“No ladies and gentlemen! I repeat: it will NOT be POS-SI-BLE to embark! This Wednesday, August 5, it is 5.30 am, and the check-in counter of the Transavia company, open that morning for a flight to Beirut, is always full. It's one of the first flights of the day, and the tension is already palpable.
As with almost every flight to a destination requiring a PCR test proving the passenger is negative for Covid-19, the check-in will result in multiple nervous breakdowns and tears. At a time when a rebound in the epidemic is to be feared, some countries indeed require these tests to access their territory, when France itself subjects travelers from 12 destinations, passengers from four other countries, including the United States, having to do this test before boarding for France.
But between theory and practice, there is a chasm in which dozens of travelers fall on a daily basis, forced to give up their trip, with heavy financial consequences linked to the loss of their ticket.
As many responses as there are interlocutors
Michel and his wife, a couple in their sixties, were therefore preparing to take off this Wednesday for Beirut, worried about the explosion which, the day before, had shaken the city, and in a hurry to go to their relatives. They had to give up. Unable to be able to do a test on Sunday, the laboratories being closed, they had the bad idea to anticipate it and do it on Saturday. Conclusion: the 96 hours maximum are exceeded by a few hours, to their greatest misfortune.
“But Transavia customer service told us it would be fine! », They assure at the counter. Not with this check-in hostess, who turned them away with annoyance, also refusing to specify in writing the reason for the denied boarding. This journalist is also trying her luck: the result of her test will fall at 11 am, while she is on the plane, she argues. Same end of inadmissibility. An email finally warns him at 6.30am that it is negative. Or the time at which his plane takes off from Orly. Without her.
Some try to do the test urgently at the airport. But there are as many answers to their questions as there are interlocutors: “we don't test here,” says one. "Only on weekdays," explains another. "Yes, but not before nine in the morning", nuances a third hostess. A few passengers in a hurry choose to try Roissy. Reached by phone, the medical service explains that it does not do emergency PCR tests for departures, and referral to a private laboratory in Saint-Denis already attacked by the public at the start of the morning.
"I have seen people turned away because their test was an hour too long"
"It's 100 euros per person, with results within 30 minutes", details an assistant, who sympathizes with the complicated situations of each other. "If you only knew," she breathes. I have seen people turned away because their test was an hour too long. It makes no sense. "" That's what happened to me, plague Annie, on my way to Guyana. I took the taxi from Roissy to here. The driver is waiting for me to go back to the airport. "" It will cost me a fortune, laments this mother with modest incomes. But unless I lose my ticket… ”
Caroline, waiting to take off for Cameroon, had to perform no less than three tests this week to reach the goal. “A real sketch! », She fumed. For the first time, Air France refused him boarding because of a test that was too old, this time over 72 hours, the duration being random depending on the destinations. Living in the provinces, it was impossible for him to have the result within the allotted time. “I called Air France, and they told me that it would be okay,” the young woman gets angry. Well it did not happen! "
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Including for another traveler whose test was no longer valid… because of the shift in the schedule of her initial flight due to Air France. “Changing his ticket would have cost him between 2,000 and 4,000 euros. She therefore gave up her trip ... "If she sees the need to test and impose rules, Caroline denounces their opacity and application" at the head of the customer. "Here again," three Air France employees gave me different indications. One told me that it was the day that counted, the other the hour, and the third that Sunday did not count. Which is wrong.
"To me alone, I cost 225 euros to the Sécu"
While the tears of the evicted passengers never cease to dry on the counters, Caroline tried everything for everything, took a ticket, and passed a new test, this time at Roissy, in one of the mobile clinics installed at the airport by the AP-HP. The results are supposed to be given quickly. Problem: again, while she is told that to access it, she needs an SMS code that she will receive on her cell phone, it is delayed. As a precaution, Caroline rushes to do a third test in a private laboratory, and will receive the results of the mobile clinic four hours later. "To me alone, I cost 225 euros to the Sécu", she quips.
For those who had finally managed to take off for Beirut, despite a negative result dating back less than 96 hours, they had to pass a new test as soon as they passed Lebanese customs. A device that France is therefore also supposed to have put in place, but the effectiveness of which we can doubt. Thus, from Beirut to Paris, a sworn statement of non-feeling of Covid syndromes is required, on which appears, at the end of monitoring, an address in France. "Can I give it to you?" A passenger asks the hostess as she gets off the plane at Roissy. “I would have liked to, but my colleagues closed the box. Keep it, ”the hostess apologizes.
No test if you are passing through a "safe" country
Arriving from Beirut by direct flight, passengers are not subjected to any testing unless they volunteer to do so. On the other hand, those who have left with a stopover, for example via Turkey, a country on the list of 16, are certainly entitled to it. The reverse is also true: any person arriving from one of the listed countries, but who transits through a "safe" country, will not be tested ...
When contacted, Aéroports de Paris referred to the Ministry of the Interior, under whose responsibility “these tests are organized”. Booking platforms, like eDreams for example, explain that “travel restrictions or the obligation to take a Covid-19 test are changing daily all over the world. Most of these platforms do not specify on their site what is happening when buying tickets, and refer to the travel advice site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Lastly, Transavia specifies that all the information necessary for each country appears on its website, and that in this area, the company even goes beyond the regulations. She explains that she is within her rights for the denial of boarding, the law stipulating that this can be justified in particular "for health reasons" or "inadequate travel documents. In such a case, "only airport taxes" can be reimbursed, says one at Transavia, a subsidiary of Air France-KLM.