News: He who travels has stories to tell

(SNN - Simon's News Network - special report) Your editor was on travel, yes, he was indeed. And the journey was for private matters to, after a long time of separation, meet his love Sarah, who lives in England, while Simon - as known - lives in Austria, and the two countries prohibited (and still prohibit) entry from the other country. I just returned from Spain, where we weren't meant to spend our holidays though. As result of the journey you may have noticed some slower and reduced service (as I had agreed with Sarah to limit my work on AVH to 3-4 hours daily while we were together).

So after the UK announced Malta would be on the green list not limiting travel between Malta and the UK, with Malta also indicating to be fully open to fully vaccinated people (Sarah is fully vaccinated, just as your editor Simon is), we decided, Malta will be our place. 14 wonderful days of us being together were laying ahead, hotel, flights etc. were fully booked, all forms filled in, and we were ready to go. Sarah was the first to leave the UK via Gatwick at 04:00L that morning. While in the queue to board her aircraft to Malta, an employee came to her, asked for her vaccination pass and then stated categorically, "you will not fly". He pointed out a specific batch of her AstraZeneca vaccine (starting with the batch numbers 4120Z), that was manufactured in India and took the Delta mutation of the virus from India to the UK according to the Maltese government reasoning their last minute decision. I mean, this argument is totally stupid in itsself. Sarah, obviously having had little sleep, collapsed onto her knees onto the floor, broke out in tears, and finally managed to call me, just as I was about to leave my apartment to head for Munich Airport (by train) to catch my Air Malta flight to Malta. I immediately cancelled my check in, let train be train and flight be flight, all that mattered was Sarah at that very moment. We tried to talk to the people of her travel agency, but we couldn't get her back onto her flight. So we needed to decide she'd go back to her home, and I asked her to take a taxi (as I didn't feel she was fit to use public transport at this time).

It needs to be said, that on that fateful day, we were meant to depart for Malta, the British government confirmed at around 16:00Z (13 hours after our intended departure) that Malta indeed had banned these batches of AstraZeneca vaccine, the batch numbers starting with 4120Z, and stated: "Entry will not be allowed if the vaccine batch on your certificate is from one of the following: 4120Z001, 4120Z002, 4120Z003. We are clarifying with the Maltese authorities why these have been deemed not valid for entry." No information had appeared on the Maltese websites. The European Medical Agency (EMA) had fully certified the vaccine and all its batches without any limitation, therefore Malta as member of the European Union should have been bound by this decision. About a week later again the UK government informed, the ban on these batches has been withdrawn by the Maltese government.

I informed our hotel in Malta, that we both would not show up, writing this (amongst other) referencing the sudden decision by Malta goverment: "It is sad to see, how such decisions not only disrupt travel, destroy trust in regulations and aviation in general, but also seriously damage Maltese tourism and also your friendly place which we definitely would have very much enjoyed and loved - it was not only Sarah affected by this sudden "show stopper", almost the whole plane load of tourists were denied boarding, and the aircraft flew basically empty."

Later the afternoon, when Sarah had fully recovered and regained her fighting spirit, she went to her travel agency and managed to get the whole journey rebooked to Ibiza (Spain), called me to ask whether I would have flights, yes, I had instantly flights available and prepared my booking of the flights with a nerveous finger on top of the final key to just go as soon as Sarah's booking was confirmed. We got our flights and the booking in Ibiza sorted (I pressed the final key) and then the worries started to get prepared for the entry into Spain, we just had less than 4 days left before we'd go (other than for Malta where we had spent several weeks for preparation of the trip). It thus escaped our attention, that the prepared and fetched Covid Test Kit (needed also for fully vaccinated travellers returning to the UK), that Sarah had received for her trip to Malta, was not valid for the return from Spain - a quick check with her travel agency 3 days ahead of our return confirmed the test was not accepted by the UK authorities who require a "private clinic" antigen or PCR test over the official UK's NHS antigen test kit - so we quickly decided for one of the test facilities on Ibiza and had her tested there (which in the end proved good for the return).

When Sarah arrived at Gatwick Airport for the second time, now to go to Ibiza, the computer system of the travel agency hadn't taken her data for that flight, she just could present her e-tickets. The agent at the desk took her passport and her e-ticket with him to go to some back room, probably calling around to verify the booking, and returned with a boarding pass for her. I got to know while I was already in the waiting lounge at Salzburg Airport (this time), so we both were relieved. I was to travel to Ibiza via Palma Mallorca and would then connect to Ibiza via Air Europa, while Sarah had a direct flight from Gatwick to Ibiza, and would then have to wait for me for a few hours or so.

I arrived in Palma alright (Sarah had tracked my arrival into Palma on a radar website), went through immigration, got my luggage (which couldn't get booked through), then went to Air Europa (attention, long walk to pick up the luggage and then again back to find the Inter Island counters), got a boarding pass however without telling me (about one hour prior to departure), which gate I would depart from, and then arriving at the Interisland waiting lounges I found out, the previous flight by Air Europa hadn't flown and mine wasn't on schedule either because their AT72 had broken down, the estimate was between 1 and 4 hours delay possible. Air Europa brought a B738 in, merged the two flights and off we went. With about two hours delay I arrived in Ibiza - and walked past Sarah ... She shouted at me, only then I discovered her and well - this is private.

Epilog (Aug 5th 2021):

We spent a wonderful fortnight indeed that exceeded our wishes and dreams. We knew a very emotional day would lay ahead when we needed to return to our homes. But we did not expect that Sarah would get involved into another anecdote adding to the stories we'll be able to tell .... We both are sure, our experiences, and especially the mishaps, during this trip will have us smiling and even laughing in the future when the memories come up again ...

I needed to return to Salzburg on Monday, Jul 26th 2021, and Sarah also needed to return to England that day. We both kept straight faces until after I (being the first to depart Ibiza) waved a last good bye, then the tears broke free as we again don't know how long it'll take until we can see each other again. Of course, we are hoping regulations will change soon permitting to see each other and live together both in Salzburg and England.

We separately arrived safely in our homes. I wasn't required to provide a test for my return to Salzburg, the vaccination certificate was sufficient. Sarah however was required by UK regulations to provide an entry form to the UK ahead of her return and a pre-departure negative Covid test as well as another test on the day after arrival back home. Sarah had brought with her the recommended NHS test (prepared for Malta) on the Friday before departure, which however wasn't good for the return from Spain. So she took another private Clinic Covid Test performed in Ibiza on Saturday and took another test the day after arriving in the UK (on Tuesday) as required for all passengers of that flight by UK regulations, all tests she had taken were negative, and we both entered our daily routines again.

On Friday, Jul 30th 2021 Sarah texted me, she had just been ordered by her government (via NHS) to self isolate, somebody she had been in contact with had tested positive. The end of the 10 day quarantine (the 10 days starting at the time of contact) was set for Thursday Aug 5th 2021 23:59L, which makes clear the contact must have occurred on the return flight, somebody on Sarah's aircraft must have tested positive (and we therefore suspect all passengers on that aircraft were sent to self isolate). Sarah followed the instruction and is, at the time of writing this epilog, still adhering to the quarantine instructions albeit restlessly on her tenth day !

She and He who travel have indeed a lot of stories to tell.