Journeying to Manila, Part 2 of 3: OneHealthPass and the Sydney Airport

Part 2 of my travel experience flying to Manila. Read part 1 here.

OneHealthPass

The Philippine Bureau of Quarantine has a system called OneHealthPass, through which they gather all your necessary documents and trace your movements through the various health stations at the Manila airport. While you can register for this and create a profile as early as three days before your flight, you might want to hold off until 24 hours prior to the flight since you’ll have to log on again at that time.

The online form asks for your name, passport number, contact details and travel arrangements including your seat assignment on the plane and quarantine hotel. It also asks you to upload photos (JPG or JPEG format) of your vaccination certificate and PCR test. The OneHealthPass generates a QR code linked to all your information, and will be scanned multiple times during your trip. This QR code stays the same, even if your information changes. For example, my seat assignment changed at check in. The lady at the check in counter told me to go ahead input my new seat into the OneHealthPass system – so that the BOQ has current information for contact tracing in their database.

Twenty-four hours before your flight, you log on to the OneHealthPass website to complete an electronic health declaration form (e-HDC) in which you state you don’t have any symptoms, and have uploaded your vaccination certificate and PCR test results.

One of the items on the OneHealthPass registration form dealt with the PCR test on day 5, necessary for exiting the quarantine hotel. You are asked to choose one of two accredited laboratory companies. I chose the Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory (PADLAB) because one of my friends said they had good customer service. The other choice, Detoxicare, offers expedited PCR testing for an extra fee, in which you get a PCR swab at midnight on day 5 and you could potentially check out before 12 noon on day 5 instead of leaving on day 6. I had already booked PADLAB before finding out about Detoxicare. One can prepay for this PCR test prior to flying, or pay the swab team directly when they come to your quarantine hotel room. Additional fees may apply for using electronic payment systems.

This Philippine Airlines webpage has a bit more information.

A note on software. I use a MacBook Pro laptop (2019, running MacOS Big Sur 11.6 at the time of travel and preparation). I ran into glitches uploading the JPG photos using Google Chrome, but was able to do these successfully using Safari. So if one browser does not work, use another. It was also difficult to do this on the mobile phone (iPhone XS, iOS 15.1). Again I had trouble uploading the JPG photos, this time using Safari on the iPhone. Due to a change in seat assignment upon checking in for the flight, I had to update my OneHealthPass profile and discovered these problems with updating my profile on the phone. I had to get the laptop out to access the website in order to update my seat assignment and link it to the QR code. A friend who traveled in mid-December also had similar problems with using her iPhone to register for the QR code.

Arriving at the Airport

Various airlines recommended arriving at the airport four (even five) hours before your flight, since there were more pre-flight procedures than those before the pandemic. I arrived at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport around 6:40 AM for my 11:35 AM departure on Philippine Airlines flight PR 212. The check-in counter did not even open till around 8:00 AM, so there was quite a wait and of course a queue to match. Before you get to the check-in counter, two people at a separate desk look at your e-ticket and health-related documents: your OneHealthPass, vaccination certificate, PCR results and booking for your quarantine hotel. These people also ask you to sign a declaration of good health (or something like that) at this station.

It is best to have all these printed out and in hand as you queue up and wait your turn. I forgot to print the OneHealthPass QR code so I had to have my mobile phone out, in addition to the paper copies of the vaccine certificate, PCR test and quarantine hotel reservation. Having hard copies of all your stuff makes it easier for you and for the person checking documents.

To recap, at the check-in counter you should have your passport and the following papers in hand:

Printout of your e-ticket
OneHealthPass QR code
International vaccine certificate
PCR test results
Quarantine hotel reservation

Note that you can get a PCR test at the airport on the day of departure. If you did this, you would need to upload it to the OneHealthPass e-HDC at the airport in order to complete your profile and get a QR code generated. In this case, you forego having a hard copy of the QR code and have to present it on your mobile phone’s screen.

As per pre-pandemic experience, you get your boarding pass and luggage receipts at the check-in counter.

The Pre-Flight Experience

Immigration/border control and security at Sydney airport were pretty much the same as before the pandemic. Airport amenities were not. Since international travel has not fully opened up yet and relatively few flights were scheduled to come in and out of the country, the airport scaled down operations a lot. Some stores were closed. Some lounges were closed. Some restaurants were closed. I was looking forward to a breakfast of yum cha/dim sum and tea in one of the airport eateries as recommended by my aunt and uncle, but the only places open were McDonald’s and a coffee-and-sandwich place with counter service. Oh well. I had a toastie and iced mocha from Maccas (Australian slang for McDonald’s).

Happily, Sydney airport has pretty good wifi and many powerpoints/outlets or USB slots for charging devices. USB slots were useful for people who do not have Aussie plug adaptors. After breakfast I watched a video and did a short goodbye video call with friends in Canberra who did a virtual send-off.