4am Tuesday is the start time for PCR tests and compulsory isolation

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• roberto says:

  28 Nov28 November 10:50

  FWIW I had this email from Simply Test Me…

  Update to customers in response to change in Government Regulations to PCR Tests
  Dear Customer,
  We are aware that the already difficult travel landscape has just got infinitely more challenging.
  We started our company in a bid to offer required testing at a reasonable cost whilst still keeping outstanding customer service.
  We’re thankful to all our customers who ‘took the plunge’ and booked with us, and we thank you for the overwhelmingly positive reviews, comments on social media and personal recommendations. It has been a pleasure speaking to a number of you on the phone and via email when we’ve taken Customer Service shifts to ensure we had a grasp on what was going on in our business!
  At this stage, we want to offer clarity and a clear plan to ensure those of you still planning to travel are able to do so, that we don’t keep your money longer than necessary nor do we charge unreasonable cancellation fees (or like some of our competitors offer no cancellations).
  Our intention is to offer Day 2 PCR tests, and we expect these to cost £43. This will include next day return delivery to our lab from any post-box (subject to catching the last mail collection) and same day results (ie a test posted to us on a Monday will have results by Tuesday evening subject to Royal Mail). If this is of interest, we would ask you to keep checking our website from tomorrow as we finalise stocks of PCR swabs. However, we want you to be able to make your decision as to your best provider and give you the freedom to choose.
  As such, we have put the following policy into place:
  • Arrivals today and Monday 29th November will be able to use the Lateral Flow tests as normal and any outstanding bookings for arrivals on Monday will be sent as normal. Bookings are open for the rest of today for arrivals tomorrow (with Tracked 24 delivery only).
  • For all tests not yet dispatched for bookings with an arrival date before the 3rd January 2022
  we will be giving automatic refunds minus our incurred costs (transaction fee and admin fee) of 50p per test.
  That’s a refund of £11.50 for a £12 standard booking, or £15.10 on a Tracked 24 service.
  We expect all these refunds to be finished by the middle of this week.
  We will reassess the situation towards the end of December and offer the same for January bookings should this be relevant.
  • For all tests already dispatched
  These can either be transferred free of charge to future travel (for when

  • roberto says:

    28 Nov28 November 10:52

    PART 2
    • For all tests already dispatched
    These can either be transferred free of charge to future travel (for when Day 2 Lateral Flows return) or returned to us.
    Once the test has been received back at our warehouse, we will refund minus our incurred costs (transaction fee, packing and shipping).
    That’s a refund of £9.50 per test (tracked 24 upgrade fee was charged to customers at cost so there is no additional refund due).
    There is no pressure to return these – this policy will be available into January 2022 if you wish to wait to see whether transfer to future travel is better for you.
    Tests can be returned to us by writing RTS on the outer envelope and placing in any Royal Mail postbox.
    Please note that we will be unable to respond to individual emails from customers, where the answers are above, in order to be able to process refunds where relevant as quickly as possible.
    Please also note that our telephone call centre will be closed this week whilst we work through emails and refunds.
    I thank you for your custom, and as usual, please feel free to review our service here.

    • BlueHorizonUK says:

      28 Nov28 November 11:03

      That’s good of them. Hope others follow suit.

    • ChrisC says:

      28 Nov28 November 11:03

      Thanks not had that yet.

      Good job I kept the envelope it came in!

  • Alan says:

    28 Nov28 November 11:28

    Very impressed – haven’t had to book any of these tests yet but they sound like a decent company that would be worth giving business to 👍

• r* says:

  28 Nov28 November 11:03

  Does that also mean that you cant transit from the uk through swiss airports?

  • John says:

    28 Nov28 November 13:04

    That was the case when British citizens were banned due to alpha (Kent variant) in Dec 2020

• Ansiella Grima says:

  28 Nov28 November 11:14

  I will arrive in UK on the 30th December for a short break we will do the PCR test on the same time arrival at the Heathrow Airport and then we have to isolate ourselves in the hotel until we receive the results can someone please answer my questions

  • Rob says:

    28 Nov28 November 13:23

    Correct.

    Note you can pay for a 3-hour PCR test at Heathrow which realistically means no isolation.

    • Frankie says:

      28 Nov28 November 13:46

      Hi Rob. But can you pre book the 3 hour test and get a code for the PLF before flying? I’ve been on Express Test website today as friends need one asap when arriving from Seattle in two weeks. I can’t see that it can work as a day 2 arrival giving a PLF code unless I’m mistaken.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Nov28 November 15:18

        It’s too early to say what the testing providers will offer. Rapid facilities exist for Fit to fly and they may extend for arrivals needing a “day 2”

        However, take a Randox mail order day 2 asap after landing and stick it in the Dropbox before it collects for the day and you’ll have the result by lunchtime the next day.

  • GeorgeJ says:

    28 Nov28 November 16:47

    Personally I wouldn’t worry about what happens in over a months time since the rules will have changed by then anyway! It will be either nothing to worry about or total disaster.

• John T says:

  28 Nov28 November 12:08

  It’s a shame this is all happening now and not in January given last Christmas was cancelled. I think if we’d all had a normal Christmas we wouldn’t be bothered with new restrictions in January when lots of people stay home anyway.

  • John says:

    28 Nov28 November 12:54

    Maybe Christmas should be moved to November

  • Rich says:

    28 Nov28 November 13:35

    Yep, it’s a shame that blasted COVID and the desire to reduce potential deaths isn’t working around our first world requirements isn’t it?!

    • Novice says:

      28 Nov28 November 15:11

      😂

  • David says:

    28 Nov28 November 21:02

    More than happy with the restrictions, thanks.

• Steve says:

  28 Nov28 November 12:11

  Am I right to think that in the past the wording on day 2 tests allowed them to be taken prior to day zero, so that eg for a weekend break you could take the test before leaving the country? That might help reduce the isolation period to a minimum…

  • John says:

    28 Nov28 November 12:55

    No, they must be taken after arriving in the UK.

    When there were pre-flight tests you could take them before leaving the UK as they just had to be 3 days before your arrival.

• Aaron C says:

  28 Nov28 November 12:18

  If I booked a rapid 3hr “pre-departure” PCR with Collinson and simply used the PLF from my already-booked LFT would I be breaking any rules? Surely as long as I have a negative PCR I can crack on? Take the PCR on landing and the results will be with me by the time I’m home. If anyone says anything I can simply show my emailed negative results, no?

  • John says:

    28 Nov28 November 12:57

    Without reading the as yet unpublished law, nobody can say.

    But when you enter the UK you would have evidence that you’ve booked a PCR test even if it didn’t come with a PLF code, which might satisfy the conditions.

    Only hitch may be if they change the PLF code format.

• Pat says:

  28 Nov28 November 12:41

  I’m glad I booked an arrival test last night. I’m coming in from NYC on Friday and slots were filling up.

  I’m also hoping Qured will refund me for the day 2 rapid test I had originally ordered.

• Peter Taysum says:

  28 Nov28 November 12:51

  Dear all,

  I’m flying to Turkey for Christmas, return 26th December; I’m due to fly NCL to LHR on 29th December at 07:05 then on to SEA.

  I THINK I need PCR ASAP on return, isolate and NEGATIVE PCR result BEFORE I can fly NCL to SEA.

  Not sure when I can get PCR on return, so will need PCR sent out in advance before Christmas.

  Sorry to be dense, but my head is exploding!

  Thanks,
  Peter

  • John says:

    28 Nov28 November 13:01

    As day 2 is 28 Dec, you can’t escape from having to do it.

    US can be LFT but must be supervised. But you might as well try to use your day 2 test for the US, so it would be a PCR anyway.

    Day -3 for the US is 26 Dec, which suits you doing it ASAP on return from Turkey too.

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