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US to require air travelers to provide a negative test within 1 day of departure

Old Dec 3, 2021, 7:22 am
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Last edit by: l etoile
10 June 2022 - The Biden administration will on Sunday end a requirement that air travelers to the U.S. undergo Covid-19 tests before departure, according to federal officials.

The testing requirement is set to end June 12 at 12:01 a.m.



CDC Order and FAQ: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

CDC Order updated 2 December 2021:
  • If you plan to travel internationally, you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test (regardless of vaccination status or citizenship) no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States. You must show your negative result to the airline before you board your flight.
  • If you recently recovered from COVID-19, you may instead travel with documentation of recovery from COVID-19 (i.e., your positive COVID-19 viral test result on a sample taken no more than 90 days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country and a letter from a licensed healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel).

All air passengers 2 years or older with a flight departing to the US from a foreign country at or after 12:01am EST (5:01am GMT) on December 6, 2021, are required show a negative COVID-19 viral test result taken no more than 1 day before travel, or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past 90 days, before they board their flight.

What types of SARS-CoV-2 test are acceptable under the Order?
You must be tested with a viral test that could be either an antigen test or a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT). Examples of available NAATs for SARS-CoV-2 include but are not restricted to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), transcription-mediated amplification (TMA), nicking enzyme amplification reaction (NEAR), and helicase-dependent amplification (HDA). The test used must be authorized for use by the relevant national authority for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the country where the test is administered. A viral test conducted for U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) personnel, including DOD contractors, dependents, and other U.S. government employees, and tested by a DOD laboratory located in a foreign country also meets the requirements of the Order.

eMed (Abbot BinaxNOW, one of the approved methods) Thread on Flyertalk: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/coronavirus-travel/2048940-issues-re-emed-abbot-binaxnow-navica-tests.html
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US to require air travelers to provide a negative test within 1 day of departure

 
Old Jun 8, 2022, 7:57 pm
  #1321  
 
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Originally Posted by Dzigavertov
Hello all, I see there are 88 pages of comments here on this topic, and I’ve been scrolling through some of them. I’m traveling to England and would like to know what’s the best way to get my test done there before returning? I’ve seen Qured, but also wondering if a pharmacy might work. Any advice would be appreciated, as well as what to plan for. Will be traveling with two kids.
you mention England. Are you in a city and staying in a hotel? Or in the country. What ages are your children? Using the free US govt tests and buying a proctored appt is the cheapest method. In mid May We used Onpoint testing and made our appts a couple of weeks before we left. We received reminders the day before and an hour before the appt. Its a zoom link for appt. You can make appts for two persons at a time. You can do in your hotel room at your convenience.(based on your appt time).the results will come in a pdf. There is no app like Navica but we were checked in to our return flight in under 5 minutes with our printouts. Alternatively any hotel concierge can point you to a pharmacy. Depending on the day of the week you need, be sure to check hours. Pharmacies are not open later in the evening like we may gge used to in the US. Just be sure to pack your tests with you. You can also test at the airport, but imo you want to know the results and be able to plan long before you arecatvvtge airport especially with multiple persons.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 6:11 am
  #1322  
 
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
The testing requirement isn’t working wonders to keep additional seats open for me on my very frequent flights from Europe to the US. My Europe-US flights this month and last are more packed to the brim than they have been in at least three years. Unfortunate that is too, as award space/pricing and even regular paid economy class pricing for my Schengen-US flights this summer is worse than it was three years ago for the same flights being booked around the same time.

I’m rather curious how it is that more seats don’t go out empty given Covid infections continue to take place and the test requirement is what it is for these US-bound flights of mine.
I would think most people travelling now/ this summer booked a while ago (non business travel).

Availability caused by someone testing positive would be pretty last minute - probably even within 24 hours when they take the test to travel in the case of the US.

Also airlines in the UK are cancelling lots of flights, so this will mean remaining flights are busier.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 9:07 am
  #1323  
 
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Interesting experience yesterday in France for flights to LA. The AF guy at the counter was "sure" you didn't need a test to fly to the US as a US citizen. Didn't even look at my wife's test. At the connection in CDG they required us to fill out a paper form attesting that we had a negative test or recovery, along with some other options. The woman collecting the forms just rolled her eyes and didn't look at the form. There was a pile of forms next to the boarding line, I am almost positive they tossed that after he flight left.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 9:58 am
  #1324  
 
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Just flew back to SFO from Munich via Heathrow and can confirm the testing requirement is a bit vague for the airports abroad. Munich didn't know or care since we were connecting through Heathrow. LHR was a cluster with security and immigrations lines either duplicating requests to see vaccination or had no clue.

In the end, we got stickers at passport control and also a second check by the gate agent.

We did the remote Binax tests via video call. Pretty easy but you have to have a stable internet connection since they "watch" the testing process and 15 minute results period
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 10:24 am
  #1325  
 
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Originally Posted by Dzigavertov
Hello all, I see there are 88 pages of comments here on this topic, and I’ve been scrolling through some of them. I’m traveling to England and would like to know what’s the best way to get my test done there before returning? I’ve seen Qured, but also wondering if a pharmacy might work. Any advice would be appreciated, as well as what to plan for. Will be traveling with two kids.
If leaving from LHR, an easy way is to get the test from Express Test (https://www.expresstest.co.uk/). We did this (I think in T3). If not LHR then check their other locations.

Last edited by tanglin; Jun 9, 2022 at 10:24 am Reason: Image messed up.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 11:13 am
  #1326  
 
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Originally Posted by drminn
Interesting experience yesterday in France for flights to LA. The AF guy at the counter was "sure" you didn't need a test to fly to the US as a US citizen. Didn't even look at my wife's test. At the connection in CDG they required us to fill out a paper form attesting that we had a negative test or recovery, along with some other options. The woman collecting the forms just rolled her eyes and didn't look at the form. There was a pile of forms next to the boarding line, I am almost positive they tossed that after he flight left.
Good to know. Until things change, I'm just gonna have all my returning flights from Paris and AF if they keep it laxed. At least in France, it's the only country I could manage being stranded and coerced to stay for however long until my country deems fitting to allow me to return.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 12:39 pm
  #1327  
 
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Originally Posted by Visconti
Good to know. Until things change, I'm just gonna have all my returning flights from Paris and AF if they keep it laxed. At least in France, it's the only country I could manage being stranded and coerced to stay for however long until my country deems fitting to allow me to return.
Also CDG has the option for US passport holders to use a e-passport line. Quick and out of the terminal minutes from landing.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 2:47 pm
  #1328  
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Jha is on CNN (USA) live right now talking about COVID-19, but it's mostly vaccines for kids. I didn't catch the entire interview, but I heard nothing about the test to fly back to the USA requirement. I assume the transcript will be on the CNN website later.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 4:24 pm
  #1329  
 
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Connected CFU-MUC, MUC-ZRH, ZRH-LAX (overnight in MUC). Agent in CFU asked for test or vaccination paperwork. I only handed over the test I received the day before, which she looked over and handed back. I was never asked for anything again beyond that point and have no idea what would have happened if I handed over vaccination documentation instead (I could have technically got tested the following day in MUC, but tests were cheap and easy in CFU). While waiting to board in ZRH, there was a woman at the gate desk being informed that she needed to have a test to board the flight. It was quite a dramatic conversation, and she clearly had no idea about the requirement (or was playing dumb???). I will be very grateful when this absurd requirement is finally shelved, but I seriously doubt that will be happening until the current USA surge passes. My next flight back to the USA will be in early August, and I am starting to fear that I will be needing a test for that flight as well.
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 7:44 pm
  #1330  
 
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Originally Posted by downinit
Connected CFU-MUC, MUC-ZRH, ZRH-LAX (overnight in MUC). Agent in CFU asked for test or vaccination paperwork. I only handed over the test I received the day before, which she looked over and handed back. I was never asked for anything again beyond that point and have no idea what would have happened if I handed over vaccination documentation instead (I could have technically got tested the following day in MUC, but tests were cheap and easy in CFU). While waiting to board in ZRH, there was a woman at the gate desk being informed that she needed to have a test to board the flight. It was quite a dramatic conversation, and she clearly had no idea about the requirement (or was playing dumb???). I will be very grateful when this absurd requirement is finally shelved, but I seriously doubt that will be happening until the current USA surge passes. My next flight back to the USA will be in early August, and I am starting to fear that I will be needing a test for that flight as well.
Could be either one with the woman at ZRH. But I guess some people really don't pay attention to things before they travel. I've seen occasional posts on Reddit Travel and Flights subs recently by people who either are overseas already and asking what's needed to come back to the US or about to leave the US and wondering what they will need to do to return. So maybe some people really are just winging it and not looking anything up in advance, who knows.

Were you asked for the stupid Attestation Form at any point?
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Old Jun 9, 2022, 9:46 pm
  #1331  
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Some still show up at the airports in the Schengen area clueless about the US testing requirement (and even vaccination requirement for some) and are surprised there is an attestation form.

Originally Posted by Donsyb
I would think most people travelling now/ this summer booked a while ago (non business travel).

Availability caused by someone testing positive would be pretty last minute - probably even within 24 hours when they take the test to travel in the case of the US.

Also airlines in the UK are cancelling lots of flights, so this will mean remaining flights are busier.
On my Europe-US flights, I don’t see much of anything opening up between the one calendar day before the flight or on the flight date itself, the dates of greatest relevance to meet the US testing requirement. And my flights are going out fuller than they were in 2019 or before for the routes of long term, frequent relevance to me. Neither the test requirement nor the infection scene seem to be doing me any favors in de-crowding my flights during the testing time “window” period.

Of my last dozen SAS flights to the US this spring, SAS hasn’t even once checked what (if anything) I filled out on handed-in attestation forms. And that’s even as SAS reps didn’t care to check for my test results either for those flights. Some airlines and airline reps abroad — and it’s not just SAS for me — are taking short cuts that fall short of delivering on full compliance with the US testing requirement.
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Old Jun 10, 2022, 7:21 am
  #1332  
 
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Originally Posted by 84fiero
Were you asked for the stupid Attestation Form at any point?
No one asked for the form. I had a copy just in case, but I suspect I would have just confused the agent by trying to hand it over. It really is the most pointless form ever, as it seems like no one ever asks for it. One has to wonder how a person makes it to the gate without being informed of the testing requirement. You would like to think that issue would be sorted out at check-in, but it is quite clear that confusion rules the day when it comes to USA-bound flights. I was just glad the timing of my test was never an issue, since it was dated two days before the USA flight. So many people are getting stranded right now due to positive (or incomplete) tests. I went to a music festival during my trip, and many of the Americans in attendance were completely unaware that there even was a test required to return home. I know of one person who was returning via Canada, but they managed to get selected for a random test upon arrival in YVR.
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Old Jun 10, 2022, 7:38 am
  #1333  
 
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And it's over!!!!

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/polit...ent/index.html
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Old Jun 10, 2022, 7:40 am
  #1334  
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Wish they replaced it with a vaccine mandate. Oh well.
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Old Jun 10, 2022, 7:43 am
  #1335  
 
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Originally Posted by justforfun

Nice timing. I booked a June 17 flight from Puerto Vallarta to the USA a few months ago and was hoping for the removal of this requirement before then.
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