Are these the correct rules for travelling to the US?

Q I know you are in the US, so I thought I should ask for your version of the testing and quarantine rules for families going to America. I’ve read that the pre-flight test must be a PCR taken within 72 hours of arrival; that unvaccinated children must self-isolate for a week; and that we’re all supposed to get tested after we arrive. Do you agree?

Geoff B

A Given the already heightened anxiety that many of us have about international travel, it is regrettable that there is so much misinformation about visiting the US during the coronavirus pandemic. Of those assertions, the first two are false and the third is broadly correct.

The starting point for British travellers to America is that adults must be fully vaccinated; under-18s accompanying them need not be. (While there are some rare exceptions that allow unvaccinated visitors in, they do not apply to the average visitor whether seeing loved ones or on holiday in the US.)

Every member of a family aged two or over should take a lateral flow test on the day of departure to the US or one of the preceding three days. For example, with a flight at 3pm on Saturday you could take a test any time from Wednesday to Friday, or on Saturday itself; the Americans offer a lot more latitude than “72 hours before arrival”. There is no point taking a slower and more expensive PCR test – except in the specific case of travelling via Canada, which will demand one, and for which you can use the same test.

Unvaccinated children travelling with fully jabbed adults need not self-isolate, unless of course they test positive for Covid-19. Which leads on to your third point.

The US Centers for Disease Control, which is the American health regulator recommends fully vaccinated visitors take a second test between three and five days after arrival, but this is not essential.

The difference for unvaccinated children aged 2-17 accompanying them is that the post-arrival test is mandatory, not merely recommended.

I am still trying to assess the best way to obtain these "day 3-5 tests"; as always, seeking local advice is likely to prove the best option.

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Q What do you think of the leaks in the Sunday papers about quarantine and testing coming back for people who don’t have a Covid booster?

Name supplied

A This was an exclusive in the Mail on Sunday headlined “No booster ... no hassle-free foreign travel”. It asserted that “Ministers are drawing up plans to bring back tests and quarantine for those who refuse a third Covid jab”.

The proposal outlined is to change the definition of being fully vaccinated: instead of just two jabs, prospective travellers would need three if they were to dodge multiple tests and 10 days of self-isolation.

An unnamed government source is quoted in the article as saying: “This is not going to happen immediately – but happen it will.”

Already there is a wide divide in terms of international travel between the jabbed and the jabbed-nots, with the latter required to quarantine. But the veracity of the story is not, er, boosted by the strange assertion that unvaccinated travellers must “pay for four expensive PCR tests, two before departure and two back on British soil”. In fact the rule is just one lateral flow test before departure plus two PCRs after arrival.

To put the article in context: definitions of being fully vaccinated will certainly evolve over the next few months and years, both in the UK and overseas. Nations such as Austria and Israel are already imposing time limits for the efficacy of vaccinations, which is beginning to affect travellers who had their jabs early on. The failure of the NHS travel app to carry details of any booster is another drawback – and one reason why I think this is more an opinion-seeking exercise than a working plan. Another, stronger reason is that to make boosters an essential for hassle-free travel when not even one in six of the population have had them and the majority don’t yet qualify, would rightly cause uproar.

What will happen, though, is that at some stage the UK will impose its own time limit since the last vaccination – whether a second dose or a booster – as we learn more about how the protection from vaccines deteriorates over time. But I certainly wouldn’t be fretting yet about tighter travel rules.

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Q A 70-minute intercontinental to continental European flight connection at Heathrow is nuts, right?

Jon O

A Not at all. As with hospitals and prisons, my view of airports is that you should spend as little time in them as possible. With an international-to-international connection, there is no risk of being stuck in a long queue for passport control, of the kind that has dogged Heathrow for months. And my appetite for a 70-minute connection at the UK’s busiest airport is stronger now than it would have been in 2019 because of the slump in air traffic that the coronavirus pandemic has triggered.

Delays on arrival have declined sharply with the slump in flights, and you are unlikely to find yourself flying around in circles over the home counties waiting to land while your prospects for making the second flight diminish at every turn.

I would attempt the manoeuvre only with a through ticket, rather than independent bookings. Having a ticket covering the whole trip from A to B via Heathrow means that if your inbound flight is delayed and you miss the connection, you should be automatically be rebooked on the next available flight at no cost.

If that condition is met and the connection is within the same terminal, I would not hesitate to book a 70-minute transfer even with checked baggage.

British Airways tells passengers: “We recommend that you allow the following minimum connection times: 1 hour for connections within the same Heathrow terminal; 1 hour 30 minutes for connections that require travel between terminals at Heathrow.”

I think the latter is unduly pessimistic. Handily, Terminal 4 has been taken out of the equation with no departures: this unloved area at the south of the airfield always had slow and awkward connections with the main part of the airport that lies between the runways.

At present only Terminal 2 and 3 in the central area and Terminal 5 to the west are operational. An inter-terminal transfer is reliant on an “airside” bus connection: the rail links are available only if you go out through passport control and back in through security, which you really don’t want to do.

In a nutshell: were the incoming flight is half-an-hour late. I would be fairly confident of reaching the right departure gate with at least 10 minutes to spare even if it meant changing terminals. But I would not hold out much hope of my checked luggage doing the same.

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