REVIEW: Fit To Fly COVID Test At Home With Randox

With the majority of destinations requiring some form of testing before departure, it’s perhaps little surprise that there is a huge range of Fit To Fly COVID test providers on the market. If you’re tip-toeing into the world of travel again it can be hard to know which ones you can trust. Especially when a lot of destinations have a strict window in which you need to take the test and report the result to them/the airline. In this post, we are going to take a look at our experience with Randox on our recent trip to the Maldives which required a negative PCR test taken within 96 hours of departure.

Booking your Fit to Fly COVID Test with Randox

You can book your Fit to Fly COVID Test with Randox on their website here – https://covid.randox.com/pre-departure/ – select the PCR Test at home option (£43 if you use one of BA’s discount codes) and then fill in your delivery/billing details. Test kits currently take 4 – 6 working days to be delivered so if you are in a rush you may need to use their click and collect service or an alternative service. Our delivery came via DPD and took 3 working days to arrive.

Taking the Fit To Fly COVID Test

If you’ve taken an at-home PCR test in some form (NHS or Private) the process will be very familiar to you. Simply unpackage the test and swab your throat/tonsils and each nostril with the provided swab.

Put this swab (fabric tip facing down) into the sample collection tube (with the liquid in.) Break off the portion of the swab that sticks out the collection tube and screw the lid back on.

Place this sample collection tube into the transportation tube and seal.

Put this tube inside the pathoseal bag and tightly seal it by removing the silver strip and ensuring the blue adhesive strips are well stuck.

This then goes inside the box your kit came inside which then goes inside the return envelope which you can secure by removing the metallic strip.

Make sure you keep a hold of the sticker with your URN on as you will need this to register your kit/chase your test if there are any problems.

Once you’ve taken your sample and packaged it ready to be sent off you will need to register your kit. This will ask you for the unique reference number (URN) included in your kit and where you took your test. After you’ve entered this you will be prompted to enter information such as your name, D.O.B, address, and passport number. Following this, you’ll be asked for details regarding your test e.g. what time and date your swab was taken. Finally, you will be shown a summary with some tick boxes regarding the handling of your information for testing purposes.

Once you’ve done this you should see a screen letting you know your test has been submitted successfully and an email to confirm this! You can now drop off your test…

Dropping off the tests

You have two options for returning your tests to Randox.

1) Using one of Randox’s dropboxes (they promise you will receive next day results by 23:59 pm using this method)

2) Returning via another carrier (they aim to give you your results within 24 hours of receipt at the lab with this method)

We opted to use one of Randox’s dropboxes and dropped our samples off at around 8.10 am.

Results

At 14:04 pm we received an email letting us know the lab had our samples.

Six hours later (less than 12 hours from posting) at 20:02 pm we had our negative results! You receive a PDF certificate confirming the type of text (RT-PCR), your negative result, your name, D.O.B, passport number & swab date/time. It has a QR code if your destination requires this.

Conclusion

The relatively low price, convenience of testing at home, and the benefit of having a local dropbox made the test a winner in our eyes. We were also very impressed with the turnaround time which meant we could relax and get on with packing! Don’t forget when booking to consider your proximity to the dropboxes as these have a much quicker turnaround time if you are local to one. If you aren’t you might want to consider another option! For more details or to book a test see Randox’s website here – https://www.randoxhealth.com/

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