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Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

Holiday Ideas & Foreign Travel
Julian
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Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475464

Postby Julian » January 23rd, 2022, 12:24 am

Everyone I know who has travelled abroad while day 2 tests have been in effect has ordered the test prior to departure so that they know they have the authorisation number and can leave the test itself on the kitchen countertop (or wherever) for use when they get home. That is sensible for short trips to get it all sorted out beforehand but I am now working up to doing my fist trip for 2 years to my holiday home in South Africa and that will be a 2-and-a-bit month stay so I don’t expect to return to the UK until the very end of April. By that time my guess is that it is very possible that all day 2 testing requirements might have been abolished so it seems a bit wasteful to get a test delivered now. I would rather wait until a couple of weeks before I am due to fly back and, if day 2 testing on return is still a requirement, order the necessary test kit over the internet. For those of you who have done the day 2 testing thing can you see any issue with that? A neighbour is taking in my mail so the test kit would arrive safely at my home even though I wasn’t there at time of delivery and I assume the test code you need to present to UK border control to re-enter the UK is sent by email so I would have that prior to departing SA even though I hadn’t had physical sight of the testing kit at that time. Are all my assumptions correct and/or is there anything that I’ve overlooked?

- Julian

seagles
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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475486

Postby seagles » January 23rd, 2022, 8:30 am

Julian wrote:Everyone I know who has travelled abroad while day 2 tests have been in effect has ordered the test prior to departure so that they know they have the authorisation number and can leave the test itself on the kitchen countertop (or wherever) for use when they get home. That is sensible for short trips to get it all sorted out beforehand but I am now working up to doing my fist trip for 2 years to my holiday home in South Africa and that will be a 2-and-a-bit month stay so I don’t expect to return to the UK until the very end of April. By that time my guess is that it is very possible that all day 2 testing requirements might have been abolished so it seems a bit wasteful to get a test delivered now. I would rather wait until a couple of weeks before I am due to fly back and, if day 2 testing on return is still a requirement, order the necessary test kit over the internet. For those of you who have done the day 2 testing thing can you see any issue with that? A neighbour is taking in my mail so the test kit would arrive safely at my home even though I wasn’t there at time of delivery and I assume the test code you need to present to UK border control to re-enter the UK is sent by email so I would have that prior to departing SA even though I hadn’t had physical sight of the testing kit at that time. Are all my assumptions correct and/or is there anything that I’ve overlooked?

- Julian


I am off next week for 2 weeks and have checked out this and Chronomics have set up a pickup site at Gatwick. I will be using this and buying it 5 days before return. I am hoping that requirements for test will be dropped, ever hopeful. If they did not have a pickup I would still consider have it sent home for use as I have a housekeeper/lodger to look after the mail. They send you the code by email and also post it on their website if you setup a login. Will recheck everything before flying off though as it does seem to change quite fast.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475494

Postby servodude » January 23rd, 2022, 9:17 am

seagles wrote:
Julian wrote:Everyone I know who has travelled abroad while day 2 tests have been in effect has ordered the test prior to departure so that they know they have the authorisation number and can leave the test itself on the kitchen countertop (or wherever) for use when they get home. That is sensible for short trips to get it all sorted out beforehand but I am now working up to doing my fist trip for 2 years to my holiday home in South Africa and that will be a 2-and-a-bit month stay so I don’t expect to return to the UK until the very end of April. By that time my guess is that it is very possible that all day 2 testing requirements might have been abolished so it seems a bit wasteful to get a test delivered now. I would rather wait until a couple of weeks before I am due to fly back and, if day 2 testing on return is still a requirement, order the necessary test kit over the internet. For those of you who have done the day 2 testing thing can you see any issue with that? A neighbour is taking in my mail so the test kit would arrive safely at my home even though I wasn’t there at time of delivery and I assume the test code you need to present to UK border control to re-enter the UK is sent by email so I would have that prior to departing SA even though I hadn’t had physical sight of the testing kit at that time. Are all my assumptions correct and/or is there anything that I’ve overlooked?

- Julian


I am off next week for 2 weeks and have checked out this and Chronomics have set up a pickup site at Gatwick. I will be using this and buying it 5 days before return. I am hoping that requirements for test will be dropped, ever hopeful. If they did not have a pickup I would still consider have it sent home for use as I have a housekeeper/lodger to look after the mail. They send you the code by email and also post it on their website if you setup a login. Will recheck everything before flying off though as it does seem to change quite fast.


Indeed.
I wouldn't bother too much about what the rules will be in 10weeks now...
..worry about it at the end of March depending on how the Tau variant seems ;)

-sd

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475511

Postby seagles » January 23rd, 2022, 10:38 am

I have just received an update on ordering from Chronomics. For the click and collect service, order can be placed anytime before your return, you will receive an email once order placed with the code (need the email to pick up "test"). Pick up test and do at home, register and follow screen instructions. I think for the postal service it is 6 days, but you can always go to their web-site and ask for clarification.
Also noted that, currently, if you go to their web-site they charge £11.99 (for click and collect), but if you do it via moneysavingsexpert it is £9.99 (ok it rounded to £10).
So as I am returning on the Friday (leaving on Thursday) I would place the order on wednesday and then complete passenger location form (gives me time if anything goes wrong).
If I was in your shoes, I would do nothing until a week before returning. Hopefully you would not need anything by then.
On one of my holidays this year the rules changed 3 times up to and during my stay. Even my last one it changed the day before I flew off, fortunately it did not cost me anything as I was going to book the "right to fly" in the resort.
Enjoy your holiday, I did 3 weeks in South Africa a while back and loved every minute of it, so have a great time.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475530

Postby swill453 » January 23rd, 2022, 12:19 pm

Just looking at the government web site https://www.find-travel-test-provider.s ... /providers there seem to be loads of at-home, posted, day 2 test kits starting at £5. Why wouldn't you use one of those?

Scott.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475758

Postby Julian » January 24th, 2022, 2:21 pm

Thanks all. My initial thoughts of ordering from SA a week or so before my return flight definitely seems to be the way to go.

swill453 wrote:Just looking at the government web site https://www.find-travel-test-provider.s ... /providers there seem to be loads of at-home, posted, day 2 test kits starting at £5. Why wouldn't you use one of those?


That's a very useful site. Thanks. I suspect that on your specific point it will be irrelevant for me because, barring some horrible new variant emerging by then, my hunch is that I won't even need a day 2 LFT by the time I return in the last week of April. That's 3 months away so I suspect restrictions will relax even further by then. I'll definitely use that page to do a bit of price comparison for my pre-departure in-clinic PCR test though.

That link does show how careful one has to be on pricing. In my research so far for the clinic-administered PCR test that I currently need to enter South Africa I have noticed some of the other pricing and seen a few places charging £29.99 for an at-home day 2 LFT which, although £25 difference doesn't really make much difference to me personally, it still smacks of sheer profiteering if so many other government-approved places are doing it for £5.

Edit: I see it doesn't actually cover the rapid turnaround pre-departure PCR tests. Oh well. I found a place that is fairly local to me and has fairly decent trustpilot reviews with a price of £69 for next day and £99 for same day PCR tests (https://www.theregenerativeclinic.co.uk ... t-results/) so I think that's good enough for me.

- Julian

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475771

Postby TaurusTheBull » January 24th, 2022, 2:53 pm

All testing to be cancelled for "fully vaccinated" travellers.

Just one more step to go - all testing cancelled for everyone. Everywhere.

This farce needs to end.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475806

Postby richfool » January 24th, 2022, 5:13 pm

TaurusTheBull wrote:All testing to be cancelled for "fully vaccinated" travellers.

Just one more step to go - all testing cancelled for everyone. Everywhere.

This farce needs to end.

That's for (returning) travellers, arriving back into the UK, is it not? I assume one will have to test prior to departure on the outbound leg, dependent upon the requirements of the destination country, and similarly prior to the return flight.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475823

Postby seagles » January 24th, 2022, 6:42 pm

No testing on return to UK for fully vaccinated from 11th February. Guess when I land, 7:00 AM on 11th February. A small win but always welcome.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#475883

Postby Julian » January 24th, 2022, 11:09 pm

richfool wrote:
TaurusTheBull wrote:All testing to be cancelled for "fully vaccinated" travellers.

Just one more step to go - all testing cancelled for everyone. Everywhere.

This farce needs to end.

That's for (returning) travellers, arriving back into the UK, is it not? I assume one will have to test prior to departure on the outbound leg, dependent upon the requirements of the destination country, and similarly prior to the return flight.

Correct. Also I don’t know if this is the only airline/airport doing this but be aware that at the moment Emirates require travellers from the UK to have a negative PCR test within 48 hours of departure simply to transit (connect at) Dubai airport (https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/hel ... /tourists/). A bit academic for me at the moment since current;y Emirates still has pretty much all flights to South Africa suspended, they are running a single inbound passenger flight a day to Johannesburg but won’t fly passengers out so the planes fly back to Dubai with cargo only! Annoying for me since I have rewards miles about to expire and could get a crazy cheap flight if only the return flights were actually flying, or indeed the inbound flights since it is Cape Town not Jo’burg where I need to get to.

- Julian

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#476016

Postby Lootman » January 25th, 2022, 1:53 pm

richfool wrote:
TaurusTheBull wrote:All testing to be cancelled for "fully vaccinated" travellers.

Just one more step to go - all testing cancelled for everyone. Everywhere.

This farce needs to end.

That's for (returning) travellers, arriving back into the UK, is it not? I assume one will have to test prior to departure on the outbound leg, dependent upon the requirements of the destination country, and similarly prior to the return flight.

You won't need a test prior to returning to the UK:

https://thepointsguy.co.uk/news/new-uk- ... epartures/

This was also the case before Omicron.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#476050

Postby richfool » January 25th, 2022, 3:07 pm

seagles wrote:No testing on return to UK for fully vaccinated from 11th February. Guess when I land, 7:00 AM on 11th February. A small win but always welcome.

You'll just have to hope you aren't 7.5 hours early!! ;) :lol:

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#476089

Postby redsturgeon » January 25th, 2022, 4:23 pm

richfool wrote:
seagles wrote:No testing on return to UK for fully vaccinated from 11th February. Guess when I land, 7:00 AM on 11th February. A small win but always welcome.

You'll just have to hope you aren't 7.5 hours early!! ;) :lol:


The new rules come into effect from 4.00am Feb 11th. Usually they are effective as per the scheduled times of travel.

John

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#477742

Postby swill453 » February 1st, 2022, 11:10 am

swill453 wrote:Just looking at the government web site https://www.find-travel-test-provider.s ... /providers there seem to be loads of at-home, posted, day 2 test kits starting at £5. Why wouldn't you use one of those?

I've now been through this process having just returned from Madeira, so thought I'd pass on my experience.

I flew with Jet2. They won't let you get hold of your return boarding pass without entering the reference number from your UK Passenger Locator Form (PLF). This can only be filled in within 48 hours of your return flight, so for most trips necessitates doing it while abroad. I think Jet2 check-in desks would help if you didn't have internet access.

Anyway, one of the requirements of the PLF is that you need a reference number provided by a Day 2 Lateral Flow Test provider when you order one of their tests. So about 4 days before our return I went to the web page above and ordered the cheap £5 ones, from covidtestingdirect.com. They sent the tests to our home, and emailed us the numbers for the PLF.

2 days before the flight we filled in the PLFs with the test numbers. You also have to link to your vaccination status, using a QR code I think. We then got the PLF numbers to allow us to get our boarding passes on the Jet2 app. This part worked fine.

At the airport the check in staff asked to see boarding passes, PLFs and Covid vaccination certificates, despite it being impossible to get the boarding pass without having the other two.

Once home the Day 2 tests were waiting for us. We did the tests, which were negative.

Nothing that we can see on the UK government site tells you that you have to register a negative Day 2 test result. If you try and do it on the normal LFD home-testing page, it complains that the reference number is an incorrect format.

An email from covidtestingdirect.com directs us to download an app at http://www.CertiFly.app which says "CertiFly can be used for ‘Fit to Fly/Pre-Departure’ tests or for Day 2 Lateral Flow Tests for the UK". However the app link doesn't go to the Google Play store, but downloads directly and asks you to override the phone security settings. Not a chance!

So mostly the system works, but our test result hasn't been registered anywhere and I have no idea if any follow up checking is done.

Scott.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#477778

Postby Lootman » February 1st, 2022, 1:02 pm

swill453 wrote:At the airport the check in staff asked to see boarding passes, PLFs and Covid vaccination certificates, despite it being impossible to get the boarding pass without having the other two.

Returning from the US this past November, the only checks that were made on the entire journey were at the check-in desk at LAX. No checks at Heathrow at all.

It seems clear to me that the government is relying on the airline to perform all the checks prior to boarding. I would assume that if an airline fails to do that and then the passenger is caught at Heathrow (unlikely but I guess there may be spot checks) without the right paperwork, then the airline gets fined.

swill453 wrote:So mostly the system works, but our test result hasn't been registered anywhere and I have no idea if any follow up checking is done.

Under the latest rules I rather formed the impression that there is no follow up. You just do the test and that is it. If you didn't do the test then nobody would know.

But since you have already had to pay for it and have it delivered then you might as well take the test anyway.

I had my 2-day LFT test at the Paddington station walk-in facility. When a test is administered by a clinic then I imagine that the result may be reported. Or perhaps only if it is positive?

Anyway I am not flying again until April and I feel sure the rules will have changed again by then.

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#477956

Postby dionaeamuscipula » February 2nd, 2022, 8:54 am

Lootman wrote:When a test is administered by a clinic then I imagine that the result may be reported. Or perhaps only if it is positive?



You can only report NHS delivered tests to the NHS.

You can only get tests for travel from private sources.

DM

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Re: Order day 2 lateral flow test while abroad?

#478131

Postby AF62 » February 2nd, 2022, 5:57 pm

Lootman wrote:
swill453 wrote:At the airport the check in staff asked to see boarding passes, PLFs and Covid vaccination certificates, despite it being impossible to get the boarding pass without having the other two.

Returning from the US this past November, the only checks that were made on the entire journey were at the check-in desk at LAX. No checks at Heathrow at all.

It seems clear to me that the government is relying on the airline to perform all the checks prior to boarding. I would assume that if an airline fails to do that and then the passenger is caught at Heathrow (unlikely but I guess there may be spot checks) without the right paperwork, then the airline gets fined.


I have traveled a few times since these requirements to do a PLF and day 2 testing were in place, on a cruise ship from Spain and Portugal, a flight from Gibraltar, and a flight from Madeira.

On the cruise ship there was no check either onboard or on arrival that anyone had filled the forms in (although many of the elderly passengers had sweated blood trying to do it).

On the (BA) flight from Gibraltar nobody checked the forms had been filled in either on departure or arrival.

On the (EasyJet) flight from Madeira they wouldn’t let you pass the boarding gate until you had shown all the paperwork, but this was after the pre-departure tests had been introduced for all locations. There was no check on arrival.

Let’s see what happens when I return from Spain in March.

dionaeamuscipula wrote:You can only report NHS delivered tests to the NHS.


And you can only report an NHS test if you are in the UK - as I found out when I was in Madeira and you were not allowed into some events unless you could show both a COVID vaccination pass AND a negative test within the last 7 days.

Although there was free testing for locals, there wasn’t for visitors (other than the free pre-departure test). When you tried to report a negative NHS test the system used geolocation to say ‘go away’. However solved with using the VPN back to my home in the UK.


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