Advice needed—parents denied boarding LHR/proof of vaccine
 

Would greatly appreciate any advice, even if it is to suck it up: my parents were scheduled to fly LHR-SFO this morning. They arrived at LHR with proof of a negative Covid test within 24 hours, and the NHS cards given after each vaccine. They are double vaccinated and boosted. BA denied them boarding because they did not have an NHS letter or the NHS app proof of vaccination. We can’t find anywhere on the US State Dept, the BA website, the CDC, or anywhere else that the only acceptable form
of proof of vaccination is a letter or app from the NHS. The vaccination cards are issued by the NHS, so seem to fit the
requirements. My parents are, understandably, gutted. This was a trip to see their only grandchild and they can’t afford to rebook.

Really sorry to hear of your predicament. Unfortunately it's absolutely the case that the vaccination cards are not acceptable proof of vaccination for travel purposes. Your parents would have needed the bar codes from the NHS app which prove vaccination. Without them, sadly they were correctly denied boarding.

It wasn’t so long after the UK vaccination programme got underway that those cards (blank) were being sold on Ebay so very understandable why any organisation would not accept them as proof.

They certainly take us-issued vax cards

My commiserations. I've just got all the forms etc needed for my short flight from LHR to Paris tomorrow, and it is certainly something I'd imagine people who don't travel often would find confusing. I'd reccomend the Verifly app as it does take you through each step to ensure you have the correct documents.

How sad for them, unfortunately I’d say it is a “suck it up” on the GOV website it’s stated

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-ad...y-requirements

Ouch - what a shame. It is not going to help your case I'm afraid, but it is mentioned in several places but is not always easy to understand if you are not fully up to speed on it all. I can find some references - this is from the UK gov.uk website, about travel to USA: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-ad...virus-covid-19

The CDC website also has some more info: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...ccination.html - and scroll down to 'Acceptable Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination'

In case they can get this resurrected, there is a UK NHS app, which will provide a digital covid pass. If they are not into smart devices, it is also possible to get a paper certificate from the NHS from this page: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/corona...d-pass-letter/

Sorry, it's not easy if your parents don't have a mobile phone or the NHS app as if you do, you can print out vaccination certificates very easily. However you can go online via the NHS website to get a vaccination letter sent to the address they are registered at with their GP. This takes a few days, the certificate lasts for 30 days. Alternatively they can call 119 and get a letter sent. I don't know if BA will allow them to rebook later on without penalty, they may be generous in this circumstance.

Thanks everyone. For the future, I figured out what the issue is: CDC accepts all manner of proofs of vaccination, but requires that they have name plus one other identifier that can be matched to passport—ie date of birth or passport number. NHS vaccine cards only have name, so they fail.

BA was kind enough to give my folks the full value of their flights as a voucher, so we’ll reschedule their trip for a couple of weeks from now when the fares are roughly equivalent to what they initially paid.

I will say that the BA emails and website definitely didn’t make clear to my elderly parents that they needed to get a new verification of their vaccines.

That's good at least - suggest you get them started on the UK NHS website - or you can do it all for them if you get their details: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/corona...d-pass-letter/

We have done it at our end for my mother-in-law - you can do all of the website work and they will get the certificates sent to them.

I do think the older population are an issue here for the travel industry. Some don’t use the internet or refuse to engage with it and try and do things the old fashioned way. I now help both my parents with anything like this. My Father in particular refuses to understand requirements and used to try and use the force of his personality to get his own way. Now of course with QR codes, portals to register with etc it’s all impossible for them to understand.

Good on BA giving them a refund but in all honesty if you want to fly you will need to focus on what is needed. Check and double check requirements as a scrappy bit of paper really won’t do it.

The NHS cards always seem open to confusion as they contain batch number and are issued after the jab so they don’t really seem like appointment cards. I suspect they were designed in a hurry and before the proper Covid pass system. Would have been much better if the NHS had stopped issuing them as soon as the Covid pass was introduced.

Indeed. The OP has my sympathies of course, but I think there is probably also a bit of a lesson here that if you know your parents/grandparents/oldies are travelling, it is really important to ensure they are completely on top of all the requirements - even if that means butting in a bit more than you usually would. It’s unfortunate that’s the way of things at the moment, but better safe than sorry, as they say.

Glad to hear they have been able to get a voucher to rebook in any case.

The CDC card is issued by the USA, in the USA for acceptance by the USA for various reasons. The NHS vaccination record card is none of those.

LDNN. You put it better than I did. Some of our elderly folks refuse to understand what is required and sadly think they can blag it at the airport. My Mum certainly used to think this and someone would then say, ‘aw, go on board, you tried your best’.

I now butt into anything my Mum in particular is trying to do. Having said that travel IS complex. You have to check and check requirements and try and understand that unless it’s on the system they won’t take your word for it.

I can do complex but it’s nerve racking to try and check in hoping against hope that you have everything required.