TownCar

Wow, many thanks all for the quick & super helpful responses. Wasn't aware of the 18th April mandate review, will wait until then before booking anything but if we do then will check the Qured option or an in-person test at NCL as the fallback.

USA_flyer

Do not use Boots. Lots of negative feedback with results not coming back in time for travel.

FWIW, I'd do the in person test. I've only done 1 proctored test and found it to be much more stressful than having someone else do it. YMMV of course.

mikeyfly

I’m using QURED for the first time on Thursday for a Friday flight. Saves whizzing to LHR for ExpressTest which I’ve done a couple of times. I am planning to do it in my (very quiet) office - only one other colleague will be in and they don’t care!

Do I need passport? What’s the process?! And tips / experiences or threads anyone can point me to??

Do they literally watch you do the test and that’s it?

travellingwigbury

I've had 2 Lateral Flow tests at Boots, the first one on the day of travel (!) in November, and the other in January, and in both cases, I got a text & email with a link to certificate within 20 minutes, well within the 1 hour promised...

VictorSierra

You dial into the waiting room and wait to be seen. They’re not based in the UK, but their English was decent. They read a script, then watch you do the test. At some point they’ll have you write some code, date and time on your test too. Then you hang up!

15 minutes later, you take a photo of the test result next to your passport. Providing you’re negative, you should get your certificate back about 15 minutes later.

Plu2370

I’ve used them a few times including at a very busy coffee shop. Yes you’ll need your passport and a pen that will work to write on the LFD cartridge.

Without exception the staff have been friendly and helpful and will just talk you through it, and literally watch you swab your nose. I apologised to the 1st guy for having to watch it, with good humour he came straight back with ‘it’s one way of making a living’ 😆

My partner’s wi-fi cut out half way through one test. Followed the link back and the person was waiting there to finish the session.

Only other tip is you only get 10 minutes to upload your result after the 15 minutes is up. Not sure how strictly this is enforced. On occasions the picture upload has felt a bit slow, but has always worked 1st time.

USA_flyer

Fair enough. The complaints i remember were for PCR tests and of course, those are not required for travel to a lot of places now.

squeeler

I had the same experience of dropping the connection, which was quite unnerving. But all ended fine by hitting the link again as mentioned.

chriswiles

Don't want to spoil your trip, but a business colleague of mine flew to SFO yesterday and was stuck in immigration queues for 3 hours and said it was his worst US immigration experience for a long time.

TownCar

Thanks for the heads-up. Not sure if it's consistently like this at the moment with covid-related issues, but pre-pandemic I would arrive in ORD a few times a year - usually on the BA295 service - and have experienced similar 2-3 hour waits, and at other times through in as little as 10 minutes. Seemingly entirely due to how many other aircraft arrivals there had been just before us (and where they had come from, affecting the time it took for CBP to process them).

Our BA285 is scheduled to arrive at 14:15 in SFO so fingers crossed it's not too bad and we still have plenty time that day.

MaxFlyer

I was on the BA285 about two months ago and immigration was empty. I’ve been to JFK and LAX recently and empty too but it could easily be the luck of when I’ve arrived.

endoman

Been into US twice this year, 10 minute wait to get in at DFW, and straight through at EWR 3 weeks ago.

James Russell

Almost every time ive been to the U.S (pre covid) it has taken at least 2 hours in immigration so that doesnt sound like anything new

Plu2370

On the 285 a couple of weeks ago, took about 90 minutes to get through. The queue became very significantly longer shortly after we joined and stretched down the corridor.

greenchicken

We got through checks in Chicago two weeks ago in 5 minutes. Then we had a fun 30 minutes waiting for baggage while some extremely cute sniffer dogs/puppies were being trained around the carousel.