Cheapest antigen tests for international travel

chrb

I need to buy some antigen tests for international travel. The cheapest antigen test on the MSE list (for dept and pre-arrival) is £39 from Qured. But I also found

• Co-Op Pharmacy at £25 (shipping is £3.95 regardless of how many kits you order). This appears to be a reseller of the C19Testing kits.
• C19Testing at £29 (includes shipping)
• Chronomics at £28 (includes shipping)
  

Does anyone have any experience with antigen tests from these providers? Or any other cheap recommendations? Obviously keen not to mess this one up...

Sandtree

We paid £12 for a local antigen test for our return flight to the UK, didnt even think of trying to get them from the UK. Only challenge is the certificate must be in english, french or spanish so could be difficult if you are going to another country (though some person is likely to have cottoned onto the opportunity)

Queue, test and certificate all done in 15 minutes

Ben1989

It depends where you're going. I used Qured which I rate. Can book the video test at your best convenience and get the certificate within the hour.

mar7t1n

I can see that taking an antigen with me is the cheaper option than buying a test at the airport to return. But understand the process is that you have to book a zoom call to be supervised taking it. The companies are somewhat vague, and suspect they tell you when your slot is or you have to wait on hold to do it given the cheap price. So can see a whole day of the holiday being wasted tied to the hotel fighting the tech to get it to work. And what if your connection drops or the test is inconclusive - oh sorry you might have swapped a bad test for a clean one so you'll have to just buy another anyway now. So although the cheap price is tempting, think just turning up to get one is financially safer.

Equally would help avoid the stress of trying to navigate a foreign airport to find the testing centre with only 2hrs before the flight.

Perhaps anyone who's done one can say how it actually works. I need a service which can be achieved in a more offline way, e.g. sending a photo before and after which can be done in my own time and just uploaded. And someone checks it and confirms thanks we confirm the test was evidenced before and after so know it done at the right time. It doesn't matter if it takes all night to return the certificate.

Sandtree

mar7t1n said:

I can see that taking an antigen with me is the cheaper option than buying a test at the airport to return. 

But more expensive than doing a local test not at the airport, potentially. Its not hard to check on tripadvisor etc for people's experience of local testing and costs.

For us it was half the price of bringing something from the UK and was done at our own time 2 days before our flight home when we happened to be going into town anyway. 

k3lvc

mar7t1n said:

Equally would help avoid the stress of trying to navigate a foreign airport to find the testing centre with only 2hrs before the flight.

But one of the purposes, whether stated or not, of the test/quarantine regime is to make people think whether the travel is necessary and worth the extra work/cost.

I suspect there's a market out there for a guaranteed (but expensive) service - unfortunately you've asked for the cheapest and that will come with (significant) risk/extra effort/loss of holiday time

All comes down to 'how much is your holiday time worth ?' - would you pay £100 ? £200 ? £500 ? for a guaranteed test to your terms ? 

pjcox2005

Pre-Departure Lateral Flow Test | The LivingCare Group | Leeds

Haven't had the holiday yet but we went with these at £25 each. Think they were on Jet2 or MSE recommendations; slightly lower Trustpilot score but these weren't for the test itself.

Not an appointment one, so you take the tests with you, perform them and then upload a picture of test with passport on the form provided and then they send relevant docs.

Less hassle then booking an appointment, slightly cheaper and have a little more confidence you've got an appropriate test with you rather than trying to find a provider at the destination. Guess we may need to use hotel printer unless airport let's you just have the adobe on your phone.

I sort of go on the basis i'll take the test 48 hours before flying so if it really went wrong I'd just find another provider at location and pay extra.

Spendless

My daughter and boytriend went on holiday to Greece last week. I bought them the c19 tests for £29 to take. They said they found it really easy. If you look on their website it tells you how you'd take the test, to see if this is something you'd be comfortable with. 

mar7t1n

k3lvc TBF if the trip hadn't been booked before covid, we wouldn't be going now. The money is tied up cannot get it back, insurance will not cover the trip if delayed any longer as technically it will have been booked more than 2 years prior. These things cost what they cost, but us money savers don't want to feel we paid double for no other reason than because we were too lazy to check out a better deal.

mar7t1n

Pros and cons to either system. Airport expensive, and might be a rush. Take with us, might not be necessary if rules change, or might have to be purchased again if the system doesn't work. Not sure how they prove you actually swabbed yourself with a photo upload, but that would be the one we'd go with as a day out in the sunshine is worth far more than a £25 saving to wait in on a zoom call booking. Just want to take when ready, upload before dinner and get result back next morning would be fine. Chances of being +ve from 5 days in a country reporting 820 cases a day - I think seriously negligible! Why it's not green and no testing required I think is more political than science.

jcbimp65

Has anyone taken the antigen tests with them from the UK in hand luggage and if so did they have any problems going out through security