UK has included India in the amber list as my friends whatsApped me. Hey you could now book your travel to visit your daughter’s family in the UK. Great news indeed..
Yes I am ready. I am fully vaccinated with the so-called safer vaccine Covishield. So is my husband.
Now to find out the ideal flight.. it has to leave from chennai. Not too early in the morning as Jacob hates late night hanging around in the airports..Have just one stop in the way.. and reach Heathrow at a time not too early or late so that my daughter would find it not too difficult to pick us up.
Nothing fitting these criteria appeared on the screen. Am i going senile that i cannot find the right link. Are travel agents playing pranks on us to get us to cough out more money. Ahh i found one and gladly typed in my details and checked the price. It was a heavy 5 Lakhs rupees for 2 persons both ways. Na na.. not possible. Yes it was 5 Lakhs. No way am i going to throw around my hard earned money.
after such futile attempts I ate the humble pie and asked a new travel agent recommended by an acquaintance to find suitable flights. After a few attempts she said that Emirates airlines would come up with fresh flight announcements soon.. And true enough she was able to suggest convenient flights the booking of which were filling up. The costs of travel were double those of 2020.
Should we go? Well the gates are open now and may not remain so for long depending the mood of the corona Virus its possible mutations and the possible new vagaries of the disease. Go go go soon. So I asked our travel agents to book the flights.
well what are the rules and regulations that we should abide by.. Link the vaccination certificates to our passports. Be careful while keying in the details. It cannot be reversed says the app. With trepidation I first did mine and then my husband’s. There you go. I found a link which would deliver the document through wA right into your phone. Presto .. the vaccination certificate landed on my phone through wA.
Then was registering for tests in the UK when you arrive there. Days2 and8.. day 2 and 5..Also day 2, 5 and 8. Am o fully vaccinated. Of course the jabs and Cowin website confirm this fact. But wait a minute.. uk portal says that i am not unless I have taken a particularly named Covishield. Scurry around. Hey does anyone know the brand of Covishield vaccine that was given to us…Drew a blank there too..
Well, my pride was hurt. As an Indian doctor I KNOW I am vaccinated but here is another country doubting the credibility of my vaccine.. Now do i want to see my daughter or not.. So I started looking for an RT PCR testing lab nearer where my daughter lives. 20 to 150 sterling pounds was the cost of tests for ine person. Now wait.. why such a discrepancy in pricing.. that too in the UK. I thought that was the right of my country alone.
My nephew Vivek opened my eyes to the fact that almost all the labs charge you more than a 100 British pounds per person for tests for Days 2 and 8.. This is like you discover the hidden costs. Got the tests booked for the 2 of .us.. through vivek.
did i get the passenger locator form PLF as referred to so glibly by everyone. Yes I thought I did. But it never generated a form so being smart i took a screen shot.and saved it in my phone.
visa? YesI have a valid one. All set ? Of course. Am i not a seasoned traveller..Have globe trotted in my career so long. I took umbrage at my nephew for telling me what a RT PCR test certificate looked like. Look man I may be senior but remember i am a doctor..
So the day came for us to trVel. Armed with 3 sets of files with all the documents including the per test done within 48 hours we arrived at the airport 4 hours ahead asadvised by our travel agent. The gates were not even open..The verandah had about 15 travellers with relatives hanging around. The gates finally did open and we were ushered inside. The counters were still not ready if you please..
has the pandemic made everyone slovenly we wondered. Jacob complained of lack of sufficient sleep and yours truly reminded him that this was just once in a way sacrifice.
we were one of the first ones at the counter when opened. .The young lady went through all the papers and found our PLF papers missing. Mam kindly show the PLF form. The what? The passenger locator form. Oh certainly. Have i not the screen shot ready? Well. These don’t seem to be what we want. Let me check with another colleague…Who called another .. and finally some senior asked me for a reference number. Now whats that.. Madam he said just show us those numbers and we will issue the boarding pass.. Well i said sure. Its a matter of minutes. I came and seated myself and went into uk immigration website. The net stopped. The wifi of airport didn’t work. I was panicking. Could i use any if tour PCs to get those documents. Sorry Ma’m. That’s not allowed.. oh no that cannot be. How do I generate those PLF forms with QRCode and reference numbers. Ma’m see everyone has it. Do they… But how? My website page didn’t move beyond a certain page and so how did i know that the PLF form isn’t my smart screen shot.
A brilliant idea flashed through my mind. My nephew and niece who recently had returned to the uk had worked through these. So let me call them. Sure enough Vivek and his dear wife Dipali took my call sat up in the midnight and
generated these forms and that’s how we were permitted to fly into the UK.
Times have changed folks. Just sit down and get acquainted with the new norms and normals. Learn what QR codes mean; how to generate the forms. Don’t skip reading sentences and small letters in the websites as I did. Your last experience whatever and whenever it was, needs to be upgraded. Good luck
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