Fit to fly test help please

[loveandroses]

My mum has to fly to Canada in a few weeks and I am trying to help here out. The website travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada says these are needed:

Required to show a pre-entry molecular test
Required to use ArriveCAN
Required to take an arrival test if selected

The part that is confusing me is the first. The website says these are acceptable:

PCR - Polymerase chain reaction
Nucleic acid test (NAT) or Nucleic acid amplification test (NAATs)
Reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP)

Whichever one is done has to be done within 72 hours of the scheduled departure time.

I can't see how to do this. If she gets a test through the post and then posts it off to be tested, there is no reason to believe she would get the result in time for the flight.

What's the easiest and least stressful way to do this?

If it makes any difference, she is in Cardiff.

She needs to pay for a private PCR test. If she googles there are some in Cardiff offering quick results

@dementedpixie Could you explain how it works please? It seems it's already potentially too late if you post the test to the private test centre as the covid mail is very unreliable these days. Do you drive to a centre, take the test there and then get emailed with the results? If so, how do you get the emailed results onto the arrivecan app as they need?

Yes some places offer testing on site. I think you upload info to the ArriveCan app. Has she got the app yet to see how it works?

i found the cheapest provider in my area was actually the one recommended by manchester airport!
The results are quick - I had a lunchtime test and received my results early evening.
The sooner you book it the cheaper - it gets more expensive the less time there is

Choose an on-site test - you turn up at the centre, one of the employees does the swab...

My SIL is Canadian and her family have visited recently. To fly back, they needed a private PCR (not an NHS one; her step mother had one and it was not accepted and wasn't allowed to board her flight). They used DocTap I think, had private PCRs with the result emailed to them the same day and then were allowed to use that when they checked in with Air Canada.

i received my results as an email with a pdf attachment.
I am guessing that when you do the canadian online form there is a function to upload your document

i normally travel as paperless as possible but I actually felt less stressed by having paper copies of all my documents with me this time...
So a copy of my negative pcr
A copy of my details for the passenger information i had to upload for the country i travelled to...
A copy of my boarding pass
That way in case my phone died, or battery ran out if anything was super delayed, i had everything in old fashioned paper format - just in case

You need to book a private PCR test at a clinic, so no posting off.. We had our results emailed on a certificate within 24 hours. I chose 24 hour ones as wanted zero stress waiting for results for days!

When we travelled in the summer my DCs needed PCR tests. I arranged tests with Randox at my nearest airport (which happens to be 8 miles from where I live). They were 12 hour turn around tests but they came back within 3 hours. The lab is on site. It’s a drive through set up in one of the airport’s long stay car parks. Randox administer the test themselves through the car window.

I ended up booking my mum into a testing clinic that is done in person. Fingers crossed she gets the result in time! Those who post their tests in are much braver than me!