Philippine Airlines (PAL) today (Jan. 2) announced it can no longer accept foreigners flying in from the United States effective 12:01 AM, January 3 to January 15, 2021, after the government included the US on the list of countries covered by the travel ban to curb contagion from the new strain of COVID 19 virus.
The travel ban specifically covers foreign passengers from the US or foreign travelers who have been in the US within 14 days preceding their planned arrival in the Philippines.
On the other hand, Filipino citizens originating from the US or who have traveled to the US within 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival in the Philippines and are arriving in the country within January 3 to 15 shall be accepted on PAL flights to the Philippine.
However, they will be required to undergo a 14-day quarantine at a stringent quarantine facility.
All passengers -- whether Filipino citizens or foreigner nationals -- who are originating from the US or who have traveled to the US within the 14-day period prior to entering the Philippines and are arriving before 12:01AM January 3, 2021 will not be prohibited from entering the country but will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine at a stringent quarantine facility.
Passengers allowed to enter the Philippines from the US within the period of the travel ban must undergo RT-PCR testing on arrival.
An absolute 14-day quarantine must be completed even if a passenger gets a negative result on the RT-PCR test.
Returning Overseas Filipinos may choose their own quarantine hotel from the list of DOT-hotels for stringent quarantine.
The restrictions are mandated by the latest Resolution of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF) restricting travel into the Philippines from specified countries, as a protection measure against the new variant of the SARS-COV 2 Virus.
This latest Philippine government travel restriction brings to 21 the total number of flagged countries.
PAL continues to operate flights to Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and the US subject to existing passenger restrictions.
The countries now covered by passenger restrictions on flights to the Philippines are Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, SA,. Switzerland, France,Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States
Affected passengers may rebook on the next available flights after the restriction period, with rebooking service fees waived.
They may also refund the cost of their ticket with refunding service fees waived. A third available option is the conversion of the PAL ticket into a travel voucher for future use.
PAL will cooperate closely with government authorities in support of all measures that seek to curb any potential increase in COVID-19 cases.