Get an overnight covid test and 5* Heathrow hotel stay from £179

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• Anna says:

  5 Nov5 November 07:29

  I’m booked into the Sofitel the night before a flight next July – I wonder if you can have it as an add on?!

  • Chris Heyes says:

    5 Nov5 November 11:34

    Anna, If you’ve never stopped there you’ll love it, politely ask for a upgrade to a Suite (we are always upgraded to the Junior Suite 3 of us tho) i presume there will be 3 of you and i mean always lol
    Breakfast fab (pre-covid) Dinner not nearly as good as it used to be.
    After 6.00pm you can (or could) take your cases to a drop zone if flying BA (Note cases will go on first come off last tho)
    Free Hotel Lounge quiet hot and cold nibbles not sure time for hot nibbles

    • Anna says:

      5 Nov5 November 16:11

      Thanks Chris – we’ve stayed a few times over the years, despite the eye watering rates you just can’t beat the convenience, especially when you’re taking a lot of luggage! This time there will be 4 of us (nephew coming with us, hopefully), so I’ve bitten the bullet and booked 2 rooms within a BA holiday package.

      • Chris Heyes says:

        5 Nov5 November 21:01

        Anna eye watering rates ? most we have paid is £180 for 3 of us (1 night) admittedly always booked in private sale or “secret hotels” easy to spot Sofitel.
        I think that’s excellent value for the 3 of us, especially after up-grade to Junior Suite which gives Lounge access.
        We have used Sofitel at least once every two years since it opened around 2009 ish alternate years Hilton Gatwick 3/4 times a year which sometimes cost us more if i can’t get Hilton sale right

        • Chris Heyes says:

          5 Nov5 November 21:08

          I should add for some reason we have never been up-graded to a full Suite so no idea what one is like.
          But Junior Suite every time so can’t complain (long may it continue lol)

• Zark says:

  5 Nov5 November 08:01

  Asking again, can anyone who has actually flown out to The Seychelles let us know where you got a PCR test within 48 hours of outbound flight time?
  (I did get one suggestion, to use http://www.assuredscreening.com , but their lab is in Durham so only postal test practical for a Londoner and a high risk strategy for me)

  • Tracey says:

    5 Nov5 November 09:52

    We had a test booked with north london clinic (Southgate, N London) for today. Sadly lockdown meant we have had to cancel, but they were helpful when I booked. Also seen hale clinic advertised and there is somewhere in Hammersmith that will do same day tests.

    • Zark says:

      5 Nov5 November 13:34

      Tracey,
      Thank you – http://www.nlclinic.co.uk and http://www.haleclinic.com look promising.

    • zark says:

      5 Nov5 November 13:37

      Tracey,
      Both look like possibilities.
      Thank you

  • Zark says:

    5 Nov5 November 13:35

    Ian,
    Thank you. Might be good for Oxford residents…

  • Sarah says:

    5 Nov5 November 14:41

    I used the Hale Clinic on Harley St on Sunday for my flight to Barbados (which requires a PCR test). They guarantee results back next evening between 6pm and 8pm – I did my test at 5pm and my results actually came back at lunchtime the following day so less than 24 hours. Expensive option thought at £225.

    In relation to the Sofitel, Barbados requires the PCR test to be “taken at an accredited or certified facility/laboratory. Your test must be taken by nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal sample (or both), but not saliva nor nasal swab.
    Relevant accrediting bodies and standards include: ISO:15189, CAP, UKAS or the equivalent.” It therefore doesn’t sound like the Sofitel test would be suitable, but i did hear a couple of people on my flight say that they’d done this.

  • signol says:

    9 Nov9 November 11:12

    For South Africa, my wife had a test here: https://www.olivehealthandtravel.co.uk/coronavirus-testing/covid-19-pcr-travel-test Not cheap but guaranteed result in time.

• SammyJ says:

  5 Nov5 November 08:39

  I priced this last week for random dates in Dec, room only was £170. The deal inc the test was £450, and that was only a test for one person.

• Smid says:

  5 Nov5 November 09:07

  I assume it covers two tests if there are two of you. In which case it is really good value. The £150 per person one has killed travel for the two us, £300 for one set of tests alone and they often want two.

  • The real John says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:41

    No, it doesn’t. This is covered in the second paragraph of the article.

• Dev says:

  5 Nov5 November 09:41

  As long as the certificate clearly annotates that is a PCR C19 test, it should be fine for most countries although I think they missed a trick by not having an option to generate a PDF certificate with some unique QR code or something.

• MKB says:

  5 Nov5 November 10:01

  I was planning on using this fo

  • MKB says:

    5 Nov5 November 10:03

    I was planning on using this for a trip to Madeira, but the authorities there have now confirmed that they won’t accept this type of test.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  5 Nov5 November 11:28

  “Conclusion

  This is an interesting initiative by Accor.”

  What does Accor have to do with it?

  • Dubious says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:01

    Including it as a room package means you earn Accor ALL points with it! Perhaps the first COVID-19 test loyalty points in the world?

    • Blenz101 says:

      5 Nov5 November 12:20

      Or use ALL points to pay for your test! Is it max 1x extra test at £60 and room charge it?

      • Lady London says:

        5 Nov5 November 23:59

        Good spot.

  • Rob says:

    5 Nov5 November 13:03

    Typo, sorry! Accor / Sofitel / Arora.

• blenz101 says:

  5 Nov5 November 12:02

  For those thinking of using this for Duabi (nice weather and fully open) then it won’t be accepted. Any kind of home test kits are not valid for travel they specifically require a PCR swab test. I know of people who tried to travel on NHS home test kits and were denied boarding.

  If you fly Emirates then you do have the option of test on arrival although having seen the wait on arrival yesterday morning I was quite glad BA (and any other carrier) are still required to ensure their passengers have a test prior to departure despite the crazy cost in the UK.

  • Paul says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:57

    The costs are crazy!!! There was some Tory MP on the radio last weekend claiming costs is around £20 so why the massive hike aside from the fact that they can.

    • Blenz101 says:

      5 Nov5 November 14:19

      Cost here in Dubai is capped at around £30 at any private hospital / clinic, if you are prepared to travel to nearby Sharjah they are completely free for anybody (tourist or resident).

      Coming back from the UK I had to pay £135 per person, and that was in Leeds so presumably was without the London premises overheads. Outrage really.

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