Hi!
I am going to be doing some traveling to Europe soon, but with all the new covid restrictions for travel, I am worried I would get the timing incorrect for the 72 hour window for test results on my way there and back again. I found this awesome calculator for traveling to Hawaii where you can put in your time zones of departure and arrivals, and it'll calculate, and it'll tell you the earliest you should get the test ran, so you don't run risks of getting the test too early, and being turned away, or too late and get the test back too late to be able to board.
Here's the calculator I found, has anyone found something similar for traveling from the US to Europe?
https://www.hawaii-aloha.com/calculator/
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
6013 posts
Not sure why it needs to be so complicated.
The test must be done within 72 hours before your arrival in Rome (for example).
Count back 72 hours from your arrival time, factor in the time difference.
Get your test anytime after that but allow enough time to get results.
Your test results will only be looked at here as you board your flight to Rome, no one there will be reviewing it.
Posted by
Paris
9548 posts
Coming back to the United States, the window is three days, not 72 hours.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks @ChristineH, I wasn't sure if the time difference affected the dates on the test at all. I would be traveling +7 hours into the future, so I didn't know if that affects the overtime time limit of the test. I had someone I knew recently who got turned away at the airport because he was at hour 73, and ended up missing his flight because the closest testing station was miles away from the airport, and he didn't get the second set of results back in time to get through. He originally went off a general 3 day count, not specifically 72 hours. Based on when he took the test, it affected his flight severely, and he had to pay for new tickets plus the rapid test.
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
6013 posts
I’m sorry about your friend but the rules are clear
Think in Roman time and you’ll be good to go
That does mean you actually have 7 hours less as your testing window
“arrival at destination” is the key
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7326 posts
We landed in Italy 2 weeks ago. We did Abbott Binax tests online, with a proctor observing each of us doing the nasal swab and placing the swab in the test packet over video, and the process took just about 20 minutes. That includes the 15 minutes it takes for the test results to come in. We did that the afternoon before we flew out the next morning, so way less than 24 hours before departing, and less than 36 hours before landing in Rome.
Hawaii is 12 hours behind Italy, so say your flight lands in Italy at 2:00 PM, you’ll need to have taken your test sample by 2:00 AM three days earlier.
We took the arrival time stated for our flight, 8:01 AM on Wednesday, then subtracted 8 hours for the time difference between Central European Time and the Colorado Mountain Tine zone. That gave us one minute past midnight on Wednesday. Counting back 3 days from that time gave 12:01 AM on Sunday. Doing the test on Monday, however, got us well within that time limit.
Posted by
SF Bay Area
76 posts
Someone posted this site on the forum and I found it very convenient to calculate testing periods. Many thanks to the original poster.