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@Lotus Eater

Like you know my favourite airline is Qatar but my last 3 visits have been with Qatar, Cathay Pacific and Saudi Airlines and I think out of my 8 visits to the Philippines I have only booked directly with the airline twice including last time with Qatar. You also know that I am dabbling with the idea of going back late August for about a month but I am a bit concerned about going in typhoon season. I know going then would be risky and local flights, ferries,etc could be cancelled or re-sheduled due to bad weather but I have found flights with Singapore Airlines, flying from Manchester to Singapore (spending 3 nights there) before my onward trip to Cebu (direct flight). This is departing Manchester on 24 August and returning from Cebu to Manchester via Singapore on 22 September. This trip is by far the cheapest I could find and avoids any of the possible disruption that could occur if the war in the Middle East flares up again.

One thing I would like to ask members of this forum who live in the Philippines is - what is your experience of the weather over there in September and are there any places less likely to experience typhoons and tropical storms? Googling this gave me a mixed bag of answers including avoid travelling in September to places like Palawan, Boracay, and parts of Mindanao seem to escape the worst of it. I would be committed to spending some time in Lapu Lapu and maybe Moalboal but would like to travel around a bit more.

Thank you.

@Cherryann01

CA you have as you state flown with three different airlines to the Philippines in the last 3 years or so. The Cathay Pacific airmiles disappear after 18 months so they are now down the proverbial swanny. Saudi Airmiles redemption are virtually impossible via their website. My neighbour as you know is leaving for Dumaguete on the 25 of this month and he could not redeem his miles.  He said to me ‘Lotus you were right all along I should have gone with Etihad’ who he has now booked with. He will be flying again with his Filipina partner and son in December with the airline so will have a fortune in airmiles and will qualify for Silver status - priority check in and priority fast track baggage retrieval. After the first outgoing flight he will hit Gold status and can use the Business class lounge.

Qatar Airways have a return flight to Manila on the dates you have given for £721 (your flight with Singapore is over £900). You can stay in a good 4 star hotel in Doha for £90 for three nights. You will not get those prices in Singapore. Ok you have to buy a Manila-Cebu return which is cheap. You can use your Qatar Airmiles from your last trip in November as part payment. If their is another escalation in the gulf conflict (assuming no peace deal has been announced) Qatar will either refund your fare or if you like route you on another airline which may well be Singapore. You can cancel Doha hotels at 48 hours notice before arrival and get a full refund.

We have discussed this but for other potential visitors planning a trip to the Philippines the next 4 months will not only be Typhoon season but the Met office has given notification that the El Nino phenomenon that is forming right now in the Pacific ocean will accentuate the strength of Typhoons hitting the country. September gets more Typhoons than any other month. After October the next few months are forecast to have considerably less rainfall and Typhoon activity than normal.

No brainer ? 🤔

I flew on Philippine Airlines (PAL)  two months ago from Los Angeles to Manila to Davao.  I had previously flew PAL going from Manila to Davao and Davao to Cebu (economy seats).  Nice airline, but in my latest flight I booked business class for both legs of the journey and was a bit underwhelmed.  I thought it would be similar to other airlines where you would get a semi-private space, but in my honest opinion it felt more like premium economy with the seats right against each other and no partition separating them.  Maybe Qatar's business class jaded me in that aspect.  I liked the service and food, but the seat left a lot to be desired.  I also got to enjoy the One Alliance lounge at LAX and the lounge at NAIA.  I was actually a bit impressed with the one at NAIA as I was expecting the worst.  My advice is if you do choose business class with PAL do not choose a front row seat.  There is no place for you to store extra baggage and if you put it in front of you next to the wall the attendants will make you move it to the overhead bins.  The 2nd row seats (and further back) have storage under the seats in front of you to store items.

Typhoons hit the east harder than the west and the north worse than the south although you will find exceptions to this. Locations with airports that can handle jet aircraft are less disrupted than those (like El Nido) that can only handle propellers. I'm a frequent traveller to the Philippines and pay no regard to time of year but if I was planning infrequent holidays I would choose to avoid typhoon season. Things do get back to normal quickly (I was in El Nido when it got clobbered last year and three days later it was back to normal) but why put up with it at all?

I have decided not to proceed and wait until about November after seeing videos of flooding in parts of Cebu and Davao recently and I am also concerned about internal flights and ferry crossings being affected by any possible storms.

In the meantime  I will try to arrange a visit to go see my lovely daughter in Bournemouth and since the rail prices in the UK are so expensive I may decide to add a few days on to my trip and take a slight detour, maybe via Agadir haha. I will take a look at where I can fly from my local airport and then see which flight go into Bournemouth or a nearby airport and save on the extortionate rail fare one way. Off course it will cost much more when everything is taken into account.