[SimonS1]

Covid positive passengers it seems.

https://simpleflying.com/british-airways-banned-hong-kong/amp/

[Mark Caswell]

Also covered here this morning:

Hong Kong bans British Airways, KLM over Covid-19 cases

[MartynSinclair]

Not just HKG flexing their muscles against rule breakers.

KLM Flight Attendant Arrested In Singapore For Leaving Hotel Room

Earlier in the year a Fedex pilot was jailed for 4 weeks for a similar offence in Singapore.

[IanFromHKG]

This ban is ridiculous, capricious, unfair and wrong.

BA only fly to HK from the UK (obviously). As the UK is regarded as a coronavirus high-risk country by HK, every single passenger must take a PCR test with a negative result within 72 hours before checking in with BA in London. What the **** else could BA do? EVERY passenger on those flights tested negative before check-in. Every single one. And yet BA are being p0unished.

And yet Cathay Pacific have reportedly had SEVEN – but aren’t banned.

And in any case, what is the point of the ban? The passengers affected are either going to come in on other airlines – meaning the risk to HK doesn’t change – or they are going to stay in the UK because they can’t afford the change or the result is their plans don’t work any more. At a time when so many HK-based students in the UK are trying to come home for the holidays, this is cruel, it’s unnecessary, and it’s pointless. It makes me so angry.

Thank goodness our girls missed all this nonsense as they are in HK now (having flown in on BA), in hotel quarantine, sharing a room and so far managing not to murder each other. We have set them up with all the conveniences we can think of, they have a “boredom bag” for each day of their stay that they open each evening which contains treats, games, distractions, etc, we are making sure that they have enough food and (decent) booze to keep them happy, and are just counting the days until they are released. Quarantine orders here expire at 23:59 and they have already confirmed that they want a car waiting at midnight on the dot so they can come home. Yay!!

And yet when they get here, we have to book two tables at restaurants because although we can all be together in public (as members of the same household we are an “exempt group gathering”), once we go into a restaurant only two of us can sit at one table. It’s all bloody stupid and incredibly annoying and, again, utterly pointless and capricious.

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Polly, RomP, canucklad, Montysaurus, AnthonyDunn, esselle, K1ngston, cwoodward, Johnnyg, DerekVH, Bullfrog, fatbear, Stevescoots

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1046767][/postquote]

Ian, I wish I had had a “boredom bag” throughout my 2 week SHN recently here in Singapore, I cannot tell you how mind numbing it is, so I feel for your girls! Hope they come out safe and sound and you have a fantastic Xmas!

2 users thanked author for this post.

Polly, IanFromHKG

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1046008][/postquote]

If they break the rules that are imposed upon them then they have to suffer the consequences, here and elsewhere in Asia you have to quarantine and by that you are mandated to stay in your room, you decide to leave and are caught you will face the consequences… No sympathies from me or anyone here

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IanFromHKG, tomwjsimpson, Stevescoots, AnthonyDunn, Bullfrog, MartynSinclair

[AnthonyDunn]

Ian, if it’s any consolation, a friend of Senior Management and mine has been stuck in Shenzhen for literally months and because of the strict HK quarantine requirements (and the reciprocal requirement upon re-entry into PRC), he has been unable to return to HK since early 2020. Owing to the clusterf*** idiocy of Brex**it, he has now had to head to Spain so that he can sort out his permanent residency papers there ahead of the New Year. To add to the paucity of flights at present between western Europe and China/HK, he has not been helped by a boss who appears to have delighted in being completely unyielding and inflexible. Our friend ended up turning around and telling his superior, “I’m leaving to get this sorted out and if you don’t like it, you’ll have to fire me!”

Fortunately your daughters are not having to deal with that level of intransigence.

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GivingupBA

[IanFromHKG]

Fortunately, Anthony, the Memsahib is extraordinarily intelligent (even though she did only get into Cambridge), diligent and careful, so backup bookings have been made, along with various contingency plans

This must be murder for hotels, already suffering, as we make multiple bookings for our own benefit and then cancel at the last minute. I hope none will criticise us for making contingency plans to ensure we can spend Christmas with our girls (incidentally the bookings are all with big groups, deliberately, not with small family concerns), but the hospitality industry must hate this situation

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GivingupBA, Bullfrog, K1ngston

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1049388][/postquote]

Absolutely nobody will blame you for wanting to be with your daughters! … And to change slightly the message, here in Singapore they went into Tier 3 from Dec 28th meaning we can be in groups of 8 now not 5 with a couple of other lesser restrictions… Vaccinations from the end of the month 🙂

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Polly, Bullfrog

[cwoodward]

The LHR flight is producing only a handful of covid positive arrivals in to HKG but there has been a recent upturn pushing BA over the tolerated limit. This it seems because of the inferior quality of the test being used.
In the UK the remote testing or testing 72 hours before departure used by some it seems is inaccurate or is allowing people to contract the virus in the window prior to the flight. However most paxs are in fact using the Collinson test facility at the airport but Collinson uses the LAMP test which is know not to be as thorough as other tests. The poor quality of LAMP seems to me to be totally the wrong test to use at airports.
HKIA uses Prenetic and Raffles Medical Group services who use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab testing that delivers fast, reliable and accurate results. (also used in Singapore I understand) Pax’s will need to arrive at HKIA at least four hours before boarding to allow sufficient time for completing the test and obtaining test result in time for boarding.
The UK air travellers testing procedures in place look to be rather poor in comparison.

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TupeloKid, Polly

[canucklad]

[quote quote=1046767]It’s all bloody stupid and incredibly annoying and, again, utterly pointless and capricious.[/quote]

Which succinctly sums up where we are nine months into this nightmare . Cwoodwards comment above really proves the point that collectively we’ve made a bums rush of this.
Hopefully the people who make the critical decisions can learn from their up to now total failure in managing this crisis. Especially with the vaccine light now appearing at the end of the tunnel.

God help OUR politicians and scientific advisors if they don’t raise their game in the coming weeks

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DerekVH, ASK1945, Polly, Montysaurus

[IanFromHKG]

Thanks to all for their kind comments, and insightful input as well.

The girls are surviving well, I just had a long FaceTime chat with them. The boredom bags have been a success, their only request is for more booze 🙂 We are happy to indulge them.

In another example of our government’s compete idiocy, the hotel they are staying in – which has gone to extraordinary lengths to make it bearable (for example, they have free minibar refills each day, and there is a daily cocktail hour where they knock on the door and offer cocktails left outside the door, and much else besides) has been omitted from the new list of 36 approved hotels under the new and “enhanced” government-imposed hotel quarantine provisions coming in, under which (among many other stupidities) guests will not be allowed to order food deliveries through services such as Deliveroo but must rely on, and pay for, room service. Because, of course, some chap (they are always chaps) arriving on a motorbike and delivering food to reception to be taken up to the room by hotel staff is at deadly risk of contracting or passing on coronavirus from or to people in the room. I don’t know about you lot but I could survive on room service for three days max without blowing a gasket. Madness. Even in a really good restaurant with an extensive menu, within less than a week I would be crying out for change.

I know I am going slightly off topic here but really, these HK regulations are unutterably stupid, pointless and unhelpful. As if the government here needed to generate any more resentment. Our infection rate here is about 0.1% of the population. Yes, it’s a problem. No, we don’t want it to get worse. But a sense of proportion is required.

1 user thanked author for this post.

TupeloKid

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1056534][/postquote]

Ian, strange about the deliveroo team not being able to deliver, but and this is a huge but to have cocktails and mini bar drinks would have been very welcome here in Singapore so we could have been inebriated and therefore not cared about the rubbish food we were served 🙂

[canucklad]

[quote quote=1056534]Because, of course, some chap (they are always chaps) arriving on a motorbike and delivering food to reception to be taken up to the room by hotel staff is at deadly risk of contracting or passing on coronavirus from or to people in the room.[/quote]

Ian, daft rules aren’t exclusive to HK — before Jason & Nicola’s latest onslaught on pubs in Scotland, we were sitting at a table in the bar, socially distanced of course , and one of my pals thought a couple of pizza’s would hit the spot.
Before all this nonsense you’d go to the bar and order and pay and they’d deliver it from the Italian restaurant that is part of the premises.

Our barmaid rolls her eyes and says ….. Not allowed anymore, you need to phone them, and organise the delivery guy to drop it off and pay him , or following the arrows on the floor arrange to pick it up yourself and pay them . You’re talking about a distance of less than 20 yards …..

So rather than just interacting with one member of staff you had to jump through hops — End result , couldn’t be bothered with the added hassle

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mkcol74, PeterCoultas

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=1056534]guests will not be allowed to order food deliveries through services such as Deliveroo but must rely on, and pay for, room service.[/quote]

..unless of course banning food deliveries in favour of room service was ‘influenced’ by the hotels themselves….

[Author]

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