šŸ˜· COVID - Antigen vs PCR?

Travel International Travel
1

I will be travelling to London by KLM: mostly because they have been really helpful on the phone and answered my questions while others didn;t or were unavailableā€¦ I even decided that I was ready to pay for the extra antigen test. But I am having a few second thoughts due to bthe following.

The route is Taiwan-Bangkok-Amsterdam-London. I guess the antigen test is for the Netherlands. So maybe you don;t even need a PCR to go to the Netherlands? An antigen test is sufficient? Clearly, this is not a direct flight. My question is, if I get a 72 hour PCR in Taiwan before travelling will that still be valid in the Netherlands when I fly to London? Or will the UK expect the PCR to be 72 hours from boarding in Holland?

I am trying to contact KLM about this but they don;t seem to be there at weekend.

Does anyone know? Time is a bit short.

2

Call them in NL

3

Credit ran out. Chunghwa. I went to 7 11 hoping to top up and girl said goverbnent will pay (QR taken). Still not working.

4

If you take the test in 72 hours before your flight departs from Amsterdam you should be okey.

5

Yes that is the point. When they said they fly to London, I thought they meant you show us the covid certificate in Taiwan and go to London. Now I am asking myself if I need the PCR 72 hours from Amsterdam? If so, how would I get it? The UK isnā€™t even in the EU anymore so I probably could not go outside to get it. Blocked up at AMS!

If you could get it in the airport it would be great because I could get out of here with an antigen test at the airport.

6

Call time seems expensive here. I got 500 dollars on Monday or Tuesday and all gone Saturday. I only made a few calls to Taipei.

7

Is your transfer in Amsterdam so long you canā€™t make the 72 hours requirement if you take the test before you leave TW?

8

Good question. I am not sure and thatā€™s one of the things I wanted to ask. It must be fairly direct to AMS as no one leaves the plane in Bangkok. Aboiu 15 hours maybe? And perhaps the PCR was 35hours old at the start of the flight? That gives about a day in Ams to catch a flight. So it is probably okayā€“but piles on some extra pressure.

Back to trying to find a hospital that will make an appointment without cancelling.

9

It was a kind of joke, but I am thinking Taichung might be best, Stay overnight perhaps and get it done. Otherwise I am being directed to New Taipeiā€“a hot spot where thousands of people are being tested daily!

10

I flew KLM in Dec from France to the Netherlands to the UK.

At that time, you needed PCR (not antigen) within the last 72 hours or they would not let you transit. Test was free in France but was down to the wire with me because of office hours of the testing centre and their admin.