Why Are Airlines Still Insisting on Negative PCR Tests as a Condition of Travel to Countries That Have Lifted These Restrictions?

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous has got in touch about the nightmare he had trying to persuade an Air India customer service agent that a negative PCR test was no longer a condition of being able to travel from the U.K. to India, even though it was recently dropped.

On Monday November 28th, my unvaccinated partner, who, as I type, is now on a flight to India, was told on the phone by both her travel agent and Air India’s own customer service operatives that she needed to organise a PCR test before travelling. We both knew that the advice was wrong and the procedure was a sham. To avoid problems at check-in, for peace of mind she took the test. It cost her £79 and, of course, it was negative.

The fact is that these expensive tests are entirely unnecessary for flights to India. As stated on the U.K. Government’s own foreign travel advice website regarding entry requirements for India: “Travellers are no longer required to have proof of vaccination or, if unvaccinated, a negative PCR test.”

The same paragraph on the U.K. Govt site includes links to documents dated November 21st from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and its Ministry of Civil Aviation detailing these changes.

Try telling that to anyone at Air India though. The operative I spoke with on Monday could not tell me the date of the guidance information that was being referred to. The person couldn’t tell me who was checking the PCR tests either. I quoted the U.K. Govt web site advice and the Indian ministries, but they went silent up on me. And that was the end of the call.

If you visit the Air India UK site for guidance you will find information dated August 8th, 2022. Click on ‘Know More’ for the PDF file. And this tells you that you need the PCR test: “Travelers [sic] may also seek exemption from institutional quarantine by submitting a negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test negative (-ve) report on arrival in India. The COVID-19 test must be conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey or check-in for the flight.”

Ad nauseam…

Interestingly, further down the same document it tells you that: “Each passenger is responsible for checking and fulfilling Govt regulations/documentation for exit/entry requirements. If you fail to comply with these requirements, you may face inconvenience at origin or destination.”

Yes, I did that and found the U.K. Govt advice stating that a test wasn’t necessary, and read the Indian ministries’ revised regulations too, but nobody at Air India would listen. What appears to happen instead is that customer service operatives refer to and feed to travel agents the outdated August 2022 company guidance that a negative PCR test for unvaccinated travellers is a prerequisite for flight admission.

To me, this begs the question, how many other airlines are demanding tests for India and other territories that are no longer necessary?

Given the daily passenger numbers in the UK alone, this could run into millions spent unnecessarily in a kind of lethargy tax on the unvaxed. A family of four could run up a bill of around £320 just because panicky/tardy/jobsworth airlines are failing to inform staff and passengers of the relaxation in entry requirements. And even with clauses stating it is the passenger’s responsibility to observe any changes, the airline itself does not bother to keep up-to-date with the prevailing regulations and insists on applying outdated admission rules.

I was thinking that someone at the Daily Sceptic might want to consider going through travel destinations on the U.K. Govt web site (which does seem to be very up-to-date with handy links too) and check for countries with recently relaxed rules. Are the respective airlines that serve those territories passing on the information about changes? If Air India is anything to go by, the answer will be no. Is such laziness is rife in the airline industry? A few phone calls to travel agents and airline customer service centres should provide the answers.

As Christmas approaches, and many will be travelling, it would surely be a public duty to expose what may well turn out to be an ongoing tyranny that sees unvaccinated travellers needlessly out of pocket and unnecessarily inconvenienced. Surely, it’s time to find out: just how big is the lie in the sky?

This is an excellent suggestion. The Daily Sceptic would be happy to publish a table setting out what countries have relaxed vaccine rules, with links to all the relevant websites. Is there a reader out there willing to go through it? If so, please contact us at [email protected]. Also, if any other readers have had similar experiences, send us your stories.