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03:37 LIV to MIA - Updated now Cressington to Heathrow

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Glenn1969

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Have seen several articles saying immigration is taking up to 7 hours. But they were on arrival and at Heathrow. Mainly due to queues caused by no staff being available
 

Grumpy Git

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Thanks for the advice.

To be honest, although I'm classed as an essential worker due to the nature of the industry I work in, trying to get a grip on exactly what I do need in terms of testing before and after arrival is an absolute minefield.

I guess it's so you just give-up and don't bother travelling?

Simon Calder made a good point recently about the Home Office now making it mandatory that you fill-out an additional form before travel, when the existing law actually states that you cannot travel unless its for essential purposes! He likened HMG to that of North Korea!
 

221129

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Have seen several articles saying immigration is taking up to 7 hours. But they were on arrival and at Heathrow. Mainly due to queues caused by no staff being available
As you say, that is on arrival, so of no relevance to this thread.
 

Watershed

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Testing, screening and the fact that you have to show a form to prove your trip is essential
The first two do not apply to leaving the country (although you may have to undertake a test before departure for some destinations).

I would foresee queues for the 'exit visa' form, but not to such an extent that it would make 2 hours too tight. NB the test isn't whether your trip is essential, it's whether you have a reasonable excuse to be away from home (which is a notably lower bar to meet).
 

Watershed

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Thought you couldn't fly without proof of a negative test to any destination.
Some airlines and destination countries may require such proof. But it's not the law from a UK perspective, not for outbound departures.
 

Grumpy Git

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Avanti WC are advertising a 08:18 as the first departure from Lime St., but other booking sites and RRT are only showing the 08:38 as the first train. Can anyone explain this please?
 

221129

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Avanti WC are advertising a 08:18 as the first departure from Lime St., but other booking sites and RRT are only showing the 08:38 as the first train. Can anyone explain this please?
On the 22nd March as in your OP? The 0526 is the first one. Sorry just seen the other post for Sunday 21st.

The 0818 is NOT running and is showing as Cancelled in the schedule. First Departure is 1A05 at 0838 Arriving into Euston at 1139.
 

Grumpy Git

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On the 22nd March as in your OP? The 0526 is the first one. Sorry just seen the other post for Sunday 21st.

The 0818 is NOT running and is showing as Cancelled in the schedule. First Departure is 1A05 at 0838 Arriving into Euston at 1139.

Any idea why all the booking websites including Avani WC are still showing the 08.18 as available on 21st March?

Its not exactly helpful when planning a tight schedule.
 

Grumpy Git

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Presumably they haven't been updated yet?

Now showing the 08.38 as the first departure which means my connection to Gatwick has gone from being comfortable to tight.

I'm not amused as I'd already booked my flight before this became evident.
 

yorkie

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I'd consider booking accommodation near the airport, to be safe.
 

Grumpy Git

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The annoying thing is that if I'd wanted to stay over the night before, I could have got an earlier flight from Luton or Heathrow.

I had to advise the Italian government of my travel plans in advance, so I'm now stuck with the afternoon departure from Gatwick.

The whole journey is turning into a nightmare.
 

FQTV

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The annoying thing is that if I'd wanted to stay over the night before, I could have got an earlier flight from Luton or Heathrow.

I had to advise the Italian government of my travel plans in advance, so I'm now stuck with the afternoon departure from Gatwick.

The whole journey is turning into a nightmare.

Passengers are travelling all over the world, every day, including on routes which, on the face of it, look quite difficult. In the absence of an outright ban, there's a set of published rules, and (usually) a set of exemptions. Follow the rules, meet the requirements or qualify for the exemptions and there's little issue. I say 'little' because there have been the odd instance of airline staff (and even a few border officials in certain jurisdictions) getting a bit confused initially, but I've not had any reports in recent weeks.

One of the main considerations, though, is that the rules in force are the ones at the time of travel, not at the time of booking, so bookings should always be made with that in mind. Ideally, booking should be made as close to the actual travel as possible, to minimise the potential for regulation changes in the intervening period.

Most people travelling into Italy simply fill out a self-declaration form, print it off and carry it with them, along with confirmation of their eligible negative test result.

No-one that I've been involved with has had to 'advise the Government in advance'.

Is there something very leftfield about your circumstances that introduces complications that wouldn't otherwise apply?

If not, it's possible that some anxiousness isn't necessarily warranted, as long as appropriate contingencies for the fact that it isn't simply 'business as usual' in the travel world are made.
 

Grumpy Git

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Passengers are travelling all over the world, every day, including on routes which, on the face of it, look quite difficult. In the absence of an outright ban, there's a set of published rules, and (usually) a set of exemptions. Follow the rules, meet the requirements or qualify for the exemptions and there's little issue. I say 'little' because there have been the odd instance of airline staff (and even a few border officials in certain jurisdictions) getting a bit confused initially, but I've not had any reports in recent weeks.

One of the main considerations, though, is that the rules in force are the ones at the time of travel, not at the time of booking, so bookings should always be made with that in mind. Ideally, booking should be made as close to the actual travel as possible, to minimise the potential for regulation changes in the intervening period.

Most people travelling into Italy simply fill out a self-declaration form, print it off and carry it with them, along with confirmation of their eligible negative test result.

No-one that I've been involved with has had to 'advise the Government in advance'.

Is there something very leftfield about your circumstances that introduces complications that wouldn't otherwise apply?

If not, it's possible that some anxiousness isn't necessarily warranted, as long as appropriate contingencies for the fact that it isn't simply 'business as usual' in the travel world are made.

Yes, I have to get approval to exempt me from the otherwise 10/14 day self-isolation period. This has to be submitted 7 days in advance with comprehensive transport and accommodation details included.

Self isolation at either end of the journey would make a job of a week take up five weeks of my time otherwise.

I can self certify upon return to the UK, but the Italian authorities take each visit on its merits, thus the additional hassle.
 
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FQTV

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Yes, I have to get approval to exempt me from the otherwise 10/14 day self-isolation period. This has to be submitted 7 days in advance with comprehensive transport and accommodation details included.

Self isolation at either end of the journey would make a job of a week take up five weeks of my time otherwise.

I can self certify upon return to the UK, but the Italian authorities take each visit on its merits, thus the additional hassle.

I see; so the trip itself is due to take more than five days in-country?
 

D6130

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Being ever-so-slightly facetious here, you could do 10/14 days self-isolation in a hotel overlooking the approaches to an Italian main line station and indulge in some leisurely photography. Where in Italy are you going?
 

Grumpy Git

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I see; so the trip itself is due to take more than five days in-country?

No, the trip cannot exceed 120 hours otherwise the quarantine is mandatory.

I'm working in Florence, which unfortunately is almost exactly midway between Milan and Rome, the only cities offering direct flights to the UK!
 
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FQTV

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No, the trip cannot exceed 120 hours otherwise the quarantine is mandatory.

I'm working in Florence, which unfortunately is almost exactly midway between Milan and Rome, the only cities offering direct flights to the UK!

It's probably moot, as having submitted the request to Italy and having had it authorised is certainly the belt-and-braces approach, but currently,officially and empirically, the authorisation is not actually mandatory for a trip planned to be of less than 120 hours duration.

Per https://infocovid.viaggiaresicuri.it/returningtoitaly.html :

* Any person entering Italy for less than 120 hours, for proven work or health reasons or absolute urgency;
* Personnel of companies and institutions with registered or secondary offices in Italy for travel abroad for proven work requirements of no more than 120 hours;
* Officials and other servants, however, they may be called, of the European Union or international organisations, diplomatic agents, administrative and technical staff of diplomatic missions, consular officials and employees, personnel of the Security Information System of the Republic, and fire brigade workers, and military and police staff in the performance of their duties

- may apply for a specific authorization, issued by the Italian Ministry of Health, for proven and non-deferrable reasons.

The critical word in the last sentence above is 'may'. It's not actually a 'must', as under all the other published rules currently in force an pertaining to UK passport holders arriving from the UK, self-declaration in the above circumstances is still fine.

I mention it, really, just in case your travel plans are in any way disrupted; if they are, I wouldn't worry unduly - as long as you have a self-declaration filled-out you would still be compliant with the current regulations. The authorities in many countries are well aware of the fact that travel is so disrupted at the moment that what travellers plan to do and may write on forms, can often be thrown into complete disarray. For this reason, for example, many of the online locator form systems allow you to go back in and change submissions right up to the point of reaching immigration in the arrival country.

This is designed to accept and cope with missed connections, cancellations, upgrades and changed seats etc., etc.

One last thing to mention is that a very significant amount of the resposibility for the 'policing' of entry requirements falls on the shoulders of the carrier, so it isn't necessarily the case that all checks are being performed by border guards. The latter, it seems, can and do assume, in many cases, that any and all eligibility requirements have been checked at boarding, and all they're really doing (in addition to any kind of profiling) is checking and recording passports and entries.

Anyhow, hopefully you'll have a smooth trip, but if anything does go awry then - assuming the above remains valid on the date of travel - self-declaration is still OK.

All of the above should also verifiable through the online portals to the systems that the airlines themselves use to permit and deny boarding, by the way. The only thing that I would mention about reading the 'airline speak' in some of those systems is that they're a bit heavy on the double-negatives, which can be a touch confusing at first. The one that KLM uses, TravelDoc, is perhaps a bit better as it's 'translated' into a less jargony style!
 

Grumpy Git

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OK, so now the trip is finally agreed and with all the chopping and changing, I need to get to Heathrow T5 tomorrow afternoon (Saturday 20th March).

If I go on the Avanti WC site (or App), it only gives me the option to pick my ticket up at the station of departure (Cressington). Is this normal as I would have expected an e-ticket option (Off-Peak return £137.50)?

Just wondering where I go if the station is unmanned for any reason (I just went round and the shutters are down on the booking office)?
 
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Hadders

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I'd purchase an Off Peak Return from Cressington to London Euston which costs £94.50. You should then get the option of an e-ticket (you don't get the e-ticket option for a Cressington to Heathrow because e-tickets aren't accepted on London Underground)

I'd then use the Underground to travel from Euston to Heathrow which costs £3.30 using contactless. To be fair it takes a little longer than the Heathrow Express but it's more frequent and the Hammersmith & City Line between Baker Street and Paddington is closed this weekend.

EDIT - Creasington is on the Mersey Rail network and I don’t think they accept e-tickets. A ticket from Liverpool Lime Street is definitely available as an e-ticket bit you’d them need a separate ticket from Cressington to Lime Street.

As far as I know Mersey Rail stations don’t have ticket machines for collecting tickets purchased online.
 
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Grumpy Git

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Called Avanti and booked a seat at no charge, then brought the ticket to LHR at Cressington (off-peak open return).

Does it include the underground fare as there is no restriction shown on the ticket?

Edit: The ticket has the † symbol, so I assume it does.
 
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