Thats fine.

Test 24 hours before domestic or international flight?
 

We are Canadians and have to take 2 flight to get to Portugal. Calgary to Toronto and then Toronto to Lisbon. My question is the 24 hours rapid antigen test, before the first flight or before the international flight?

If it’s all on one ticket, 24 hours before the departure of the first flight.

Thank you Progol, that is what I thought. We leave this Wednesday and 24 hours before the first flight will be after 2:30pm on Tuesday, but if it was the international flight, we would have to test on Wednesday morning before we go to the airport, which would be tight.

Hey all, another question on testing, a very specific situation that maybe some people have encountered (like travelplannerfor2 for instance with the Calgary to Toronto issue?). We're flying out of Boston to Lisbon, but we're flying from San Francisco to Boston a couple days before that and are planning on getting our PCR tests in SF about 71 hours before takeoff to Portugal. The thing I worry about is the timezone issue. Our flight is at 6:15pm EDT, so we are getting our tests at 4:15pm PDT (i.e. 7:15pm EDT) 3 days before. (For complicated reasons we have very limited availability to get the tests and our next avail time in Boston would not guarantee us 48 hours before takeoff and so we might not get test results in time.) I assume that with proof of the *location* we took the test to justify the time it was taken that it will be accepted, but just wanted to check if anyone has had to do this, too, and how it all went. Timezones seem like such a simple thing for the airline people, but we'd be devastated of course if they rejected us.

We may actually get both tests and then rely on the second one if it comes in on time, but as you can see, there are a lot of ifs.

pkt, you can also take an antigen test in Boston 24 hours prior to departure, which should be completed less than 24 hours prior to departure. The antigen test should be quicker.

And it does seem that the airlines are baffled by the requirement. We are flying United and I submitted our CDC cards prior to taking a PCR test. Once the CDC card was uploaded, I had completed my “COVID documentation” and was “travel ready”. I do have my PCR results printed out if and when we are asked, but many people report not being asked! Still, it IS an official requirement for US citizens for entry.

So far, we haven't been able to find an antigen test that is on the permitted list for Portugal. It's tough as it seems like there are only 4 of the many dozens (if I'm reading right that only those listed on Annex III on the European Commission List are allowed). But yes, if we don't have results from the other test(s) by that morning, we'll just go get the (presumably wrong) antigen test and hope it's enough to get us on the flight, and that the PCR results will show up by the time we (might) have to show them to an immigration official after we land.

And all this, plus hoping the test results are actually *negative*! Cases are definitely on the rise again. We are isolating and masking with N95s as much as possible, so fingers crossed!

I don’t think you need to worry about a particular antigen test. Really. As long as you have it, you’ll be fine. The likelihood of it being asked for seems pretty slim.

Thank you, progol!

Arrived in Lisbon on Thursday via Madrid from Boston. Iberia Air asked for our vaccination cards prior to boarding in Boston. We had to fill out a lengthy form online to obtain a COVID related QR code to enter Madrid Airport. It was never asked for. Upon entry to Lisbon Airport, we went thru with a breeze. We were never asked to display our Negative PCR results during our entire journey. On another note, our connection time between flights in Madrid Airport was one hour. Being very familiar with the airport we we sure this would not be enough time to catch our flight to Lisbon. Spot on, we missed our flight due to enormous lines at Passport Control. We joined a line at an. Iberian Office to rebook a later flight and found ourselves amongst about 200 hundred people who also missed connecting flights, including numerous folks from our Boston flight. We were fortunate to be scheduled for a flight 3 hours later to Lisbon. Others we talked to had to wait for over 8 hours to get on flights with some placed on stand by status for their connecting flights. One couple who we met on our Boston flight were told that the wife was booked on a seat for their Malaga flight, but that the husband was on stand by status. How does this happen????. We fly to Jerez de la Frontera thru Madrid every September and the connecting time is always an hour or maybe an hour and 15 minutes. We have missed the connecting flight on 2 other occasions. Why does Iberia insist on such a short time to connect flights. It makes no sense especially with the enormous size of the airport and the lengthy period of time between terminals.

Good news: After our short delay in getting a rescheduled flight to Lisbon, we are loving Escorial/Cascais. Just a beautiful place with great beaches and scenery. Incredible food and vino. The weather has been perfect, with full sun in the 70s.

In case it is helpful for anyone, we flew in on TAP on Sunday night/Monday morning. TAP asked for either our COVID test results OR vaccination card when we checked our bag in and never did we hear another peep about that. At immigration, only our passports were checked. I am still not enough of a risk taker to say I would have skipped the test, but I'm guessing given the increasingly lax enforcement, maybe there will be an official update from the authorities soon to reflect what's actually happening on the ground. (Or maybe not! Who knows!)