The Visa Collector

A blog about travelling with a Filipino passport, and life overseas

Tag Archives: fee

About the Philippine travel tax and terminal fee

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The Philippine Airlines website presents the following information the travel tax on their FAQ. Sadly, the link on this page that is supposed to take you to a government site for more information leads to a site that has been suspended.

From: http://www.philippineairlines.com/faq/checkin/check_in.jsp

How much is the Philippine Travel Tax?

For adult passengers, the travel tax is PHP1,620 (Business and Economy class) and PHP810 for children (2-11 years).

I bought my ticket from your website. Is travel tax already included in the total amount paid? No. Philippine Travel Tax is not included in the total fare quoted online. For international journeys, Philippine travel tax, if applicable, shall be collected by the Philippine Tourism Authority at Philippine Airports.

Travel tax shall be levied on (a) all citizens of the Philippines; (b) permanent resident aliens; and (c) non-immigrant aliens who have stayed in the Philippines for more than one (1) year, who are leaving the country.

If you are exempted from paying the Philippine Travel Tax or entitled to a reduced travel tax, please secure applicable certificates such as follows, from Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA), Department of Tourism (DOT) before making reservations:

Tax Exemption Certificate (TEC) if you are exempted from paying the Philippine Travel Tax

Reduced Travel Tax Certificate (RTTC) if you are qualified for a reduced Philippine Travel Tax and

Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) if you are an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW)

How much airport terminal fee will I pay for my flight?

Airport terminal fees are PHP550 (effective 01Feb12) for international departures and PHP200 for local/domestic departures. These fees will be collected at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Centennial Terminal 2).

For AirPhil Express code-shared flights, PHP200 per passenger will be collected at the NAIA Terminal 3.

Filed under Airports
Jun 3, 2012

Rethinking the terminal fee at Philippine airports

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If there is anything about going home to the Philippines that I really really hate, it’s dealing with the cash-only terminal fees at the airport.

The first time I ran into this was on my first return trip to Taiwan in 2000. The explanation they gave me for the fee was that since my ticket was purchased outside the Philippines, it did not include the terminal fee in the ticket price. So I had to fork out the funds myself — on the spot.

Over the years, I had learned to deal with this gargantuan incovenience by making sure I always had the required amount with me long before I got to the airport. But on my last visit to the Philippines after a lengthy hiatus, my initial calculations proved insufficient. The fees had gone up significantly, and I had to go through the expletive riddled experience of finding out that there were no ATMs past the secure zone of the security area . . .

. . . and that I had to exit the building . . . find an ATM . . . and then re- enter the security inspection line.

I typically arrive well ahead of my flight, so getting in the first time was a breeze. Not so after the trip to the ATM. By the time I returned to the security line it had grown to a very long slithering snake.

Virtually every foreigner I know who visits the Philippines for the first time, and who unfortunately didn’t have a friend or family member who was familiar with this procedural frakas, goes through the same W-T-F experience that I went through above.

This problem doesn’t kill anyone. Nobody gets hurt by this inconvenience (at least as far as I know. Has a drunk tourist ever let fists fly because of this?). But I maintain that it is still something that needs to be looked at. Here are some reasons off the top of my head:

It is counter-productive tourism to promotion efforts. This blatant display of inefficiency is the last thing tourists see as they leave the country. What do you think they will tell their peers about their experience? The Department of Tourism promotions budget for 2012 is P250M wouldn’t it be a shame for all that money to only bring in one-time-only visitors who don’t come back?

Delicadeza. Wikipilipinas describes this word as: “a sense of propriety refers to sensitivity regarding the limits of proper behavior or ethics in a situation. Filipinos try to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

I don’t know about you, but I feel mooched when I pay with these fees. It doesn’t matter how polite the people at the fee collectors are, these feel like superfluous fees because its just doesn’t make sense to collect them separately from the ticket . . . and in cash no less. No credit or debit cards allowed. Given how cash transactions are associated with efforts to avoid scrutiny . . . it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

This problem has been around for over a decade now. If a problem this simple can’t be addressed . . . how much more with even more complicated problems?

It’s time to speak up about this. Join the Facebook group below . . . tell your friends . . . and have your voices heard by the people in-charge who appear to be asleep at the switch:

Rethink the terminal fee at Philippine airports

Photos from NAIA Terminal 2, December 2010

 
Filed under Airports, Impressions
Jun 2, 2012