Pre-departure tests likely to go in the next few days

[Deleted User]

silvercar said:

You would hope that  a positive pre-flight test would be a claim on insurance. You seem to be suggesting it is better that people fly with omicron and risk infecting fellow flyers and in turn their contacts, than take a relatively cheap test.

It depends on how you look at it. You could make much the same argument about people taking a train from Glasgow to London or going into a shared office but we don't have a legal requirement to get pretested in those scenarios. The question is why getting on a plane in another country should be treated differently. It made sense when the aim was to keep the virus out of the UK but it doesn't make a great deal of sense with us now putting up such high infection numbers.

We're also talking about predeparture tests which can be quite expensive depending on the country. I know someone who relocated with his family back to the UK from Japan last year, for instance, and it cost them a fortune for the testing. I feel like there's been a persistent assumption throughout the pandemic that foreign travel is just rich people going on holiday so it's fair game to charge them through the nose for it, but there are a lot of people travelling for other reasons who can't afford to pay hundreds of pounds on testing.

It has some benefit in making the plane itself safer (just as pretesting for train travel in the UK would make trains safer) but is the benefit worth the cost? I'm not sure it is, and I say that as someone who is all for other precautions like masks.

Sandtree

michael1234 said:

cx6 said:

COVID: Pre-departure tests for travellers returning to the UK to be scrapped | Business News | Sky News

Its interesting that increasing outlets are having the confidence to state this good news but I do wonder where there are getting their info from.

Decisions are not taken in isolation, government has to talk to industry to confirm how quickly they can react, what impacts are going to be etc similarly industry talks to/petitions government for changes and get some form of response. There will be a certain amount of reading between the lines, potentially breaching confidentiality agreements etc but decisions are often political rather than scientific and not done in a vacuum  

zagfles

silvercar said:

michael1234 said:

soolin said:

michael1234 said:

soolin said:

emmajones1976 said:

Its more the £55/£69 ones on return I would rather see binned tbh, the pre-departure ones are a fraction of the cost of that.

I’m in the Canaries and waiting for an update, lateral flow tests here before departure are £35 each and my PCR test (already bought and paid for) back in the UK was £45 , so  little difference really in cost. 

Yes but how much would it cost you if your £35 test came up positive ?

Obviously I would have to follow any current Spanish quarantine rules , that doesn’t affect the £35 I need to pay though (assuming the LFT requirement isn’t lifted before I return. ) 

Indeed. Well I certainly hope you don't show positive and hopefully you got my point that having pre-dept tests could cost hundreds or thousands of pounds so its not just the face value of the test. At least the day 2 PCR is more of a known quantity. (even if possibly pointless in an omicron context where virtually everyone is likely to catch it in the coming few weeks)

You would hope that  a positive pre-flight test would be a claim on insurance. You seem to be suggesting it is better that people fly with omicron and risk infecting fellow flyers and in turn their contacts, than take a relatively cheap test.

The other point you are making is that virtually everyone is likely to catch it in the next few weeks, that is unlikely to be true. I expect numbers either have peaked or soon will do and we will see less infections over the coming weeks.

The pre-departure tests were never intended to protect the plane passengers, otherwise they'd insist on a pre-departure test when leaving the UK, or for domestic flights. They were to prevent Omicron getting imported from abroad, but now that we have similar or more cases than other countries there's not a lot of point.

Doshwaster

zagfles said:

silvercar said:

michael1234 said:

soolin said:

michael1234 said:

soolin said:

emmajones1976 said:

Its more the £55/£69 ones on return I would rather see binned tbh, the pre-departure ones are a fraction of the cost of that.

I’m in the Canaries and waiting for an update, lateral flow tests here before departure are £35 each and my PCR test (already bought and paid for) back in the UK was £45 , so  little difference really in cost. 

Yes but how much would it cost you if your £35 test came up positive ?

Obviously I would have to follow any current Spanish quarantine rules , that doesn’t affect the £35 I need to pay though (assuming the LFT requirement isn’t lifted before I return. ) 

Indeed. Well I certainly hope you don't show positive and hopefully you got my point that having pre-dept tests could cost hundreds or thousands of pounds so its not just the face value of the test. At least the day 2 PCR is more of a known quantity. (even if possibly pointless in an omicron context where virtually everyone is likely to catch it in the coming few weeks)

You would hope that  a positive pre-flight test would be a claim on insurance. You seem to be suggesting it is better that people fly with omicron and risk infecting fellow flyers and in turn their contacts, than take a relatively cheap test.

The other point you are making is that virtually everyone is likely to catch it in the next few weeks, that is unlikely to be true. I expect numbers either have peaked or soon will do and we will see less infections over the coming weeks.

The pre-departure tests were never intended to protect the plane passengers, otherwise they'd insist on a pre-departure test when leaving the UK, or for domestic flights. They were to prevent Omicron getting imported from abroad, but now that we have similar or more cases than other countries there's not a lot of point.

A pre-departure test before leaving the UK would more likely be a requirement for the government of the destination country. 

That's what makes international travel so complex as you have to comply with both the UK and destination requirements both of which can change ar a few hours notice.

zagfles

Doshwaster said:

zagfles said:

silvercar said:

michael1234 said:

soolin said:

michael1234 said:

soolin said:

emmajones1976 said:

Its more the £55/£69 ones on return I would rather see binned tbh, the pre-departure ones are a fraction of the cost of that.

I’m in the Canaries and waiting for an update, lateral flow tests here before departure are £35 each and my PCR test (already bought and paid for) back in the UK was £45 , so  little difference really in cost. 

Yes but how much would it cost you if your £35 test came up positive ?

Obviously I would have to follow any current Spanish quarantine rules , that doesn’t affect the £35 I need to pay though (assuming the LFT requirement isn’t lifted before I return. ) 

Indeed. Well I certainly hope you don't show positive and hopefully you got my point that having pre-dept tests could cost hundreds or thousands of pounds so its not just the face value of the test. At least the day 2 PCR is more of a known quantity. (even if possibly pointless in an omicron context where virtually everyone is likely to catch it in the coming few weeks)

You would hope that  a positive pre-flight test would be a claim on insurance. You seem to be suggesting it is better that people fly with omicron and risk infecting fellow flyers and in turn their contacts, than take a relatively cheap test.

The other point you are making is that virtually everyone is likely to catch it in the next few weeks, that is unlikely to be true. I expect numbers either have peaked or soon will do and we will see less infections over the coming weeks.

The pre-departure tests were never intended to protect the plane passengers, otherwise they'd insist on a pre-departure test when leaving the UK, or for domestic flights. They were to prevent Omicron getting imported from abroad, but now that we have similar or more cases than other countries there's not a lot of point.

A pre-departure test before leaving the UK would more likely be a requirement for the government of the destination country. 

That's what makes international travel so complex as you have to comply with both the UK and destination requirements both of which can change ar a few hours notice.

Well yes, so it's clearly designed to protect the desination country, not the plane passengers.