Tier Point Run to San Francisco in Jan 2022: Prep

Preparations

Managed to sneak this trip in during Jan.  It was originally a June booking that was impacted by flight cancellations, so at the start of Jan I decided to take advantage of my ability to rebook my trip avoiding all of the original restrictions: as long as there is flight availability.  That allowed me to reduce a 6-day trip to a 4-day trip and avoid a couple of extra unpaid days of work.

This was originally a trip via Paris (CDG) and with the extra restrictions recently imposed by the French Government, I decided I would switch to Amsterdam.  Two main benefits: very good opportunity for a B2B and very few Covid restrictions.

Covid Requirements

Another opportunity to test my planning skills working with the restrictions being imposed by the countries that I would be travelling through on this trip:

• Flying to Netherlands – fully vaccinated (with booster) – needed an antigen test within 24 hours.  No Verifly to simplify covid documentation verification, but uploaded my covid vaccination evidence to BA and about 24 hours later, I was good to check in.  The only other (Dutch) requirement was for printing and signing three documents (a health declaration, a vaccination declaration and a quarantine exception declaration).
• Flying back to the UK – again, not too challenging as a result of being fully vaccinated.  Just needed to fill in a Passenger Locator Form (PLF) and commit to doing a Day 2 test, even though I would be transferring onto a flight to the US on the following day.  Apparently, there should be a transit option, but I couldn’t find it!
• Flying to the US – over and above being vaccinated, I needed an antigen test within 24 hours.  That mean that it was safer for me to do two separate tests, when previously I might have just used one (if it was according to the previous rules of within 3 days). I had some left over tests from Chronomics, so I didn’t need to order any more.  The only other (US) requirement was for printing and signing an attestation document.
• Domestic AA travel – nothing required.
• Flying back home – no longer any requirement for a return test in support of my JFK-LHR flight, another PLF and a commitment to do another Day 2 test.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to San Francisco in Jan 2022