Well, I’m meant to be all chirpy and upbeat on the first day of a holiday, but my brain is feeling like its going to explode before I even get to the fun bit. The online forms and paperwork is very tedious and time consuming, but its complicated by two extra things. Firstly there is an order that they must be done in, which often seems to loop back on itself. And secondly, there are time windows that everything has to be done by, or after, or both, and these are complicated by time differences, and where you’ll be during these windows.
Take, for instance, our flight to Spain. We couldn’t check in till two days before we fly, which meant that we had already begun our journey, and had to use hotel wifi. But to check in, we had to attach our PCR test results which had to be done within 72 hours of arrival, as well as our Spanish passenger location form. However, the Spanish form wanted our seat numbers which we wouldn’t get until we checked in. So, you first get a PCR test, and await the results. If you are clear, you fill out what you can of the Spanish form, and the system then locks it so you can’t update it till you’re within 48 hours of flying. Then you start the airline check in process when it opens, and go as far as getting your seats. Then you pause that and go back to the Spanish form and enter your seat numbers, complete and send the form for approval. When that approval arrives by email, you detach the PDF file, and put it on your phone so that Spanish authorities can see it. You then go back to the airline checkin process, resume where you left off, attach the Spanish form from your phone, and complete the checkin. At this point you’d think you’d be sent your boarding pass, but no!. That doesn’t happen till airline staff at the airport the next morning sight your PCR test results and vaccination certificate, and print your boarding passes, along with those of every other international passenger enduring the same process. And we didn’t have the extra complications of flying with children, having vaccination exemptions, or connecting flights with other airlines!
So, really, online checkin is now online form submission, and the poor hotel prints out all your paperwork to get sighted anyway when you get to front of long queues just like you used to.
Don’t forget that to get to Spain, we first had to get tested at Brisbane airport, wait for the results and get them printed, then fly to Sydney, get our paperwork checked and boarding passes printed, go through customs and immigration (easy), then security (Sydney really are the worst in the world), before we got on our second flight to Singapore (Qantas A330 half full). But we are on our way – finally.
Seven hours in Singapore to stretch our legs, and buy some tea, before we got on our British Airways long-haul flight to London, leaving around 11:15 Singapore time. While waiting, we went through the whole same process to check in for our upcoming flight to Portugal. Thank goodness for good and free wifi at Changi.
Singapore airport has an interesting feel. Lots of passengers, though not anywhere near mayhem, but most shops and food outlets are closed. There was one noodle shop open in Terminal C, with one guy taking the orders and cooking them. Even two out of every three toilets are shut, so you don’t want to be in a hurry. Most seats are roped off, but people are just ignoring the notices as there aren’t staff around to stop them anyway. Certainly not the efficient Singapore of old.