Melbourne airport

Personal service

I am trying to get a few things down while they are still fresh in my mind, things about the specifics of travel that I think people might find useful. As things progress here, I will move onto a fortnightly posting schedule. In the meantime, I hope it doesn’t feel like I am bombarding you with posts!

Only one other person checked in at the same time us at Melbourne airport: there was more counter staff than passengers.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I managed to secure a Medicare Vax certificate two days before we left, but technically, I didn’t need it. I also had a negative test result, and the airline rules were clear that you needed one or the other, not both.

Nonetheless, at the counter they asked for both. Ugh.

Fortunately, in an abundance of caution, Tanya had also had a test done the day before, and the negative result was emailed to her when we were on our way to the airport. So, we were able to present both.

There was then a separate process to go through: all our documentation was passed onto another person, and we were told everything would be verified.

She did this at the counter next to us, and I wondered how this would work if there were more passengers, a normal load.

While we waited, the lovely counter staff joked with us about the empty plane and checked us in so that we had a full row each, so we could lie down, as they said. This is what it must be like to own a Lear jet.

The woman verifying our documents came over and handed them back and said we were good to go, but, she added, you don’t need to show proof of vaccinations and a negative test. Obviously, there had been some confusion, probably on our part, and I told her we were just being extra careful.

Not a bad idea at the moment, she said.

We then had a long chat about our trip, where and why we were going, and I was wishing that all travel was like this.

We had about an hour to kill in the empty terminal, and we bought coffee at the Grilld burger bar, the only place open.

The woman who verified our documents was still around, so I went and asked her something I had been wondering about.

In the absence of Medicare Vax certificate (see earlier post), it occurred to me I could use the vaccination card I had been given when I got my final vax jab, the one they hand out at the clinic or wherever.

I said to her, would you have accepted this, and she said, absolutely not.

Good to know.

When we got to France, to Charles de Galle in Paris, and went through customs, they asked for our passports and for a negative Covid test. By now, I had the test result on my phone, saved to my wallet, but I accidentally opened my Medicare Vax certificate and showed that. I realised straight away, but the guy took one look and said, no, that’s fine, through you go.

In other words, the Medicare Vax certificate was good enough for French border control.

This lured us into a false sense of confidence in Nice itself, and I will explain the situation with gaining entry to restaurants and the like in the next post.