What are the chances of getting to Spain in May?

Simon Calder answers your questions on Mediterranean weddings, Ehic cards and whether you can pick people up from Heathrow

At present, anyone who is able to travel has to have a negative PCR test (iStock)

Q What’s your honest thoughts on me getting to Spain for 14 May for my wedding?

Name supplied

A I imagine it’s a really stressful time for you and your partner. And I need to preface my prediction by saying I have been consistently over-optimistic during the coronavirus pandemic about when travel might resume at a meaningful scale. For example, when the first lockdown began in March last year, I was sure I would be able to travel to continental Europe by the end of May. In fact, it was not until mid-July.

I am, though, once again going to be optimistic about your wedding. As you appreciate, no one is currently able to take a holiday from the UK to Spain; only Spanish nationals and residents may travel. But I predict that this rule will be one of several to be eased over the next couple of months. Assuming the latest lockdown has a significant impact on UK numbers, I believe Spain will ease its current blockade of British holidaymakers relatively swiftly – certainly before the end of February. The testing regime, too, may become easier.

At present, anyone who is able to travel from the UK to Spain has to have a negative PCR test certificate in order to board a plane or ship. This is a significant deterrent to holiday travel (though not necessarily a trip to get married). Yet while the UK is hardly the world’s favourite country as a source of tourists, because of the very high rates of infection here, the blunt reality is that Spain is heavily dependent on tourism and British holidaymakers comprise a very important slice of the market. All countries need to find a balance between protecting their own citizens and allowing people working in the tourism industry to make a living. Enabling easier travel is certain to encourage visitors.

Another consideration is the regime for return to the UK. At present all arrivals from Spain are required to self-isolate. There may also be a requirement for a test before boarding a UK-bound plane. Yet the vaccine programme here, which is aiming to protect all the most vulnerable people by mid-February, should enable some UK-imposed hurdles to travel to be eased.

Having said that, I wouldn’t be booking flights for yourselves or any guests just yet. May will be an excellent month for finding some good-value tickets, even a week or two before departure.

Q I understand the government is introducing Covid testing for travellers to the UK. Can you tell me when it will take effect, and confirm my understanding that British nationals will not require the test?

Steve, by Twitter

A Travellers bound for the UK will soon be required to present a negative coronavirus test certificate before they are allowed to travel. It will be the first time testing has been required since last March. Ministers are keen to reduce the chances that coronavirus infections – particularly of the new South African variant – are brought in by incoming travellers. This is in addition to the normal 10 days of quarantine from the vast majority of overseas locations (reduced in England if the traveller pays for a test after five days and gets a negative result).

Lateral-flow tests and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (Lamp) tests will be allowed, in addition to the NHS-standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.

On timing: the governments in England and Scotland have confirmed that “test to travel” is imminent, and Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to follow suit. I expect more details next Wednesday or Thursday. My prediction is that the measure will apply to arrivals from Monday 18 January. This will mean that almost all returning holidaymakers are back in the UK. The lockdown rules in place currently mean no one is going on holiday right now.

I can certainly correct the misunderstanding that British travellers will not need to undergo the coronavirus test before returning home. They will have to get a test. A possible exemption was proposed earlier this week, when ministers signalled the introduction of Covid tests before departure to the UK. The argument for making British nationals exempt was that someone testing positive – or failing to get a test result in time for the flight home – could be stranded abroad. But the counter argument prevailed, which is if the aim is to reduce infection rates it should apply to all arrivals.

One more point: you won’t need another test when you touch down; the government has long insisted that tests immediately on arrival in the UK are pointless.

Q Is it permissible to pick people up from Heathrow if you live at the other end of the country?

Mark B

A This is an area which is shrouded in grey and, in your particular case, is also a case study in overall risk appraisal. I presume that you live somewhere such as Northumberland or Cumbria and that you have one or more members of your household flying into the UK’s busiest airport.

Going to fetch someone from an airport is not specifically covered in the lockdown rules, and it is hard to see how this mission fits into any of the allowable categories for travel: work, education, childcare, etc. But given that you would be providing private transport for someone who has to get home anyway, I very much doubt that you would face any difficulty if you were challenged by the police about your trip.

Yet I still don’t recommend it. There are several ways they could get closer to their final destination that do not involve a drive of many hundreds of miles. They could buy a connecting flight either to Newcastle or to Manchester on British Airways, which has daily services to both destinations.

Agreed, this will increase the number of contacts they have with other people. Given the high standards of cleanliness and air filtering on board a flight that will last less than an hour, I believe this is the optimal way to cover most of the distance and reduce the journey drastically. Between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Heathrow, for example, is a 700-mile round trip – but only 120 miles between the border town and Newcastle airport.

Those hundreds of extra miles involve a not-insignificant risk of accident and would also be expensive.

If the final destination is somewhere without an air option, for example west Wales, there is also a reasonable case for taking a train. Even before lockdown, the trains I took on the GWR line west from London were 95 per cent empty. I cannot see a significant extra risk from sitting on a train for three hours. Using public transport to reach home from an airport is specifically permitted under the rules.

Q We have a house in France where we like to spend part of the year. There has been lots of excitement in the pro-Brexit press about the EU having agreed acceptance of UK driving licences, Ehic (European Health Insurance Card) and so forth.

We’ve accepted that we’ll now need a green card for the car insurance, to pay vets’ fees of £100 per trip to take the dog, and that we will not be able to spend more than 90 days at a time at our French home. But as someone with a significant pre-existing health condition, I need to be convinced that the Ehic will continue to look after me. Do you know, definitively, what has been agreed with the EU, and where I can find evidence?

Name supplied

A I spent Boxing Day reading the “EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement” for elements relevant for travellers so you didn’t have to – and yet managed to miss the key section on page 1,173 that reveals health-care arrangements for British visitors to the European Union will continue. But having been sent back to reread the relevant page by more learned people, I can put your mind at rest: you will still be entitled to free or very low-cost health care in France and the other 26 members of the EU.

The detail is wrapped up in near-impenetrable legalese dealing with social security arrangements, which is my excuse for failing to spot it at first reading. The UK and EU have agreed that they will continue to offer “benefits in kind” to a citizen from the other side if those benefits “become necessary on medical grounds during their stay”. In other words: need health care? You’ve got it.

It’s important not to equate entitlement with possession of a valid European Health Insurance Card. The Ehic is simply an easy way to demonstrate that you qualify for treatment. Anyone who has a valid card can usefully carry it abroad to the EU27 until it expires. But if yours has run out, that is no problem: as I have mentioned before, NHS Overseas Healthcare Services on +44 191 218 1999 will help (albeit during working hours) by providing a “provisional replacement certificate”; knowing your national insurance number will speed things up.  

The UK government is promising a “Global Health Insurance Card” (Ghic), and you can apply for one when your Ehic runs out. I predict the Ghic will cover the EU27, miscellaneous non-EU fragments of the former Yugoslavia, the Falkland Islands and St Helena. But not necessarily California and the Seychelles.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder