Author: Reekay V.
Since 2012 I’ve been traveling through various islands of the Philippines as a full-time Expat and spent 1999 living in Vietnam.
Share with me my ongoing adventures of life in the Philippines. Hopefully you find my observations helpful in your own adventures.
— Reekay
Cho Con the answers to your questions were already addressed here, https://youtu.be/eSvbjZwooSo
Delta cancelled our flight twice and would not give a refund. So I called my credit card company and requested a refund on the basis that goods were not delivered.
We booked with KAL and they sent an email that me, my wife, and two children must take a PCR test 48 hours before. The hospital says the test takes three days. The flight was cancelled. No refunds. Just eCredit. Had to call credit card again and request refund for goods not delivered.
Finally booked a flight wit ANA airline. Fantastic service and response.
Thanks for the update. I’m scheduled to fly from Phnom Penh to San Francisco October 1st via Korean Air. I have had to reschedule my flight to the USA 4 times now. Now it maybe 5 times. I’m only returning to file my taxes & vote. Otherwise, I much rather stay here in Cambodia.
This sounds more like a money thing rather than a Covid thing. Could be a bit of both
Thanks for this update as have been examining possible routes from Ph to Australia. Difficult currently due to transit restrictions, reduced flights and entrance quotas on arrivals to Australia. (Melbourne closed to all international flights, Sydney only 30 passengers/plane/350/day and Brisbane only 360/week).
Good information.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1314370/cebu-resumes-tourism-but-all-visitors-should-register-online
For those of you that don’t live in Los Angeles: Korean Air is closing their ticket counter office on Wilshire Blvd which is in the Koreatown neighborhood of LA, this is not even close to the LAX airport. They are just closing an office in Koreatown that nobody uses much anyway considering that everyone buys tickets online nowadays anyway. Don’t mistake this for their ticket counter at the actual LAX airport which is still open. In fact, you can still fly from LAX to Manila now on Korean Air but the flight frequency has been reduced.
My Shopify shipping has been delayed from 60 days to 90 days just recently. This holiday season is going to be a mess. Just seems like a world wide problem and with the USA not a dependable factor things are even more up in the air. I’m not sure how tied Korean Air is to government ownership but a worldwide shut down is going to hurt. Hoping the vaccine comes out by the end of the year and the political process of getting it is not as horrible as one would think. FYI….love the Teespring merch
Wow feels like they will go under.Yes they just lied in Florida about percent positive after testing they were saying 98 % then it turned out 9.8 percent whoops we made a mistake
I appreciate your
Massage..
The Olympics was canceled…but seems many people can’t break the spirit of competition for looking side to side at infection pandemic rates as if it is the 100 meter gold medal. Stop it…US got hit from Washington State…California…New York and who really knows how many more openings…each with a fast mutating virus…from a slightly different source…so we have been fighting not one break out…but probably neaer to 10. For anyone who wants to get the narative correct….this is about not properly controlling borders. I came home after Duterte first address..Mar 13….and LAX was wide opeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen…..come on in….give us your Wuhan Outbreak…give us your Tokyo Outbreak,,,,give us your Seoul outbreak,,,,on and on…no one asked anything…no one filled out anny information…no one took any temperatures…a slew of people on my plane openly shedding some kind of flu. NO ONE….NO AMERICAN…lifting a single finger in defense of ths Country.
KAL…yes big deal. More to come. Sorry for your loss Reekay…the Japan stop is quite nice too…JAL/ANA.
The US has banned travel from Europe. Europe has banned travel from the US. Not a surprise. Europe is going through a second wave. China is going through a second wave. Vietnam is going through a second wave (from Chinese). The Philippines will go through a second wave. I am sure Thailand and other Asian countries will do the same. The best thing one can do with an American Passport is to not use it. Stay put. Hope to get a mild case of the CCP flu. The best thing a country can do for a US passport holder is to refuse entry. In that way, he will not bring home anything.
Plenty of articles back in March that speculated that Korean Air would not be able to survive the effects of the pandemic… https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51799142
Looks like I’ll be making my move to Asia on a cargo ship.
United prices went up BIG TIME Guam Manila They see Korean Air cutting flights
Looks like promising vaccines now into stage 3 final testing… The Moderna/NHI mRNA vaccine… and University of Oxford and AstraZeneca with their vaccine… and BioNTech/Pfizer with yet another vaccine..
(Altogether there are more than 200 companies arounds the world working and at various stages of vaccine development….. Never in history has vaccine development worked so fast.)
Maybe Philipines, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, India etc… will allow those who get the shots and have a certificate… (good example is the international Yellow Fever Vaccination certificate) to enter with no quarantine and no $3000.00 deposit like Cambodia wants.. Keeping our fingers crossed…
I’ll be happy to get the shot..as long as it’s not a vaccine developed under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.
Some people figure that there might be only four to six large airline companies left when this is all over. South African Airways just went under recently for instance. … But some entrepreneurs will buy the aircraft and start new companies eventually.. I think I’ll stowaway on a cargo ship going to my next destination….
Hi Rekay, it’s a shame about Korean Air, yes the times are a changing. By the way have you read about the spike in virus cases in Da nang Vietnam? Apparently they have now had quite a few cases among the local tourists there, the Govt may have a lockdown but not sure, but check it out
Eva Air is still doing flights to Calif. I liked Korean but it is a shorter flight through Eva and the flights are better hours.
Ah, you are a fine laddy, good to hear from you.
Honestly this entire pandemic has me thinking about getting another passport as a backup. It also has me thinking about setting up roots in other places than the Philippines and I like the Philippines a lot.
maybe time to buy a big boat and sail to Pi
Watch several proclaim influential YouTube’s flight attendants that have been laid off. Your video was informative but I have do a concern about comment about the case count being inflated. I do not remember you being a Medical expert. While you have a right to your opinion. Just remember over 150,000+ deaths in the United States so far to date and will go up I found your comment callous. Btw I was born at Clark Air Base in 1964. Besides that comment I will still watch your videos
That sucks. I am in Houston and need to get back to my apt in Bangkok and fly from there or directly to Philippines from US. The Philippine Embassy in Houston is closed, so cannot get a 1 year visa.
So, question is do you have any idea when no visa on entry for 30 days will resume in Philippines?
It seems that Korea is doing this because of the very high cost of maintaining their airlines and planes without enough travel sales to keep up their business. This will trickle down to many airlines and I see this effect happening all over the world!
Reekay what makes you believe that the COVID infection reports in the US are “inflated”?
What do you think abouth the ( Tracking Bracelets ) idea of the Cebu goverment for all the future tourist coming in , ????
Sounds like Global marxism/communism. Some Americans prefer to keep our freedoms. So I guess we are being punished because we can see the big picture.
Korean Air had best prices and flights for me. Oh well. Just have to find ways (like BDO 😉 )
Hopefully it will give more opportunity to Singapore airlines as they are a better quality airline at better prices.
Um. I’m not sure what you are saying is accurate . The 1813 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angels , 90057 address in Los Angeles is not LAX. The Wilshire address is their corporate Los Angeles office . Korea airlines still operates at LAX and still has flights . They are just closing the office in Los Angeles but they still operate inside LAX .
Thanks for the info bro. Question. Is Philippine and Cebu air still up?
Thank you for the info. Be safe
Got my refund approved from PAL mid June for a return flight from New Zealand to the Philippines after getting no reply for 2 months. Have been told will have to wait up to 5 months for the refund to be paid. Not many airlines will be paying out refunds while making losses. I did not realise I signed up to giving them an interest free loan
That’s huge news. I wonder what their plan will be moving forward. I am sure they are sick of CA’s bullshit, the Governors mandates…etc.
This announcement by Korean Air is a great wake up call for all ex-pats to have a “Plan B” in case this current pandemic causes further erosion of travel choices in the event you need to return back to your home country in the event of an emergency.
they took down and other airlines will fill in. Someone out there is always looking for money making opportunities.
The only airlines i use is qatar, emirates, air asia & cebu pacific. I think a few more airlines might do the same thing as what korea did. No vaccine no return to normal. The Uk annouced they signed another deal with a vaccine company if one does come out. They do phase 3 in december in the UK. Here’s the link to the article. https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-uk-signs-deal-for-60m-doses-of-potential-vaccine-12038268
Henry do you think the Philippines will accept a vaccine from Russia or China? Those countries are supposed to be coming out with one soon.
Same in the UK, some big airlines have taken major losses, weather they recover , time will tell, could be the end of the jet set era
Sounds like a precursor to bankruptcy
Thank you sir, let’s see what the other airlines are going to do. Plus I believe not only it is about this virus I think there’s more going behind the scenes then what they are telling us.
Wonder why I didnt get that notice, I’m a charter member with 55,000 miles (that never expire…yeah, right).
It’s been like that for months you’re late to the party good video
Love flying with Korean Airline !
Yes as an American my passport is worthless, because people can’t follow directions and wear a mask and social distancing. This Pandemic should be under control by now and instead is worst
I’ll be looking to fly back to USA from Manila soon.. Any suggestions on anything.. Including air carrier?
ANA the Japanese airline is the best I’ve experienced.
Yeah Reekay…the whole issue about the virus that you know causes the Covid-19 in 6 sets of different manifestations and symptoms have been blown out of proportion worldwide according to my daughter, who is medical researcher at Stanford.edu and who has an MD from Stanford, a PHD from the University of Chicago in chemistry and PhD in biology from UCLA and UCSF. We are talking about great Universities here, and she is 42 yrs old, not someone just out the gate. There are lots of wrong information circulating the whole world and opinions been given by non experts and even some by self proclaimed experts.
MDs and research scientists will be coming out to educate the world population about the real situation and the alarms that have no scientific foundation. There are other causes of deaths outthere like cancer that kills 600-700k in USA alone and like that there are 6 to 7 more before you get to Covid-19. There are vaccines coming out as soon as November and there are cures but the press keeps pushing the wrong information.
It is time to wake up to a new day and see the real thing, that Covid 19 is not as bad as it was suppose to be. Look up causes of deaths and you will see the realities.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-six-types-coronavirus-disease-symptoms/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm
Thanks for the update Henry
Between the lines the shit just hit the fan for air carriers.. The door is totally open for other NAME carriers worldwide to follow along…. Prices and agrivation going up
No more easy jump on a plane and vacation here I come… Expats pay attention.. The real price of Covid panic has just started
Thank you Reekay. Helpful as usual!
Once a vaccine is tested and used across the USA and when things get back to some sort of normalcy I believe it will go back to normal, after all Everyone wants all of us to spend money abroad,it may take another 6 months to a year but I’m sure it will get back to what we are use to. I hope, otherwise we are all in for alot of uncertainty.
I had a paid business class airfare paid full with Thai Airways from Australia via Bangkok to Europe. Please be aware that Thai Airways have filed for bankruptcy, Goes to the Federal court in Sydney 10.15am 03 August 2020. Bad time for airlines, so all be careful with your money.
Looks like there going out of business. Thanks but its a confusing world now!!!
Definitely news that goes the wrong direction.
Trust me, this is only temporary.
They just don’t want to put a date on when they are going to go back to operate in these places.
If they don’t fly, they don’t make money. They are laying off their employees right now, but as soon as a massive vaccine campaign is started they will go back up again.
And the numbers in the US are not inflated at all. If anything the numbers are under reported.
It takes weeks to days from the time you get tested to the time you get the results.
Some people are havito wait 2 weeks to 28 days because there is such a huge backlog of tests to be examined.
Well they will do what they see fit to do…. We will see fit what we choose to do..
Thanks for keeping us updated. You do an awesome job. I admire your frontality about everything you speak. And I think that’s how everybody should be straightforward with the truth
We are so fucked.
It would have been helpful if Korean Air had provided two lists…suspended and reduced flights. This combined list isn’t very informative.
The UK government are planning to fine British holidaymakers £1,000 if they book to go on holiday to Spain. Currently, those in Spain are subject to 2 weeks quarantine on return.
There is now an all-out war on travel, and it’s not going away any time soon. I personally believe there is far more to this than any pandemic. They couldn’t scare people sufficiently with global warming, but they’re now refining their scare tactics with this plandemic — and its working.
It will only get worse, when we were thinking it would get better.
By that right there it sounds to me like Korean Air is going out of business