Duke787

+1, I was just at LHR last week for a 50 hour trip (so had to get tested to return). Ended up using the testing facility in T2 Arrivals (T2 Departures acted like they couldn't do rapid antigen but T2 Arrivals on the lower level can?).

In my case I ended up flying home a day early (meetings ended early and was able to do an SDC on UA and keep my J seat so a no brainer) but hadn't done the test yet. Got to the airport about 3 hours before my flight and just booked the next available slot and showed up an hour early and they were easily able to accommodate me (note you have to make an appointment, you can't just show up without an appointment).

Quick nasal swap and document verification and then I was free to wait wherever. Took about 30-35 minutes to process and be uploaded to the portal at which point I was able to just show it on my phone at the UA check-in desk and proceed immediately to departures.

For the OP, would just book and go get the swab done on your way out of Heathrow (no need to stick around for the results you can leave and they will be emailed) and then can just use those results on the way back for departure. Just make sure the timestamp on the swab at arrivals is within T-24 of the departure time back to the US

£35 ExpressTest Lateral Flow will suffice for a US flight. This is the test I took from T2 referenced above but the timestamp has to be within T-24 of your US flight (not when you start your journey on the itinerary but the US flight itself) so 0700 on Tuesday 10th won't qualify since you'll be outside that window for a 1250 LHR - JFK departure the next day.

As for the pre-booking deal, all the signage and the check-in person at T2 were adamant that you needed to be pre-booked and have the QR code for them to scan. That said I was able to get in earlier that my actual booking time which was helpful since I had changed flights last minute and showed up at the airport just 3 hours before departure.

DrGee

"Just make sure the timestamp on the swab at arrivals is within T-24 of the departure time back to the US".

Isn't it a test at any time the day before the flight to the US?

nk15

From the CDC site:https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...travelers.html

The CDC site above also answers the question about overnight connecting flights, although I would be nervous about it...

michael1023

its amazing how this thread was created on Dec 2nd, yet here we are 5 months later still debating this

in the first post "to assess the omicron variant"

isn't that like 5 variants ago?

Duke787

Yes but I would be more conservative here -- the person who checks isn't looking at the CDC website so I would be more conservative here so you don't end up getting stuck due to a more conservative interpretation of the guidance.

t325

I thought this was interesting. The Edmonton Oilers, rather than flying directly YEG to LAX for their playoff game, flew to YVR, bussed to BLI, then flew from there to LAX to avoid testing

https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/oilers-t...ting-1.5891930

Just goes to show how dumb these rules are

kirkwoodj

This is what all the major league baseball teams have been doing after playing at Toronto--crossing by bus at Buffalo then flying from there. Genius, and a show of how useless this continued testing is.

gnomey

yes, it is.

but I would like to see someone with a test time stamp of T-47h59m who manage to fly successfully each time without the rigmarole of questioning.

a conservative stance will make your life easier. but if T-24 cannot be done for whatever reason, it is not the end of the world.

futuramadramallama

Was this the GH? Antigen or PCR?

Hey how did this work out?

Yeah, still sold out for some reason. Not sure if they only have a limited number each day, and it's genuinely sold out after a certain time of day, or, if they're no longer offering it.

DrinkSlinger

It's been "sold out" around the clock for several days. It's most likely not being offered anymore.

Ted

Here is what looks like the Oilers flight. Came from YEG and continues to LAX.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...722Z/CYVR/KBLI

I guess the airline crew could fly in with no test. Hopefully they could have left most of the hockey gear on the plane and just take overnight bags to the hotel.

TommyD2

The test worked out fine. I was able to book for same day--booked at about 3:30pm for a 7pm test. Testing took about 25 minutes, had my 'good to go' email/receipt about 10 minutes after that.

Still showing sold out. Too bad if they've ended it - easy and cheap.

friedablass

I have flown back several times with tests taken more than 24 hours prior to my flight to the USA and was never questioned. As long as the date was 1 calendar day prior we were good to go. Just my personal experience but as with many other things in life YMMV.

Also wanted to share an experience I had earlier this week flying back to the US with several family members. We were a total party of 10 and we used a mix of proctored tests: BinaxNOW, ihealth, and flowflex with Azova. We did not have access to a printer so I saved all the PDF test results to my phone and had them ready to show at check in. After I showed the guy the third result, I guess he got bored of waiting for each PDF to load and looking at them on my phone and he just asked me "so, where all the tests negative?". I answered that of course they were, otherwise we wouldn't be here. He asked me to show him 1 more test for a name he chose at random which I did and also asked me to confirm again that all the others were negative (because he could get into trouble of they weren't), which I did as well and we were good to go.

I am not going to say which airport or airline, but this was not a third world county (far from it) and a main stream commercial airline. I know this is not an indication of the usual expenses with showing proof of negative result, but it just showed me that as we already know the airlines are not really interested in enforcing this but they are being forced to do so.

gnomey

i flew back from south america recently - not a mainstream destination. i took the test at T-16. test is taken at a local authorized laboratory.

i did not use the proctored method, for 3 reasons: 1) in-person test at local lab is 60% cheaper, 2) this is not a country many US travelers returned from and 3) i was not flying on a US carrier, who is likely to be more familiar with one of these tests.

at check-in, not too surprisingly, the agent told me my test results is not valid - yes, a local test result, from an authorized lab at T-16, printed in paper form and embossed, is not valid.

reason is because i was swabbed more than 24 hours prior to my arrival time to US.

clearly he was mistaken, but it took another 20 minutes before i was able to check in, after a supervisor overruled him

I can just anticipate more obstacles to overcome if he see words like Binax/iHealth/Flowflex, T-36 time stamp and UTC time zone

it is both country- and agent-dependent. if it is mainstream destination that sees a lot of US-bound travelers daily, there is less likelihood of things going sideways.

a person who gets tested at T-36 every time but only always returning from Canada/Mexico/UK etc is in a different situation from another who fly back from disparate countries across the world.

even a place like IST can't get it right consistently and there are so many TK flights to US everyday. so, this is definitely more of an agent-specific issue.

friedablass

I agree, and all the more reason to drop this pointless requirement or at least move it back to 3 days prior like it used to be. I know, not happening any time soon.