As we all know by now the world has been taken by storm by COVID-19 and several countries have imposed travel bans and restrictions to and from heavily stricken countries. Philippines is no exception to those restrictions as president Duterte put the entire Luzon on "Enhanced Community Quarantine", which basically means lockdown. That means that traveling through air, sea and land is restricted only to diplomats, uniformed workers (especially those who travel with medical supplies, specimens from the laboratory in relation to COVID-19), and those who do humanitarian work. People who are going outside the Philippines through Luzon are only limited to Overseas Filipino Workers and foreigners. Airlines in the Philippines have cancelled or have limited majority of their flights while under the enhanced community quarantine such as Cebu Pacific cancelling all of their flights until April 14. To see Cebu Pacific's travel advisory click here.
As of yesterday March 23, Philippine Airlines released an advisory saying the airline will operate limited international services to and from Manila in response to the Philippine government’s call to help foreign tourists return home and OFWs fly back to their places of work. Other cities outside of Luzon have also enforced some measure of lockdown, travel restrictions and have advised everyone to stay indoors as much as possible.
Travel has been extremely disrupted and as much as we all want to travel, now is not the best time to take unnecessary trips. I myself have had 4 trips cancelled because of the virus and it can be very frustrating but the sooner we cooperate with safety guidelines the sooner we can all start traveling again. Instead of traveling right now, we suggest this is the time to plan your next vacation. You don’t have to book yet, but figure out where you want to go and map out the right strategy for building up the right points and miles for those trips. So let's all do our part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help one another during this crisis.
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