Image Copyright: Christopher John Thorne
I am currently on day 6 in Quarantine. I wasn’t able to write this earlier as all hell broke loose back home. My daughter and her boyfriend were fighting Covid and were victims of the dreaded Third Wave! As such, I have spent the last 5 days crying, praying and calling and texting friends, family and doctors to stay abreast of what’s happening back home. When I weighed up the pros and cons of leaving as the Third Wave was hitting, this scenario was definitely one of the worst that had crossed my mind. It has been hell! However, I am so grateful for technology which has enabled me to cope, and I am very grateful to the medical team at Crowne Plaza Blanchardstown, Dublin for offering me support and checking in on me daily.
So, let me write about my experience so that it may prepare others and hopefully make their journey as good, if not better, than mine!
I wanted to get out of SA before the Third Wave officially hit. Our financial situation is such that I need to start earning and sending money home asap. We could not afford for another delay. My original plan of immigrating to Ireland had fallen by the wayside, and now I was looking at getting overseas as quickly as possible to earn some money. My sister had moved to Northern Ireland 7 months earlier, just before the second wave was due to hit in SA, so Belfast became my new final destination. (Our original plan was to immigrate to Ireland but because my Foreign Birth Registration application was on hold, I had to fall back on travelling on my British passport.)
My British passport arrived, and I started looking for a flight. I contacted Adriaan from Jenny’s travel (the repat’ flight hero) and he got straight onto it. He suggested KLM via Amsterdam with Managed hotel Quarantine in Edinburgh which I was fairly happy with, except for the luggage allowance. I decided to go and speak to a travel agent in our local mall. Some how it’s a little unsettling making arrangements only via email.
Steven at Flight Centre in The Glen JHB, was helpful and during our discussion we decided that landing and quarantining in Dublin was a great option! It meant I could fly with Qatar Air as they are still allowed to land in Ireland unlike UK. The draw back of flying to Dublin is that Flight Centre agents can only assist with booking Quarantine to Uk. However, they gave me all the details and I was easily able to book my quarantine myself. Make sure that if you book using a credit card, that it (or the required numbers) comes with you to make the payment. I nearly booked using my husband’s card and I would not have had it with me. I was able to book using my normal cheque account. I just took a chance and it worked!
I decided to book Business class and there were several reasons for this. I was allowed 2 x 32 kg bags and 2 x 7 kg hand luggage. Since this is basically an emigration situation, the extra luggage was essential! In addition to that, I took the advice of my niece who flew Business to Canada as she said the extra space in Business was brilliant for social distancing. My final reason was, when ever in my life might I get another opportunity to fly Business? We had to sell our house to survive so why not?
Side note: I have recently found out that due to a collapsing vertebra the pain in my foot, leg, and lower back I have had for 8 years is nerve pain and will not go away with the use of painkillers. The previous week I had flown to Cape Town to say my goodbyes there and I had battled to sit for two hours on the domestic flight. I wriggled and writhed for two hours which is embarrassing when you are shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh with a stranger.
Unfortunately, I did not realise that booking a one-way ticket would be counted as an emigration flight and therefore there is no travel insurance against lost luggage. Another point to note is that Discovery medical aid view it as an emigration too and cover you for a maximum of 90 days. I can and will request another 30 days at the end of that 90 days.
I took out the travel insurance offered by Flight Centre through TIC but it was initially for two days only. Since you pay the same amount for 1-8 days, I phoned them directly and made sure I was covered for the full 8 days that I was able to get for that price.
You will need the following to board so make sure you have it so you don’t waste your time and the time of other passengers in the queue behind you.
- Passenger Locator form: fill it in BEFORE you depart so you can PRINT it out! It is way too stressful trying to get it done just before you land and you just never know what tricks the internet or email will play with you. Fill in your hotel address and at a later stage you will be asked for a second address that you will be contactable at (once you are at the hotel). I spent a few very tense moments trying to assist a fellow SAFFA trying to figure out why she had not received her email while we were in the air. Google the hotel’s address or phone them to get it right! I also filled the online form in as a test run and when I went back to it, it had remembered the details I put in the first time. Yay for cookies!!
- Quarantine confirmation email: they say you will receive your hotel name 48 hours before flying and I did. PRINT IT OUT for peace of mind!
- Qatar Air say they want SEVERAL copies of your Covid test letter. Did anyone use them? No! but rather have them. It was looked at at check-in and given back to me.
- Qatar website asks for a consent form to be filled out giving them consent to use and read your Covid test and to inform the authorities if necessary. ( My travel agent didn’t know about this so check your airline’s website for any little complications) Get it PRINTED.
OR Thambo
I will keep this brief. GET DROPPED AT TERMINAL B DOMESTIC DEPARTURES!!
Qatar ground staff are still South African, so the service is not world class yet! I received no additional assistance for being Business class. I am a very inexperienced flyer, so I was desperate for a little guidance. Luckily, my husband insisted on being with me, so he got me back to the security checks at Terminal A (you must walk back towards Terminal A). All the OR Thambo staff we spoke to were helpful so just ask if you need help.
You will need to fill out a form called “Entry into SA” which in itself is a mind game. Just leave the address blank and take it to the point where you are scanned for your temperature.
You can buy a 50 ml hand sanitizer at the Dischem right next to the security check queues. Make sure you buy a screw cap because they say that the plane’s cabin pressure pops the flip cap lids! Yuck!
Have ALL YOUR ELECTRONICS in one place and even in one bag so you can just pull it out and put it into the tray. I felt like a real nitwit having to dig through all the different pockets and compartments of my bag trying to find all the chargers, cables and adaptors I had so carefully and cleverly packed! You need to take them out of your hand luggage for the scan.
WARNINING: - Qatar departs from the absolute furthest and ‘Last Out Post’ of OR Thambo. I never knew the airport went on and on forever! This was not good news for my pain and the fact that I had spent so much time walking to terminal A then B then A again, meant I was running out of time! I was about to burst into tears when I recognised what I assumed was the Qatar Ground Staff Manager. He reassured me I was going in the right direction and said I had 20 minutes to stop at the Business Lounge, called the Shongalolo Lounge. He assured me he would not allow take off without me and would know where to find me! I ran into the lounge and used the bathroom. Sadly I did not get a chance to take a My Turn photo, but that’s not the end of the world.
The Business lounge isn’t special. It’s about as glamorous as a Starbucks with self service but the nice thing is that you don’t need to pay for anything. There were prepacked meals, the sort that Woolies has and sandwiches/baguettes and drinks, coffee etc. There were some beers but who on earth wants to add to the light-headed exhaustion bought on by the adrenalin? Definitely not an inexperienced flyer like me!
The Qatar boarding gate was just around the corner from the lounge and I was scooted to the front buy the manager who recognised me in my dishevelled state, sweating and panting.
I had also downloaded the Qatar app and hadn’t received any push notifications about boarding and in the future received no notification of which luggage carousel to collect at. It’s something that is really handy because as you land in Doha, you are like a deer in the head lights. It’s big and scary and BUSY! I was later to learn that my luggage was put on the connecting flight for me so that was excellent service and a huge relief! There was also never a boarding pass available on my phone which is irritating because it just means you have to carry that paper one.
The flight was heavenly! Search the Business class reviews on Youtube! It was just like that! The food was amazing, and the space made me feel really greedy! Lying flat was great for a while and I was able to stretch and massage my leg and foot without feeling embarrassed about wriggling! I watched our take off using the flight camera front view! It was so exciting! I watched some movies and listened to some great music which helped me sleep! You can check where to claim your baggage on the inflight screen under Your Flight, or ask one of the passengers if it doesn’t come up on your screen.
Tip: if your trip is made of two flights then you are doing a TRANSFER. I transferred at Doha. With a transfer you don’t have to stress about finding your luggage. I was super stressed about having time to do this. There was enough time to get to the Business lounge (which is a few stories up so just ask for directions) but only to have a quick toilet and drink break. The lounge is beautiful and very tranquil but they DO NOT make announcements for flights there so make sure you know how much time you have to relax. There is a big fancy restaurant and the cost of the meal is included in your ticket. I felt a little like I had missed out but I wasn’t hungry anyway and I wouldn’t have been able to eat again.
The airport in Doha is easy to navigate and there are travellators which mean you have help with all the walking! Perhaps google it so you know what facilities are there. I saw a jungle gym and a whole counter of Apple computers
Quarantine
As we landed in Dublin we were asked to stay on board and wait to be collected by the escort. (It seemed a bit pointless as we had been amongst all the other passengers for hours but I’m not about to bring it up with the authorities.) You are not allowed any liquids except that which is sealed and bought at the Duty-Free shops. (Since I don’t drink, I made sure to buy some chocolates!!) But I took my empty water bottle with me as I was scared of the potentially lengthy wait to get through Immigration and to get to the hotel. We walked a short way to Immigration, and we were the only flight, so just 19 adults and about 5 kids. It took about 30 minutes for them to process all of us, and another 15 minutes to wait for the next step to start.
Next, we went to fetch our luggage. The bags were lying, forlornly on the conveyor belts. We used the trolleys and collected our baggage making sure to stay socially distanced. Once we all had our luggage loaded, we were directed out to the bus. It was a short walk. The bus driver was friendly and insisted we leave our bags and board.
The trip was 20 minutes from Dublin international to my hotel Crowne Plaza Blanchardstown. We disembarked one family at a time with families first and then couples and lastly singles.
We were each given our own socially distanced table in the restaurant, and we were attended to individually. The staff were friendly and had a sense of humour. “Pretend you are at school and raise your hand if you are ready to be attended to” which made me giggle! They try to minimise you wondering around and potentially exposing them. I had a very useful summary of all my important documents such as Passport numbers, cell phone numbers, reference numbers and addresses all in one place so I didn’t have to keep digging them out. We were given an information pack and the menu choice to fill in and the form which asks where you’ll be staying after you leave the hotel.
It was perhaps two hours in total from landing to getting into my room. There were two big bottles of water here and boy did it taste good! For those who are not well travelled, you must insert the card at the door to allow the lights to work. The shower requires some lateral thinking and have your glasses with you so you can see the silver markings on the stainless-steel fittings. The food and service here is wonderful. There is a medical team that does the Covid test for you which is great because I was dreading doing that! Oh! I phoned and asked for my meal once because I thought they had forgotten me, only to realise that the time on my laptop has not reset by itself like my phone. Clever little phone!!
I set up my banking to send an OTP to my email address and despite it working before I left it did not work when I tried to order a sim card online. I had notified them that my card needed to be activated for use in Doha and Northern Ireland. Oops! I forgot to tell them to activate it for Ireland! Luckily, I had a PayPal account and that worked for me as a backup!
So, so many tips and tricks that I learnt from this group (SA2Eire) stood me in good stead and I want to say the BIGGEST thank you to everyone!!
Best of luck to all those who are travelling! Stay safe and well.
- I left getting a 6-month script until I knew when I was flying and as a result, I didn’t have enough time to apply for Discovery to pay for the 6 months supply of meds. I just paid it myself. Smile and wave! So, make sure you have the minimum of 7 days before you fly so that you don’t make this mistake.
Important links:
#MapMyMove- Our coaching Services - Confused or lost and need some direction, book a session with us to help untangle the confusion and work out your route of immigration
Covid-19- Mandatory Quarantine
Children in Ireland- Everything to do with rearing children and education
