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March 28, 2024, 02:59:05 PM

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International travel rules announced

Started by Fambo Number Mive, May 07, 2021, 06:32:12 PM

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Ferris

Family are incoming through April and May. Onto the planes, fellas! COVID's over!

Attila

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on March 14, 2022, 12:50:55 AMJust use this website to find out what you need:

https://www.covid19-testing.org/country-page

Handy, super thanks!

Where are people getting the tests done? That's the other thing stressing me out -- searching around online brings up a lot of fly-by-night places locally to me with prices all over the shop, and no guarantee of getting the results quickly (US requires no less than 24 hours). I'm gonna end up having to go to Heathrow the day before, aren't I :(

Attila

Quote from: Dex Sawash on March 14, 2022, 12:09:07 AMThey may not let you in Florida if you have been tested.

Heh, fortunately, I'm going to Maryland (landing in Dulles, as my flight to BWI was cancelled, and BA put me on a flight to Dulles instead).

nugget

Quote from: Attila on March 14, 2022, 05:31:48 AMHandy, super thanks!

Where are people getting the tests done? That's the other thing stressing me out -- searching around online brings up a lot of fly-by-night places locally to me with prices all over the shop, and no guarantee of getting the results quickly (US requires no less than 24 hours). I'm gonna end up having to go to Heathrow the day before, aren't I :(

If you're going to get it done at the airport, which would presumably be a bit more expensive than the going rate, why not book an antigen test for a few hours before your flight? I live in Germany rather than the UK, but when I flew to the USA in January, I got a free quick-test done at one of the many local fly-by-night set-ups the day before for peace of mind, although I could have easily done it at the airport before the flight.

Attila

Quote from: nugget on March 14, 2022, 08:28:58 AMIf you're going to get it done at the airport, which would presumably be a bit more expensive than the going rate, why not book an antigen test for a few hours before your flight? I live in Germany rather than the UK, but when I flew to the USA in January, I got a free quick-test done at one of the many local fly-by-night set-ups the day before for peace of mind, although I could have easily done it at the airport before the flight.

I suspect this is what I'm going to do (and an American colleague, who went through this back in January, was like DO IT) for the peace of mind. It is pretty expensive at Heathrow, but I'd feel better about it -- my flight isn't until 5pm, so I think what I will do is go up and stay somewhere overnight, then go over to T5 early doors the next morning -- you can get a 4-hours one done, so I reckon if I book one in for like 10am, it should give me loads of leeway.

The joys of hanging out in T5 for 7 hours...could be worse, I guess!

Thanks for the responses, all -- I swear this is more stressful than the actual travel.


PS -- A load of pharmacys in London will do fit-to-fly tests for like £39, with results in 30 minutes, but yeah, no idea if they will have stock in, if the one I'm thinking of would still be offering the tests when I need it, etc. I swear, when I went from the UK to Spain back in Sept, I spent a ton of money just on tests and things.

nugget

Quote from: Attila on March 14, 2022, 10:15:47 AMI suspect this is what I'm going to do (and an American colleague, who went through this back in January, was like DO IT) for the peace of mind. It is pretty expensive at Heathrow, but I'd feel better about it -- my flight isn't until 5pm, so I think what I will do is go up and stay somewhere overnight, then go over to T5 early doors the next morning -- you can get a 4-hours one done, so I reckon if I book one in for like 10am, it should give me loads of leeway.

The joys of hanging out in T5 for 7 hours...could be worse, I guess!

Thanks for the responses, all -- I swear this is more stressful than the actual travel.


PS -- A load of pharmacys in London will do fit-to-fly tests for like £39, with results in 30 minutes, but yeah, no idea if they will have stock in, if the one I'm thinking of would still be offering the tests when I need it, etc. I swear, when I went from the UK to Spain back in Sept, I spent a ton of money just on tests and things.

I just checked and Heathrow are offering rapid tests for £35 with results within 40 minutes. That still seems kind of dear to me, but from what you've said about the 30-min  'fit to fly' tests offered by London pharmacies (which will be similar antigen/lateral flow tests), it might not be so expensive after all. They recommend booking it for an hour ahead of your planned check-in time. You don't need a PCR test for the USA.

Attila

#276
Quote from: nugget on March 14, 2022, 10:48:43 AMI just checked and Heathrow are offering rapid tests for £35 with results within 40 minutes. That still seems kind of dear to me, but from what you've said about the 30-min  'fit to fly' tests offered by London pharmacies (which will be similar antigen/lateral flow tests), it might not be so expensive after all. They recommend booking it for an hour ahead of your planned check-in time. You don't need a PCR test for the USA.

OH! Cheers for that -- that's a real game changer, as I am completely confused about what counts as the acceptable test and what doesn't. (I admit total ignorance of the diff between the PCR test and the 'official' antigen/lateral flow tests)

Believe me, that's cheap -- I was looking at the £119 PCR tests O.O

Thanks for having a looksee, Nugget & beanhead -- that will save me from having to book a hotel and stay over night, too -- just get up there in the morning. Yay!

Sigh -- I travelled so much in the time up to about February 2020, and haven't really been anywhere since. I miss it, but have been stressing out about the paperwork and making sure I have everything that's required for flying and stuff these days. It's reminding me an awful lot of when I had to do all the paperwork and stuff for my immigration visa & citizenship -- one wrong dotted 't' or crossed 'i' and you were at the back of the queue again.


beanheadmcginty

You also have the alternative option of doing a supervised home test. I've done one and all it involves is some officially assigned person watching you swab yourself over Zoom, then checking the result and if negative they email you the certificate within the hour. This one looks to be the cheapest at £19.25 with a discount code:

https://dochq.co.uk/shop/?customer_discount=CTNHQ30&awc=19181_1647258663_a019e5631fad7035dd40d7aabecde786



Attila

Huh -- intriguing. I wonder if that's doable 24/7 (since I have to have the result within 24 hours of my departure).

Would feel a bit weird with someone watching me probe my brain on both sides (I've not done the nose/throat cos I have no tonsils, so I just jam yer stick up each side of my nose.)

The pros there are that it's cheaper, and that I can print off the certificate -- I don't have a smart phone or tablet, and would really prefer hard copies of all my travel docs. Hard copies made a huge difference on the earlier trip to Alicante and back.


nugget

A home test the day before sounds like a good idea. One less thing to worry about on the day of travel, and if it falls through for whatever reason (I don't know... maybe they run out of tests, or something) you still have time to arrange another test. This is why I preferred not to leave it until I was at the airport when I travelled.

By the way, for the USA the test needs to be 'within one day of departure' but the timing doesn't matter. So you could get the test done at, for example, 9am on Friday, and it would still be valid at 5pm on Saturday. It doesn't need to be within 24 hours, like it was for some European countries.

Attila

Cheers, nugget -- the home test is sounding more and more like a better choice. I'll be able to print out the results, too.

Ah, also good to know about the timing, too.

When I had to do one of the 30 minute tests at a pharmacy in London a couple months back, dude had to watch me prod myself, too, so it's not as if I've not done that before an audience :D

Attila

Right -- booked in with the test-from-home folks! Accidently put my date of birth as 1865. Oh the laffs we have.

Attila

1/2 way through my online test, annnnd apparently it won't count, because my flight leaves at 5pm, and it's only 11am -- so even though it's a day before, it's not 24 hours before.

I also booked in a test at Heathrow tomorrow ahead of my flight, so I'm not completely muffed up.

My fault, really, for not booking in to this at-home thing in the evening rather than in the morning.

On the plus side, it's a negative test -- so at least I'm not hauling myself all the way up to heathrow not knowing if I'd test neg or positive! I was worried because I had to do a conference this past weekened -- 5 hours each way on trains (pretty much the only one wearing a mask) and no one at the conference bar a few were wearing masks...

Also joy -- they had some of my details wrong at their end...(that oart has been sorted -- the practiioner at the other end has been really nice).

Josef K

After having to abort our poorly timed March 2020 trip to Japan we're finally going this March and I didn't realise just how much of an anxious wreck I'd be about the whole thing.

While we don't have to do a test, they're still doing temperature checks at the airports and I've convinced myself I'm going to catch the 'vid right before, or develop symptoms on the flight and get bunged in a quarantine for a week. Next four weeks are going to be one constant low level panic attack.

Strange thing is, even though it's official policy to do that, I can't find a single account online of it actually happening to anyone (outside of Chinese travellers). I've just convinced myself the trip is cursed, and something will always go wrong.

I know it's all very unlikely and a certain combination of things would have to happen - catching covid at a specific time before the trip, actually being symptomatic, one of those symptoms being a fever, plus the off chance they actually give a shit at the airport, but I'm genuinely surprised more people aren't constantly stressing about this sort of thing tbh