Several friends have reached out to me asking about international travel during Covid. I read online forums and belong to travel groups on FB… so, I had a good grasp on travel requirements and what to expect. Here’s how it went down for our trip to get into Panama. I’ll update how (or if) we got home.
48 hours before arrival into Panama (so that’s Panama time) and no sooner – we had to get a Covid PCR test (antigen tests were not accepted and it did not matter that we were vaccinated.) So, that’s a bit tricky as my go-to location (local urgent care) was not open nor could they guarantee we’d have results before our flight departed the Denver airport. So, we found a service that comes to your house, conducts the test, and ensures results within 30 hours (thanks to the United 1K group on FB.) The nurse arrived at our home at 8PM on Saturday and we had our results by 2PM Sunday – plenty of time before our 5AM flight Monday. Those were printed out as advised by the Panama travel guidelines. (As an update, Panama now accepts antigen tests!)
Checking in for our flight – despite the itinerary (DEN –> IAH –> PTY) we could not check-in on the app or online. We had to check-in at DEN because the agent had to check our Covid test results. My husband found this confounding as he figured it only mattered for the international portion of our itinerary, but I had researched otherwise, particularly since our bags are checked through to Panama.
At IAH – we had to check-in with the gate agent, who verified our test results and asked for proof that we completed the entry form that Panama requires – we had print outs and screenshots of the entry form, but the gate agent barely glanced at it.
Upon arrival in Panama, we proceeded to immigration/customs, showed our test results to officials, and then queued up for immigration – which was a breeze (no questions, review of forms, or anything.)
Then we collected our baggage, went through customs, grabbed our rental car and were on our way.
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