Jerseygirl

Depends on the airline. Air Transat...T3.

DigitalGhost

Yeah possibly. I've always used Transat in the past because they fly direct to and from Manchester but I'm due to travel with BA next week and that's going to T3 as well.

Jerseygirl

Same here. It’s a crappy terminal used by a low cost airline...but it’s the only airline that flies direct.

DigitalGhost

It can't be any worse than Manchester T3 though. That's basically like some guy's shed. As a tall person I'm always worried walking through there that I might bump my head on something plus Ryanair use it so it's always completely heaving.

Jerseygirl

Yeah...it’s another crappy terminal. Seems crap terminals are built for budget airlines to use.

Revin Kevin

What is the current position with test results. I cant see from the info below whether you get the result before leaving the terminal or not.

Ontario Takes Immediate Action to Stop the Spread of COVID-19 Variants | Ontario Newsroom

DigitalGhost

You self-administer it and then leave to continue with your journey. They notify you of the result 2 days later.

https://www.torontopearson.com/en/he...oronto-pearson

ChrisBan

test results should take up to 48 hours, and I assume they’ll come through an email notification either with the results or telling me to login for the results. I believe these are PCR tests which need to be sent to a lab offsite.

yeah usually I fly Air Canada who use T1 as 9 out of 10 times they’re cheaper than BA and my preference is always to fly out of LHR rather than LGW where Transat and Westjet fly from. To be honest even if AC was a little more expensive, I prefer arriving at T1 as its always been quite quick for me from getting off the plane to being outside the terminal. T3 was always slower for me (granted the only times I’ve flown in there were as visitor) and made me feel like I was walking halfway across Peel before any sights of the border.

would be happy to put together some thoughts on the process, apologies in advance if something doesn’t read very well, I tend to just vomit my thoughts out. My journey was with Air Canada in Economy from T2 LHR-YYZ:

• arrived at LHR 3 and a half hours before flight expecting a long line at bag drop while they checked paperwork. There was no line; agent asked to see negative COVID test results and PR card - I had my test done 48 hours earlier at the drive through site by LHR run by expresstest.co.uk, they have a few sites around the UK (had test done at 10am, had results by 4pm on same day which was much better than their service promise of by 10pm next day). Was reminded to download/complete ArriveCan, as well as registering in advance for COVID testing

• Security was normal

• Post security was a little busier than expected in some places, probably because there was basically nothing open so people just congregated around seating. WHSmiths and Pret were open and a burger place. Didn’t look around much, but aside from the seating areas it was kind of eerie how quiet the rest of the terminal was

• At the gate - they checked my passport and boarding pass, nothing else; I’ve heard some people have been asked again to show ArriveCan receipt, negative COVID test and proof of being allowed to enter

• Flight was pretty quiet, I had a row of 4 to myself, as did the row in front. I imagine this was the same throughout the rest of the plane, but didn’t really look. Not sure what the situation is with other airlines, but Air Canada has reduced their inflight service. No beer, and no choice on meals. Lunch was a mushroom something vegetarian - obviously in flight meals aren’t great at the best of times, but knowing there would be no choice in food I grabbed something to eat before boarding. Other than that, nothing really different other than the PPE.

• There was a short customs hold when the plane got to the gate, probably no more than 5 minutes. Again I’ve heard instances when CBSA have deplaned in groups, but once hold was released we could leave as normal. Leaving the plane, you could see just how quiet departures terminal was, ghost town!

• Primary inspection was quiet, and quick. From entering my customs dec into the machine, to getting through primary it was no more than 10 mins (T1 at Pearson). CBSA agent asked reason for my travel back to the UK, and asked whether I was aware about the 14 day quarantine. Was asked for ArriveCan receipt and negative COVID test. She gave me an information leaflet and emphasised the penalties for breaking the quarantine.

• Baggage collection no different

• COVID test on arrival. This is where the fun started. They filter you through two lines, one for those who had pre-registered and those who had not. The lines end at perhaps 8 booths where you pickup your swab kit to then join a second line to have the swab taken. This was a disaster. The line for the swab taking crossed the end of the line for the pre-registered. So the pre-registered travellers were at a disadvantage to the non registered travellers because the employee on that line just kept feeding people from that line through faster meaning the pre-registered line had a much slower flow through. This part was dreadful because essentially all the physical distancing measures they’d taken for the initial line, meant nothing because everyone was crowding together at this point and to pick up your swab kit you had to cross through the line of people waiting to have their swabs taken. Needless to say there were some pretty agitated people. Whole process took about 45 minutes. Obviously some teething issues here because they’re dealing with significantly higher volumes than when it was voluntary. Hopefully they figure this out over the next couple of days and perhaps it’s smoother in T3. Test itself was administered by an employee of the testing company, so not self administered per their website

• Got an email this morning from ArriveCan to complete my daily self assessment

Think that covers most of it, can’t think of anything else to add

DigitalGhost

Really useful post, thanks.

This part is especially good to know. I had the choice between BA and AC and chose BA because they were cheaper and I had Executive Club points that I could redeem. I had the choice between an 8 hour connection in LHR and a 3 hour one. I chose the 3 hour one and after reading that I'm damn glad that I did.

I was going to treat myself and go for Premium Economy but they're not offering complimentary door to door luggage service for Canada at the moment and I wasn't sure what the menu would be like under the current circumstances anyway. Plus, as you say, the planes aren't being filled so you're not going to be crammed in like you normally could be.

ChrisBan

Lol yes, 8 hours would have sucked! I have family who works for BA and I believe they said their inflight service is pretty much regular service just with added COVID measures, I’m just most annoyed about AC not serving beer at the moment . Talking of upgrades, in the event my AC flight was cancelled I was looking at the BA flight and it was actually cheaper to book a business class ticket than the premium economy, wasn’t a small difference either!

DigitalGhost

Yeah Premium Economy is actually very affordable on BA atm which was why I was considering it but business class was way over a grand when I checked. I can't really understand why AC would need to remove beer from the menu atm but when I flew Transat last year it was very scaled back even by Transat standards.

Siouxie

Premium economy might be useful if you need extra luggage / baggage allowance? https://www.britishairways.com/en-ca...age-allowances

DigitalGhost

Yeah, that was one reason why I looked at it however BA only charge £65 for an extra 23Kg suitcase from the UK to Canada so economy still worked out considerably cheaper. I've opted for Transat club class in the past for the same reason although Transat club prices are astronomical now compared to how they used to be.

By redeeming air miles, I was able to get the flight for £280 including 1 23Kg suitcase which seemed pretty good considering the short nice.

Revin Kevin

That is a good price.
Interestingly I was looking at some spring flights with KLM, the outward fare was £580 with a return priced at £1 - no doubt some algorithm at work!

DigitalGhost

Return tickets are usually cheaper due to tax reasons I think. I can't remember exactly why though.

I was pretty happy with that fare and it was actually the first time in my life I'd ever actually redeemed airline loyalty points. I had the points from another flight I took in 2019 so they were sat there doing nothing anyway.