Fly me to the Moon - your 3rd travel Megathread - read OP

It says it is not a travel doc meaning it doesn't replace a passport. If you also had covid before, you will probably test negative on a PCR now.

Nope.

Loads of people will be screwed because no update on eu cert.

Unless you got your second vaccine dose within 7 months.

I'm pretty sure France aren't looking for proof of booster at the moment

I haven't heard anything about our EU certs expiring after 7 months, can anyone confirm if this is the case? if so, what are we meant as the booster hasn't been added to it, can we use the little card we got instead? Meant to be heading to Lanzarote next week, it's so stressful as there seem to be different updates every day.

My son flew UK to Dublin few days before Xmas , he got an antigen test done and the cert just had his name , gate staff just checked the name matched passport and boarding card ,and was allowed board no problem.

I'm in France at the moment and got my antigen test this morning. No passport number on mine either, only name and date of birth. I had to complete a form beforehand and there was no field for passport number, only the French social security number. I don't anticipate any problems tomorrow though.

As usual we will be last.

I am about to book Thailand for June. I feel like things will have to have improved by then.

Is that a reasonable assumption?

Thats exactly what they said last summer "officially" too, but on the ground in France the CDC card was accepted everywhere. Its very, very unlikely that changes.

travel last summer was pretty easy with the certs etc, you’d have to hope something similar will be back in place soon.

I went to the USA a week before Xmas, got a test the day before at goSafe48 in Dundrum. They promised a result in 6 hours, it took 7, which was OK, I suppose. In both directions, my vaccination cert and test results were examined at check-in only, and at no other times.

Getting a test in the USA over New Year … yikes. The good news is that there are free tests. The bad news is that the usual testing places such as pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens) are fully booked up well in advance, up to a week ahead, which I was not expecting at all. PCR result times are all over the place, some up to 72 hours, they say, and literally everything was shut on New Year’s Eve (a Federal holiday). I got a rapid test on New Year’s Day, the day before flying, at a drive-through in a parking lot. They said 24 hours, but the guy was English and I asked nicely.

So I got a result back the same day … with the wrong test date and my name misspelled. They fixed it quickly, thankfully, but the cert looked like a bog-standard Word document with a lab logo, edited and saved to a PDF. Would the airline accept it at check-in? They did, and also checked my passenger locator form. That was the last check, in Dublin it was just the usual passport check.

PS I was with friends near Houston TX, and had plenty of opportunities to catch COVID, including trips to big stores where many didn’t wear masks (H-E-B for example) and days out (Houston Zoo, Galveston). My friends’ kids got an exposure warning through a bus driver who reported symptoms, but they tested negative. No masks in the house at all.

How are the entry PCR'S being checked currently, is it on check in for the flight or in Dublin on arrival? We're currently in Peru and will be transiting through Amsterdam on our way home.

The airline should check them at check in or at the gate. In theory if booked through, then they should check in Peru at the check in desk. They may check again at the gate in Amsterdam. It's most likely that you won't be asked in Dublin on arrival as they presume the airlines have done their job, but they do spot checks and I was asked this week and in mid-December for my antigen test by Immigration.

Also remember it is 48/72 hours (PCR) from your booked arrival time into Ireland. With Peru being behind, you can calculate the time difference and work back from there.

People are talking about "booster cards" but neither myself (vaccinated by a MVC) nor my parents (vaccinated in the doctors) got any card or any information to say we'd had the booster.

I don't think there is an awareness of how much of a pain in the ass this actually is. The Irish government need to get off their asses NOW and add the booster to our EU Covid certs. At the moment there is absolutely no way to prove that we have gotten boosters, its an absolute disgrace.

That, and the test-before-entry here HAS to go. My bet is that they will drag both of these things out and fix them at the start of February, but that won't help for the trip I want to book in late January. With work etc, I just can't risk contracting Omicron abroad, having a sniffle, failing an antigen test and not being able to get back to Ireland. (Belfast is a 5 hour drive so thats not worth it!