Covid Testing for Flights

Are you saying that this applies to transit flyers who only stay in the airport or those who go out into Singapore?

Turns out you can only transit through Changi if you are on Singapore airlines or its Silk Airline partner.

You need to also get a letter from your employer if you want to enter Singapore. So changing from say Air Asia to British Airways was not possible. I had a lot of discussions with Air Asia customer support.

Thats a shock.

I have been keeping track of possible flights to US at the time low restrictions permit it. Not available at the moment, there was a Japan Airlines flight that started in Penang on some airline, transit in Singapore, get on Japan Airlines, transit in Japan and then US. So im to understand had it been possible to book that flight I would have been blocked at Singapore? Or that a test would be required for transit customers?

In a way, the question is moot in light of the current need to get permission to even leave but is that the way it is with Singapore if I could fly? Is the goal then to avoid Singapore altogether?

Can people skip the tests with a hazmat suit?

I booked from KLIA2 to Singapore, got my COVID test but when I tried to check in Air Asia wanted a special pass saying i was safe to work there. Please investigate it as i think you can also get it from Singapore government.

Air Asia would not let me check in without it. The help person eventually said just go to the airport and try to check in.

When i did some further digging i found on a link on Changi Airport web page that only Singapore airlines and subsidiaries can transit through the airport as no other airline has been approved.

It may just be lots of red tape that can be worked through. I would suggest that maybe Qatar may be your best bet but increases your flight time.

There WAS a flight either to Qatar or Dubai, then to Frankfurt, then to NY, and etc but that flight is long gone.  It was replaced by the Japan Airlines flight and, I had forgotten, Singapore Airlines briefly had a flight to US as well. There is usually only one. Gone are the days of 50 flights before covid.

Where did you get your test and what did it cost? And you went through the MYEntry hassle for a permit to leave? And, are you planning to come back and go through the quarantine?

Got the test at Pantai hospital, 550RM for the 4-6 hour results for the approved test with high accuracy.

Not sure where in the US you are going but you can possibly use Skyscanner to search for flights

RM550....highway robbery. They are really milking this virus to make money.

Yes ive been using skyscanner since they started in business. I stopped looking when MYEntry and US blacklisted started, and also forced quarantine on return, if even allowed to return at all. But there is usually one flight. Right now to Los Angeles there are a few, at triple normal prices. Usually I pay about RM2500, now its RM7500-10,000 from Penang. Skyscanner says they wont be restoring lower cost flights until March, 2021.

The test was half the price with a wait of 24-72 hours for the result.

I have no idea prices or test access around the world but in US, its either free or very low cost, results in 15 minutes-12 hours and if there is a cost its covered by insurance (as far as I know).

Ok, I googled this for fun. At least in June-July, the prices around the world were RM200-up, with many governments paying for the tests. For example, its free in Singapore. Malaysia announced early on they wouldnt pay for tests which I think is wrong. How to know who has the virus if people cant afford to pay for the test to find out? Well, Im reading that govts left pricing to supply-demand concepts and the prices ran out of control. India was going to put a cap on prices, the way Malaysia had to do with profiteering in masks (which happens with every epidemic here). Maybe Malaysia has to also cap prices on testing if testing is expected to continue.

But testing is wildly different around the world and there is no firm, final agreement as to which is best. This contributes to price differences. There is nucleic acid test, antigen test, etc. Someone can test positive in one test and negative in a different test, I am reading. This brings up another question---if a traveler has a test that some other country isnt using, will the results be accepted or will the traveler be forced to re-test? I dont know of any instances of this, its just a question.