months just to see how things go before planning to visit.

Risky because then it can have got changed to closed again 

(Nov 2020 they opened for some types, then came a new version and they closed for the new opened ones in January 2021.)

Wellsfry wrote:

Very true... More will come out in February as they reopen to tourists.

My stepson (Philippine Citizen) is flying from London to Philippines on February 7 and will be under home quarantine for one week.

If the existing quarantine rules are still in place it will be a nightmare getting around.

Very true but I would like to see how things go first. Last time they talked about re-opening along came Omicron and that changed their plans very quickly so I think I will see how things are in a couple of months.

Also, having done some quick checks on flight prices, they are nearly double what they were before covid, partly due to lower demand for flights and partly due to the huge cost in energy/fuel prices

Yes my old R/T fare of $1600 (PAL Prem Economy from HNL) has now gone up to $2600. Yikes. I'm gonna have to rethink that one.

Cherryann01 wrote:

Also, having done some quick checks on flight prices, they are nearly double what they were before covid, partly due to lower demand for flights and partly due to the huge cost in energy/fuel prices

"Only" nearly doubled?  From Sweden for two way ticket its TRIPLED.

Oh  fuel prices gone up (?)  ((In Sweden are energy prices in big part energy TAX so its some hard to follow why prices change.))
In the beginning of covid fuel prices at least at diesel in bulk in Canada went DOWN much. (According to a documentary about people using much diesel in their work.)

From Washington State my old normal for R/T to Manila was around $900... I just paid $2,100. for next week (30 days)... and I booked again for May (30 days) (Wishful thinking? Hahaa) for $1,100... So good fares are available... just have to get over this initial hump, then stay booked out 3 or 4 months ahead.  I plan to get the retirement visa done later this year so I can extend my stays out to 6 weeks or so... I am stil only partially retired and have to split time for now. I am 53.

Why don’t you just extend your regular tourist visa?

You may have to look at going a different route from Sweden to save money. There are cheap flights from Stockholm to London so maybe it would be an option looking into that then flying from Heathrow to the Philippines.

I am noticing that it seems cheaper to book a multi city flight rather than just searching for return journeys so for example on Skyscanner on the dates I entered it was cheaper for me to fly via Singapore than look for return flights from the UK

Cherryann01 wrote:

You may have to look at going a different route from Sweden to save money. There are cheap flights from Stockholm to London so maybe it would be an option looking into that then flying from Heathrow to the Philippines.

I am noticing that it seems cheaper to book a multi city flight rather than just searching for return journeys so for example on Skyscanner on the dates I entered it was cheaper for me to fly via Singapore than look for return flights from the UK

Yes. The price comparings I made were "any" routes even with several switches.  (Except that automatic website dont include Cebu Pasific in any parts of route in their comparings.)

This website show prices at close dates too, so cheaper prices can be found easy by just change to the dates with lower prices.

I suppouse it functions for people in any country
https://www.momondo.se/horizon/sem/flig … gKabPD_BwE

I will definitely be exploring that option this trip... If they allow it or not.   Who knows... they may close again within that first month.

I read it as visa free countries still able to just come in visa free - no way USA consulates prepared to issue tourist visas I would think.  And no point  - I come in as SRRV and they already have all the requirements to me that would be put on tourists

be good to keep this thread going

2 years ago before all of this I entered with my passport.... They issue the temp 30 day visa as you go through customs.  It will be the same when I enter on the 10th from what I understand.  I will let you all know

Would be very interesting.

Everybody in the business, including personnel of government departments is waiting for a confirmation that the 30d VOA can be extended similar to how itc was before the pandemic.

Latest update from IATF Resolution 160-B:
Foreign nationals traveling to the Philippines for business and tourism
purposes may enter the Philippines without visas, provided they:
Are a citizen/national of the following countries [List],
entitled to a stay not exceeding thirty (30) days

So, is it safe to translate that as "you cant extend the stay including having a tourist visa extension, nor converting it to other types of visa" ?

Arriving pax have to show a return or onward flight with 30d after arrival in  Ph.

Yes, it looks like an outbound ticket within 30 days of arriving is a requirement. I also saw that NAIA / BI is limiting the number of daily international arrivals to 5000, up from 2000. So some inbound flights may still be canceled or severely delayed.

So I have just looked at splitting the flights into 2 from the UK using random dates and I have found on Skyscanner if I book a return flight from Manchester (England to Bangkok going on 6 March and returning on 31 March, the cost is £386 with a journey time of about 17 hours going via Frankfurt on the outbound leg and returning via Munich on the inbound leg. (Lufthansa).  I then found a flight from Bangkok to Cebu on Bravo fly with Philippine Airlines departing Bangkok on 12 March and returning from Cebu to Bangkok on 31 March for £248 with one stop on each leg of the journey, probably in Manila but I can not see where for some reason.

This is way cheaper than looking at a direct flight to the Philippines from the north of England and cheaper than booking a multi city ticket on Skyscanner going from Manchester to Cebu or Manila with a stop over in Bangkok (about £350 to £450 or more cheaper).

Even upgrading to a flexible ticket for the leg from Bangkok to Cebu and return only adds another £50 onto the price and I have made sure that I have a good 11 hours on the return journey between arriving and departing Bangkok.

Even with the Test and go package for five nights in Bangkok I am still saving on any direct prices I could find to the Philippines and I am breaking the journey up, having less connections and cutting down my total travel time spent in flight and waiting for connecting flights .

Cherryann01 wrote:

So I have just looked at splitting the flights into 2 from the UK using random dates and I have found on Skyscanner if I book a return flight from Manchester (England to Bangkok going on 6 March and returning on 31 March, the cost is £386 with a journey time of about 17 hours going via Frankfurt on the outbound leg and returning via Munich on the inbound leg. (Lufthansa).  I then found a flight from Bangkok to Cebu on Bravo fly with Philippine Airlines departing Bangkok on 12 March and returning from Cebu to Bangkok on 31 March for £248 with one stop on each leg of the journey, probably in Manila but I can not see where for some reason.

This is way cheaper than looking at a direct flight to the Philippines from the north of England and cheaper than booking a multi city ticket on Skyscanner going from Manchester to Cebu or Manila with a stop over in Bangkok (about £350 to £450 or more cheaper).

Even upgrading to a flexible ticket for the leg from Bangkok to Cebu and return only adds another £50 onto the price and I have made sure that I have a good 11 hours on the return journey between arriving and departing Bangkok.

Even with the Test and go package for five nights in Bangkok I am still saving on any direct prices I could find to the Philippines and I am breaking the journey up, having less connections and cutting down my total travel time spent in flight and waiting for connecting flights .

All that is good, for myself I liked the non stops, boarded the plane in LAX around midnight arrived in Manila in the morning after a long good nights sleep on the plane. Hassle free travel.

You are a very lucky man being able to sleep on board. This is something I have never managed to do no matter how tired I am.

Any Tips Bob for sleeping on board would be much appreciated.

Cherryann01 wrote:

You are a very lucky man being able to sleep on board. This is something I have never managed to do no matter how tired I am.

Any Tips Bob for sleeping on board would be much appreciated.

Parts of the mental training elite sportsmen use - later used for other things too for "common people" - are very deep relaxing and capacity to shut off disturbance around.

A long time ago, when train seats were hard, I used the mental traning method to get sleep siting at such hard seat and feet at seat at opponent side. But the method is some "to got" because it made I didnt change position during sleep and I didnt feel it, so I woke up with very stiff neck   

Cherryann01 wrote:

You are a very lucky man being able to sleep on board. This is something I have never managed to do no matter how tired I am.

Any Tips Bob for sleeping on board would be much appreciated.

My only tip might be hard for others to repeat. The day of the trip I had about a 6 1/2 hour drive from Las Vegas to Lax. Drop off the rental car and then take the shuttle to the air port. A long line to check in and being tired after lugging six 50 lb bags to be checked, there was three of us.

A long walk to the departure gate and then about a two hour wait to take off. By the time I was ready to board, I was out on my feet. Actually I dozed on and off during the flight, the only thing that woke me up was my prostrate telling me it was time to go.

Yeh that obviously works for you but when flying from Manchester, I have always stayed over in a hotel the night before the flight and booked parking for the duration I am away so I am usually fresh as a daisy the day of the flight and only have to get the airport shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport which only takes about 15 to 20 minutes if that.

I prefer to do it that way because once when I was married I drove the ex wife and daughter to Manchester Airport early in the morning for them to catch a flight to Kiev (she is originally from Ukraine. Anyway on my way back I noticed long tailbacks on the Motorway in the direction of Manchester, probably due to an accident and realised if we had set off an hour or so later, she would probably have missed her flight.