Covid test for travel to the US

PeskyBlunder

Hi,

Asking on behalf of a a 70-something lady who will be travelling alone on 14th May.

I've looked at the Qured test for her which we could have helped with but there are no video slots available.

The next option is a Randox lateral flow test at the airport (Manchester) on the day of travel.

Will she need to book? Does she need anything on her phone/tablet to receive the result?

Given the recent chaos at Manchester airport, would it be better (and still within the US requirements) to get the test done the day before?

She's flying with Aer Lingus and I've seen mention of a VeriFly app - is this necessary or recommended?

Thanks for any help or advice. *I'm* finding all this very stressful and I'm not even travelling!

Spendless

Hi,  We travelled to the US from Heathrow Easter Monday (flying BA) . We had our tests done at the airport the day before. I can't remember what they're called  (i don't think they were lateral flow) but we had to spit in a test tube.  The staff helped with the app we needed (I'm a bit useless with my phone) and the results came through within a couple of hours. We booked our slot at the testing place in advance. Whilst we were doing this a gentleman came in his flight to the US was in a couple of hours time and he'd forgotten to book his test. They slotted him in and were also able to get the tests picked up to go to testing because there was another family there booked in who were also cutting if fine with how long they needed for the result and the time of their flight. I overheard staff on the phone as I was waiting for my family to complete filling the test tubes asking for someone to come and collect the tests to take to their lab.  For this reason I wouldn't just turn up, I'd book an appointment and with plenty of time for the result to get to her before she's due to fly.

Also the NHS app needed to show you're vaccinated, do this as soon as you're able. DH started doing mine on the Saturday and received a message saying it would take upto a week to process. As it happens it updated within an hour or so, but not before I'd had a complete meltdown over it, convinced I wouldn't be able to go. DH's and DD's updated just fine  (me and DH are triple vaccinated, 19yo daughter double) so I've no idea what caused the issue.
We took paper copies as well as the info on our phone with us


And after all that not one single person checked our vaccination record or our covid tests. DH's work colleagues who had flown out the day before said same. Maybe it was due to being Easter and less staff.  Not that I would have dared risk travelling without.  

PeskyBlunder

Many thanks for the info. Meanwhile our friend had booked a test for this coming Wednesday so I had to tell to re-arrange it for Friday for it to be valid for travel to the US! She's relying on the paper copy of her vaccination status. (After my experience of the NHS app on my phone last night I can't say I blame her - every time I took a photo of my passport it wanted me to sign in again. I finally got it to work by using my tablet with the NHS web site.)

Bizarre that no checks were made on your vaccination status or tests!!!

jimi_man

Generally I’ve found that this seems to be the case wherever you go to. It seems you need to comply with whatever rules are necessary to be allowed boarding by the airline, after that maybe each country assumes that if you’ve been allowed to board then you should be legitimate. 

sheramber

airlines are fined if a passenger does not have the correct documentation to enter a country.

onashoestring

jimi_man said:

Generally I’ve found that this seems to be the case wherever you go to. It seems you need to comply with whatever rules are necessary to be allowed boarding by the airline, after that maybe each country assumes that if you’ve been allowed to board then you should be legitimate. 

Rather than recruit extra civil servants and to avoid long queues at Border Control - most countries have put the onus on the airline ( who are making money out of the traveller ) to check compliance - with fines to the airlines for those that don’t. 

U.K. has the same approach-at  first it was done as a trial when international travel re- opened and later this was rolled out as the usual procedure. https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2021/07/07/ba-virgin-atlantic-and-heathrow-launch-vaccine-proof-trials/

Most Governments have decided that their tax payers shouldn’t have to pay to subsidise  international travel and that these costs should be born by the airlines ( who can pass them on to their passengers) .

There will be some spot checks , the frequency of these will vary depending on your destination. 

Spendless

No checks were done by the airline either. Never spotted any spot check anywhere but maybe we were just elsewhere at the time. 

silvercar

Using the VeriFLY app will mean she can check in and get a boarding pass as soon as she has the green tick from VeriFLY. Makes things much easier.

Another option to look at is Klarity.com. You supply your own LFT (£2 from many outlets) and they offer a variety of prices, either upload a picture of your sample stick or a “sort of” supervised test. You are meant to use the latter for USA, but both will give you the VeriFLY green tick.

bagand96

Spendless said:

No checks were done by the airline either. Never spotted any spot check anywhere but maybe we were just elsewhere at the time. 

When you say "staff helped with the app" was that by any chance Verifly? If it was then the airline did check your documents as BA do it digitally with Verifly. 

Spendless

bagand96 said:

Spendless said:

No checks were done by the airline either. Never spotted any spot check anywhere but maybe we were just elsewhere at the time. 

When you say "staff helped with the app" was that by any chance Verifly? If it was then the airline did check your documents as BA do it digitally with Verifly. 

It was the staff at the testing bit at Heathrow airport where we had the tests done. I'm unsure what it was called as husband booked it, but if it was then that would make sense. 

ETA - Just looked. Am sure it was a LAMP test we booked, but we paid a lot less than current prices and I can't see anything about anywhere called Verifly.  

silvercar

Spendless said:

bagand96 said:

Spendless said:

No checks were done by the airline either. Never spotted any spot check anywhere but maybe we were just elsewhere at the time. 

When you say "staff helped with the app" was that by any chance Verifly? If it was then the airline did check your documents as BA do it digitally with Verifly. 

It was the staff at the testing bit at Heathrow airport where we had the tests done. I'm unsure what it was called as husband booked it, but if it was then that would make sense. 

ETA - Just looked. Am sure it was a LAMP test we booked, but we paid a lot less than current prices and I can't see anything about anywhere called Verifly.  

Verifly is an app, not a testing provider.