COVID Testing Now Required Prior to Departure for UK Even if Vaccinated

[Squawk 6042]

From the Government website for new requirement to test before departure for UK, even if vaccinated:

UK Government Website (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-for-people-travelling-to-england?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=d4655db9-9424-4038-9fcb-74d810eb13c4&utm_content=daily)

When to take your test

From 4am 7 December, you can take the test any time in the 2 days before the service on which you will arrive in England departs.



Interesting expression ‘the service on which you will arrive in England’.

Next week, I will depart on a Tuesday evening, flying overnight from Africa into Europe, then changing planes and flying to the UK on the Wednesday morning. So I read the above to say that the service which I arrive in England on departs on Wednesday. This means the earliest I could take the test is on the Monday, not leaving much time to get the result given I need to leave my house around mid-day on the Tuesday to get to the airport for the overnight flight.

Any thoughts?

(The previous requirement was 3 days beforehand which gave a bit of breathing space.)

[DaveReidUK]

I'd just be grateful that England hasn't followed the US example and stipulated that the test can't be more than 1 day before travel. :O

[TimGriff6]

The test for UK entry can be a lateral flow one which takes less than 30 minutes for a result plus the time to printout the paperwork so if the airports have someone offering testing, that might be a way forward. If you are changing in Europe you probably won't be allowed onto the first flight unless you have a suitable negative test for arrival into the European country, irrespective of whether you are only in transit or not. If you have been in any of the red list countries within the previous 10 days you have different rules. By the way, Nigeria was added to that list today.
Good luck

[Squawk 6042]

TG6 - Yes, thank-you, I suppose lateral flow is a possibility. However, the country I am in requires PCR in order to exit, and this could have been done on the Sunday, so I am now looking to do the one test for both purposes (exit and UK entry) on the Monday. They can generally turn a PCR around inside 24 hours, so if I take the 2 hour drive to the testing centre to arrive 8am Monday morning I should be OK, but it would only take a small glitch to leave very little time to sort things out.

The rules will probably have changed again by then anyway! And although where I am is not red at present, it could go that way. Travelling on anything other than a very straightforward itinerary is a chancy affair at present, and I don't even want to contemplate a positive result, false or otherwise.

[Squawk 6042]

From the link in the opening post, I now see that the wording has changed to become:

'From 4am 7 December, you must take the test in the 2 days before your service to England departs. If your journey to England is a multi-leg journey, you must take the test in the 2 days before the start of the first leg.'

So it would seem that Sunday is now OK.

The shifting sands!

[DaveReidUK]

From the link in the opening post, I now see that the wording has changed to become:

Indeed it has - despite still showing "Last updated 4 December 2021".

Makes you wonder how HMG expects us all to abide by the regulations/guidance when they can't do something as simple as that. :ugh:

[TimGriff6]

Or could it be that someone there reads these forums?????????

[Dave Gittins]

For our flight to the USA, we've just booked lateral flow tests the day before and apparently will have the results in 40 minutes.

Not sure if the 3-5 days tests after arrival in the USA are compulsory or merely a recommendation. Still got to find out.

Next thing is to book tests in the USA 48 hrs before leaving, I wonder how quick easy and cheap that will be ?

[TYTOENG232]

I came back from Mallorca last Wednesday 1st Dec PLM-GTW-GLA and had ordered a home test kit which you are sent a ref number which you fill in on your passenger location form (PLF). I ordered this test last Monday 29th Nov which should have been sent and received on Friday 3rd Dec .... Nope! Still in isolation since Wed. Apparently it is being delivered tomorrow Tues 7th and I will still have to isolate for another 2/3 days until results are sent. Not a happy bunny at the moment!!

[11277m]

For our flight to the USA, we've just booked lateral flow tests the day before and apparently will have the results in 40 minutes.

Not sure if the 3-5 days tests after arrival in the USA are compulsory or merely a recommendation. Still got to find out.

Next thing is to book tests in the USA 48 hrs before leaving, I wonder how quick easy and cheap that will be ?

I've seen that LAX has introduced free covid tests for arriving pax, results in 15 minutes "Due to concerns about the Omicron variant." Don't know if any other airports are doing the same. I too believe the 3-5 day test is just suggested, but you can always take some NHS tests with you.

For the return to the UK lateral flow tests, have you considered supervised tests, probably via Zoom. I understand you buy the test in the UK before you leave and take it with you. From there on it makes no difference where you are in the world, they can still watch you do the test, see the result and email the appropriate confirmation.

[DaveReidUK]

Slightly OT, but a month ago I booked two fit-to-fly tests for this afternoon in anticipation of flying from UK to the USA on Thursday. For various reasons, we decided last week to postpone our trip, so I attempted to contact the provider (DAM Health) to put our tests "on hold" for a future date (as allowed for by their T&Cs).

The booking confirmation came from a "noreply" email address, with advice to call their "customer care" number if any change needed to be made. None of the many attempts to reach them on that number got beyond the hold music.

Eventually I unearthed an alternative email address for them, and duly emailed them this morning with a complaint about their service. It will be interesting to see whether they treat us as "no-shows" for today and simply pocket our payment - if so, they will be hearing from our credit card provider.

[PAXboy]

We have postponed a trip for 8 weeks whilst we wait for clearer information and to see what is really happening.