No-one in this climate expects air travel to be particularly straightforward. But as one British traveller discovered when attempting to fly to the UK from Brazil this week, new levels of anguish have been baked into the mix with the reintroduction of pre-departure testing.

Alex John, an English management consultant who has lived in Brazil for four years, booked a flight last week with his business partner from Sao Paulo to London for a work trip. He was due to land on the morning of December 7, mere hours after the new testing rules came into effect.

The surprise measure, which was announced over the weekend by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Twitter, gave travellers little time to organise tests, to be taken in the two days before travel to England, but Alex managed to book an antigen screening in Sao Paulo within 48 hours of the flight.

“Once I arrived at the front of the queue to check-in, following an hour’s wait, the BA agent looked at my document and said that they were unable to accept this test as it was not a lateral flow,” Alex told Telegraph Travel.

“Bemused, I was directed to the manager in the ticket sales desk who confirmed that he had received instructions from the UK that this was the situation, and our antigen tests were not sufficient. I even showed him the Government website where it says that they accept ‘an antigen test, such as an LFD (lateral flow device) test’, and still he pushed back.”

The only alternative was a PCR test, for which results would take too long. And he wasn’t the only passenger to find himself in the same predicament. 

“There was a group of between 10 and 20 people, including one couple with three kids, in our situation,” Alex goes on. “The proposal from BA was for us to change our flights, at no extra cost, to the next day and go and do a PCR test in the airport in the meantime, with results expected in seven hours. But aside from having to kill another 24 hours before being able to fly, it meant we’d miss the day two PCR tests we’d booked in London – another new requirement following the latest short-notice update.”

He adds: “People were furious. For many Brazilians, it’s a huge expense to come to the UK, and they were particularly irate about having no way of postponing the day two PCR tests.”

Just as Alex was back at the BA sales desk, having booked his airport PCR test, there was a stroke of luck. “We’d just moved our flights to the next day and with less than an hour until take-off, the BA manager got a call from the UK office and told us that our antigen tests were in fact viable after all,” he says. “The lucky group of us who happened to be present were rushed to the check-in desk, but there was definitely a broader group of people who were still in the PCR waiting area after resigning themselves to the next day’s flight.”

Alex and his colleague made the flight that afternoon, but not everyone did. “Weirdly there was a group of four passengers that was split because two of them had been accepted on the plane and the other two had not – despite all of them having the same tests. The pair who had not made it had stupidly been allowed to check in their bags before the BA staff realised, resulting in a huge mess for them to recover their luggage.”

A BA spokesperson told Telegraph Travel that the airport team in Brazil “had sought clarification on the specific type of tests that would be accepted by the UK Government and this was received before the flight departed”. They added: “Everyone with a valid test was accepted on the flight, and a small number of customers were rebooked on to the next flight after failing to provide a valid test.”

Alex’s flight turned out to be rather more comfortable than hoped, as his seat in economy was malfunctioning and he was thus moved to premium, but the airport experience left much to be desired. “Let’s hope this was just another case of teething problems with the ever-changing rules,” he says. “Still, a trip to the dentist would probably have been less stressful.”

BA added: “We apologised to our customers for the inconvenience. Like other airlines, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and global travel restrictions we advise customers to check the latest UK Government travel advice at gov.uk.” This, to be clear, is exactly what Alex and other passengers did before showing up at the airport. 

Have you experienced complications travelling in or out of the UK since the last round of restrictions came in? Let us know in the comment box below.