If you’re reading this, you’re already a professional traveler. And, as professional travelers, we certainly have found ourselves in stressful situations on the road. Tight airline connections, lost luggage, no GPS signal — these hiccups are all part of the adventure. But these days, even for the most intrepid of us out there, nothing seems to cause anxiety quite like the threat of that little pink positive strip on a re-entry COVID-19 test.
I’m speaking from personal experience. After a whirlwind winter spending three months in Thailand, a last-minute decision to visit Ireland on the way back to the United States left my fiance and me stranded with COVID-19 for a week in Dublin, unable to return home because of the re-entry testing requirements.
It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise fantastic trip — one that cost us thousands of dollars in additional accommodations, airline fare changes, food and more COVID-19 tests. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been a staunch supporter of masks, testing and traveling as safely as possible, especially while vaccines were not readily available and deadly variants were causing overcrowded ICU wings.
But this recent experience in Ireland shined a very bright light on the many, many holes and — some may argue — antiquated measures that exist in current travel requirements, particularly the requirement to provide a negative COVID-19 test to re-enter the U.S.
A Lack of Uniformity Among COVID-19 Rules and Requirements
It was a recipe for disaster once the world started reopening at different rates and with different requirements. How could it not have been? One country completely lifts restrictions, while another still requires stringent testing or quarantine.
This happened early in the pandemic, particularly with Americans returning from Mexico, which has essentially been open to tourism, without restrictions, since the initial outbreak. Millions of people from around the world made Mexico their vacation destination of choice for the last two years, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was one of the easiest destinations to travel to.
But this left hundreds of travelers stranded when they had to provide a negative test to return to the U.S. Inevitably, they would contract COVID-19 while on vacation, or just as likely, they would contract COVID-19 prior to arriving in Mexico and would start testing positive in Mexico. Unable to return home, they would have to scramble at the last minute to figure out where and how to stay. (Many all-inclusive resorts side-stepped this hiccup by offering to put COVID-19-positive travelers up at no additional cost while they awaited a negative result so that they could return to their home countries.)
On this most recent trip, we started our adventure at the end of December, when we left for Thailand in the midst of an Omicron surge. We had to show negative PCR tests, get travel insurance, provide proof of vaccination and commit to a 24-hour quarantine to await the results of a PCR test on arrival. By the time we left Thailand in March, many of its travel requirements had eased, and we were on our way to Ireland, a country that had recently dropped every single COVID-19 travel restriction (including mandatory masks and all entry requirements).
After successfully evading COVID-19 for three months in Thailand and adhering to masks, vaccine mandates, curfews and occupancy capacities, COVID-19 found us in Ireland.
After successfully evading COVID-19 for three months in Thailand and adhering to masks, vaccine mandates, curfews and occupancy capacities, COVID-19 found us in Ireland. It came as a considerable shock, seeing as we’re vaccinated and boosted — plus, I’d had Delta in March 2021. While my fiance had a cough for a day or two, I had no symptoms at all.
The issue was not with contracting COVID-19 — it was with being unable to get back to the U.S. because of it. Inherently, this rule is not something I disagree with. But these testing requirements seem outdated, and almost nonsensical, for a country that has no problem allowing people to return to work in person and, most recently, go on planes and to airports unmasked.
Why bother requiring a negative COVID-19 test to return home, when preventative and protection measures at home are inconsistent? It adds stress and costly expenses that, at this point, feel wildly unnecessary.
If You Test Positive for COVID, Can You Fly? It Depends...
Our story is not uncommon. I personally know people who have been so afraid of getting “stuck” in Mexico that they buy emergency “Plan B” flights to Tijuana, since you do not need to provide a COVID-19 test to walk across the border — yet another crack in this cobbled-together system. (Of course, not everyone looks to break the rules. Most travelers have had to simply ride it out.)
"We have had several COVID-19-positive trapped guests, and each one was handled differently on a case-by-case basis," said Zachary Rabinor, founder of Journey Mexico. "In general, they rode it out and quarantined in a hotel that would take them. We helped where we could, but often they AWOLed and figured it out themselves, as we weren't willing to lie or facilitate breaking the rules."
We helped where we could, but often they AWOLed and figured it out themselves, as we weren't willing to lie or facilitate breaking the rules.
Katie Lynn Reynolds, a travel advisor with Travelmation had honeymooners stuck in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
"They received an oceanfront suite for the quarantine," she said. "They were excited for the room service, but this was days after their wedding, so they weren't too happy to miss more days of work."
The couple was released four days later after testing negative. Reynolds canceled their flights with American Airlines and, in turn, they had to purchase new flights at the airport (the hold time for American Airlines was longer than the time it took them to get to the airport).
COVID-19 has presented a breadth of new challenges for travel advisors over the course of the past two years. But the hits seem to keep on coming.
"Travel is a personal decision that depends very much on a traveler's risk aversion in the context of the details of the specific trip," Rabinor said. "That said, advisors do continue to work double- and triple-time to provide the relevant information to their clients, while not necessarily seeing a double or triple return on their time."
How to Help Your Clients Prepare for the Possibility of Getting Stuck Abroad
Because there is no consistency anywhere in the world, the best way to prepare yourself and your clients right now is to constantly check the current rules and regulations — which continue to change by the day. Many countries have remained consistent; those that are freshly reopening or newly dropping mandates may pose more of a risk.
Sitting on edge waiting to hear if a client is negative, or if I have to spend three hours canceling flights, is not fun for anyone.
I will say that our three months in Thailand never caused a problem for us. Because of the mask mandates and other requirements, we knew we would be able to enter other countries that also had travel restrictions. It’s the travel between countries that are not aligned on requirements where the risk continues to be greatest, and as countries drop their travel restrictions, that means that there are many more places where it’s possible for Americans to get stuck.
"These requirements definitely need to go," Reynolds said. "As cases get lower, we do not need them. It's causing more stress than it's worth. Sitting on edge waiting to hear if a client is negative, or if I have to spend three hours canceling flights, is not fun for anyone. Most people have common sense and won't travel if they don't feel well — unless they have to. I think masks should stick around as an option and not be shamed, though."
"At this point, I don’t think the U.S. testing requirements for entry make much sense,” Rabinor added. "While hindsight is 20/20, it doesn't seem that the difference in regulations has yielded much difference in terms of contagion or deaths, especially in the post-vaccine era."
