My SIL, a UK citizen, but living in the US, is going home next week for a delayed funeral for his grandmother. He purchased his plane ticket days before the US dropped the required testing. Unfortunately, he paid for his returned Covid test at the same time; it is not refundable. 
I feel your pain----we bought our proctored BinaxNow test kits a week before the test requirement was dropped. Oh well, if the test is re-instated in 90 days, we’ll have the kits already for our fall trip overseas.
I knew the SECOND we bought the kits the testing need would be dropped!!!
7 Likes
And we thank you for your sacrifice! 
7 Likes
Good thing I gave my last 2 away to my daughter’s roommate. I hope I don’t have to buy again. But I used the money my health insurance company gave me for taking survey every year, we can only use them for medical stuff.
My brother said Costco is giving away tests that expire late this year upon proof of Medicare or insurance.
I believe pharmacies are as well. They likely keep track and you can get up to whatever the limit is per month. For my insurer it’s 8/month/person.
Glad I could take one for the team!!
4 Likes
I know the feeling, I’d been shopping online for tests and, after a month of looking, finally got some in January, got 4 for each household. A week later they were mandated to be paid for by insurance
Just booked for Greece and Lake District in 2023, I know it’s far out but it’s cancellable.
Waiting to use my kid’s voucher, but the flights are not available yet.
3 Likes
I just browsed through the rental car for 2 weeks in London at Costco, it’s almost over £1200, so I’m not going to rent anything, we’re going to walk and perhaps take a taxi, much healthier to walk to/from for lunch than drive there. Rental car is still ridiculous.
Edit to add, I was able to book from the Lake District location for less than £200, much better value. However I have to add in the cost of transportation to and from London. It’s ok, it’s a long drive so train travel is better.
I just confirmed my hotel for a 5 day trip to Baltimore. I spent more to stay at the Inner Harbor (center of town), but I’m not renting a car so overall it cost less than staying in the suburbs and renting a car. There is a light rail from the airport to downtown (about 20 minutes) and then once at our hotel, we can take the bus to where we need to go (Towson), get a ride (probably at least one way per day) or walk.
17.5% tax. Ouch.
2 Likes
Have you checked outside the airport ( if you haven’t already) and on Expedia. I got a much better European rate on there ( better than the actual sites). Still is pricey though ( UK and continent).
Hotels are running $400/night or more in larger European cities. That’s crazy. And they are fully booked.
1 Like
Thanks, I just checked on Costco Travel. I decided not to rent at the airport because it’s so high. Same with France, it’s so high in France for some reason. I will rent in England and take the ferry over, much cheaper, it’s like £200 for 14 days vs €800-900 for 10 days.
Costco has no cancellation fees, not as far as I know anyway. Also some of the other sites have limitation for people over 69. My husband is over that age, and if it’s manual translation he has to drive. So we”ll do train and car rental, or car rental and ferry.
So I just booked my travel portion on Loire Valley after visiting Normandy. Still need to finalize a few things, but it’s nearly done now.
You realize the complications of switching from driving on the left in England to driving on the right in France, including the problems with headlights set for driving on the opposite side of the road?
3 Likes
When we planned our multi-country European trip, we found it pretty cheap to fly from one place to another. Flights were cheaper than renting a car to travel from one country to another, even when car rentals weren’t as expensive as now.
2 Likes
I drove in France and England before, mostly the Dordogne area. This time my husband has to drive and he has experience driving in both countries. Getting an automatic transmission in France is a problem, and putting the right gas in France is also a problem. I’m aware of all the problems, thank you for your concern.
My main concern would be nighttime driving and headlights (and making sure you buy the right covering and stick it in the right place). Once the headlight beams are blocked (to avoid dazzling other drivers), they are really not very good at illuminating the road.
We are currently driving a rental in France. No problem to get automatic (originally booked one) but upgraded to bigger which was manual. We went through Hertz. Haven’t had to get gas yet - what are the issues?
When I went through Denver two weeks ago, the TSA lines were at one end of the main departures hall and the regular ones at the other. Definitely worth it to walk to the TSA side if you have it.
1 Like
6 hours! That is ridiculous.
Actually we don’t drive at night even, not in USA now, not anywhere.
1 Like