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Covid tests for Portugal and TAP [Suspended 30 June 2022]

Covid tests for Portugal and TAP [Suspended 30 June 2022]

Old Mar 9, 2022, 4:49 pm
  #136  
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Originally Posted by cruisr
I am doing a 21 hour transit coming from RAK thru LIS and then on to EWR. I have the Swiss covid pass on my phone. It is confusing even looking at Sherpa. I think I need a test before getting on the plane in RAK and then I will need to get another test in LIS for my onward flight to the US. I will ask at the TAP desk in RAK when I arrive there from MAD to be sure what I think is correct is actually correct.
The Swiss pass is considered an EU recognised vaccine pass, even though Switzerland isn't in the EU. So you should be allowed via LIS just showing that and no tests. If in RAK you get a booster then the Morrocco vaccine pass is also EU recognised - they have managed to get through the technical hoops.
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Old Mar 14, 2022, 6:02 pm
  #137  
 
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Quick question. I have a flight to LHR from the US. Then a connection to LIS.

Is the Antigen test 24 hours before boarding referring to boarding your flight to Lisbon from LHR or your original point of departure?? In other words, when does the 24 hour clock start?
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Old Mar 15, 2022, 9:53 am
  #138  
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Originally Posted by off2rome
Quick question. I have a flight to LHR from the US. Then a connection to LIS.

Is the Antigen test 24 hours before boarding referring to boarding your flight to Lisbon from LHR or your original point of departure?? In other words, when does the 24 hour clock start?
For the USA the "clock" is not, and has never been, 24 hours. It's the day of departure or the day before departure, see the CDC website for very clear explanations of this. Personally I would make it the "day of travel or the day before travel" relating to LIS rather than LHR, if there is an overnight stay, and it's easy / cheap to do the test in LIS. But if it's one ticket and the connection is not unduly long in LIS, the rules relate to departure time in LHR rather than LIS.
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Old Mar 15, 2022, 10:37 am
  #139  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
For the USA the "clock" is not, and has never been, 24 hours. It's the day of departure or the day before departure, see the CDC website for very clear explanations of this. Personally I would make it the "day of travel or the day before travel" relating to LIS rather than LHR, if there is an overnight stay, and it's easy / cheap to do the test in LIS. But if it's one ticket and the connection is not unduly long in LIS, the rules relate to departure time in LHR rather than LIS.
In the event the query related to Portugal's requirement for transit pax to have an antigen test 24 hours "before boarding", would you know if this is 24 hours before boarding the flight to Portugal, or 24 hours before the first flight flown. I can't find clarity on this.
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Old Mar 15, 2022, 11:17 am
  #140  
 
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Originally Posted by work2fly
In the event the query related to Portugal's requirement for transit pax to have an antigen test 24 hours "before boarding", would you know if this is 24 hours before boarding the flight to Portugal, or 24 hours before the first flight flown. I can't find clarity on this.

This was precisely my question.
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Old Mar 15, 2022, 12:27 pm
  #141  
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Originally Posted by work2fly
In the event the query related to Portugal's requirement for transit pax to have an antigen test 24 hours "before boarding", would you know if this is 24 hours before boarding the flight to Portugal, or 24 hours before the first flight flown. I can't find clarity on this.
Apologies I did misread the question. For the Portugal requirements, it's boarding time, and yes that is a 24 hour requirement. So if boarding in (say) EWR the antigen test has to be within 24 hours of boarding at EWR, 72 hours for PCR. So your certificate needs to have a time stamp on it unless it's a same day as travel test.
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Old Mar 15, 2022, 12:34 pm
  #142  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Apologies I did misread the question. For the Portugal requirements, it's boarding time, and yes that is a 24 hour requirement. So if boarding in (say) EWR the antigen test has to be within 24 hours of boarding at EWR, 72 hours for PCR. So your certificate needs to have a time stamp on it unless it's a same day as travel test.
Thank you. If I understand correctly, for my upcoming SFO-YYZ-LIS flight, it's the boarding time in YYZ that matters for testing purposes.
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Old Mar 15, 2022, 1:04 pm
  #143  
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Originally Posted by work2fly
Thank you. If I understand correctly, for my upcoming SFO-YYZ-LIS flight, it's the boarding time in YYZ that matters for testing purposes.
Yes. I did have a flight SFO-BOS-LIS a few months ago, when the antigen timeline was 2 days, and jetBlue did check my test in SFO, but it was a bit superficial and I imagine I could have said that I would get the test in BOS and thus not have the certificate to hand in SFO. But BOS was more meticulous about checking. If this flight is awhile off you best not make plans now since generally things are getting easier in Europe at the moment.
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Old Mar 15, 2022, 8:06 pm
  #144  
 
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Originally Posted by SkyTeam777
Update: I had no problem using Binax Now test, but the EWR staff seem dumber than a door nail.
I keep checking Portugal's transiting requirements but no update has been made on Timatic or Sherpa. They seem to be the only country left that is not lessening requiring testing and PLF and it's such a PITA just to transit.

Can anyone point to anything official and not open to interpretation that US citizens that have the Swiss EUDCC do not have to test to transit LIS when flying TAP? I am still leaning on us getting a test just to be safe but we got the Swiss EUDCC to avoid testing as our pre-boarding timing is funky since one of us is coming from LA and the rest of us are on the east coast before we board our TAP EWR-LIS-BCN flight.

I really don't want our whole trip balancing on a gate agent's interpretation at EWR.
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Old Mar 16, 2022, 2:05 am
  #145  
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Originally Posted by Graciecatt
Can anyone point to anything official and not open to interpretation that US citizens that have the Swiss EUDCC do not have to test to transit LIS when flying TAP? I am still leaning on us getting a test just to be safe but we got the Swiss EUDCC to avoid testing as our pre-boarding timing is funky since one of us is coming from LA and the rest of us are on the east coast before we board our TAP EWR-LIS-BCN flight.
The VisitPortugal website is what I use as gospel here, it is usually updated within a day or two of changes:
https://www.visitportugal.com/en/con...ented-portugal
and this mentions Switzerland. This is an official government Tourism site but in English.

One thing you could try is loading the Corona-Warn app from Germany. Then go to Certificates and try to load the Swiss certificate into that. I have no idea if that works. If it works it will also provide you with the German EU DCC and the reason that may be worth doing is that it clearly states at the top of the certifcate that it is a EU DCC - most of Europe's DCCs use different terminology. At the European end this doesn't matter but it's all about making things clear at the EWR end. I know for sure that EWR is accepting the NHS certificates from the UK, which have a similar third country relationship with EU DCC as Switzerland.

And write to your elected representatives to get the USA to introduce at least a voluntary federal system under the auspices of someone like the CDC or FDA - this and similar things are not going away.
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Old Mar 16, 2022, 7:09 am
  #146  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
The VisitPortugal website is what I use as gospel here, it is usually updated within a day or two of changes:
https://www.visitportugal.com/en/con...ented-portugal
and this mentions Switzerland. This is an official government Tourism site but in English.

One thing you could try is loading the Corona-Warn app from Germany.
Thank you for a great idea. I will try to load and report back.
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Old Mar 16, 2022, 8:14 am
  #147  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
One thing you could try is loading the Corona-Warn app from Germany. Then go to Certificates and try to load the Swiss certificate into that. I have no idea if that works. If it works it will also provide you with the German EU DCC and the reason that may be worth doing is that it clearly states at the top of the certifcate that it is a EU DCC - most of Europe's DCCs use different terminology.
corporate-wage-slave So I downloaded the Covid-Warn app and loaded my Swiss EUDCC. That worked and the app says my certificate is valid in Germany. Then there is a section in the Covid-Warn app where you can choose a country to see if what you just uploaded to the Covid-Warn app is valid in that country. So I chose Portugal and I got "Certificate cannot be validated" Please check at reopen.europa.eu whether the certificate is valide for entry into the selected country".

So I still do not have definitive proof that my EUDCC works in Portugal.

It does say EU Digital Covid Certifcate at the top so you are correct but effing Portugal... I guess we'll just have to test so there are no surprises. This is so frustrating. Out of the 3 countries we are visiting, we are only transiting Portugal and none of the others require testing (Spain, Greece, Turkey).

Editing to add the Covid Warn app also says my cert is unable to be validated for Greece and Turkey but it is OK for Spain. So confused.

Last edited by Graciecatt; Mar 16, 2022 at 8:21 am
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Old Mar 16, 2022, 9:52 am
  #148  
 
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Visit Portugal was updated today, and US CDC vax cards are still not officially accepted. And like the poster above, we're only transiting LIS to get to Spain.

I'm equally disappointed in my government for not facilitating a reciprocal digital certificate and in Portugal for having such stringent measures even for transit pax.
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Old Mar 16, 2022, 10:25 am
  #149  
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Originally Posted by Graciecatt
corporate-wage-slave So I downloaded the Covid-Warn app and loaded my Swiss EUDCC. That worked and the app says my certificate is valid in Germany. Then there is a section in the Covid-Warn app where you can choose a country to see if what you just uploaded to the Covid-Warn app is valid in that country. So I chose Portugal and I got "Certificate cannot be validated" Please check at reopen.europa.eu whether the certificate is valide for entry into the selected country".

So I still do not have definitive proof that my EUDCC works in Portugal.
It does, it is an EU wide system now, plus other aligned countries like Panama and Uruguay. The German certificate works everywhere where the EU DCC is accepted. Don't worry about those drop downs, which aren't part of the functionality anyway, they are just information screens and are out of date. You have an EU DCC and that works across Europe. At one point there were going to be various COVID regulation variations around Europe but that has now stopped so you can forget about that. But without a shadow of a doubt you now hold a EU DCC, as well as the Swiss third country one. The German main certifcate is 100% valid in Portugal for example at hotels. If you play about with it there are several display screens for the bar code, the one to show EWR is the one which scrolls down to show your vaccine details.
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Old Mar 21, 2022, 8:41 am
  #150  
 
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Question Can someone help us with Lisbon transfer requirements?

My wife and I are flying from Montenegro to Funchal, Portugal in a few days. Our route is: Podgorica - Vienna (Austrian Airlines), Vienna-Lisbon (TAP) where we overnight and then finally LIS-FNC (TAP). I'm seeing conflicting information on whether testing is required for the Lisbon transfer. We are fully vaccinated & boosted US citizens. Can anyone confirm whether we need a test prior to travel or will our US CDC vaccination cards work? Don't want to pay the cost of tests if not required.

Thanks so much for the help!
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