[Tom Otley]

Let’s hope for those who are travelling to the US, the approach of LA County does not become widespread – seven day quarantine, even when fully-vaccinated and even after a negative test – offered free – on arrival

Starting tomorrow, international travelers coming to LA from any country with Omicron cases or feeling ill upon arrival should get a Free Rapid Post-Arrival Test before leaving the airport, get tested again in 3-5 days, quarantine/isolate if they test positive, & monitor symptoms pic.twitter.com/TNOCp26YHQ

— LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 3, 2021

[PatJordan]

Mrs. J & I arrived in LCY after a very enjoyable flight on BA Citiflyer: really great cabin service!

We booked our antigen tests through LCY’s own website using this link: https://www.collinsongroup.com/en/covid-19-testing/london-city-airport

It was a very easy process and we had our tests booked in a few minutes, followed by an online form to complete with personal details, passport numbers, etc: this also tool only a small amount of time.

Best of all was a discount code included: LCY TEST

This code gives a 20% discount leaving a very reasonable cost of £64 for two tests.

I’ll update the page after the test.

Stay safe everybody,

Pat

4 users thanked author for this post.

ASK1945, FaroFlyer, DavidSmith2, Tom Otley

[K1ngston]

I will let our good friend Polly confirm this story when she either wakes up or lands but apparently there was huge confusion last night here in Singapore when she and others tried leaving Singapore on the BA flight to get back to the UK before the new testing regime was due to come into force in the UK!

I received a message from her well after midnight here and long after the flight was due to depart effectively saying that BA were not letting those who hadn’t got a valid test result to board the plane and that chaos ensued!…Apparently there was no BA staff to help and it soon descended into utter chaos!

Now there were many on that flight simply because it would have landed jut after the 4am Tuesday deadline and so nobody took the test, nobody here was aware that because it landed after that time people had to have tests. I am sure she will come on to give her own story but that just seems to be ludicrous and clearly not communicated well enough!

[stevescoots]

[postquote quote=1138420]

yes its not clear on the Gov site if the cut off time is departure or arrival

From 4am on Tuesday 7 December anyone aged 12 and above wishing to travel to the UK will need to show a negative pre-departure test (LFD or PCR). The test must be taken within the 2 days before you travel to the UK.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Polly

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1138437]

Not clear at all Steve, and badly managed apparently also!

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Polly

[CathayLoyalist2]

You cannot complete the Personal Locator Form earlier than 48 hours before your arrival time into the UK, so it is reasonable to assume that the validity of your test is no earlier than 48 hours beofre you arrive hence take the test no earlier than 1.00pm 48 hours before your departure. Anything else would not make sense, then again……

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Polly

[TerryMcManus24]

Was due to leave Chiang Mai to Glasgow today but this sudden change…argg..Flying with KLM who have an easy on line no argument system of changing dates so hopefully will get a Antigen on Friday for a Sunday departure. After 18 months whats another few days.. Beautiful weather here in the mountains..cool nights,warm sunny days and cloudless blue skys….but needs be…yes

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K1ngston, Polly

[Polly]

K1ngston, Tnx for updating Monday nights madness from Changi.

Morning, now Wed, escaped from Singapore, finally Monday night. k was actually messaging you from F cabin, the compliment fi is v good. As you said, we literally did the trolley dash over to T3 raffles medical again. The check in agent had already told us they had turned away 40! people from our flight, who were subsequently denied boarding. Told they couldn’t do their tests that quickly. This chap,P,all who started to check in after we were just left hanging there. No help from BA at all. No rep. I called You First, couldn’t direct them to let us board. Even tho border control got the BA rep in MRU, same dep time as us, to allow all pax on board without the test. Stating quite clearly it says “pre departure tests, not an arrivals test”. So this chap was having none of it, we had seen others rushing off from our F and J check in, but we didn’t know they were trying too. We know we had literally 45 mins til close of flight. Made the test, and all back 7 mins before closing, so they rushed our check in through. Rewarded for our extreme effort. All totally unnecessary. Over react from local agents. BA insisted they did NOT direct them to test us, who knows. Or if they did, it was too late to test in time. 50 pax in total didn’t board!

We had even changed our flights from Wed to Mon to avoid this palaver, due to a previous experience in SIN, which l won’t go into. Check in kept advising us to change. There were Biz folks w mtngs in Lon next day, who begged to have our seats. Gnd staff there couldn’t compensate us if we gave up our F seats. Wasn’t offering for nothing. Total mess. BA should have had a rep there to deal with this. Big shame on BA for that.

The NWK lot who all got left behind, a whole plane load Mon night, again same departure time as us… had been sent an email 3 hrs before depart. Really? when they were all on their way to the airport. Most hadn’t even looked at their emails. And the Rio lot. Twitter reporting in from all corners of the globe re this fiasco. Who on earth drafts the English used on the gov website. Their English language skills leave A LOT to be desired.

No showers, lounge nothing. All needed showers at this point. We were all looking a very sorry sight, bedraggled comes to mind, collapsing to our J and F beds with relief. Yes, 1st world problems, we will admit. Champers reslly helped. No shortage on this flight. The steaks superb also.

Jordan, the BA 12 flight manager was superb at helping us all calm down. Big shout out to him and his team! Seriously, nerves were in shreds, bad experience, enough to put us off flying for years… it’s so so sad, as all these Asian economies and indeed our own U.K. travel economy needs our spend. Will we go back? Will have to think long and hard about this.

Kingston, great catching up with you, and enjoyed our discussions and lunches…positive memories. Putting the world to rights! And indeed meeting your other half. Great food choices btw…

2 users thanked author for this post.

Tom Otley, K1ngston

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1141878]

My other friend I was telling you about Polly, took a taxi to Bedok, about 20 mins from the airport and were the last people to make the plane apparently, as you say couldn’t make this shit up if you wanted too, especially when the staff in SG were clearly acting on their own and not heeding peoples reasonable requests to phone UK border control to get the proper information….

Glad you and Mr P are home and after your time here I am sure a rest is required … Lovely to meet you and will do so again soon 🙂

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TerryMcManus24, Polly

[Polly]

Tnx K and Terry.

Terry,

Interested Terry in your area. We love northern T. Visited many times. Do you actually live/work there? Or retired. It’s a place we would love to long stay one day, if we ever get back to a normal travel world, that is…

[TerryMcManus24]

Hi Polly.
At 72 now consider myself “Semi Retired”
Spent years travelling so find this as good a place as any. We (wife and I ..she’s Thai with UK PP) have a small mountain farm of around 30 Rai at @ 500 mts above sea level hence weather is “considerate” apart from a few hot and smoky days in Springtime. Located roughly 45 Klms out of CM not far from the Highland golf club and San Kampeng Hot springs…it’s easy to get about.
Recon I am the only “farang” in the area. Apart from the last 18 months travel has indeed been restricted but still managed the odd run up to Chiang Rai and down to Patty and Bangers. Usually visit UK twice a year in normal times with lots of flying opportunities from the best wee airport in Thailand CM.
Happy to answer any questions you might have …best wishes T

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Polly

[Polly]

Thx Terry, great story…P

[DavidSmith2]

A positive experience which could perhaps be adopted by other hotels. I am staying at a ‘good’ hotel in Tirana, Albania. I told them I would need a PCR or LFT test before flying back to London tomorrow. They booked me in for 9am today. The tester came to my hotel room at the appointed time, took me to another hotel room which has been turned into a testing room and took my swabs. The results will be sent through in about 4 hours and the total cost was 40 GBP.

Completely hassle free!

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Tom Otley

[Tom Otley]

I had a similar experience at a hotel in Mexico (The Marriott). Very well-organised – and complimentary in its case (for LTF), because the tests were needed for all visitors, whether from the US or International at that time.

[Tom Otley]

Travellers face week-long waits for PCR test results over Christmas

Telegraph story:
“One of Britain’s biggest travel testing companies has warned of delays to PCR test deliveries over Christmas, potentially throwing festive travel plans into disarray.
Qured announced that standard delivery Day 2 PCR tests with an arrival date between December 20 and January 3 are “unavailable due to postal closures.” This could impact returning travellers, given that they must now self-isolate until receiving a negative result.
Meanwhile, a Day 2 & Day 8 test package, for unvaccinated travellers, will not be possible if they arrive between December 14 and January 3.”

[Author]

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