Philippine Airlines will only accept fully vaccinated passengers on domestic flights to and from Manila starting Monday, Jan. 17.
The PAL advisory issued Saturday, Jan.17, 2022, Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced Jan. 15.
The requirement applies to all domestic travel to and from the National Capital Region (NCR), including the travel of individuals who reside outside NCR but who work inside NCR.
PAL said this in line with requirement of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and is valid for as long as NCR remains under Alert Level 3 or higher.
Travelers are considered fully vaccinated if at least two weeks have elapsed after their second dose of a two-dose COVID vaccine, or two weeks after receiving a single-dose COVID vaccine.
With the new DOTR rule, airlines now require passengers to present physical or digital copies of a vaccine card issued by their local government unit (LGU), a vaccine certification issued by the Department of Health (DOH), or any document prescribed by the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease);
Passengers should also present a valid government-issued identification card (ID) with their picture and address.
Passengers can only be exempted from these requirements if they have a medical condition that prevents full COVID-19 vaccination, as shown by a duly signed medical certificate with the doctor’s name and contact details.
They could also be exempted if they are traveling to procure essential goods and services, such as medicine, medical devices, medical and dental necessities, public utilities, etc., as shown by a duly issued barangay health pass or other appropriate proof to justify such travel.
Passengers who qualify for these exemptions need to present a negative RT-PCR test result taken within the last 48 hours before their entry into the departure terminal, as required under the implementing rules set by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
PAL will temporarily be unable to accept unvaccinated children for boarding on its domestic flights to and from Manila, unless they fall under one of the above exceptions, such as traveling for urgent medical reasons.
If the new directive prevents passengers from traveling, and they purchased their tickets before January 17, 2022 and booked their flights on any date from January 17 to January 31, 2022, their tickets are safe and remains valid, according to PAL.
They can convert their tickets to Travel Credits equivalent to the unused base fare of their ticket. The voucher validity is one year year from date of issuance.
They can rebook or reroute their ticket to another flight with available space within 60 days from the original flight in the same cabin class.
They can also refund their tickets without penalties, excluding Ticketing Service Charge.
However, PAL will collect no-show fees if they do not cancel their confirmed reservation at least four hours before their booked flight departure time.
For such rebooking requests and transactions, passengers can use MyPAL Request Hub rather than call our PAL customer hotline which is unable to accommodate the very high volume of calls and requests.
If the passenger purchased his ticket through a travel agent, they should deal directly with their agent.