BobaJob

I have a through ticket with BA from Cape Town to Geneva via London Heathrow.

The CPT flight lands at 1945 and the Geneva flight departs next morning at 0655. Can anyone advise if it is possible to overnight in an airport Hotel without breaching the UK transit rules.

Thanks!

NWIFlyer

BobaJob, welcome to Flyertalk.

I’m afraid, as it stands, the news isn’t good. If your trip is imminent and you pass the UK border from a red list country then you will have to enter a 10 day quarantine at considerable cost. If you’re not due to travel for a few weeks, wait and see - given the hint from the Transport Minister today, things may well change.

In the short term after the announcement, whilst the UK government re-established sufficient quarantine hotels, there were some UK residents who managed to be allowed home to undertake their self-isolation. That is no longer the case.

Unless you’re a UK citizen, or have the inalienable right to enter the UK, with this itinerary you’re not going to be allowed on the plane in the first place.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-list...nd-territories

Heathrow is not a 24 hour airport, so you can’t simply stay airside until the next morning.

In short, in almost all circumstances, you need to rethink your trip. If you can give us some more details on your citizenship/status, more specific advice can be given.

BobaJob

Thanks for the reply.
I'm a UK citizen and resident, fully vaccinated.
Arr LHR from CPT 1945 17/12/21
Dep LHR for Geneva 0655 18/12/21
Through ticketed with BA to avoid need for baggage retrieval at LHR.
Please let me know if you need any further information.

NWIFlyer

Has BA re-scheduled your flight which forces the overnight? If so, I would have a conversation with them about supporting a different routing that either avoids the UK or allows you to transit airside.

As soon as you cross the border you are liable for hotel quarantine, at least until such time as the government changes its red list.

This is a relatively niche case which relies much more on persuading BA to let you change plans, so we’ll transfer it to the BA forum where you should be able to get some very targeted advice on what to do.

Globaliser

Here are a couple of recent threads that may have some pertinent information, although my impression is that the situation has been changing over time:

• Question regarding transiting through England with BA (and covid requirements)
• Overnight Transit from Red List Country

konagirl2

As Globaliser says there have been a lot of recent conversations around this, particularly the second link. There is an exemption for transit, with 'transit' as described in the legislation, but it is not clear how this is designed to work. Personally I would be very wary of attempting this connection and I would try and resolve to an adequate solution beforehand. Since BA could easily refuse you travel if you haven't booked the quarantine (e.g. if they interpret the definition of transit to not include an overnight hotel) or you could have problems at the UK border (again depending on the interpretation of staying within the port of entry to transit) it could be a very uncomfortable night. Unfortunately I can't see Qatar changing their rules before the end of December, or the UK changing them this week, so there aren't any options within-alliance. Assuming you meet the entry requirements for Switzerland, Swiss have re-started flights and/or you should be able to transit Germany or France provided the transit is airside.

BobaJob

It was a BA Exec Club rep who provided the through ticket option. To be fair the extent of our conversation around transit was not very detailed.

However, UK gov website seems pretty clear about requirements for landside /airside transit, in particular completing the PLF for landside transit - copied below :

You need to do the following when you complete your passenger locator form.

select ‘Stay in the UK’ under the Your travel plans section
reply ‘I will be travelling for an exempt reason’ to the question about whether you are required to self-isolate on arrival
select the Exemption options, and then select ‘Transit Exemption’
This includes if you are transiting onto the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. You may need to show evidence of onward travel and where you will be staying at the border.

When you are in England you do not need to quarantine or take any COVID-19 travel tests.

You must either:

remain within your port of entry until your departure from England
travel directly from your port of entry to another port of departure in England

Globaliser

I haven't done any research into this myself, but the impression that I get from the discussions is that this is where the ambiguity is. Do "port of entry" and "port of departure" include an airport hotel? If so, then at LHR would it include only the on-airport hotels (the Sofitel at T5, the Hilton Garden Inn at T2, and more arguably the Hilton at T4 and the Premier Inn at T4)? What about the off-airport hotels that are just outside the perimeter? What about the off-airport hotels that are just a bit beyond that? Or do "port of entry" and "port of departure" mean the airport terminals themselves?

NYLON Boy

Nobody on this forum can give you a definitive answer; it's all conjecture and speculation. My advice is to call BA. (I know for a fact that BA have a policy in place for overnight transit cases from redlist countries -- but you probably won't like it.)

NWIFlyer

@BobaJob, you might find this single post useful as an indication of what might happen next week.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33802998-post8.html

In short, your hotel plan is not going to work, but you might be able to spend a very uncomfortable night airside in T3 - although I’d not guarantee any future arrangements as more quarantine hotels come on stream.

This is definitely one that requires a conversation with BA.

BobaJob

Really appreciate the information on current transit experience at LHR. Obviously not a great experience, but better than succumbing to UK quarantine!

NWIFlyer

Once you’ve gone through whatever “experience” awaits you, it’d be great if you could come back and update this thread, as we currently have very little practical information on how BA/UKBF/HAL are handling this. It’s really unclear as to whether this is just BA negotiating special arrangements with the airport to allow an overnight airside stay (perhaps because they’ve retimed flights which has caused this, and fear being on the hook for the quarantine cost under EC261 duty of care), or if it’s applicable to all airlines (including, for doyens of this forum, AA on a BA codeshare).

All guinea pigs are therefore welcome .

steview111

I think it’s just worth re-emphasising that this isn’t correct. Nobody with a legitimate onward connection will have to enter a quarantine hotel. What they will have to do seems to change every day, but they won’t have to enter a quarantine hotel, as per the legislation.

The retiming of the SA flights is going to find a lot of people in this situation, I wouldn’t want people spending a fortune changing or re-routing trips based on false information.

Jaydm101

If it helps, Qatar are reinstating passenger services from SA from the 12th of December, so you could avoid LHR altogether.

NWIFlyer

I'm sorry, but I'm not in the habit of providing false information and I'm disappointed you've phrased it as such. The fact is that the legislation is badly worded and can be interpreted in all sorts of ways depending on the immigration officer and the circumstances, frankly. BA's change to flight timing has caused all manner of issues, and you will see plenty of other opinion from learned members - both here and in the ÇV & Travel forum - which bears out exactly what I've outlined could happen.

Why exactly do you think special arrangements appear to have been made to allow passengers to remain airside in T3 which would otherwise be closed overnight?