sydneyracquelle

...or fly back to USA and rent a car and drive across.

Fiordland

Since the same test is required for anyone coming from Italy and flying to the United States (as of Nov 23, 2020), the airport has setup a testing facility:

https://www.adr.it/web/aeroporti-di-...n-/coronavirus

Sounds like Rome also has a large number of drive through test facilities.

Fiordland

The same test is also required for anyone flying from Italy to the US. Not certain if that is the case or just when flying Alitalia into New York. It may just be passengers coming from the UK that need a COVID test based on the IATA info. The entry from anyone who has been in Italy in the past 14 days would be restricted to people US passport holders or immigrants.

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php

The test is fairly common. As a Canadian national it looks like I need the test for entry to Portugal, Spain, Turkey etc.

tecate55

It sounds simple, but it's getting more complicated than the usual "lost my PR card" situation. Drive what across? Anyone that picks you up would have to quarantine upon return, or would get blocked at the border. Are car rental companies doing 1-way cross-border rentals? (maybe a small biz opportunity for dual citizens to do round-trips?). Likely be a taxi ride to a land PoE and walking across, and then getting picked up.

There's going to be a lot fuller flights arriving in Buffalo/Seattle/etc, but flying back out empty.

That helicopter company snowbird service from Hamilton to Buffalo might be getting some 2-way business.

tecate55

There might not be an OIC*. This might just be the government telling the airlines what to do overseas where Canadian law/charter doesn't apply anyway. That's why the government can tell airlines to infringe on Canadian's Charter Rights overseas: you don't have any ex-Canada, and it's technically the airline refusing boarding, not the government. There won't be any order/law telling CBSA to disallow Canadians from entering. The airlines are giving into heavy pressure about being penalized themselves for bringing you over even though you're eligible for entry. If pushed hard enough, any IDB might still be eligible for EU261 compensation since the government will *never* say you would be denied entry if you made it over without a negative PCR test. (I take this bit back, EU261 seems pretty vague in allowing airlines to do anything reasonable here).

* I solely base this on being unable to find anything official that prohibited non-US/Carib flights into any airport other than Van/Cal/Tor/MTL. Obviously CBSA wasn't closed if other int'l airports could take US/DR/Mex/Cuba flights.

By the same logic above, I wonder if Canada will have any ability to prosecute fraudulent test reports unless they check them again inside Canada. Not a lawyer!

Based on the above, my guess is that they'll embed it in ArriveCAN that you're supposed to fill out before departing: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-heal...to-canada.html

sydneyracquelle

Many times I have rented a car in USA and returned it to Canada. No big deal except for the additional ~$100 US drop fee. Buying two one-way flights on airlines is also not a big deal and is usually no more expensive in my experience.

sydneyracquelle

Getting picked up by someone in Canada could violate quarantine requirements as you could give them covid. At land border crossings there is both CBSA and Public Health reps asking you questions. The public health people will likely give you a hard time. A one way car rental is much better.

YOWgary

Any such ban would be illegal.

Say what you want about this slapped-together policy, and I'll be saying plenty, but three Liberal ministers announced this mess by saying, effectively, "the law does not allow us to deny Canadians' right to travel, and asking Canadians to do the right thing by choice, hasn't worked. So, now we're using other mechanisms to get people to think twice about travelling."

They've been clear that the goal of this policy is absolutely to reduce non-essential air travel. Whether that leads to the second part, we'll see.

Bogwoppit

McGill university students have been doing the "bag drag" over the border all year. Dropped off by their parents on the US side, walking through, and then an Uber/taxi to their place in Montreal after the border.

We have also checked with the authorities here, they say masked you can give a ride to someone arriving at the airport and not have to quarantine. Not necessarily logical, but it is what has been stated.

sydneyracquelle

Of course anyone in Canada can pick up a traveller at a CDN airport or the CDN side of land border without quarantining. However, if you pick them up anywhere in USA (even on the US side at the border) then you have to quarantine for 14-days. The only exemption is if you are denied entry to USA.

tcook052

Can we please explore the 'driving over the border' scenarios in another thread as the topic of this thread is the government new mandate that all passengers flying into Canada obtain a negative COVID PCR test.

Regards,

tcook052
Canada forum moderator

Vaclav

A friend of mind (Canadian citizen) would like to spend 2 weeks in Barbados and then travel to Europe to take care of his elderly relative.

One possible route is BGI to YYZ (less than 24 hours layover) to FRA and further.

As of Jan 7, a negative pcr test is required for all arrivals to Canada. Then there is a 2 week isolation. How does this work for those transiting via YYZ less than 24 hours and then leaving Canada again?

economyplusfan

Hawaii has this same program (negative covid test 72 hours before boarding). They seem to have figured it out pretty well. Of course, questions have spawned a 23 page FT Thread (72-Hour Pre-Departure Covid Testing (Experiences Only)). The main difference appears to be the fact that HA lets you quarantine at your own location if you don't or can't manage to obtain a test result pre flight.

Then there is always this: Couple with Positive COVID Pre-Flight Test Arrested Upon Arriving at LIH Flying UA

D404

The vaccination card idea is not something I can see ever actually becoming a reality, unless the government is totally out of touch with reality.

What happens when countries do not give 'vaccine passports' out when they vaccinated people? Do you just ban all flights from that country indefinitely?

For example, when I get vaccinated in the UK, I will not have any sort of vaccine passport/card/whatever.

YOWgary

The PCR-test policy is currently being rushed into place, since it was announced the day before yesterday, so we just plain don't have those details. I've been firing questions at the media-relations teams for the relevant government agencies, and compiling answers at https://www.flyermiles.ca/post/canada-pcr-test-details as I get them.

The quarantine requirement is for people actually entering Canada, and does not apply to transit passengers; much like most European hub airports, flying BGI-YYZ-FRA they will go directly from your arriving BGI flight to the International Departures wing to board their flight to FRA.

I really do hope they'll quarantine properly on arrival in Germany before seeing anyone else.