Support thread for those with family abroad

[Schulte]

Anyone interested in a support thread for those of us who have family abroad, and don't know if we can see them this year? I had started to feel all positive and optimistic about going back to my home country this summer to see my parents, but it's now looking far from certain and I'm feeling increasingly depressed.

I thought maybe we can cheer each other up and share the latest on border openings, how and where to get tests for travel, etc.

Anyone?

My pcr for day 2 has arrived. Hope this one is negative and so everyone from the plane !

@SunnyDay23

Just jumping on here to see if anyone can help me, I am so stressed!

I need to arrange an antigen test for dd for travel to France, but the only places I can find that offer same-day results are in airports and we are going via eurotunnel. Apparently you need your test to have been taken within 24 hours of travel but most places only give results in 48 hours, presumably making your test invalid by the time you present your results. Has anyone done an antigen test in London that gave them same day results, without having to go to an airport? (impossible for us as we're working up to day of departure and will take half a day to get there and back). I've downloaded the list of private providers of gov.uk but have been trawling through all day and haven't found one yet.

Thanks

Are you in London? ExpressTest at Paddington Station is very fast, antigen test results in 20/30 minutes. Walk in or book via web, £50.

@SunnyDay23 antigens normally tho are the quick ones , at least in Spain the results are back within an hour.

It’s the pcr which takes longer (24/48h)

Hope you’ve got it sorted with qured tho!

Anyone flying from Spain to the UK on Sunday?

This is really annoying:
^^Travel from Spain and its islands - if you are travelling to England from Spain, including the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands (Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca), you are advised to take a PCR type test before travel.

What will the airlines do re “advised”? Can they say it has to be a PCR?

And, btw, why do they want PCRs? Why are they “advising”? It should be mandatory or just optional… Anyway… Results of any further testing on variants would be available to the Spanish laboratories, not to the UK government… what is this about? or am I missing some crucial point?

@LaBrujaPiruja

Anyone flying from Spain to the UK on Sunday?

This is really annoying:
^^Travel from Spain and its islands - if you are travelling to England from Spain, including the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands (Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca), you are advised to take a PCR type test before travel.

What will the airlines do re “advised”? Can they say it has to be a PCR?

And, btw, why do they want PCRs? Why are they “advising”? It should be mandatory or just optional… Anyway… Results of any further testing on variants would be available to the Spanish laboratories, not to the UK government… what is this about? or am I missing some crucial point?

A friend flew last week with antigen and tested positive on pcr on day 2s. As antigens have more errors maybe they want to avoid importing cases ? I’ve read in mn several people that have been asked to self isolate as someone tested positive from the plane

But they have said it is to control and get more detail on the different variants and strains and this does not make any sense at all. PCR in Spain, data re variants “stays” in Spain.
Anyway, what is the point of the wording, “advised”? It’s either mandatory or not.

not so happy today, today been contacted that ii've to isolate til Sunday because someone on last weeks plane tested positive. as per some other threads seems like many people from spain are coming back positive (a friend of mine tested + on her day 2 test post spain)

I find strange that so many people coming back from Spain test positive. I have been to Spain several times over the past few months (family issues), done all my self isolation periods btw and never tested positive. Maybe because I just go to see my parents and arrange carers for them? But I have met friends in bar terraces and other places and still, fingers crossed, never tested positive.

I have a friend who went to Portugal and has tested positive after she came back. But she thinks she got it from the friend she travelled with, who tested positive while in Portugal, and in turn she had got it from her son, who never left London.

This is going to see the norm from now on.

Btw, I returned from Spain Sunday afternoon, with a LFT. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was checked at Gatwick. Only the easyjet check-in staff did a very cursory check on the travel documents (just checking your name and date on test and PLF).

Last time I flew back, early July, via Heathrow, at least they checked that I had three documents (test, PLF, proof of vaccination) although they did not even look at them. Back in Q1 they checked everything, word by word.

I had a very interesting conversation with the lab technicians when I went for my LFT in Spain on Saturday afternoon.

If you have a PCR and test positive, you cannot fly, so you remain in Spain and the health authorities in the UK never get access to your test results and the genomic sequencing.

If you have a PCR and test negative you fly to the UK and it does not matter if you test positive on Day 2; there’s no genomic sequencing for your fit to fly PCR in Spain because you tested negative.

There is no sense in saying that a PCR when flying from Spain is needed for genomic sequencing purposes because even if you are positive the UK will never get the data. You just stay in Spain for longer, and any genomic sequencing data remains in Spain and will be reported as a whole, so there is no way for the UK to know how many cases of a variant were supposed to fly to the UK.

I guess someone is friends with the owner of one of the private hospitals in the Costas.

@LaBrujaPiruja (I love your name) I have been nearly 12 days in Spain. Met friends outdoors with face mask (something I don’t do here ) I was only pulling it down for drinkin(actually drinking so if not sipping the face mask was up) and so with family. Told some friends and family members I’d not meet them. Only risk was that I was face maskless with my parents (I was staying at their house) and my sister as I was seeing everyday and my nephew was playing with my son. I sssumed the risk but I knew it was tiny. Only this way I’ve managed to come back negative or secure that I’d not bring anything to the uk. Many people go to Spain and think it’s 2019 so some of them get a surprise when they fly back. My friend was asymptotic and got caught on day 2. Nobody else caught it off her but I take her plane people weren’t happy like I’m not today (I can self isolate but means pulling my son off nursery and losing that money. I’ve lost a months of nursery between isolating him before flying so he’d not be contact of anyone , the time we’ve been there and this week , we can afford it but it’s still so annoying when you’ve done the right thing )

O really think the uk is now suggesting pcr for Span because they’re importing so many cases that are only highlighted via the day 2 pcr … so they’d rather Spain dealt with it rather than the uk … and let’s be honest isolating a whole plane is a pain in the arse for everyone involved

Yes, I agree, but I think,

1. most people take the virus with them abroad and infect travel companions (let’s say tourists do not really mix with local folk)
2. Gov, say clearly why you want PCRs - my point is that ‘genomic sequencing’ as a reason is ludicrous, they just want to sound scientific

We are back from Hungary. It was wonderful and sunny, lovely to see our family.

But the bureaucracy and spending involved are quite substantial. We did everything by the book, so we were fine, but you have to carry a massive folder throughout travelling.

Coming back to the UK was the worst. PCR test for DH did not arrive with mine, so he had a quick antigen test to be on the safe side. Then his PCR arrived as well. Organising the tests for everyone abroad, then in England (once you know you have a negative test result abroad), then filling out passenger locator form in minute detail for everyone, then printing them takes a lot of time and hassle before flying. You also need to use your data there, and Vodafone did not seem to work for us, only Three.

If you fly through Schiphol, you have to go through an extra document check to be allowed on UK flight. You get a sticker and a stamp (no kidding) for your PCR tests and passenger locator forms. The UK border at home was only formality for us, as we had everything in place.

With all this hassle, the Schengen border information system is still much more on the ball than the UK. They asked to see both my passports (I entered on EU passport, but was leaving UK passport).

Sorry @EasterIssland to hear about your isolation. So if one person on a flight tests positive then the entire plane has to isolate? Or is it only people who sat near you? I’m meant to fly to Greece with a few friends in September but am seriously considering cancelling, it seems too much of a risk… seeing my parents in Germany was important but this weekend away with friends, not so much…

@Schulte

Sorry *@EasterIssland* to hear about your isolation. So if one person on a flight tests positive then the entire plane has to isolate? Or is it only people who sat near you? I’m meant to fly to Greece with a few friends in September but am seriously considering cancelling, it seems too much of a risk… seeing my parents in Germany was important but this weekend away with friends, not so much…

Im not sure who isolates. We had 2 women in front , 1 on the other side and 1 behind so not many people around us. I’ve seen many people commenting on the thread that they’ve been isolating cuz day2 test. We can isolate so it’s not a problem job wise but it’s so draining …

Also remember rules change tomorrow so you’d not have to isolate anymore but take a test (or not as it’s only advisory I think )

Just caught up. and to @EasterIssland

Checking in to see how everyone is?

We arrived back in the UK last night and I’m not too happy to be back… Germany felt so nearly normal. With all the paperwork and expense of the tests, I’m wondering when I will next be able to escape.

Hope you manage soon! We’re going away on holidays next week. This time without family but have to take tests

72h before flying antigen at the airport £40
C19 for the antigen to fly back home £29
Nwp for day 2. £40

So just £110 per person. We’re lucky that my son doesn’t need any test so just my husband and I.

Im thinking about asking work whether I can fly for 1-2 weeks to Spain and work feim there and go again with my son . In that case it’d just be me so just 110.

I reas thar they want to reduce the price of the pcrs but not sure they’ll be cheaper than the prices I’ve put above

We have booked our Christmas tickets.

all. Sorry been AWOL I made it to Greece! I saw my aunts/uncles and cousins and their children and my beloved nona. It was amazing. Just what I needed. I feel so rested.

So much so that I am going back to Greece next week (different place and different family).

((hugs)) to all still unable to visit family.

am joining the thread please?
have close relatives who have family in a red listed country.
I expect they can find out info themselves, but I can keep an eye on things too, if I am here. thanks.
glad so many of you are able to see loved ones who are abroad.

Lovely to hear about all the trips booked and still to come. We have two weeks of October half term holidays so maybe we will manage another trip to Germany. It’s just impossible to predict what the situation will be by then. DDs are getting jabbed next week though (hopefully) so that should make travelling easier in the future.

Welcome @lightand, I think there’s a travel list update later today so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you!

@Schulte the German quarantine rules for u12s are my current nemesis.