Duffa
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2011
- Posts
- 1,680
Paris - Singapore - Melbourne
Singapore Airlines Business Class 17th February 2022
RED TAPE
Let’s start with the bureaucracy. Mrs D and I have had enough of Covid so came to Paris for a 10 day break just because we can! Having said that, at times the paperwork to get here and back became daunting, if not overwhelming. Now that we are back in the air, homeward bound it doesn’t seem so bad.
Vaccination proof:
The Australian ‘Australian International COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate’ which you obtained from Medicare and downloaded prior to departure from Australia is good enough to get you on a flight back! You do NOT need an EU certificate or EU QR code at the airport. However, this same certificate is USELESS within France - see other threads.
Negative Covid test:
A rapid antigen test taken with 24 hours will suffice. There is a searchable list of French pharmacies who can provide your test at centres-depistage-covid.html There is also an interactive map on the same website but I can’t remember how I found that.
I found a little pharmac_ 100m from our hotel who carried out the test and gave me a printed QR code result within 20 minutes. 25 Euros per person
Couple of points:
1. Pre-fill your details online - there was a QR code in the pharmac_ which linked to the pharmac_'s presence on the French health department.
I filled out our details and when we arrived at the counter she had our names on their system. Simple. You can probably do this from a link on the Sante.fr website too.
2. Special point for people like me, especially if you are borderline OCD (Mrs D says I DEFINITELY am!) The French pre-fill document asks for your first name, singular, which I duly gave. It was only when I received my negative result that I realised it was the sole document with ONLY my first name. All the other documents including passport have both of my pre-names. I panicked and went back to the pharmac_, whereupon the nice person had a harrumph, gave me a French bollocking and then re-did the form with both of my pre-names. I offered to pay again but she waved me off with another harrumph and a Gallic shrug. Long/short - fill out the form as per your passport.
3. We did a home Covid test in our hotel room one hour before the 24 hour flight cancellation deadline (redemption flight) and a couple of hours before the official pharmac_ test. If this had come back positive we could have cancelled our flights for a full refund. We also then knew that our official test would be negative. I still don’t know what we would have done with a positive home result….
DPD
If you don’t know what a DPD is then check the AFF gazette! This replacement for the Australian Travel Declaration came in to effect tomorrow. I say tomorrow because it is still yesterday in France.
Suffice to say that we are travelling during the transition period and it has been a bit stressful. Firstly, the home affairs website was down. Not very reassuring with less than 24 hours until departure.
Secondly, the check in staff member asked me for the old ATD which I didn’t have. (Well, I did actually….... As a precaution I had filled out one of these forms, earlier in the week [what was that about OCD?] but it was on my laptop and a bit hard to access)
Anyway, I showed them this screenshot below, clearly marked with transition dates and it seemed to satisfy them.
There is no QR code on the new DPD, just a reference number, so I don’t know how the check in staff verify it. The PDF of the DPD has the home affairs logo on it so it looked official on my iPhone but that was all I had.
ON THE DAY
Uber (46 Euros at 07.00 from 16th Arr) took about 40 minutes.
From kerbside drop-off to lounge about 55 minutes all up, so not too bad given these Covid times (haha, there. I got to use my most hated phrase)
NICE STUFF
The Paul Maxence Lounge is directly opposite Gate L 44 and literally a 2 minute walk from our departure point.
The styling is most definitely French!
Utilitarian
Groovy Austin Powers pods
French provincial
All in the one room!
The breakfast selection was pretty good for a non-airline lounge.
The croissants and Danishes were warm!
Singapore Airlines Business Class 17th February 2022
RED TAPE
Let’s start with the bureaucracy. Mrs D and I have had enough of Covid so came to Paris for a 10 day break just because we can! Having said that, at times the paperwork to get here and back became daunting, if not overwhelming. Now that we are back in the air, homeward bound it doesn’t seem so bad.
Vaccination proof:
The Australian ‘Australian International COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate’ which you obtained from Medicare and downloaded prior to departure from Australia is good enough to get you on a flight back! You do NOT need an EU certificate or EU QR code at the airport. However, this same certificate is USELESS within France - see other threads.
Negative Covid test:
A rapid antigen test taken with 24 hours will suffice. There is a searchable list of French pharmacies who can provide your test at centres-depistage-covid.html There is also an interactive map on the same website but I can’t remember how I found that.
I found a little pharmac_ 100m from our hotel who carried out the test and gave me a printed QR code result within 20 minutes. 25 Euros per person
Couple of points:
1. Pre-fill your details online - there was a QR code in the pharmac_ which linked to the pharmac_'s presence on the French health department.
I filled out our details and when we arrived at the counter she had our names on their system. Simple. You can probably do this from a link on the Sante.fr website too.
2. Special point for people like me, especially if you are borderline OCD (Mrs D says I DEFINITELY am!) The French pre-fill document asks for your first name, singular, which I duly gave. It was only when I received my negative result that I realised it was the sole document with ONLY my first name. All the other documents including passport have both of my pre-names. I panicked and went back to the pharmac_, whereupon the nice person had a harrumph, gave me a French bollocking and then re-did the form with both of my pre-names. I offered to pay again but she waved me off with another harrumph and a Gallic shrug. Long/short - fill out the form as per your passport.
3. We did a home Covid test in our hotel room one hour before the 24 hour flight cancellation deadline (redemption flight) and a couple of hours before the official pharmac_ test. If this had come back positive we could have cancelled our flights for a full refund. We also then knew that our official test would be negative. I still don’t know what we would have done with a positive home result….
DPD
If you don’t know what a DPD is then check the AFF gazette! This replacement for the Australian Travel Declaration came in to effect tomorrow. I say tomorrow because it is still yesterday in France.
Suffice to say that we are travelling during the transition period and it has been a bit stressful. Firstly, the home affairs website was down. Not very reassuring with less than 24 hours until departure.
Secondly, the check in staff member asked me for the old ATD which I didn’t have. (Well, I did actually….... As a precaution I had filled out one of these forms, earlier in the week [what was that about OCD?] but it was on my laptop and a bit hard to access)
Anyway, I showed them this screenshot below, clearly marked with transition dates and it seemed to satisfy them.
There is no QR code on the new DPD, just a reference number, so I don’t know how the check in staff verify it. The PDF of the DPD has the home affairs logo on it so it looked official on my iPhone but that was all I had.
ON THE DAY
Uber (46 Euros at 07.00 from 16th Arr) took about 40 minutes.
From kerbside drop-off to lounge about 55 minutes all up, so not too bad given these Covid times (haha, there. I got to use my most hated phrase)
NICE STUFF
The Paul Maxence Lounge is directly opposite Gate L 44 and literally a 2 minute walk from our departure point.
The styling is most definitely French!
Utilitarian
Groovy Austin Powers pods
French provincial
All in the one room!
The breakfast selection was pretty good for a non-airline lounge.
The croissants and Danishes were warm!
