BA and Spain
 

Spain lifted restrictions today WEF from Monday.

I am traveling to Mallorca on Monday with BA

The lifting of restrictions means

- you no longer need an essential reason to travel
- you do not require a COVID test

My question is how quickly will BA update their guidelines sand let us on the flight?

The BA site says check the rules - this links to the foreign office site which has not been updated yet.

I know BA use a 3rd party system but I dont recall its name and also dont know if a consumer can check that same site? Also how rapidly will that change?

If I was traveling 3-4 days into the changes I would not ask - but given it will be day 1 I am trying to avoid hassle and disappointment.

Thank you as ever

Plenty or threads mention TIMATIC as what the check in agents go by, and this document can be checked through United's website.

At the speed in which things are changing for the good, and bad, I'd just allow extra time at check in incase the desk staff aren't up to speed

Yes - I saw a post here that there were issues checking in for a Gibraltar flight as TIMATIC wasn't showing the correct information, so I'd allow some extra time

TIMATIC can be checked on United Airlines' website or KLM's or, but only if you promise to be a good boy/girl and use it only 10 times maximum, here: IATA - International Travel Document News (iatatravelcentre.com)

here is what it says.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0d518b6a8c.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0cb41e83e3.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...fdf6d836c5.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...416aec074a.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2f1054a07f.jpg

I'm in exactly the same position, not only the entry date needs amending but the no PCR test requirement too. There were loads of flights leaving last Monday to Portugal and it was only announced the previous Friday so the same position as this and there were no reports were there of people being denied boarding. Sure we would have heard from Simon Calder, he was on a very early morning flight.
When does Timatic get updated - overnight so need to check early on Monday?

From a Spanish point of view you no longer need an essential reason to travel.

From the BBC:
'The government says the UK and Japan will be on a list of countries whose residents are able to avoid restrictions on non-essential travel to the EU. They will not need a PCR test. But the UK government still strongly advises against non-essential travel to Spain and most other EU countries. UK tourists going to Spain will still have to quarantine on their return.'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57199791

Is travel insurance valid for these circumstances?

Avanti, Staysure, Battleface all offer cover to FCO ABE countries.

Wonder if BA will add some flights back? Couple of days next week already no Club flights left to Malaga.

I do laugh at the no PCR test required to enter Spain.

It is still required to leave the UK so some good marketing on that one. And of course it is needed to return plus the other measures at present .

You don't need a test to leave the UK only to return then 2 afterwards.

I was going to say why on earth would the government care whether you have a Covid test on departure - the airline if course would as if it is required on arrival; once you are out of the country you become someone else's problem.

Believe you me, BA check-in staff know little about nothing ! I flew down to Spain yesterday (on an EU passport) and I was asking the agent at the T5 F check-in whether they had sent many people with UK passports home, as most are not currently allowed into Spain but many apparently do not realise it. "Oh, I didn't know that, its my first day back" was the answer !

A wonderful flight, largely empty and as a GCH I was op-upped to CE on boarding as they did not have anyone seated in either of the the exit rows and needed someone by each door. The CSD (or equivalent) apologised that they might not be able to manage catering, but even that worked out fine.

It will be interesting to see if there is a marked uptake in flights, given that Spain looks set to stay on the UK amber list for a little while yet.

An interesting insight though into attitudes to the pandemic: The couple in row 1 sat maskless throughout the whole flight. Maybe nobody dared make a fuss as they might have claimed to be medically exempt. but by they time they reached immigration they were correctly masked up. Here pandemic controls are taken seriously, not just treated as an optional extra.

As a final observation, It's interesting that the day after Spain put us on their white list, Germany added us to their red list with compulsory quarantine. I wonder if Spain have correctly balanced the economic imperative of getting tourism moving, against the health risks. Time will tell.

Glad you made it! We're going on Tuesday, Monday got booked up so quick I missed it, there's hardly any Club seats left on the first 3 days next week, I'm still wondering if they will add more flights, I would swop to an earlier flight time if they did.

So if you fly to Spain from Monday you will be sat in a plane with a load of untested (and mainly un-vaccinated) passengers. I might risk it from Bristol, but doubt I'll be rushing for a Manchester flight any time soon.

I can only see this ending in tears for Spain, when the infection rate starts going up in 6 or 8 weeks time.

Yeah, that's fascinating considering how many Germans are off to Spain no doubt in bars mixing with the untested Brits, many of whom are too young to have been vaccinated.