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Corona / Covid-19 virus - airport and flying restrictions, and licensing / medical issues

I reckon you could just keep a photo of a negative test and email it each time

You would think they might check it is actually one of theirs (they have a S/N and a QR code on them which translates to the S/N). Maybe they do. And maybe check the EXIF for the date/time, but I know they don’t do that because somebody I know used a screenshot which would strip out EXIF.

Yes the whole thing is based on FUD, but it has to be because of the sheer numbers being processed. There is clearly a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes, trawling social media and removing posts which tell people how to game the system…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

The day 2 test has changed from PCR to the rapid test, in October. But you still need a “supervised” test so a pure-DIY one (which the UK hands out for free) cannot be used.

Naturally. The primary purpose of the travel testing system is to channel people’s money into the pockets of friends of those in power.

I would be surprised if the paid-for rapid test requirement goes away anytime soon. The prices are down to a palatable level which means people aren’t dissuaded from travelling by affordability, and the system is humming along quite nicely as a sort of travel tax where you have to pay £18-20 to some dodgy businessman with friends in government each time you re-enter the country.

The government can continue to justify the system as being careful and cautious as regards importing variants of the virus, so I agree with your other point (made in a later post I think) that a fair-sized PR effort must be going into suppressing the realities, i.e. lots of tests don’t turn up, they prove nothing anyway and are easy to game, and the whole thing achieves the square root of sod all.

I won’t leave the country until I no longer have to contribute to this outrageous racket in order to return.

EGLM & EGTN

So in the UK you STILL need additional testing despite double vaxxine? That is really weird. It also does not help the vaccination drive.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Yes, although there is no evidence that anybody is collecting the data – other than possibly on a sample basis, and the LF tests don’t deliver any DNA so can’t be used to pick up new variants.

I don’t agree with Graham that it is about supporting friends of politicians I think when this crisis started, nobody had any idea of what to do. Most politicians are not particularly bright – in any country – and they rely heavily on an army of advisers and contacts. There were sort of proper plans for a flu epidemic but not for one with a ~1.5% mortality (10x worse). And politicians were desperate to do “anything” and right away went for the low hanging fruit which is always your friendly shyster, crook, wide boy, and criminal. Society is packed with these types, circling like sharks and keen to exploit the latest scam. And they go to the right social functions.

And tens of BN went to the usual govt contractors who tick the right vendor approval boxes – the likes of e.g. Deloitte & Co to run track & trace. The govt has made the box ticking very hard and only the “standard suspects” can tick them. Try to be a supplier to the NHS, or your national version of it? It’s near-impossible. Vendor approval schemes is the big change in business over the last 30 years – massive empire building there, and packed with people who love their self-importance. You can even get a fake MBA in supply chain management. Like you can get one in airspace policy These companies donate to the current govt – just like you would. The result is that only “friends of politicians” get these huge contracts.

I think in the last year or so the tests have been primarily used to keep down the travelling numbers – basically to p1ss people off from travelling, without actually saying it publicly. The pre-return tests did that perfectly, and cheaply. A family of four had a poor chance of all testing negative, and prob99 didn’t know that just dropping in the reagent will do that nicely. The Day 2 test we still have and it has just changed from the hard-to-fake PCR to a LF test which is absolutely trivial to fake but in any case nobody looks at them. The result is that Easyjet has been badly hit while Ryanair have been much more busy, Gatwick is a graveyard, Heathrow only a bit better…

The UK has always been “soft” on law enforcement which is why so many things happen here which would not happen across the water – e.g. the motorway protesters. They would never argue with a 9mm carrying officer whose IQ might not be as low as 20 but do you feel lucky? And virus test enforcement has been ~zero. I don’t think anybody has actually got the 10k fine for walking out of the post red country arrival solitary confinement hotels. And lots of other stuff goes on in the UK which would not belong in this thread

Yes; the UK has been very bad at incentivising vaccination, but that is again part of being a “soft” country. OTOH countries where they have done that – e.g. France for indoor eating – only look at the bit of paper very fast and don’t read it.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Like you can get one in airspace policy

Maybe that would actually be beneficial, if graduates really understood statistics, air navigation, how to determine net flight paths, do proper risk analyses etc.

The UK has always been “soft” on law enforcement which is why so many things happen here which would not happen across the water – e.g. the motorway protesters. They would never argue with a 9mm carrying officer whose IQ might not be as low as 20 but do you feel lucky?

Have you missed farmer protests in France where they block motorways with heaps of manure? Or that Extinction Rebellion occupied runways on five Swedish airports the other day and made an attempt on a sixth?

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Maybe that would actually be beneficial, if graduates really understood statistics, air navigation, how to determine net flight paths, do proper risk analyses etc.

I think it is done as a promotion enabler, because the holders are rarely “academic types”.

Have you missed farmer protests in France where they block motorways with heaps of manure? Or that Extinction Rebellion occupied runways on five Swedish airports the other day and made an attempt on a sixth?

Indeed I have – we need more posts along the lines of “this is happening in my country” from people outside the UK Instead we get this which is a handy way to disparage the UK and make it look like a 3rd World country which is what is “supposed to happen” post-brexit

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

I think in the last year or so the tests have been primarily used to keep down the travelling numbers – basically to p1ss people off from travelling, without actually saying it publicly.

Looking at the fact that after each holiday period we see out of control spikes, that was probably a good idea. It still would be, particularly red countries should be totally isolated and travel completely prohibited to/from those.

Peter wrote:

Yes; the UK has been very bad at incentivising vaccination, but that is again part of being a “soft” country. OTOH countries where they have done that – e.g. France for indoor eating – only look at the bit of paper very fast and don’t read it.

I am not sure about that, I have heard several instances where people were denied travel even with up front complete travel papers (vaccinated and tested) for formalities.

And yes, it is a huge problem that restaurants don’t check the certificates, even though most do. I’ve been to several in recent weeks on duty and all of them but one (in Germany) checked everyone. Personally I think they should have someone posted at the door and nobody gets in without a certificate, rather than doing it only once inside and distributing menu cards, but this could well be because of lack of staff and multiple entrances. But violators should be shut down, as one has in Zermatt these days.

Last Edited by Mooney_Driver at 05 Nov 06:27
LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

where people were denied travel even with up front complete travel papers (vaccinated and tested) for formalities.

Where was this?

In France, the police look at the vacc certificate and scan the QR code. I always carry a printout, because the NHS app needs mobile data to start up, although I could have a PDF on the phone, but that puts all the eggs in one basket again (phone dead).

It was the restaurant(s) which look at the vacc certificate at approximately the speed of light and certainly don’t scan the QR code.

as one has in Zermatt these days.

What happened at Zermatt?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I suspect that he is refering to the multiple stories in the press about holidaymakers pitching up to flights and being denied boarding – there have been several of these where the airline has the wrong info about requirements.

I have got into the habit of printing out the requirements of the destination country and any trasit country just in case, after Air France at checking said I needed some kind of autorization paperwork I knew nothing about. I asked to be shown the requirement and it turns out the checkin lass had typed in the wrong code into her tablet and so she wanted paperwork for the Philipines, not Serbia…

Regards, SD..

Peter wrote:

Where was this?

LGW. Friend of mine got denied boarding because her destination country changed the vaccination requirements (did not acknowledge some batches of AZ) despite having complete vaccination forms and a negative test. That airplane left almost empty.

Heard similar stories from all over the place. Some also happened here. I almost lost my flight this summer because of last minute adaptations (actually relaxations) in my destination country, because the IATA Translation of it was faulty.

Peter wrote:

It was the restaurant(s) which look at the vacc certificate at approximately the speed of light and certainly don’t scan the QR code.

Here almost everyone carries the check app and uses them or requires you to refresh your app.

Peter wrote:

What happened at Zermatt?

A restaurant famous with anti Covid crowd defied the certificate order, defied several shut down orders and finally got their proprietors arrested.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland
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