Originally Posted by QT31415

I have done this three times. The first time, in July, the PLF allowed for a landside transit exception. We did not book a Day 2 test and spoke to the immigrations agent about our overnight hotel stay. No problems at all.

The second time, in September, we stayed over 24 hours (27 hours), used the "entering UK" option and duly took the Day 2 test and also used the result to return to the US.

The third time, in October, the landside transit exception was not on the PLF form. I spent a lot of time querying FT'ers on what to do. For our overnight (less than 24 hrs), we had to use the "entering the UK" option. We purchased the Day 2 test kit and had it sent to our overnight hotel based on FT'er's overwhelming reactions to "do the right thing". The PLF form required, quite strictly, the test confirmation number prior to generating the QR code needed for entry to the UK. The hotel required the QR code for check in. We did not actually do the test as we were not there on Day 2.

For our fourth trip after the holidays, I'm sure it will be a stricter version of our third trip, as restrictions are much tighter now than in October. YMMV.