Jessie, 22, and her sister, Angie Carr, 23, were about to fly from Australia to Bali to visit their father, whom they had not seen for several months.
To enter Indonesia, all arrivals must pass a COVID-19 test 48 hours before departure to enter Indonesia.
However, it turned out that the sisters passed their tests too early – the “best before” date of the latter expired two hours before they came for registration. They just didn’t calculate, passing the test 50 hours before and receiving the results 40 hours before departure. “There was no clear explanation that the test must be passed within the last 48 hours, we understood that this period relates to obtaining a certificate.”
The message from the airline looked like this: “Requirement for all passengers to have a negative PCR test result received within 48 hours before departure.”
There was an option to conduct another test at the airport, the results would have come in 1.5 hours – but, alas, there was too little time left before departure.
The sisters managed to reschedule their flight a few days later, but spent all their remaining money on new tests, as well as an airport hotel and a taxi, forfeiting nearly A$700. In addition, accommodation in Bali was also paid for and, as a result, “burned out”. And it’s $70 per night.
Following this incident, the airline changed the wording of the messages to avoid confusion and clarify testing rules.
Last year, a UK couple was banned from flying on an EasyJet plane after it was revealed their tests were taken 40 minutes early.
And the record happened on a flight to Croatia. When the airline reps cheered the whole family up: “Your tests are overdue by 15 minutes.”