am i ok with 72 hours free transit? direct flights from a third country

Question

coming from a qualified country I would fly to the Philippines. since multi-destination tickets are unnecessarily expensive, I would choose to book a  flight from Manila to Guangzhou and back within 72 hours. Since the Philippines by itself is not a qualifying country, I would suppose that I (as US citizen) would qualify to travel this way?Thanks in advance for your answer.

Andy · Answer

Amas, did you mean that you will fly from Philippines to Guangzhou and then USA? If so your route is ok. However, you should be very sure that your flights won't stop by any other mainland cities.

Amas · Answer

thanks for your reply, Andy (I could not access an answer to your email directly, thus I am posting it as another reply to my own question).What I meant was, I would just book a flight from Manila to Guangzhou and back to Manila. Would that still qualify? Would a flight from Manila to Guangzhou and then onward to Bangkok qualify? OR, DOES THE PREVIOUS OR THE NEXT DESTINATION HAVE TO BE THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, IN MY CASE THE USA?

Andy · Answer

Amas. the previous or next destination is not necessarily your country of origin. The route from Manila and back to Manila does not qualify, but the route from Manila to Guangzhou and then onto Bangkok qualifies. So you can choose the latter route.

Sinisa · Answer

Me (Croatian) and my friend (Swedish) bought tickets with Cebupacific from Manila to Guangzhou  and then with Air Asia from Guangzhou to Kuala Lumpur following day. Cebupacific didn't want to give us boarding tickets for Manila-Guangzhou flight telling us that we don't have visa for China and that they don't have tranzit something in Guangzhou????

Andy · Answer

Sinisa, in fact you don't need the transit permit for China because both of you are eligible for the 72-hour free transit policy.

Sinisa · Answer

I know that Andy but Cebupacific didn't want to give us boarding tickets.

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Am I ok with 72 hours free transit? direct flights from a third country