Traveling in the COVID-19 era

 

The year 2020 has been everything but normal. As much as we love traveling given the present global circumstances any form of long-distance travel is bound to create travel anxiety. Due to unforeseen conditions, we had to travel to India from the United Kingdom (Manchester). We thought it might be helpful to put up a blog post to share with you all our travel experiences during these strange times. Read on to find out more.

1. Getting the tickets:

We booked our tickets directly from the Air India website. The tickets (one way) cost us about

London To Kolkata: GBP 673.52 for two people (INR 64000 approx.)

Kolkata To London: GBP 514.75  for two people(INR 48902)

Note: Prices have been provided given the rate of GBP to INR at the time of the purchase.

2. Formalities related to international travel during COVID-19:

We had to go through a number of steps before we could board the flight. Starting with reading up and gathering as much information possible about the rules and regulations attached to traveling internationally in these testing times. We got a lot of help and advice from the various community groups on Facebook. The information shared by members there was actually much beneficial for us. I have listed the links to the pages wherein you can check for the latest travel-related information both for India and the United Kingdom.

a.      Traveling to India from the UK: While traveling to India we needed to fill up a google document for the Indian High Commission wherein our details and other relevant information had to be entered. There was another form that we had to fill up 48 hrs prior to our flight time. We also had to fill up a state quarantine exemption form. This was applicable only if you had a Negative PCR Test with you on arrival at the NSCB International Airport, Kolkata. Link to the form you will find in the table provided at the end of this post.

b.      Traveling to the UK from India: While traveling back to the UK from India we needed to fill up a passenger locator form after we finished our web check-in 48 hours prior to the flight time. On arrival at the UK border, you have to present this form either in hard copy or soft copy (downloaded on your phones) to the immigration authorities. Failing to do this could result in penalties and consequences. Link to the same you will find in the table provided at the end of this post.

Looking down from the sky

3. Negative PCR Test

When we had traveled to Kolkata, India at that time having a Negative PCR test certificate prior to 96 hours before your scheduled flight departure time was mandatory, without it you were not going to be allowed to board the flight. It was also imperative to be presented on arrival at the Kolkata airport. We booked the test with a private clinic in Manchester. It cost us around 150 GBP per person.

4. Reaching London from Manchester:

We took the direct London-Kolkata Air India Vande Bharat flight but first had to sort out a number of formalities. We went to Kolkata in September 2020. We are based in Manchester, so first we had to figure out how we were going to reach the Heathrow airport. We wanted to minimize the touchpoints as far as possible so after much deliberation, we decided that we would drive down to London in a private car. Thankfully we could rent out a car from Enterprise car rental services. We picked up the car the evening before our scheduled day of the journey. We dropped off the car at the Enterprise drop-off juncture near the airport. We were given a shuttle service by Enterprise to Terminal 2 of Heathrow airport. We started off at around 3 am from our home located in Altrincham, Manchester. We reached the airport after a three and half hours’ drive. Given that the weather was good and there was not much en-route traffic the drive was smooth, we halted about three times so that my husband who drove the entire route could de-stress a bit. We made use of the Google maps while driving but had however researched the route in detail beforehand. It is advisable to keep the map downloaded on your phone so that in case you face internet or connectivity issues on the highway you do not lose your way.

Note: We came back to Manchester from London via road. We took the Enterprise shuttle from Terminal 2 of the Heathrow airport. The shuttle dropped us at the Enterprise car pick up and drop center. We took the car that we had already booked via their website from there and drove back 3 and 1/2 hours to Manchester. We dropped off the car at the Manchester airport. (Enterprise has a car pick-up and drop-off centers at both the airports.)

5. Inside the airport:

There were various social distance measures in place at the airport. Face masks were provided at the entrances to the airport in case you did not have one at your disposal. There were many sanitization stations strewn across the entire airport. There was a form that we had to fill up that was provided to us in the baggage check-in queue by the airline`s staff. We had to fill in and submit it at the baggage check-in counter. (This was from Uk-India part of the journey).

Security checking remains unchanged. So it is advisable that you can carry antibacterial spray with yourself so that if needed you can sanitize your belongings as the touchpoints increase quite a lot at this point.

6. Boarding the flight:

If you have the middle seat allocated to you then you will be given a PPE suit. Each passenger is given a packet containing a face shield, two face masks, and sanitizer pouches. It is mandatory to wear a face-covering throughout the duration of your travel.

I had a middle seat so I had to wear the PPE suit and believe me it was not a good experience!

Journey route	On-board the flight
	Passengers onboard	Food & Beverages	Entertainment	Services	Overall experience
London, the United Kingdom To Kolkata, India	About 65-70	Snacks, Dinner+Snacks	No Screen	Minimum contact and interaction with the cabin crew.	Satisfactory
Kolkata, India To London, the United Kingdom	About 55-60	Snacks, Lunch+Snacks	Screen with use and throw earphones but limited options	Minimum contact and interaction with the cabin crew.	Good

The Vande Bharat flights are minimum service flights, the contact between the cabin crew and the passengers on board are kept to a minimum. Food is provided with water bottles and if needed extra can be picked up from the self-service areas in the flight. The crew members were wearing hazmat suits. I felt bad for them as just wearing the PPE coat and sitting in one place throughout the journey seemed like a nightmare, these people were doing their duties covered head to toe in these suits. So hats off to them!

The flight arrived ahead of its scheduled time at Kolkata. The journey was not a happy one as we were mentally upset and also I personally was experiencing a bit of travel anxiety given the COVID conditions. Taking the direct flight made the journey a lot less hectic than it could have been if we had opted to fly from Manchester to Kolkata via Abu Dhabi like we usually do.

The New Normal 

On Arrival:

Airport	Immigration	Rules and Regulations for COVID
Arriving at Netaji Shubash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, India	Normal + Submission of forms and checking of Negative PCR Test reports by the authorities	Home Quarantine for 14 days Mandatory
Arriving at the Heathrow, London, UK	Normal + Checking of Passenger locator forms	Home Quarantine for 14 days Mandatory

Here is a list of the items that we deem necessary while traveling nowadays:

Sl.No	Items
1	Face Masks & tissues
2	Gloves
3	Sanitizers
4	Pee safe sprays
5	Small anti-bacterial sprays or wet wipes
6	Dry food
7	Minimum luggage

Sl.No	Service	Name of the Service provider	Link
1	Flight	Air India (Vande Bharat)	Click here for the link to the site
2	Car to London	Enterprise (Altrincham Branch)	Click here for the link to the site
3	COVID-19 Test		Click here for the link to the site
4	Home Quarantine forms	a. Airports Authority of India b. Gov.UK for the United Kingdom	a. Click here for the link to the site b. Click here for the link to the site
5	a. Indian Covid-19 Apps b. Rules of Traveling to India from the UK		Available on Google play Click here for the link to the official website of the Government of the UK.

KINDLY NOTE:

1. When we had traveled back to the UK from India in the month of November 2020, having a Negative PCR Test was not a mandate, but given the present conditions, it is now mandatory for you to have a test report on you on arrival in the UK. We strongly advise that you read up on the rules and regulations related to travel before making any commitment to traveling during these testing times as the circumstances and rules keep changing.

2. Here is a link to an article published by Hindustan Times on 2 January 2021 to help you understand the current international travel-related rules and regulations.