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Prices last updated: 2026-08-07 · MNL → San Francisco (SFO) · Sourced from Travelpayouts
MNL → SFO · 🇺🇸 B1/B2 Visa Required
Cheap Flights Manila to
San Francisco 🇺🇸
Nonstop fares, seasonal price swings, and honest US visa guidance for MNL → San Francisco. Philippine Airlines & United — tracked daily, updated regularly.
From
₱46,663
roundtrip incl. taxes
~12h 45m
direct flight
🛂 Visa
B1/B2 required
5
deals found
Direct flight
~12h 45m
Airport
SFO (one terminal complex)
Currency
USD ($)
Time difference
-15/-16 hrs vs PHT
Best weather
Sep–Oct
Best to book
2–3 months + visa time
🔥 Best MNL → San Francisco Deal Right Now
Manila → San Francisco, USA
Usually ₱46,700
₱46,663
↓ Best price found today
You save ₱37 (0% off)
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⚠️ US B1/B2 visa required for Philippine passport holders
Unlike most Southeast Asian routes, there's no visa-free entry to the US for Filipinos. You need a B1/B2 tourist visa before you fly — file the DS-160, pay USD 185 (MRV fee) + USD 250 (Visa Integrity Fee), then interview at US Embassy Manila or Consulate Cebu. The refusal rate on this corridor runs around 31%. A B1/B2 visa can be valid up to 10 years, but your actual length of stay each visit — usually up to 6 months — is decided by the CBP officer when you land at SFO, not by the visa itself.
Visa Required
ℹ️
Real prices from real searches. Sourced from Travelpayouts — refreshed regularly. Click Check price to confirm the live fare before booking.
MNL → San Francisco flight deals today
Cheapest roundtrip fares from Manila Ninoy Aquino (MNL) to San Francisco International (SFO) · Prices in PHP
Updated 2026-08-07
📅 MNL → San Francisco Price Calendar
See the cheapest days to fly — click any date to book at that price.
Best time to fly MNL → San Francisco
Month-by-month price guide for Manila to San Francisco flights
💡 Pro tip: The cheapest months are September, October, and February — often ₱40,000–₱55,000 roundtrip without any promo. Avoid mid-December through early January (Christmas/New Year family reunions) and June through August (US summer break) — these are the two most expensive windows of the year, and they hit in both directions since Fil-Am families and Filipino visitors are travelling this route at the same time.
📅 San Francisco events & fare surges
MNL → San Francisco fares climb hard around these windows — book early or shift your dates
🎄 Christmas & New Year
December 15 – January 5
+45–70%
est. fare surge
The single biggest surge on this route. Fil-Am families in the Bay Area fly home to the Philippines for the holidays at the same time Filipino visitors fly out to see Bay Area relatives — both directions compress into the same three-week window. Fares that run ₱50,000–₱55,000 in October climb to ₱75,000–₱100,000+ roundtrip by mid-December. Nonstop seats on PAL and United sell out weeks ahead on the most popular travel dates.
💡 Book by September for December travel, or shift to January 8–25 when demand and prices both reset fast.
☀️ US Summer School Break
Mid-June – August
+30–45%
est. fare surge
This surge catches first-time bookers off guard because it doesn't map to a Philippine holiday at all — it's the US school calendar. Fil-Am families send kids to the Philippines during summer vacation, and Filipino visitors travel to see Bay Area relatives during the same window. Fares climb from a normal ₱55,000–₱60,000 to ₱65,000–₱92,000 roundtrip through peak July.
💡 Shift even two weeks earlier (May) or later (September) to save ₱15,000–₱25,000 on the same route.
🎉 Pistahan Parade & Festival
August 8–9, 2026 · Yerba Buena Gardens, SF
+10–15%
est. fare surge
The largest Filipino parade and festival on the West Coast, free to attend, draws Fil-Am families and Philippine-based visitors alike to Yerba Buena Gardens every August. The festival itself doesn't move flight prices much on its own — it lands inside the broader summer surge — but Bay Area hotels book out early for Pistahan weekend specifically, so accommodation gets tight faster than airfare does.
💡 If Pistahan is the goal, book hotels 3+ months out even if you're flexible on the flight itself.
🦃 US Thanksgiving Week
Week of the 4th Thursday in November
+20–25%
est. fare surge
Thanksgiving is the single busiest domestic US travel week of the year, and it pulls on international long-haul capacity and pricing too — United in particular tightens up SFO award and discount seats across the whole network that week. It sits right before the Christmas ramp-up starts, so fares climbing through late November are often the first sign of the December surge, not a separate event.
💡 If your trip is flexible, avoid the week bracketing Thanksgiving even if your actual dates are in early December.
🛂 Visa interview backlogs (variable)
Peaks after school-year and summer-travel demand spikes
This isn't a fare surge in the usual sense, but it behaves like one: US Embassy Manila's B1/B2 interview wait times swing with demand, and a long wait can push your actual travel date into a more expensive month even if you started planning early. Check current interview availability at USTravelDocs before you commit to travel dates, not after.
💡 Start your DS-160 and interview booking 4–5 months before you want to travel, not 4–5 weeks.
📊 How to read this: Surge percentages here are directional estimates built from seasonal fare data we've tracked on this route, not exact historical averages the way short-haul routes allow — MNL–SFO has far fewer scheduled seats per week than a route like MNL–Bangkok, so pricing swings are driven by broad seasonal demand rather than single-day events. The two windows that matter most: book by September for Christmas travel, and treat June–August as a second peak season even though no Philippine holiday explains it.
💸 What Filipinos actually spend in San Francisco
Real daily breakdown in PHP — and why staying with relatives changes the math completely
Staying With Family (Daly City/SF)
₱1,420–2,900 / day
🍜 Food (turo-turo + home meals)₱925–1,540
🚇 Occasional BART/Muni ride₱490–740
🏨 Staying with relatives₱0
🎡 Free activities (Golden Gate, parks)₱0–615
📶 eSIM (bought before flying)₱0
5 days + flights (₱40,000 promo fare)
~₱47,000–₱55,000 all-in
Hotel-Based Visitor (No Family)
$340–565 / day (~₱21,000–34,800)
🍜 Restaurant dining (mix)$50–80
🚇 Rideshare + BART mix$20–35
🏨 Union Square/SoMa hotel$200–280
🎡 Alcatraz + city tour$30–90
🛍️ Shopping & pasalubong$40–100
5 days + flights (₱58,000 regular fare)
~₱165,000–₱230,000 all-in
Is San Francisco cheaper than Singapore? No — not close, and definitely not if you're paying for a hotel. A basic sit-down meal in SF runs ₱925–1,540 before an 18–20% tip and a "health surcharge" many restaurants now quietly add. In Singapore, a hawker meal is roughly ₱280–380. The single biggest lever on this route isn't when you fly — it's whether you have relatives to stay with. That's why most Filipino visitors to the Bay Area stay in Daly City or South San Francisco with family rather than book a downtown hotel; it can be the difference between a ₱50,000 trip and a ₱200,000 one.
🇵🇭 Filipino traveller intel — San Francisco edition
Things a Skyscanner page would never tell you
The visa interview, not the flight, is the real gatekeeper on this route. Around 3 in 10 B1/B2 applicants on the Philippines–US corridor get refused, most commonly for weak proof of ties to the Philippines. Don't book a non-refundable MNL–SFO fare until your visa is actually stamped in your passport — we've seen travellers lose a promo fare entirely because their interview didn't go their way. If you must hold dates before your interview, pay the extra for a flexible or refundable ticket.
California is not tropical, and San Francisco summer is genuinely cold. First-time Filipino visitors consistently pack for warm California weather and freeze in July — the city's famous fog ("Karl the Fog") keeps summer highs around 60–65°F (16–18°C) with a biting wind off the bay. September and October are actually SF's warmest, clearest months, which is also when flights are cheapest. Pack real layers regardless of when you fly.
This isn't an OFW route — it's family-petition immigration, and that changes everything about demand. The Bay Area's 300,000-plus Filipino Americans mostly got there through family-based petitions over decades, not labor contracts, which is why there's no sharp 13th-month-pay OFW exodus spiking December fares the way there is on MNL–Dubai. Instead, demand clusters around family reunions, graduations, weddings, and Pistahan (the West Coast's largest Filipino festival, every August in Yerba Buena Gardens) — a fundamentally different, more calendar-predictable pattern.
Philippine bank cards bleed money in the US — 1.5–3.5% on every swipe, on top of the exchange rate. BDO, BPI, and Metrobank all charge foreign transaction fees, and US ATMs add their own $3–5 withdrawal fee. On a $500 shopping trip, that's easily ₱1,500–₱2,500 in fees you didn't need to pay. Load a Wise card or similar multi-currency card at least a week before you fly — setup takes a few working days and it eliminates most of this.
San Francisco is a shipping hub for balikbayan boxes, not just a destination for them. Because West Coast ports handle a large share of US–Philippines balikbayan cargo, Bay Area LBC and forwarder branches consolidate boxes from across Northern California before shipping to the Philippines by sea (6–12 weeks, roughly $58–120/box) or air (2–4 weeks, pricier). If relatives ask you to bring specific Filipino grocery items back on your return flight instead of shipping, Daly City's Seafood City and Island Pacific supermarkets stock most of what you'd otherwise wait weeks for.
Airlines flying MNL → San Francisco
Two nonstop carriers, plus 1-stop options that sometimes undercut them
San Francisco travel guide for Filipinos
Everything you need to know before you fly — written from a Filipino perspective · See the full San Francisco guide →
San Francisco trip budget for Filipinos
Typical costs in USD — 1 USD ≈ ₱61.6 as of mid-2026
6 tips to get the cheapest MNL→San Francisco flights
This route needs a visa strategy as much as a fare strategy — here's how to get both right
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Frequently asked questions — MNL to San Francisco flights
Content reviewed 2026-07-30 · Prices update automatically every day
Yes. Philippine passport holders need a US B1/B2 tourist visa before flying — there is no visa-free or visa-on-arrival option, and the Philippines is not part of the US Visa Waiver Program. You must complete the DS-160 form online, pay the USD 185 MRV fee plus a USD 250 Visa Integrity Fee, and attend an in-person interview at the US Embassy in Manila or the Consulate in Cebu. Approval is not guaranteed — the refusal rate for this corridor runs around 31%.
Direct flights from Manila (MNL) to San Francisco (SFO) take approximately 12 hours 35 minutes to 13 hours 55 minutes depending on winds and schedule. Philippine Airlines and United Airlines both fly this route nonstop, with around 21 combined weekly departures. The return leg, San Francisco to Manila, is longer — typically 14 to 15 hours — because it flies against the jet stream.
September, October, and February are typically the cheapest months, with roundtrip fares dropping to ₱40,000–₱55,000. The most expensive windows are mid-December through early January (Christmas and New Year family reunions) and June through August (US summer school break), when fares can climb to ₱75,000–₱100,000 roundtrip or higher. Unlike short-haul routes, neither peak lines up with a Philippine holiday — both are driven by the US calendar.
Philippine Airlines is usually the cheaper of the two nonstop carriers, though United sometimes undercuts it during promo periods. There's no budget carrier on this route — Cebu Pacific and AirAsia Philippines don't fly it. For genuine savings, check 1-stop options via Seoul (Asiana), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific), or Taipei (EVA Air), which have priced ₱8,000–₱10,000 below the nonstop fare in exchange for 6–8 extra hours of travel.
No. Piso fares (₱1 base fares) are a Cebu Pacific and AirAsia Philippines short-haul promotion, and neither airline flies MNL–SFO. This is a premium long-haul route operated only by Philippine Airlines and United, so the lowest realistic prices come from periodic promo fares, not ₱1 seat sales. We consider anything under ₱42,000 roundtrip a genuine deal on this route — regular fares run ₱48,000–₱65,000.
Beyond a valid B1/B2 visa, US Customs and Border Protection officers at SFO will ask about your purpose of visit, length of stay, and ties back to the Philippines. Bring your visa, a return ticket, proof of accommodation, and evidence of funds. The CBP officer — not your visa — decides your authorized length of stay, typically up to 6 months, recorded electronically at entry rather than stamped in your passport.
Yes. All prices are sourced from Travelpayouts based on real flight searches and refreshed regularly. Always click through to confirm the current fare on the booking page before paying — prices can change within hours. piso-fare.com earns a small commission when you book through our links, which never affects the price you pay.
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