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Re: International travel

Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 11:48 pm
by Herainestold
Millennie Al wrote:
Sat Feb 12, 2022 11:13 pm
Herainestold wrote:
Sat Feb 12, 2022 8:17 pm
Typically corona viruses can reinfect people every year. Immunity is short lived, on the scale of months.
And what you fail to mention is that typical coronaviruses are just colds - which used to be considered so mild that many people wouldn't even take time off work for them.
There is no guarantee that future waves will be mild. I expect them to be more virulent.

Current vaccines give good protection against severe outcomes, but we cannot be sure of that either as the virus mutates.

Re: International travel

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 6:03 pm
by WFJ
WFJ wrote:
Fri Feb 11, 2022 8:50 am
Herainestold wrote:
Fri Feb 11, 2022 1:40 am
WFJ wrote:
Thu Feb 10, 2022 11:24 pm
In Germany the current discussions are over whether all restrictions should be removed in late March.
I am pretty sure by Easter there will be a new variant anyway.
There will always be new variants. That does not mean restrictions can last forever. I doubt that all rules and restrictions will be removed in March, but most will be.
The federal government is recommending that all restrictions apart from mask requirements will be removed by 20th March, with the relaxing of some current restrictions starting on 4th March. It still needs agreement with the states, but travelling at Easter shouldn't have too many problems unless something major happens in the meantime.

Re: International travel

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 8:01 pm
by sTeamTraen
Spain has just removed the requirement for a locator form on arrival, if you have a EU Digital Covid Certficate (2nd dose of vaccine less than 9 months ago; booster any time; test; or recovery) or equivalent. The UK's vaccination certificates are considered equivalent to the EU ones; I'm not sure if unvaccinated people can get an equivalent test certificate, or if they will still have to fill out the form in addition. The form is not especially onerous but it probably wasn't making a lot of difference.

I've lost track of where other EU countries are on this. Ireland abolished its PLF about four weeks ago and the Englandland a week or so later.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:49 am
by Opti
People coming for an Easter break to my neck of the woods will have more concerns than the joy of no more SptH forms to fill in.

We haven't got many beaches left.

https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/fro ... 44-nt.html

Also, many of the beach paseos were dug up for 'remodelling' several weeks ago, nowhere near finished, some barely begun.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:58 am
by discovolante
sTeamTraen wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 8:01 pm
Spain has just removed the requirement for a locator form on arrival, if you have a EU Digital Covid Certficate (2nd dose of vaccine less than 9 months ago; booster any time; test; or recovery) or equivalent. The UK's vaccination certificates are considered equivalent to the EU ones; I'm not sure if unvaccinated people can get an equivalent test certificate, or if they will still have to fill out the form in addition. The form is not especially onerous but it probably wasn't making a lot of difference.

I've lost track of where other EU countries are on this. Ireland abolished its PLF about four weeks ago and the Englandland a week or so later.
Thanks. I'm supposed to be going to Valencia on Tuesday (I say 'supposed to be' because I feel like dodging covid at this stage is optimistic, plus airport chaos...). I'd already started filling in my form so would probably have got confused when I tried to finish it on Monday.

I'm not sure that booking a foreign holiday during the school holidays, in the current circumstances, was a wise idea. But there you go.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 8:16 am
by Opti
discovolante wrote:
Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:58 am


Thanks. I'm supposed to be going to Valencia on Tuesday (I say 'supposed to be' because I feel like dodging covid at this stage is optimistic, plus airport chaos...). I'd already started filling in my form so would probably have got confused when I tried to finish it on Monday.

I'm not sure that booking a foreign holiday during the school holidays, in the current circumstances, was a wise idea. But there you go.
FWIW I've been through 4 different Int'l airports in the last 2 weeks and me and ddb have avoided the plague. Mind you, they've been scary experiences. Have your Covid pass ready to hand at immigration ... and keep that FFP2 (or better) firmly in place at all times.

Valencia is lovely.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:32 am
by discovolante
Opti wrote:
Thu Apr 07, 2022 8:16 am
discovolante wrote:
Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:58 am


Thanks. I'm supposed to be going to Valencia on Tuesday (I say 'supposed to be' because I feel like dodging covid at this stage is optimistic, plus airport chaos...). I'd already started filling in my form so would probably have got confused when I tried to finish it on Monday.

I'm not sure that booking a foreign holiday during the school holidays, in the current circumstances, was a wise idea. But there you go.
FWIW I've been through 4 different Int'l airports in the last 2 weeks and me and ddb have avoided the plague. Mind you, they've been scary experiences. Have your Covid pass ready to hand at immigration ... and keep that FFP2 (or better) firmly in place at all times.

Valencia is lovely.
I'm going to be fully masked up as I'm expecting big queues. Señor von Laté is coming back from That London today which is currently more of a concern plague wise...

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 10:07 am
by shpalman
FFP2 is still mandatory on the flight, right?

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 10:11 am
by Opti
shpalman wrote:
Thu Apr 07, 2022 10:07 am
FFP2 is still mandatory on the flight, right?
Nope. AIUI, some airlines have scrapped mask mandates to some countries. :o

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 10:23 am
by jaap
I am currently in the USA, having flown here yesterday. Here are a few of my experiences:

Covid testing: a test was required no less than a day before the flight. In the Netherlands only commercial tests are officially accepted for travel; the free ones provided by the health service are not, even though both can be uploaded into the app for a QR code. The commercial test result also came with a pdf file with a nice looking certificate with seals, signatures and everything. Nobody looked at that. The commercial test provider had several pricing tiers. They are all the same test, but just differ in how quickly the result is mailed to you. The assistant told me that my result was negative within minutes - the machine was on site - so you basically pay extra for a shorter artificial delay on the automated admin. For me the cheapest tier with 12 hour delay was fine.

Airport queues: There were fairly long queues at the check-in. This seems to be because almost nobody managed to obtain a boarding pass at home when checking in online. A boarding pass can only be given if you pass the health checks, and it was hard to provide sufficient proof. Thankfully there was enough staff that it only took 40 minutes. The xray and passport checks also had some queues but not excessive. On the USA end, immigration queues were huge, but that seems to be normal there.

Airport masking: This was ridiculous. Masking was not required until AFTER the check-in. So I spent 40 minutes in a closely packed, mostly unmasked queue (maybe 1 in 20 wore one), before passing the barriers behind which masking was enforced.

On the flight itself masking was required too, and they regularly made PA announcements to remind people.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:22 pm
by shpalman
Opti wrote:
Thu Apr 07, 2022 10:11 am
shpalman wrote:
Thu Apr 07, 2022 10:07 am
FFP2 is still mandatory on the flight, right?
Nope. AIUI, some airlines have scrapped mask mandates to some countries. :o
Well, it should be safe, the BA variant ain't going on no plane.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2022 6:03 pm
by headshot
Germany require you to be vaccinated, recovered or a negative test.

Travel is fine wherever but masks are required indoors still - and I expect on our Lufthansa flights too.

Re: International travel

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 12:04 pm
by shpalman

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 10:52 am
by dyqik
Is it too much schadenfreude(?) to hope that delays are mainly down to supply chain issues for blue passport covers?

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:52 pm
by Herainestold
dyqik wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 10:52 am
Is it too much schadenfreude(?) to hope that delays are mainly down to supply chain issues for blue passport covers?
Probably good that lack of passports is reducing travel in a time of increasing covid incidence.

Are the old passports still legal, or does everybody have to get a new one?

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:05 pm
by shpalman
Herainestold wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:52 pm
Are the old passports still legal, or does everybody have to get a new one?
Wut?

(Actually, Brexit has caused people to need one sooner than otherwise, since you used to be able to have any remaining validity on your existing one added onto your new one up to a maximum of 9 months past the usual 10 years, but now they're only considered valid until 10 years after the issue date, and you also need more than 6 months left on it to be able to travel to the EU from the UK.)

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:39 pm
by Herainestold
shpalman wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:05 pm
Herainestold wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:52 pm
Are the old passports still legal, or does everybody have to get a new one?
Wut?

(Actually, Brexit has caused people to need one sooner than otherwise, since you used to be able to have any remaining validity on your existing one added onto your new one up to a maximum of 9 months past the usual 10 years, but now they're only considered valid until 10 years after the issue date, and you also need more than 6 months left on it to be able to travel to the EU from the UK.)
Okay, thanks. Just wondering how Brexit affected passports. Lots of disinfo/misinfo online. UK site is not so clear.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 4:41 pm
by shpalman
Oh well stay in England and go somewhere by train instead.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 6:01 pm
by Herainestold
shpalman wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 4:41 pm
Oh well stay in England and go somewhere by train instead.
This level of disorganization makes the Russian army look competent.

Re: International travel

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 1:22 am
by Martin_B
shpalman wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:05 pm
Herainestold wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:52 pm
Are the old passports still legal, or does everybody have to get a new one?
Wut?

(Actually, Brexit has caused people to need one sooner than otherwise, since you used to be able to have any remaining validity on your existing one added onto your new one up to a maximum of 9 months past the usual 10 years, but now they're only considered valid until 10 years after the issue date, and you also need more than 6 months left on it to be able to travel to the EU from the UK.)
Did they only add the remaining validity to your passport for a while? My first passport was from Jun '90 to Jun '00. The next was from April '00 to April '10, the 3rd from Sep '09 to April '20, and the most recent Jan '20 to Jan '30. So on 3 renewals twice I've lost ~3 months and the other they gave me a passport which lasted 10 years and 6 months (and 11 days!)

Re: International travel

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 6:16 am
by shpalman
Martin_B wrote:
Sat Apr 16, 2022 1:22 am
shpalman wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:05 pm
Herainestold wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:52 pm
Are the old passports still legal, or does everybody have to get a new one?
Wut?

(Actually, Brexit has caused people to need one sooner than otherwise, since you used to be able to have any remaining validity on your existing one added onto your new one up to a maximum of 9 months past the usual 10 years, but now they're only considered valid until 10 years after the issue date, and you also need more than 6 months left on it to be able to travel to the EU from the UK.)
Did they only add the remaining validity to your passport for a while? My first passport was from Jun '90 to Jun '00. The next was from April '00 to April '10, the 3rd from Sep '09 to April '20, and the most recent Jan '20 to Jan '30. So on 3 renewals twice I've lost ~3 months and the other they gave me a passport which lasted 10 years and 6 months (and 11 days!)
I don't remember my previous ones but I definitely had it on the one which I've just replaced.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2022 8:28 am
by shpalman
Herainestold wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:39 pm
shpalman wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:05 pm
Herainestold wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:52 pm
Are the old passports still legal, or does everybody have to get a new one?
Wut?

(Actually, Brexit has caused people to need one sooner than otherwise, since you used to be able to have any remaining validity on your existing one added onto your new one up to a maximum of 9 months past the usual 10 years, but now they're only considered valid until 10 years after the issue date, and you also need more than 6 months left on it to be able to travel to the EU from the UK.)
Okay, thanks. Just wondering how Brexit affected passports. Lots of disinfo/misinfo online. UK site is not so clear.
Might as well continue this discussion here after all then.

Even though Dr Tiganescu had six months left before her UK passport expires, she was barred from the flight and could not head off on the week-long trip because her passport was issued more than 10 years ago.

Re: International travel

Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2022 1:03 pm
by Brightonian
Ignore, posted in error.

Re: International travel

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:44 pm
by Brightonian
Will I have to go back to getting PCR tests? I flipping hate those things, never succeeded in suppressing my gag reflex.

Asking because to enter France you have to have had a shot in the last nine months, but I will be over the nine months when I want to travel, and there's no sign of the spring booster being available to everyone.

Re: International travel

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:49 pm
by shpalman
Brightonian wrote:
Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:44 pm
Will I have to go back to getting PCR tests? I flipping hate those things, never succeeded in suppressing my gag reflex.

Asking because to enter France you have to have had a shot in the last nine months, but I will be over the nine months when I want to travel, and there's no sign of the spring booster being available to everyone.
When I had my polymerase chain reacted in April they just swabbed in my nose. The instructions for flowing laterally also indicate nose swabs only.