TomMM

I agree that testing is a PINTA but it allow people who have learned to manage/accept risk to travel. The hard truth is that the days of embarking on a nice cozy vacation without accepting some risk to COVID are currently gone and it will probably be awhile before they return. We have a choice to make the best of the situation or wait for tomorrow.

crazy8534

This will not be a popular opinion so I will preface it by saying that I was an early voice of concern in March 2020 on FT and was ridiculed for the idea that covid might be a problem for the world community. I don't think I am supposed to link to locked threads so I won't but some will remember that thread and the countless others before the original "lockdown". Following that I and my family and many of my friends have been involved heavily in the sharp edge of the pandemic. The past 18 months I have seen more suffering than I care to recount and I can assure anyone that I am as aware as I could be of how awful covid can be.

But we are at the point now where every adult in the UK has had the opportunity to be double vaccinated and most of us if not already will be triple vaccinated within a matter of weeks. We have several excellent treatments available for covid with more approved and scheduled to be available shortly. I can tell you that EVERY YEAR for many years the NHS has faced a crisis in the winter and that EVERY YEAR for many years young, middle-aged and elderly people have died before their time from respiratory viral infections.

However, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that this kind of travel-related testing in healthy travelling populations does anything to prevent the spread of covid or its variants. There are dozens of other 'mitigations' that have become the norm in the 'new world' which also have absolutely no proven effect on viral transmission, I won't dredge them up to save going off topic. Instead we have a media that is desperate to sow panic and lay blame at every chance, and opportunistic politicians who will capitalise on any kind of public sentiment. I just watched a vox pop on Sky news suggesting that every single person in the airport was staunchly in favour of the new testing regime. It's a sad, sad day.

Omicron has currently killed as many people as Mr Blobby, and the only thing that will make any difference (short of another lockdown) if it does turn out to more serious is booster jabs. Every day I am meeting people who are too paralysed by fear to go out, children who have missed months of school and will never catch up, people too scared to see their GP about their long-standing worrying symptoms unrelated to covid.

We need to get back to normal. Risking death is the cost of living.

prof

yes.

2358

I assume 4am Tuesday, is when you need to be back in the UK by, rather than when you board your flight? Website not definitive (or perhaps wishful thinking on my part?)

KARFA

it is when you arrive, so anyone arriving in the UK beyond 0400 Tuesday will need a pre departure test.

orbitmic

I can understand the testing before arrival. The one that really makes the UK the odd one out (except from particularly at risk destination) is adding another test after arrival especially with the prospect of quarantining till the result is known. I think that asking for a pre-arrival test is sensible but that vaccinated travellers should be left alone thereafter, which, in effect, is what much of the rest of the Western world is doing.

wb1969

This really is becoming a bloody shambles. Airlines and the leisure industry are never going to recover if we have to go through this nonsense every time the virus mutates. When was the last time flu shut down international travel? Never. Why is this any different? The world has gone mad.

vanmunchen

My travel insurance includes COVID cover with reimbursement of costs in the event of having to isolate.

GLA37

Appreciate there will still be more detail to come on this new rule, but I would value any advice. I am flying on QF35 from Melbourne to Singapore on Wednesday 8th December, then connecting to BA 12 Singapore to London.

Is the pre departure test requirement 2 days or 48 hours, and is the time frame in relation to my departure time from Melbourne or from Singapore?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

KARFA

likely to be two days prior to arrival in the Uk - so you need to do a test anytime from Monday onwards.

TPRun

Can I take the tests I buy in the UK through BA site to do 48 hours before flying back to the UK? (flying with BA)
I have LFTs purchased for the 1-day rule prior to US travel, can I buy another and take it with me, use it 48 hours before travelling back?
Or does it have to be a specific test purchased in the US? (or is that a totally stupid question )

GLA37

Thank you, KARFA. That’s very helpful.

I think I will likely need 2 tests. Take the one I have already booked on Monday, 2 days prior to my Flight to Singapore, then another one on Tuesday or Wednesday to meet the UK requirements for my arrival on Thursday.

florens

CH now has the same requirement for a day 4-7 test. Madness.

KARFA

ah yes sorry I thought you were arriving in the Uk on Wednesday hence why I said from Monday onwards.

if you are arriving on Thursday it would be from Tuesday onwards.

GLA37

Very helpful. Thanks again!