How Much Does it Cost to Fly with Cats to The Philippines?

I prepared for moving to The Philippines for months, as that was the original plan after needing to move out of my childhood home. (I semi moved to The Philippines in 2019.) When it came to finalizing a couple of last things, it was decided to cancel the trip to The Philippines and first explore Eastern Europe, This is something I had always wanted, and traveling with two cats, it would be easier to first stay in Europe and later go to The Philippines. Of course I already made all preparations, so if you want to know how much does it cost to fly with cats to The Philippines, I’ve prepared this blog post with a detailed overview of my expenses to fly with two cats to South East Asia.

All prices are in Euros. At the time of writing, 1 Euro = 1.07 USD. So, practically the same. Easy. If you need the price in BGN, just double it. If you need the price in RON, do it times 5.

Now, let’s talk about how much does it cost to fly with cats to The Philippines.

Cost of flying with cats: break-down

To fly with cats to The Philippines, we need some materials, as well as document legalization. And of course we need to pay for a place in-cabin in the airplane. Because the only way I’ll fly with cats is by having them in-cabin with me inside the plane, my options in terms of what airlines to choose were limited. Also because there was no direct flight from Amsterdam to Manila, so we had to consider which country would be the easiest to have a stopover in. Well, that limited our options too, because we didn’t want to have to transfer to a new airplane, as most airlines in (South East) Asia do not allow pets in-cabin. So we were narrowed down to a flight with KLM, and a stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Material

Cat carrier: € 73.98 euros (€ 36.99 each)
Let’s ignore the fact that I bought several cat carriers. Despite making sure that the first set of carriers I bought would fit within the dimensions specified by KLM, the customer service assured me that the carriers would get rejected for being 4 cm (1.5 inch) too high, despite being able to squish them in. So I bought new, smaller ones.

KLM

Two cats in-cabin: € 400
I paid € 200 per cat to fly them in-cabin in the plane with me. In my humble opinion, this is extremely steep. But hey, not like I have another option if I insist on having the cats with me at all times. It’s not like I have the money to charter a private jet LOL. We travel the ~poor~ way: economy class, sardined into place. (Cats are not allowed in-cabin in business class or first class anyway, if I felt like throwing my money out the window.)

Vet visits

Health passports, microchip, vaccinations & calming herbs: € 292
Deworming treatments: € 98
The cats need to be confirmed healthy to fly. So I had to visit the vet to have them checked. In addition, they must be micro-chipped, dewormed and vaccinated. The calming herbs had no effect btw. <.<

Legalization

Document legalization: € 108.45
After determining the cats are healthy, I need a government official to verify that their registered and verified vet knows what he’s talking about, so I had to bring their passports and a health certificate to a government institute (let’s ignore the travel costs to do this).
As you can see, a lot of paperwork has to be filled out to be able to bring cats. Having two cats, the vet made a couple of writing errors and corrected them with tipp-ex. After making an appointment with the government official, I received a detailed list of requirements for the documents, stating that tipp-ex would not be accepted. I made a phone call just to be sure. And yep, she recommended me to have their passports renewed because of the minor mistakes. So I went ahead to the vet again. I was given a significant discount for the work, so I did not include this in the list.

Bonus!

Travel expenses: € 260
(To and from the vet, using public transport and getting a ride from family members, excluding eating out).

Total Price for Flying with Cats

So, let’s sum up the prices to find out how much does it cost to fly with cats to The Philippines: 1232 euros + my sanity. That’s just for the two cats, not including any tickets for humans. In comparison, I paid 1786 euros for two economy class tickets for two people to fly from The Netherlands to The Philippines on the 29th of September, 2023.

Flying with Cats Expenses Bar Chart

So there you go! These are the costs for flying with cats to The Philippines. Since we decided to stay in Europe for a bit longer, if you happen to be interested in the costs for flying with cats from Amsterdam to Bucharest, I have a detailed post about that as well.

Philippines Import Requirements

Figuring out the Philippines import requirements for cats was a separate adventure. If you’re planning to travel with cats to The Philippines, that post might come in handy for you. Because one thing is for sure: there are LOTS of requirements for traveling with cats, and YOU are FULLY responsible to get all your stuff in order, but there are almost NO official websites with UP TO DATE information on bringing cats into The Philippines, let alone what the rules are for a stopover in another country. I had to make lots of phone calls and email a lot of institutes to find out all the right information. Hopefully my detailed posts can spare you some of the headaches.

This is my experience, and this is how much it costs to fly with cats to The Philippines. At least in 2023. I hope my posts are of use to you. Don’t hesitate to contact people such as airlines or embassies for more information. You’ll want to make sure nothing can go wrong. And have your cats arrive safely with you.

2 Comments

  1. Wow, this is so in depth! I’m sure this info will help lots of travelers with cats out there :3 I remember every time I had to travel with my cat, especially on an airplane, it’s INCREDIBLY stressful T_T The poor babies being stuck in their carrier squished between the airplane seats… Oh lord. But cats are resilient and strong, so it turns out alright <3

    • Thank you so much! I really hope it will help others traveling with cats, since I had a hard time figuring it all out myself.

      Yeah, seeing how scared the cats were, I dislike the idea of flying with them again… especially on a flight of more than 15 hours. x_x I just can’t stand the idea of doing that to them (especially Tommy), but if it has to be done, it has to be done… for now, we’re doing well in Eastern Europe at least. ^_^;

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