laurieco

Has anyone used this prior to returning to the United States from Europe? I am wondering if there is a wait to have someone help online with administering the test, and how long it takes for the results. We do not want to get stuck waiting hours for someone to come online and wasting time on our last few days in Greece. We will be flying home from Athens on September 30 and I am wondering about the best way to get tested prior to the flight. Thanks for any input you have.

Fodorite018

We used this just a few days ago. We were in Iceland and for 5 of us, I brought along 8 kits just in case. We used two laptops so that we could hurry up and get on with the day. This was on Saturday, so just 5 days ago. Anyway, the total time per person is about 25 minutes as you first need to answer a series of questions, then you get logged in with a proctor (we had no wait at all each time, and we had to log in 5 times since there were 5 of us), then they walk you through every step, then it is a 15 minute wait for the results and then a proctor comes back on and goes over the results with you. It was very easy! My kit had a glitch in that the dropper was empty, but instead of opening another kit they just had me use the leftover drops from my husbands kit. We our results immediately posted to the Navica app as well as emailed to us, and those were sufficient at the airport in Iceland. Nobody in the US checked upon our arrival as it was already in the system.

laurieco

mms, thank you for that. I think I will buy the packet with two tests, one for me and one for my husband. Do you remember the approximate time it was (in the US) when you did it? Or in Iceland (I can just subtract 5 hours). I want to do it when there will be less people logging on for the test.

mjs

We used it in France in July with similar results. There was a problem later in July/August with long waits, ie hours according to some folks on Flyertalk but apparently it has been resolved

laurieco

Yes, I had heard about the long waits and was concerned. Good to know it has been resolved. Thank you.

progol

Thanks for this! I was thinking about this as well but was concerned about the long waits, too.

Melnq8

There's a lot of info over on Trip Advisor regarding these tests. Wait times were a bit slow a few weeks ago, but seems they've improved in the past week or so. I've been monitoring posts regarding the tests as we plan to take them with us to Switzerland later in the month. Glad to hear of the successes here.

laurieco

Thanks Mel. I will take a look at TA. I never thought to look there for this type of thing.

Fodorite018

We did four of the tests about 10am Icelandic time, then the 5th one was after we moved hotels so around 3pm. Absolutely no wait for any of the tests. This was on Saturday.

laurieco

I just ordered a two pack of the test and it should be here within a couple of days. Thanks to mms, mjs and Melnq8. progol, I think we will be fine but you should order the test now to make sure you get it in time for the trip. My drugstore was sold out. I read that Abbott destroyed a lot of their tests when the Covid rates went down here when people were being vaccinated at high rates. They did not think they would need them, but why they destroyed them is crazy. Anyhow, there is a shortage of tests. I just ordered a two pack from optum.com.
https://store.optum.com/shop/product...est-kit-2-pack
$69.99 for a two-pack, which is all we should need.

progol

So in ordering the 2-pack, it asks for my date of birth. Will that mean that only I can use both the tests or will I be able to set it up for each of us? Or do I have to order 2 separate tests?

laurieco

I think both of you can use it. My drugstore was selling it until they sold out. You didn’t have to answer questions to buy it there.

progol

Thanks, laurieco. I’ll see if my local drug store has it and, if not, order it today.

Melnq8

I just ordered a six pack from Emed:

https://www.emed.com/

laurieco

I'm curious as to where on Trip Advisor I can find info about the tests. Nothing comes up in a search and there does not seem to be a category it fits into.

Fodorite018

Laurieco— the Iceland forum on trip advisor has a lot of information on these.

Christina

I've read somewhere that people also have had to wait a long time, maybe an hour or more, for someone online. In reality, I suppose anything can happen, so I think you had better have a backup plan.

It wouldn't be a special forum on TA< just general posts within a country forums where people might talk about that.

Just now I went to TA Europe forums and just typed "Abbott" into the search box and on the first page of results, maybe half of them clearly are referring to that test. Forums are Frankfurt, Italy, Green and Portugal (first page of results). Tried the same thing using the word Binax and the entire first page of results are about that test.

Melnq8

Yes, I meant there's been several threads about the tests in various forums. Iceland in particular, but also on some of the other Europe forums.

Fodorite018

Christina—we did the test 5 days ago with no wait whatsoever. If you read the posts on TA you will see that the long waits were in July and early august. The company has rectified that.

laurieco

Thanks everyone! As you can tell, I don't know my way around Trip Advisor that well.
Christina, I do have a backup plan, there are places in Athens where we can get a rapid antigen test and I plan on finding out about them when we get there on September 15, and find out if an appointment is necessary for Sept 28, two days before our flight. We get back to Athens on Sept. 27.