fit to fly - PCR test

[bewilderedhedgehog]

Not sure if there has been a thread on this - apologies if so. For those who plan to fly, we booked a same day PCR test. Results not back in time, and had to then book a 3 hour PCR at the airport. With some companies this seems to be a real problem, so just a warning. It was extremely stressful to resolve, and could have resulted in missing the flight. Not cheap either (although we will get a refund on the first one)

Interesting. Could you give more details. Who was it booked with originally. And not back in time. Who did you book it with then?

Hi - Vivo was the first one, and Doctap at Heathrow the second. Do you need a PCR for a flight? The timing is a real issue!

I used Vivo as well, although not the same day results option.
They took our swabs at 5pm on Sunday and we had the results on Monday at 3pm.
They have a horrible website that keeps on crushing and we had to chase our booking confirmation email.

I have a questions about the pcr tests, if I was to fly out on say Tuesday, what day do I take the test?

@Clotsaway

I have a questions about the pcr tests, if I was to fly out on say Tuesday, what day do I take the test?

Hi - you need to check the country, which test you need, and the timeline. For some countries the test has to be done within the previous 72 hours counting from when the flight takes off, with others I think its 48 hours. So for a flight on Tuesday the earliest would be Saturday but it has to be within the hours as well. I think the type of test also varies between countries. It has been a real headache!

@PrpleRain

I used Vivo as well, although not the same day results option. They took our swabs at 5pm on Sunday and we had the results on Monday at 3pm. They have a horrible website that keeps on crushing and we had to chase our booking confirmation email.

You got yours back quicker than we did. If we had waited would not have been able to board! Agree about the website - and if you need to phone them, the waits are very long and don't always go through....

Some countries now have a 'three calendar days' before your flight instead of 72 hours. I recently flew from the US back to the UK and vice versa and it was a 3 day requirement both ways. For my return flight I used ExpressTest which has a drive thru at Gatwick but they have other locations and were relatively cheap. I tested on the Sunday at 3pm and had my results at 10pm the same day, even though they said would be back the following day. I was lucky with my provider for day 2/5/8 testing but I know others who didn't get their results or didn't even have the tests posted to their quarantine address on time.