leontief

I did offer up both tests as well. (:

tobsw

I think there's some confusion:

First, passenger needs to meed to criteria to enter Spain. Remember that all non-essential travel from risk countries (like the US) is banned, unless you're exempt from the ban - and as of the 7th of June, vaccinations against COVID-19 is a criteria to be exempt from the non-essential travel ban.

Second, passenger that are allowed to enter Spain, need to fulfil a document check: proof of vaccination, proof of negative test or proof o recovery.

If you travel from the US and are vaccinated, you are exempt from the non-essential travel ban and that also meets the document check.

As the US embassy indicates, non-vaccinated US Residents are banned from entering Spain, unless they meet the criteria for essential travel. They also need fulfil the document check - proof of vaccination, proof of negative test or proof o recovery. As they are not vaccinated, they can only proof negative test or proof of recovery.

In summary, if you have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and you travelling from a risk country, you don't need a negative test or proof of recovery. Vaccination is good enough to be eligible to enter Spain and to pass the document check.

IF you are not vaccinated against COVID and are arriving from a risk country, you need to check whether you are exempt from the non-essential travel ban and if that's the case, you'll need either a negative test or proof of recovery.

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What happened here is that they weren't sure whether the CDC vaccination record was good enough for the OP to be exempt from the non-essential travel ban, that's why they didn't care about the negative test results.

London Dude

A lot of misinformation and speculation here. The problem is probably that most Americans are only given handwritten vaccination cards that can be easily forged. There have been numerous reports of forged vaccination cards being put up for sale on the dark web and of videos showing how to make a false card from scratch

The CDC runs a secure, online system called VAMS for managing vaccine administration from the time the vaccine arrives at a clinic until it is administered to a recipient. Among other things VAMS allows vaccine recipients to:

• Schedule vaccination appointments.
• Receive the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) fact sheet before their appointment.
• Complete the prevaccination questionnaire.
• Get a reminder to return for a second dose, if required.
• Receive a vaccination certificate.

So there is a CDC vaccination certificate and it's not the same thing as the aforementioned vaccination card.

NWIFlyer

In which case I’d say you suddenly have a much stronger case for being denied boarding!

IAN-UK

I'm not convinced there's merit in thrashing out any differences among certificates, confirmations and records. Unless Spain (or any other authority) specifies a particular document, then any document issued by an appropriate and verifiable entity, and containing the information sought, should be acceptable.

I'm also uneasy about the God-like aura being built around the role of Timatic. It's a fee-based advisory service offered by IATA to airlines anxious to avoid fines and costs associated with landing passengers likely to be judged ineligible for entry by border agencies. Timatic gathers information from national sources, interprets it, and promulgates it in an easy-access format. It's an immensely useful resource, and normally a dependable one: but it's not infallible.

But when things go wrong, and the airline denies boarding, based on Timatic information, to a passenger who would otherwise satisfy entry requirements at his destination, then the passenger's beef is with the airline. Surely the airline must accept responsibility: its remedy lies in the legal/commercial relationship defined between Timatic and carriers subscribing to its services.

beachmouse

Except that requesting this will more than likely return a copy of the completed vaccine record card because it's the widely known and accepted document for that kind of thing domestically.

I think we're into 'divided by a common language' territory with this one.

Oxymore

Except that not all states use VAMS, so there is no nationwide database/easy way to obtain such a certificate, whereas the CDC cards were distributed to all recipients.

skippythelizard

Not really ...

Not all Americans who received vaccinations have their vaccinations recorded in the VAMS system.

There are a number of reasons for this. But first and foremost, the initial launch of VAMS was a mess, and many (if not most) vaccination providers decided to schedule appointments outside of the VAMS system. Some providers (especially hospitals) did update VAMS with vaccination records ... but my impression is that many providers did not.

I made a point of having my family register for vaccination through VAMS, because I hoped this would be a better path if a "proof of vaccination" "certificate" was ever required.

VAMS does have a record of vaccination for myself, wife and daughter.

My son is going to university in Florida. We registered him through VAMS and scheduled his first appointment at a Florida hospital. He received both Pfizer doses at that hospital, each with a piece of paper documenting the batch number, and was given a blank CDC card. By Florida law, he was told they could not record the details on the CDC card, but suggested that he may want to record these details on the CDC card for his records. The hospital did not update his VAMS account with vaccination details.

My father lives in a senior community in the same state as us (not Florida), and was vaccinated by a pharmacy that came to the community and administered two doses of the Moderna vaccine. He was registered in VAMS (we had tried to get him earlier appointments than the community drive), but his VAMS record was not updated. They did fill out a CDC card for him, but there is no record of this in VAMS.

From talking to friends in my local area ... those who went to pharmacies for vaccination got the card but were never registered with VAMS.

I printed off my vaccination certificate from VAMS several months ago ... and I would argue that it is even easier to forge than the CDC card, as it is simply a typewritten record of the same details that were either hand-written or applied as a sticker to the CDC card. All it does is add a VAMS ID number ... which I seriously doubt could be verified by any airline or foreign border agent.

Out of curiosity, I logged into VAMS just now and I see that the format of the certificate issued by VAMS has been updated to look more professional. It has a VAMS header graphic, and is titled "Certificate of COVID-19 Vaccination". But nowhere does it reference CDC, or even our country name. On the whole, this seems even less official than the CDC card...apart from the impossible to verify VAMS ID number.

It saddens me that there are people who would rather forge a form than act responsibly, but I think that CDC card is official as it can get for US vaccinations.

DominicB

I think the supervisor certainly needs a good thank you. But I think you have a watertight case for EU261 compensation. A mistake was made and thus you will arrive late.

Scots_Al

I came here to say this. That the database used by BA (and others) is insufficiently detailed to be able to cope with Spanish entry requirements, and that despite flying to Spain BA did not have anyone present who was sufficiently knowledgeable to make the right decision in good time, is BA’s problem, not OP’s.

OP has (it seems) presented valid travel documents and has been refused travel. That gives rise to a clear and unqualified right to remedy.

Geordie405

The CDC card is labelled "COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card" and the additional verbiage says "Please keep this record card, which includes medical information about the vaccines you have received"

It's not an appointment card as others have suggested. Also, what the US Government has said is that there will not be a Federal COVID vaccination database. What happens at a state level is significantly different.

However, semantics aside, this is an example of a very real problem. How do you verify / validate the document that a traveller is presenting from any one of a myriad of different countries? I have my CDC card which shows my name, DOB, date and place of vaccination and the lot numbers of the vaccine I received. I also have my Walgreens pharmacy app that shows the same, minus the lot numbers. That's all I have, and all I am likely to get. This is one the major challenges with the notion of "Vaccine Passports" in real life. If you look at the forthcoming Euro 2020 match at Wembley anyone without the NHS App showing they are fully vaccinated will need to provide proof of a negative COVID test taken in the previous 48 hours. My fear is that this extends from large capacity events to becoming the everyday norm. When I come to the UK it's nice to be able to go out for a pint or two with my friends. What happens when it becomes a requirement to show the NHS App to get access to my local? We're heading into a League of Gentlemen dystopia where it really will be "This is a local shop, for local people; there's nothing for you here"

danielonn

Woo hoo soo happy it worked!

Beltway2A

I think you have to treat it like the closest analogous item, a yellow fever card. Most people act in good faith. There's never going to be a way to avoid all forgeries, but we'll largely do a good job with (1) clear guidelines as to what will constitute acceptable proof of vaccination and (2) the ability to perform rapid testing (despite the attendant false positives and negatives) when acceptable proof isn't present.

None of this works when a particular person/employee thinks they know better than the rules (ie. making the absurd declaration that a CDC vaccination card is an "appointment card.") but no system can fully account for rogue actors.

lcylocal

Or the standard for biometric passports, which is I believe set down by ICAO.

leontief

One more update:

I made it to Spain! No issues at the gate this time. Never even pulled out my CDC card when I got to BCN – scanned my QR code and waved me along...