Covid surging in Bonaire

[drrich2]

I would send them an email.

Good advice. Just fired one off. I'm the antsy type who likes to find things out as fast as possible, and it's late Sunday evening. Hopefully the info. will come in handy for someone else, too. Using somewhat rounded numbers, here was the original plan:

Day Before: Antigen test at 10 a.m. (CST).
Day Off:
-----6 a.m.: Fly out of Nashville Airport to Miami International Airport, layover about an hour.
-----10:30 a.m.: Fly out of MIA (now there's a name that inspires confidence) for Bonaire.

2 Issues. #1 - Is the antigen test to be no more than 24-hours before 6 a.m. or 10:30 a.m.? #2 - Do they figure in time zone differences? With daylight savings time, right now Bonaire is 1-hour ahead of Miami and 2-hours ahead of the area I live.

I also notice they want that health decoration filled out between 12 and 24 hours prior to departure (there's that ambiguous word again!), as noted here:

"All travelers must complete a Public Health Department health declaration form online between 24 hours and 12 hours before departure. This declaration can be downloaded at: https://www.bonairepublichealth.org"

 

[tursiops]

@drrich2 Bonaire consistently says the departure that matters is the one where you start the trip. Most people to be safe -- and demonstrably some airline gate agents -- use the final leg of the journey, i.e. the flight that actually goes to Bonaire, and try and get a test 48h (NAAT) or 24h (antigen) before that final flight. Depending on how you worded your query to them, it will be interesting to see their response. The bad news is that it may not matter to an ill-informed gate agent, who holds all the cards.

That segment you quoted from BonaireCrisis.com is NOT about layovers in the same country you started from; it is about layovers on an intermediate country, and whose rules apply.

The 48h or 24h is actual hours, not 2 or 1 days, and without fiddling with what clocks/time-zones say.

Your 0630 out of Nashville and 1030 out of MIA is no issue. You get your test within 48h or 24h before 0630, since presumably your test is in the same time zone as your initial departure airport.

ADDED: Most likely your testing paperwork will only be looked at by your originating airport gate agent, because they are the ones sending you to Bonaire and checking your luggage through. The gate agent in MIA will assume the gate agent that sent you to MIA did their job. Most likely.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

The 48h or 24h is actual hours, not 2 or 1 days, and without fiddling with what clocks/time-zones say.

I'm not so sure about that. We were discussing this the other night.

Here's the actual wording off of the CDC website:
"If you plan to travel internationally, you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test (regardless of vaccination status or citizenship) no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States. You must show your negative result to the airline before you board your flight."

Note it says one day, not 24 hours. We think that if you get your test at 12:01AM on Thursday and you fly at 11:59PM on Friday, you got your test on Thursday and flew on Friday and this would qualify, even though it would have been clockwise 47 hours and 58 minutes.

DISCLAIMER: Don't just take my word for it. Confirm with your airline.

 

[David Novo]

@drrich2 Bonaire consistently says the departure that matters is the one where you start the trip. Most people to be safe -- and demonstrably some airline gate agents -- use the final leg of the journey, i.e. the flight that actually goes to Bonaire, and try and get a test 48h (NAAT) or 24h (antigen) before that final flight. Depending on how you worded your query to them, it will be interesting to see their response. The bad news is that it may not matter to an ill-informed gate agent, who holds all the cards.

That segment you quoted from BonaireCrisis.com is NOT about layovers in the same country you started from; it is about layovers on an intermediate country, and whose rules apply.

The 48h or 24h is actual hours, not 2 or 1 days, and without fiddling with what clocks/time-zones say.

Your 0630 out of Nashville and 1030 out of MIA is no issue. You get your test within 48h or 24h before 0630, since presumably your test is in the same time zone as your initial departure airport.

ADDED: Most likely your testing paperwork will only be looked at by your originating airport gate agent, because they are the ones sending you to Bonaire and checking your luggage through. The gate agent in MIA will assume the gate agent that sent you to MIA did their job. Most likely.

The test result is also checked before passport control in Bonaire.

The reference for Bonaire is 24 actual hours but not really an issue as they compare the time of the test with the one of the first departure.

 

[arubabob1]

I am on Bonaire as we speak. We have apts made for testing to go back. Bonaire is telling us that its the day before you leave. So the time does not matter. Also when we came, it was just the day before you fly out, you need the test. They are going by the day before you fly out. Not 24 hours. We asked 4 different places and we got the same answer. And when we came from US to Bonaire, they just looked at the neg. They never even checked the time or the day. Even when we arrived on Bonaire. They just looked at the Neg.

 

[tursiops]

I'm not so sure about that. We were discussing this the other night.

Here's the actual wording off of the CDC website:
"If you plan to travel internationally, you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test (regardless of vaccination status or citizenship) no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States. You must show your negative result to the airline before you board your flight."

Note it says one day, not 24 hours. We think that if you get your test at 12:01AM on Thursday and you fly at 11:59PM on Friday, you got your test on Thursday and flew on Friday and this would qualify, even though it would have been clockwise 47 hours and 58 minutes.

DISCLAIMER: Don't just take my word for it. Confirm with your airline.

You are talking about CDC rules to emter the US. I am talking about Bonaire"s rules to enter Bonaire.

 

[drrich2]

The bad news is that it may not matter to an ill-informed gate agent, who holds all the cards.

Thanks. With that in mind, I'm working on rescheduling my test slightly later (canceled the original, set up the replacement, that worked but the system glitched and didn't let me put in the info. it normally needs. Complications...).

But here's the body of my e-mail (with smaller font and deleted blank spaces to condense it, since it's just here for reference) to the Bonaire authorities:

---

Bon Dia:
I hope to come to Bonaire very soon. I know a COVID-19 antigen test is required within 24-hours of departure. But I have since run into a question I had no foreseen.
The flight plan (I’m rounding the numbers a little):
6 a.m. Central Standard Time - Fly out of airport in Nashville, Tennessee (USA).
Arrive in Miami, Florida, for roughly an hour layover.
10:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time - Fly out of Miami to Bonaire.
My original plan was to get the antigen test the day before at 10 a.m. Central Standard Time.
Due to daylight savings time, Bonaire is currently 1-hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time (U.S.A.). So 6 a.m. in Nashville is 7 a.m. in Miami is 8 a.m. in Bonaire.
Okay, I have a couple of questions for you.
Question #1: Do you base that 24-hour limit on when I flew out of Nashville Airport, or when I flew out of Miami International Airport?
Question #2: Do you ignore time zone differences, or will you factor those in?
Basically, I’m trying to figure out whether I need to reschedule my antigen test time the day before to a later time in the day. I want to give them plenty of time to get me that result.
Thank you in advance for all your help!

---

And more importantly, here is their response this morning:

---

Thank you for contacting Bonaire public health department.

Hereby we would like to inform you that the 48 hour PCR-test or 24 hour antigen-test timeframe refers to your first departure from your originating flight.(Nashville, Tennessee) Your Covid-test results will remain valid for 24 hours in case of a layover. However, if your layover/transit is more than 24 hours, then the testing timeframe will refer to your second leg of connection flight. (Miami)

Hope to have informed you accordingly.

Kind regards,

Publieke Gezondheid - GGD | Samenleving en Zorg
Kaya Gilberto F. Betico Croes 24
Kralendijk, Bonaire, Caribisch Nederland
T: (+599) 715 5311
E: traveltobonaire@bonairegov.com

 

[tursiops]

What do you think their answer means?

 

[drrich2]

Hereby we would like to inform you that the 48 hour PCR-test or 24 hour antigen-test timeframe refers to your first departure from your originating flight.(Nashville, Tennessee)

Bold emphasis mine. Of course, 6 a.m. CST in Nashville is currently 8 a.m. in Bonaire, but either way, a 10 a.m. CST test should've been fine. That said, I like to avoid testing human ignorance with my trip on the line, so I rescheduled for 11 a.m. CST (since the next day the departure out of Miami is down for 10:35 a.m. EST), just so the numbers would look good at a glance. Don't want any busy gate agents having to do any calculations.

Your Covid-test results will remain valid for 24 hours in case of a layover. However, if your layover/transit is more than 24 hours, then the testing timeframe will refer to your second leg of connection flight. (Miami)

I assume anyone whose air travel plan has them arriving in Bonaire > 24-hours after their first departure at the start of their journey, then they've got to get tested en-route - such as in Miami in this case.

---

Which brings up an interesting question. How many U.S. airports are offering on-demand no-appointment COVID-19 rapid antigen testing with prompt result? I hope I don't need to know, but someone else might.

 

[Jersey]

Which brings up an interesting question. How many U.S. airports are offering on-demand no-appointment COVID-19 rapid antigen testing with prompt result? I hope I don't need to know, but someone else might.

I know PHL does. We used them when we went down in October. Partnership between RRT (Rapid Reliable Testing) and Jefferson Health System. Problem - they open at 0700, so if you have an early flight, this may not help you. We headed over the afternoon before, very fast, very thorough and very expensive. No insurance, $250/person. They actually looked at the countries we went through (Curacao and Bonaire), explained requirements to us, and made sure we had the correct test. Twenty five minutes and they stamped our parking tickets.

They were so efficient I may just use them for March trip. While expensive, getting results timely, not missing the plane priceless.

I think I heard Miami closed down their testing, ATL had one >haven't heard anything. BUT in PHL, Delta won't let you on the plane without the paperwork. So if you had a long layover in ATL and planned to get tested there - no can fly.