Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

You will need a negative covid test to enter England from next week – even for UK residents

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

In a significant change to the UK’s coronavirus policy, all international arrivals to England will be required to present a negative coronavirus test. This could begin as early as next Thursday as long as the required legislation can be passed.

Importantly, the rules applies to returning UK residents as well as visitors. There will apparently be opt-outs for arrivals from countries where testing is not easily available, as well as for arrivals from Ireland.

The test will need to have been taken up to 72 hours before BOARDING, not arrival. It applies to boats and trains as well as air arrivals.

Children under 11 will be exempt.

At present the law will only apply to arrivals in England but it is expected that the other devolved assemblies will agree to identical measures.

The penalty for arriving without a test will be £500. However, it only talks of Border Force doing ‘spot checks’ so it is possible that the onus will be placed on the airlines to police this.

You still need to quarantine, however

Frustratingly, arriving in the UK with a negative test result will NOT remove the requirement for a 10 day quarantine period for arrivals from countries not on the ‘travel corridors’ list, although this can be reduced if you take a further test after five days.

Full details are still to be published

Legislation will be required for this move, which will be brought before Parliament next week. We may not know the exact small print, such as what sort of tests will be accepted, which countries will be exempt and exactly what sort of paperwork will be accepted by Border Force, until then.

PS. The Government quietly slipped out some changes to the ‘travel corridors’ list yesterday without the usual fanfare. Botswana, Israel, Mauritius and Seychelles will be removed from the exempt list at 4am on Saturday 9th January. You will need to quarantine for 10 days, or take ‘test to release’ after 5 days, if you are returning from these countries.

Category

General

Comments (182)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • The Lord says:
    8 Jan8 January 10:13

    I look forward to seeing the daily case numbers plummet as a result of this

    • TGLoyalty says:
      8 Jan8 January 10:15

      The only thing that will plummet is Daily mail comments on the subject.

  • Mr. AC says:
    8 Jan8 January 10:38

    I really don’t get this. UK currently has one of the highest number of active COVID cases per capita in the world (thanks to the new variant). This is not changing any time soon, and by the time it will change, we will have overshot herd immunity by a mile, so we won’t care about new arrivals with COVID.

    The only logical reason I can think of for this change is that the government is afraid of the even more infectious, potentially vaccine evading South African variant…

    • ChrisW says:
      8 Jan8 January 10:48

      It can’t hurt to have less people bringing the virus in, regardless of how many cases are already in the country…

    • TGLoyalty says:
      8 Jan8 January 10:49

      That is the fear of you see the official press releases.

    • Stu N says:
      8 Jan8 January 10:55

      Precisely. Helps prevent import of novel strains from South Africa, or whatever unknown other variants are out there…

      • Andrew says:
        8 Jan8 January 13:13

        Infectious diseases tend to become more infectious but less serious as they mutate. It’s not in a virus’ interests to kill their host too quickly or even kill them at all. Rather than keeping out dangerous strains we’re more likely to prevent less serious strains taking over.

        • Stu N says:
          8 Jan8 January 14:28

          I agree with you Andrew, but “tend to” is the key phrase. Long term this is what will happen but there’s a real risk that short term you could see super-virulent, super-deadly strains emerge. They will burn themselves out and the more tightly contained they are, the quicker that happens.

          Plus, I really don’t want to be living through that process as “burning out” basically means killing people…

        • W says:
          8 Jan8 January 17:07

          The current coronavirus has little selective pressure to become ‘less serious’ – it kills people weeks after they were most infectious, so they have already done their job.
          A virus variant that is ‘less serious’ wouldn’t spread faster than the current, ‘serious’ ones. This is not like ebola, were people mostly don’t live long to travel far. Or a serious influenza, which hits you like a train with sudden higher fever, and makes you stay in bed within hours. In these cases, any ‘weaker’ variants increases people’s mobility & ability to infect others.

    • Mco says:
      8 Jan8 January 10:56

      Yeah I guess they can now catch those that are coming via IST, DXB, DOH from south Africa.

    • meta says:
      8 Jan8 January 11:22

      @Mr. AC Pfizer/BioNTech just published a study that their vaccine works for UK and South African variants.

      • Mr. AC says:
        8 Jan8 January 12:29

        Thanks, haven’t seen that yet! Reassuring. Hopefully AstraZeneca’s vaccine efficacy is also not diminished.

        • Alan says:
          9 Jan9 January 14:00

          Unlikely. The spike protein is big so almost certainly still enough that hasn’t changed. As I heard at a recent talk, “you’d still recognise your Mum, even if she put a hat on” 😂

    • Paul says:
      8 Jan8 January 12:06

      That is precisely the rationale used by Grant Shapps (or is it Michael Green or maybe something else this week) on R4 this morning. It sounded far less plausible coming out of his mouth that when its written down!

      • Mr. AC says:
        8 Jan8 January 12:32

        Ah, haven’t seen it, but reassuring that my thinking matched exactly what they based this decision on. Nice to be on the same page with the powers that be for a change.

    • Jonathan says:
      8 Jan8 January 12:13

      We’re miles off herd immunity & if we reach it (minimum 60% infected) then you’re looking at 400,000 dead with a CFR of 1%. In reality if we hit those numbers of people infected in next 12 months then the health service will be swamped & numbers of dead will be far higher.

      Like most of the regulations, they don’t have the resources to fully enforce so they rely on voluntary compliance. Putting hurdles like this in place (which the airlines will enforce on their behalf) is as much about reducing the numbers of people taking the pi££ with their holidays which breeds resentment & an attitude of contempt for other rules on mixing etc.

      We got away with softly, softly in March/April as everyone knuckled down & did their bit. Unfortunately we’re at a point when a substantial minority have given up complying just as we hit the absolute tipping point (look at the ITU/bed occupancy figures from last night’s briefing). There’s an end in sight but people seem unwilling to suck it up for another 3 months as they’re too ignorant/selfish/arrogant to see how lots of small infractions leads to big consequences.

      • Rob says:
        8 Jan8 January 12:25

        If 3% of Londoners have caught it in the last week, as claimed, then it is a serious contribution towards getting there. More people are getting immunity via catching it than are getting it via a vaccine and that is unlikely to change for at least a month.

        • Jonathan says:
          8 Jan8 January 13:04

          That’s the point though. 3% incidence is completely unsustainable over the short-medium term. We need to get that down in conjunction with vaccine rates increasing. Staying at home is the most effective means of doing that.

          It’s not the same as the Autumn where the economic costs of endless lockdown with no endpoint were a genuine concern, we’re very likely to have the most vulnerable, who drive the mushrooming admissions/mortality, vaccinated by end of Feb & therefore immune by March. It just needs a brief period of complete compliance, no excuses.

        • Alan says:
          9 Jan9 January 14:03

          Just shows how big a problem we have though, if the NHS in London is on its knees at 3% being infected! Plus even if you don’t have to worry too much about Covid, there’s all the other things. We had 60 patients on the trauma list alone one day this week due to the icy pavements! Hopefully now AZ approved the vaccine roll out will ramp up, that’s the only hope we have for herd immunity, not natural infection.

      • kitten says:
        8 Jan8 January 12:29

        Well said Jonathan.

        • kitten says:
          9 Jan9 January 18:45

          I have to reply to this Andrew.

          It will take as long as it takes but with some relief in sight through availability of vaccinations it’s best for everyone if we all give up things that please us but might transmit the virus. Have you no one older in your family you can talk to who can tell you how previous generations sacrificed for the good of people generally?

          Othrrwise I’ll fall back on an old joke :

          How do you know you’re on a Frequent Flyer website? At least, it appears, in the UK.

          Because the aircraft engines have stopped, but the whining continues 🙂

      • Andrew says:
        8 Jan8 January 13:06

        “people seem unwilling to suck it up for another 3 months as they’re too ignorant/selfish/arrogant to see how lots of small infractions leads to big consequences”

        Who’s being selfish exactly? The people just wanting to do their job? The children wanting to get an education? The 20 something year olds stuck in a tiny inner city flat wondering how they’re going to pay their bills? Or is it the retirees or people without children able to work from home who have a large house with a garden telling others that they must put their lives on hold.

        Back in March we were told restrictions for 3 weeks. We were then told the tier system would keep the virus in check. Then we were told a month’s lockdown would sort things before Christmas. Then it was slightly stricter tiers which would sort things. None of them did indeed despite differing levels of restrictions in different western countries the results have been pretty much identical.

        You can’t really blame people if compliance with restrictions is slipping given the number of times they have complied and it’s made no difference. Rather than name calling and finger pointing at such people the government need to come up with a plan B or maybe just accept that once a virus is endemic no level of restrictions short of locking people in their houses and putting the army on the streets will make any difference.

        • Nick_C says:
          8 Jan8 January 13:31

          Who’s being selfish exactly? The people just wanting to do their job? The children wanting to get an education? The 20 something year olds stuck in a tiny inner city flat wondering how they’re going to pay their bills?

          No, its the people going on holiday, mingling with others unneccessarily, spreading the virus, destroying the economy and crippling the NHS.

          People should be working if they can. And children should be going to school IMO. They will be meeting their friends whether the schools are open or not. At least at school they are in a controlled anvironment with social distancing.

          But the only way we are going to turn this around is to all work together and follow the plan set by our Governments, whether we agree with those plans or not.

          We are where we are because people have acted selfishly, recklessly, stupidly. We are all paying for it, and will be for years to come.

        • Nick_C says:
          8 Jan8 January 13:33

          “You can’t really blame people if compliance with restrictions is slipping given the number of times they have complied and it’s made no difference. ”

          Both the first and second national lockdows did work. Look at the data.

          They were both introduced far later than they should have been, but death rates fell, infection rates fell, and the pressure on the NHS was eased.

        • Jonathan says:
          8 Jan8 January 13:41

          There’s a difference between work, solo exercise outdoors in your local park etc. & holidays/travel to “view a property”, driving to second homes, play dates in the park/gardens.

          A lot of discussion on here has been about pushing the spirit of the laws to the limit (& beyond).

          I lived in a small flat in London with no outside space last year, I’ve not had a holiday since December 2019, I know it’s tough. I was booked to go to Cape Town this month, I really considered changing to Dubai as I’d love a break but I also see the effects of this at work everyday.

          We’re absolutely in a different place to last Summer & Autumn, you might be sceptical about that, you might think the government have got a lot wrong (I agree) or that they’ve cried wolf too many times but anyone with an ounce of intellect (which I believe is most readers of this site) should be able to comprehend where we are right now & just knuckle down.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            8 Jan8 January 18:50

            “We’re absolutely in a different place to last Summer & Autumn, you might be sceptical about that.”

            Yeah this time I’m not believing any politician saying give it til mid Feb. We might see deaths reduce but hospitalisation won’t be affected until a much more significant number of the the phase 1 cohorts have been vaccinated.

            The SI lasts until End of March for a reason!

        • Capt Hammond says:
          8 Jan8 January 18:51

          Well said, Andrew

  • MQ says:
    8 Jan8 January 11:07

    I tend to travel LON – AMS where I stay a max of 1-2 days. If I take a PCR test in London right before my journey, given I am in the 72 hour timeframe will that be accepted for the return AMS – LON journey? Or does another PCR test need to be taken at the destination:

    • Jan M says:
      9 Jan9 January 06:53

      I doubt it. And given that you need to explain it to airline staff at the gate, I don’t think the precise wording will matter because they’ll rather be safe than sorry. For instance, the German embassy is reporting that airlines are refusing NHS tests for admission to flights to Germany.

      You also need a PCR test to visit AMS so if it does work you I guess you could use the same test twice. All these testing requirements made me give up on a similar short trip…

  • Cheshire Pete says:
    8 Jan8 January 11:10

    The oddest thing about this is, you go away as a resident of the UK, don’t know you might have picked it up. You test positive and then are denied entry back into your own country. Where do you stay, meet the expenses? Surely that’s unlawful!? Immediate self isolation in your own home, yes. What happens when you are denied entry at UK border, you end up like Tom Hanks in “The Terminal” lol!

    • Rhys says:
      8 Jan8 January 11:20

      That’s what travel insurance is there for surely?

      • Paul says:
        8 Jan8 January 11:30

        Rhys

        Perhaps you can run a piece on which travel policies will cover this and precisely what they will cover.

        • Rob says:
          8 Jan8 January 11:57

          We don’t do insurance, mainly because the gap between policy wording and willingness to pay can be huge. The only thing that matters is willingness to pay and that cannot be covered in a factual review.

          There is a reason why the recommended MSE travel insurance policy is £200 whilst similar cover is available for £70. The MSE provider (LV I think) will apparently never cause you any trouble when you try to claim.

          Similarly, the Amex Plat policy has a huge number of get-outs but I have been paid out three times when we clearly broke the rules.

          • Paul says:
            8 Jan8 January 12:09

            I get that entirely Rob but then Rhys shouldn’t be making sweeping statements like he did!

          • Rhys says:
            8 Jan8 January 12:35

            I’m not sure that suggesting that travelling with a good insurance policy is a particularly sweeping statement?!

            Travelling 101 is that you should get insurance coverage for things you think might happen but don’t want to pay out of pocket for. If you don’t want to meet the expenses for a positive test and the resulting quarantine then you should either not be travelling or have a robust insurance policy in place!

    • BP says:
      8 Jan8 January 11:22

      But should an airline knowingly board a positive passenger, endangering other passengers and staff on board?

      • TGLoyalty says:
        8 Jan8 January 11:39

        Seriously people treat this like the bubonic plague.

        Vaccines are being rolled out globally for the most at risk. At some point this year this will be treated just like any other contagious disease.

        • @mkcol says:
          8 Jan8 January 16:21

          “Seriously people treat this like the bubonic plague”

          And that is *precisely* the right way to consider it…

          • TGLoyalty says:
            8 Jan8 January 18:51

            For now. I was talking about the future when the at risk have had/been offered vaccinations.

        • John says:
          8 Jan8 January 19:43

          If we had a bubonic plague outbreak it would be over in weeks and few would die.

          Bubonic plague is nowhere near as easy to get as covid, most transmission is by infected fleas, when were you last bitten by a flea?

          I’ve been in areas with plague, and never once worried about it.

          If it’s detected in an area, there will be public notification and healthcare will be able to prescribe the (readily available) antibiotics that will cure it in most cases.

          Covid is far worse than the plague, it’s easily transmitted person to person and there’s no cure.

    • Rebecca says:
      8 Jan8 January 11:23

      If anyone tests positive whilst abroad common sense will surely kick in and you wouldn’t board the plane. If your insurance won’t cover you you will have to foot the bill. It took me 3 months to get back to Dubai last year.

      • Tracey says:
        8 Jan8 January 16:52

        That’s why people don’t want to be tested on return.
        Common sense/ decent morals mean you can’t get on a plane knowing you have tested positive. If you don’t have the test you can come home without such a worry.

    • ChrisW says:
      8 Jan8 January 11:25

      It’s illegal under international law to deny citizens entry to their own country isn’t it?

      • Navara says:
        8 Jan8 January 11:30

        If your test is positive you won’t be in your own country

      • Nick says:
        8 Jan8 January 11:44

        @ChrisW you can’t deny entry but you can impose conditions for public health reasons. The UK govt isn’t saying those with right of abode aren’t welcome, they’re saying they need to be ‘clean’ first. Perfectly acceptable under law… indeed we’re far from the only country doing it.

      • babyg says:
        8 Jan8 January 13:11

        err NZ/AUS arent letting people in without jumping through lots of hoops, and there are limited numbers allowed into AUS per day…… the UK implementation is useless.. people will just print their own PCR certificates… (there is a strong black market for PYO certs)…. its feels pointless (just like the PLF and the14 quarantine) unless its actually enforced, which i assume it wont be… this gov has zero idea really…

  • PM says:
    8 Jan8 January 11:26

    Clearly a social engineering technique to make masses believe that “foreign” Covid is worse than a home grown own. The same way EU was limiting our growth, immigrants stealing our jobs and at the same time draining our benefit system.

    If you celebrate this announcement, especially as a member of a frequent flyer community we have here, then you can congratulate the government spin doctors on the job well done.

    Instead of intensifying efforts to deal with test/trace/isolate and roll out of vaccines, the government yet again tries to unite the nation by seeking a common enemy.

    There is nothing wrong in testing people on arrival, sponsoring tests for citizens and residents, offering quarantining facilities etc. Fueling private sector testing, inconveniencing already mental health impacted citizens and incentivising travelling for the rich only is a sign of chaos not governance.

    • The Lord says:
      8 Jan8 January 11:29

      Damned if they do and damned if they don’t

      • Nick says:
        8 Jan8 January 11:46

        What you’ve also got to remember is that airlines have been pushing governments VERY hard for this for a while now. Admittedly they wanted it instead of quarantine not as well as… but no one gets everything they want 😂

        • Stu N says:
          8 Jan8 January 12:39

          What many people don’t get is that there is no single measure that will manage Covid19.

          This helps by minimising risk of importing cases and in particular the risk of novel strains. No-one can know where the next one will pop up.

          It’s probably not that important now given the UK has both world-beating infection rates and a world-beating strain of Covid, but by introducing it now it gives everyone time to get used to it and scale up testing while travel volumes are low.

          It will become a more important measure as vaccination progresses because vaccination plus infection will point to vaccine-resistant strain.

    • Andrew says:
      8 Jan8 January 13:22

      Can we please not make this about brexit or ‘ignorant, racist little Britain’? Most of the western world requires a negative test before letting you visit. The UK kept its borders open far longer than most of the EU despite their free travel ideals.

      • Ben says:
        8 Jan8 January 18:49

        People on this site will find a way to bring anything back to Brexit or the Daily Mail.
        Must keep them awake at night that not everyone thinks the same as them

  • Paul says:
    8 Jan8 January 12:04

    I think this pretty much kills off leisure travel and speculative bookings for the much of the year.

    Its all well an good obtaining a test in your home country but as we know these can costs £150 a head so a family of 4 face a bill of up to £1,200 for a weeks skiing in Austria at half term or 2 weeks in lazagrotty Then of course there is the lost time while you research and book and take a test for the return and hope the results gets back before you check in.

    I just cancelled 9 nights in Austria this morning on the back of this. My Austrian hotel had till now waived their cancellation terms and conditions in the hope things would be better but this was the straw that killed off any plans. In fairness BA helped by again cancelling our flights to Vienna and they have clearly seen the writing on the wall by removing all LHR VIE services MON-FRI choosing instead to operate only on Sat/Sun.

    I absolutely support testing, vaccination and quarantine. We should have closed borders and adopted the OZ approach so beloved by Johnson for all things Brexit but not it seems for protecting the citizenry of the country. If we had done then we would not be where we are now not I suspect would it have costs as much as it will.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      8 Jan8 January 12:23

      PCR are available for as low as £80 here and £20 abroad and under 11’s are exempt in England.

      I haven’t seen if it’s pcr, lamp or lateral flow (£50 here at the moment but should fall as they are very cheap) that will be accepted either.

      • kitten says:
        8 Jan8 January 12:32

        £20 abroad? where?

        • Alastair says:
          8 Jan8 January 12:48

          My country of residence – Finland, will give you a certificate for travel for free apparently*. Then again, it currently has less than 10% of the rate of infection as the UK.

          * Only if you have social health insurance here as a resident, otherwise private labs are about $180.

        • DeB20 says:
          8 Jan8 January 13:00

          India has it available for less than £10. Came here to care for an elderly parent and I’m stuck here as all flights have been cancelled since 23rd December, but expected to resume this weekend.

          Virgin Atlantic has re-booked me on a flight next week and I guess I’ll have to get the test before I fly as the legislation will likely have come into effect. They refused to reroute me on another airline but I did not push for it as I had to continue caring duties.

          The public health authorities here have been treating all UK arrivals since last November as carriers of the great plague. Those words were used by the international press and it created a lot of noise here.

          There is irony in the fact that the UK now needs all arriving passengers to take a test before their flight in order to prevent new mutant strains of the virus entering the UK after being seen as the nation that gave one such strain to the world.

        • Natalia S says:
          8 Jan8 January 13:03

          £14 in private Russian clinic easily (PCR, results ready in 24 hours by email); for £25 they will come and test you at the convenience of your own home. Russian airports are a tad bit more expensive: the most expensive would be an airport express test ready in 90 mins: £25 for a certificate in Russian or £35 in English (or whatever they mean by “international certificate”). Russians thinks £35 is waaaaay too greedy by the way.

          Muscovites can get this stuff free at their local state clinic if they bother to book a bit in advance (Covid test, antigen test, whatever you fancy), but Moscow is well,… not Russia.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          8 Jan8 January 13:48

          My understanding is Dubai charges 80 AED if you go to the clinic/centre and c250 AED to have someone come to your hotel, maybe be discount for multiple travellers.

          Fit to travel certs included.

          • Blenz101 says:
            8 Jan8 January 15:23

            Capped by law at any private clinic at 150 AED / £30 in Dubai for a basic PCR test.

            Perhaps if the UK prevented private providers charging upwards of £150 the NHS testing could have been more focused on its intended purpose rather than providing the all clear for holiday makers / foreign governments.

      • Jan M says:
        9 Jan9 January 06:59

        A PCR test is about 59 euro at most German airports but for entry from the UK they don’t let you take the test upon arrival. Still, if you want to end quarantine earlier you need a second test on day 5 and it all adds up. Testing was free till mid December.

  • Bill says:
    8 Jan8 January 13:16

    Anyone know anywhere in the algarve to get one?

  • Sharka says:
    8 Jan8 January 15:09

    Surely a British citizen has an absolute right to enter the UK? In theory you do not even need a passport (albeit presentation of one is prima facie evidence of citizenship). Consequently, as with so much else in this charade, the genuine law is rather different than what ‘regulations’ and ‘guidance’ report.

    • Blenz101 says:
      8 Jan8 January 15:31

      No airline, ferry or train is going to board you without the negative PCR test and passenger locator form once this becomes an entry requirement.

      You won’t make it to the UK Border to make your case / accept your £500 fine for non-compliance.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        8 Jan8 January 15:47

        I hear you can make it in a rubber dingy. The daily mail ensures me 1000’s do it a day.

    • Nick_C says:
      8 Jan8 January 18:23

      Regulations are genuine law.

      • Anna says:
        8 Jan8 January 19:54

        Well yes, hence:
        The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020
        UK Statutory Instruments2020 No. 1374SCHEDULE3A

      • Sharka says:
        8 Jan8 January 20:02

        At their height, in the same way that other documents leading to fixed penalty notices are (such as parking tickets). There are also the very many exemptions and reasonable excuses in most of these made under Public Health Act 1984.

        They certainly do not override the Act of Parliament that gives you right of access as a British citizen (which likely is also a common law right even if not enumerated, although it probably is in British Nationality Act and various connected sources).

        The comments above that you will not be allowed boarding are probably on point, but you do have a legal right to enter the UK as a British citizen.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!