Flying around the restrictions.

[Marmalade]

There seems to be no shortage of posts in the overseas sections, Amber, Red included.

Does anyone have experience of flying around the restrictions? Not heard of anyone quarantining… If you fly from a red area by stages till you get into a U.K.-friendly Green/Amber country, do you get back into the U.K. without being penalised for your earlier stops? Do we know even if such ‘rules’ are being consistently applied?

Then there’s different rules for ‘North of the border’ and due to change again early October. So can a person fly into say Manchester from abroad under English rules then fly or British Rail to the north as if ‘only coming from England’.

It all seems honestly to me such a mess. Pre-covid I was pretty casual about travel, doing fairly spontaneous last minute short or long haul for work or pleasure and with minimum notice. Now I find the barrage of ever-changing regulations and requirements a helluva fence. Advice, thoughts, encouragement welcome please!!

[standardpostage]

We used to have a week abroad most years.
Not been away since covid.
Too worried about being stranded in another country, rule changes whilst away, not being let in another country, flights being cancelled, extra unexpected costs, having to quarantine on return to UK.
Next year having a UK vacation.

PS Nice not to worry about air traffic controllers going on strike for more money, and having my flight cancelled. It happened to me once.

[JPin]

I'm in exactly the same boat, Marmalade. Hard to keep up with everything... I had to cancel a couple of short work-related trips next month due to the threat of having to quarantine when I get back here (and both destinations would have required quarantine on their side, since the UK was on the red list - unless I was able to supply a formal letter explaining why my trip was essential). I can't afford to be away for too long as I have responsibilites.

I've heard a few stories about people being checked on multiple times after returning home and going into quarantine, and others that have been fined for not being at home when they're supposed to be.

That's not to mention the additional cost of tests, which seem to be extortionate based on what the companies actually do. One friend paid £30-odd to fly to Portugal with his missus, with an added £300 or so for their tests... Which they did themselves and then sent a pic of the negative result to a company, which then merely confirmed their photo showed the tests were negative. (A lot of people are absolutely creaming it off this crisis).

[lamboman]

I had enough and went to Spain 🇪🇸  last week,the paperwork is overly complicated but there was no significant delay at the airports with it.Its best to print out anything they need to see.
LF tests were plentiful before I came home but I think they might be scrapped soon.
Just go would be my advice.

[anotherwoody69]

I used to travel a lot pre Covid, was on a plane at least every other week. Also, I’m now based in Spain and work for me is the UK and beyond, so travel has started to come back after probably the best part of 15 months lay off.

Despite lamboman’s comment for me in and out of Spain is easy, as has been travel in and out of the UK. If you sit down and plan, put your sensible head on and deal with the paperwork then once you have organised it for the first time going forward it has been easy.
Coming into Spain its been simple; fill in their health form, get a pre departure test and off you go. Same as returning to the UK; pre departure test, fill in the arrival form and book the day 2& 8 tests. Its really not rocket science, but you’d be amazed at the people who can’t cope with it and get stalled at check-in.

As of this Monday, all change returning to the UK as long as its not a Red country. Providing you are double jabbed then no pre flight test, simply fill out the forms and book your day 2 test (I’ve just paid £60 for mine next week). No quarantine required.
Spain for me as I’m now vaccinated is just fill in the form, no pre departure tests.

Further afield every country is different. I’m off to Dubai end of the month and will need a pre departure test. No big deal really. Other countries have different rules, but as long as you read them and organise yourself in advance its no big effort.

The UK is simple now I feel, but if you are returning from a Red list you really should do the quarantine. I have spoken with people who flew into a “safe” country first and then the UK to avoid quarantine, their choice but I’m not going to agree with it.

If you chose to travel and the country you are in goes Red (and again, just think before you fly out and research a countries incidence rate, its all online and it will tell you if they are getting higher) its not happened in just a few hours, there is normally a few weeks build up. So, don’t go there. Or, do what I mention above, come back via a safe country if you can’t quarantine.

[threechilliman]

I used to travel a lot pre Covid, was on a plane at least every other week. Also, I’m now based in Spain and work for me is the UK and beyond, so travel has started to come back after probably the best part of 15 months lay off.

Despite lamboman’s comment for me in and out of Spain is easy, as has been travel in and out of the UK. If you sit down and plan, put your sensible head on and deal with the paperwork then once you have organised it for the first time going forward it has been easy.
Coming into Spain its been simple; fill in their health form, get a pre departure test and off you go. Same as returning to the UK; pre departure test, fill in the arrival form and book the day 2& 8 tests. Its really not rocket science, but you’d be amazed at the people who can’t cope with it and get stalled at check-in.

As of this Monday, all change returning to the UK as long as its not a Red country. Providing you are double jabbed then no pre flight test, simply fill out the forms and book your day 2 test (I’ve just paid £60 for mine next week). No quarantine required.
Spain for me as I’m now vaccinated is just fill in the form, no pre departure tests.

Further afield every country is different. I’m off to Dubai end of the month and will need a pre departure test. No big deal really. Other countries have different rules, but as long as you read them and organise yourself in advance its no big effort.

The UK is simple now I feel, but if you are returning from a Red list you really should do the quarantine. I have spoken with people who flew into a “safe” country first and then the UK to avoid quarantine, their choice but I’m not going to agree with it.

If you chose to travel and the country you are in goes Red (and again, just think before you fly out and research a countries incidence rate, its all online and it will tell you if they are getting higher) its not happened in just a few hours, there is normally a few weeks build up. So, don’t go there. Or, do what I mention above, come back via a safe country if you can’t quarantine.

Agreed on the in and out of Spain. If you're organised it isn't difficult......

I know someone who came back from Spain who forgot to do their PCR test on return. That was 5-6 weeks ago and nobody followed it up to find out why. I suspect there isn't a proper follow up system in place in reality.

[Gordon Bennett]

There seems to be no shortage of posts in the overseas sections, Amber, Red included.

Does anyone have experience of flying around the restrictions? Not heard of anyone quarantining… If you fly from a red area by stages till you get into a U.K.-friendly Green/Amber country, do you get back into the U.K. without being penalised for your earlier stops? Do we know even if such ‘rules’ are being consistently applied?

Then there’s different rules for ‘North of the border’ and due to change again early October. So can a person fly into say Manchester from abroad under English rules then fly or British Rail to the north as if ‘only coming from England’.

It all seems honestly to me such a mess. Pre-covid I was pretty casual about travel, doing fairly spontaneous last minute short or long haul for work or pleasure and with minimum notice. Now I find the barrage of ever-changing regulations and requirements a helluva fence. Advice, thoughts, encouragement welcome please!!

The Spurs players who returned from Brazil recently did their 10-day "quarantine" in Croatia before finally returning to England.

[mr.bluesky]

There seems to be no shortage of posts in the overseas sections, Amber, Red included.

Does anyone have experience of flying around the restrictions? Not heard of anyone quarantining… If you fly from a red area by stages till you get into a U.K.-friendly Green/Amber country, do you get back into the U.K. without being penalised for your earlier stops? Do we know even if such ‘rules’ are being consistently applied?

Then there’s different rules for ‘North of the border’ and due to change again early October. So can a person fly into say Manchester from abroad under English rules then fly or British Rail to the north as if ‘only coming from England’.

It all seems honestly to me such a mess. Pre-covid I was pretty casual about travel, doing fairly spontaneous last minute short or long haul for work or pleasure and with minimum notice. Now I find the barrage of ever-changing regulations and requirements a helluva fence. Advice, thoughts, encouragement welcome please!!

A good point but I wonder how many people who return from these countries actually self isolate when they get back. 

[myothernameis]

On Heathrow: Britain's Busiest Airport, this kind of went the other way, and the passenger was forced to go to a hotel for two weeks, and would say, it not her fault.

So the passenger was returning from Ghana, which at the time was a amber country, so no need to quarantine.  But seems the flight was via Egypt, now dont know the exact details of the flight, did the passengers all have to change to a different airplane, as that was never gone into

But it seems a catch 22, if your flight goes via another airport, you might end up in quarantine if that country is on the red travel list

[Marmalade]

I’m still trying to figure it out and then the rules are due to change again in five days time. Am I correct in thinking that even if you are double vaccinated and have printed proof that you still need to book before and after tests?

Worse still, most official documents give advice for travelling between England and a European country but then say consult local guidelines for Scotland, Wales etc. and those are a minefield to burrow down through and get a clear answer.

[JamesKW]

There seems to be no shortage of posts in the overseas sections, Amber, Red included.

Does anyone have experience of flying around the restrictions? Not heard of anyone quarantining… If you fly from a red area by stages till you get into a U.K.-friendly Green/Amber country, do you get back into the U.K. without being penalised for your earlier stops? Do we know even if such ‘rules’ are being consistently applied?

If for example you wanted to come back from Zimbabwe (red) you can spend two weeks in South Africa on the way back and not have to quarantine in this country,I know people doing this.

[anotherwoody69]

I’m still trying to figure it out and then the rules are due to change again in five days time. Am I correct in thinking that even if you are double vaccinated and have printed proof that you still need to book before and after tests?

Worse still, most official documents give advice for travelling between England and a European country but then say consult local guidelines for Scotland, Wales etc. and those are a minefield to burrow down through and get a clear answer.

After 4.00am on Monday if you return to England from any country not on the Red list you will not require a PCR test in advance providing you have the double vaccine.
You will still need to have bought in advance a Day 2 test, to be taken (you can do this at home) from the day you arrive back or up to 2 days after you arrive back.
There is no requirement to self isolate at home.

Red list countries, all rules still apply (government hotel quarantine etc).

The rules for Wales & Scotland may be different, I haven't bothered to look as these do not effect me. However, if they require advance PCR tests and self isolation (the old England rules) I would probably fly into England and then drive/train into Wales or Scotland.
There are no rail or road checks when arriving from England.

Depending on where you are intending to travel to (leave the UK) each country is different with different rules.

If you have not had both vaccine does then there are different rules returning to England.

This is the main information source, to me it reads well and is quite clear: External Link/Members Only

If you are still stuck Marmalade then tell me where you are going and when and I'll bullet point it for you.

For Day 2 testing I use these guys: External Link/Members Only
They are not the "cheapest" out there but are reasonable, the website is easy to navigate and the kits arrive at your home address quickly.