Travelling out of Australia post Covid - What its like and our tips for the airport

Well we made it! We are officially out of the country after 620 day of being land locked.

Right up until we checked in and got through customs to even when we arrived and were cleared, we had a sense of worry, would there be a last minute change to the borders, would where we were going lockdown to travellers.... so many what ifs.

However all the stress was well WORTH IT.

Ultimately we knew that if something was to happen, we chose airfares that were refundable or that could be changed, either the date or the destination. All our accommodation is also able to be cancelled without fees last minute. So this is our First TIP, check your cancellation policies and go for the most flexible fares and accommodation when booking!

The airport itself (Brisbane International Airport) was a ghost town, there were only 6 flights leaving that evening. Our flight had only 60 passengers in total out of a possible 350+.

We decided to use the Covid Testing facility at the airport as surprisingly it was the cheapest by far. Most options in the community are charging $120-150 for your test with a turn around time of 24-48 hours. This could have you run into trouble if your flight is delayed and you have a small time window to present your test at the other end.

Histopath offer tests for $79 (Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne Airports) and you get the results within 90minutes. We actually got ours within 30mins.

You just arrive to the airport 60minutes before your check in time and go for your test before you check in, then you pick up your printed results.

You must preorder your test before you go and can do this here:

Airport | Histopath Diagnostic Specialists

The Check que was empty but the process at the counter was long. They are the ones responsible and have to go through all the requirements of the country you are visiting and tick off that you have met all the criteria. For us, we were going to the Maldives and transiting through Singapore we needed to show and prove:

1. Vaccination certificates

2. Negative covid test

3. Accommodation booked

4. Onward flight booked

5. Arrival declaration filled in for Maldives

Other countries may also ask for your Insurance documents showing your coverage for Covid so make sure you have this sorted also.

We presented our copies digitally, however were warned that some countries will require us to have hard paper copies so keep this in mind as well.

Security was super easy and so was customs, there were absolutely no lines just walk straight through. Customs was all digital as normal.

The GST counter was open and empty and I was able to apply for my GST refunds really quickly.

There were absolutely no food options open, before you go through customs there was a vending machine with hot meals however this was the only one, so our only choices were snacks and drinks from duty free or from the newsagent. This was extremely disappointing as we hadn't eaten dinner and our plane was delayed to 2am.

The plane was so empty we all got a row each, WINNING!

Overall it was pretty easy, a few extra hurdles to jump thro but nothing that made the process annoying or undoable. Given the fact that there are no ques anywhere and the planes are empty I would actually say that travelling post covid is actually better!

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