Traveling During the Pandemic

Traveling becomes a bigger adventure during the pandemic since you don’t know exactly what are the rules to follow before travel.

Airlines provide you the Covid requirements of the final destination country and the transition country (or countries) rules and if you do not meet all the requirements, you cannot make even the first flight. Covid rules for traveling are more complicated than you think.

Each country has its own rules, there is no standard for transition.

I was only trying to transit in Germany, meaning I wasn’t officially entering Germany (No entrance to the Schengen Area) but wait in the airport for my connection flight, and yet there are strict rules for that too.

According to regulations, it is your responsibility to meet all the requirements of all the countries and, airline employees will check your documents before providing your boarding pass and checking in your luggage.

My experience is that there is a little panic going on among the Airline employees who do not want to make a mistake but are not sure about the guidelines so keep asking the second opinion to their leaders or friends on how to proceed.

For example, Germany requires all passengers entering to the country fill a mandatory form providing their location and flight info. Thus in case of covid exposure, they will know how to contact you.

When I was only trying to transit via Germany, there was confusion among the Air service staff on whether it is necessary or not. Finally, we had the agreement that it was not necessary for a transit passenger so we moved on with the covid test.

Timing and the type of the test are critical and accordingly, it will be decided whether you can take the flight or not.

So for the Germany transition, it was required to take the test no more than 48 hours before your arrival at your destination in Germany.

On the other hand, the USA requirement is that test must be taken no more than 3 days before the departure (the first flight of the travel).

Another important part of the test is the “type of the test” as the USA accepts any molecular or antigen covid test while Turkey only accepts PCR testing completed no more than 48 hours before your arrival.

Thus PCR is the safe test to take just to make sure you meet the requirements and also Covid test areas/labs would advise you to take it for travel, not the antigen test.

A vaccination card is valid in some countries but not all vaccines are valid

According to some regulations, completion of 2 covid vaccines in more than 2 weeks before the travel is enough to enter the Schengen Area or maybe be able to do transition during your trip.

One of the challenges of vaccination is that not all vaccines are acceptable. If you have received Russia’s first approved vaccine (Sputnik V), China’s covid vaccine (Sinovac), or Indian vaccines, your document might not be accepted (1).

And most importantly, this crucial information is not written on the documents explaining the travel requirements provided by the airlines in detail.

Thus, to prevent any trouble or delay in the flight, the most secure action to take is to complete a PCR test within the timing limits of your trip.

You might think completing the test 1–2 days before the flight makes sense in the covid spread perspective because if the timeline is too long it will be questionable whether you caught Covid after the test.

On the other hand, it is important to understand that thousands of people are taking this test every day and once you take it you are waiting in line and hoping that there won’t be a mistake in the test or there are enough samples for the test so you can make it to the flight.

Because there is not much time to fix a mistake, if your test sampling is not successful or if your sample is lost among the hundreds of samples taken that day.

Another important point is that you have to consent to all the information you provided on the covid test request form.

The form I filled up when I was in Turkey contained my passport and Identity number in addition to my address, phone number, and birth date.

At that point, you don’t have many options and provide all this information to have your PCR test.

PCR Covid tests are too expensive in the airports and yet not always available

Taking a PCR test can get expensive depending on where you take the test. I took a test in DC in a private lab for $175 and I heard that testing in the airport can be more expensive.

When I took my flight from Frankfurt to Germany, the passenger sitting next to me told me that in Frankfurt airport he paid 230 Euros for the PCR testing and he booked the last available appointment for the time suitable for his travel.

We had a conversation about how expensive it is and how stressful the whole situation is because there are times even money can’t solve your problem. After all, the PCR testing capability is full.

Frankfurt airport covid test prices are available online (2) and the price goes down for longer waiting time.

The question is why the system takes the advantage of you when you don’t have much time till your flight and why the airport lab is still not ready to help the international passengers after months of guidelines change.

We should also keep in mind that it would be a burden if a family of 4 is traveling out of the country and needs to take a PCR test at the airport. It would be an expense almost as big as the flight price.

You might think then why not take the PCR test at a private test center instead of the airport.

That’s what I did and many people choose this path yet it should be noted that the airline information center states that they do not accept any Covid test so the most guaranteed way is to choose a covid test center they suggest.

Thus many people choose a test center from the “guarantee labs” where you will pay $100–300 depends on the location. This business provides a strong cash flow to some people.

My Adventure of going from Washington DC to Ankara with a transition in Frankfurt

I had a flight to Istanbul from Washington DC and then was going to connect to Ankara, Turkey.

When I was in the airport at 10.00 pm, I learned that my vaccination card was not enough to enter Turkey but need to PCR test completed in the last 2 days.

Since I had double shots of the Pfizer vaccines and it had been more than 2 weeks, I thought I was ok to go. But then I learned Turkey’s requirements were different and asked to leave the line and it was too late to take the test.

This they pointed me to join to another line where the people who are not eligible to take the flight are waiting for an explanation or rescheduling the flight. It was one of those moments that I was very upset and stuck at the DC airport without the knowledge of what’s next for me.

Since I booked the flight with my points, they could not reschedule my flight and told me to contact customer service. At this point, I think you can imagine that too many people are trying to contact customer service, and getting an answer takes time.

As I was trying to figure out how to reschedule and what are my options, my flight left for Istanbul. Then I called my friend to come to pick me up while the airport was too quiet and mostly empty.

I was on the phone with customer service and managed to book a flight via Frankfurt to Ankara. Then early the next morning, I run to a lab to get a PCR covid test. I was desperate because without that document I can’t even drop my luggage.

I received the results on time and fly to Frankfurt. But then I could not take my connection to Dusseldorf because although I am trying to transfer, I could not enter Germany. So I had to reschedule my flight one more time and fly to Istanbul and then to Ankara.

When I was waiting for the Istanbul flight in Frankfurt, I didn’t have a boarding pass yet (I had to wait till they open to gate to get an official seat) and then they connected my luggage.

At that point, I had no hope that my baggage could make it but didn’t even care. I was exhausted and all I wanted was to go to Ankara. When I arrived in Ankara I was on the way for 3 days and it was supposed to be a 17 hours flight.

Final Thoughts: What could be done differently

Better communication and standardization of the requirements are crucial. Even the airline personnel cannot follow the rules that keep changing.

In addition, it is not acceptable that third parties are making an insane amount of money due to the PCR test requirements and test timing limitations. It is not right to getting advantage of this vulnerable system.

References 1. https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/travellers-vaccinated-with-russian-chinese-indian-vaccines-may-be-unable-to-enter-majority-of-eu-countries/ 2. https://www.frankfurt-airport.com/en/flights-and-transfer/covid-19/coronavirus-testing-at-the-airport.html