Hawaii COVID Testing

[DRussell83]

Wow, what a cluster*&^% his has become. Fortunately we are flying Monday and planning to pay for expedited results, but can you imagine showing up to the airport on Tuesday without your results yet and finding out they changed the rules two days before Thanksgiving when labs are packed?

I was a little surprised by the timing - why not start now - why are you waiting till Tuesday (maybe I am just extra salty because we leave on Tuesday) and yes before a major holiday.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Just an FYI, Hawaii just updated the rules, you must have test results in hand before you board. There will be no more land and release from quarantine once the test comes back. If you land without the results you must quarantine for 14 days or your full trip if not longer than 14 days, takes effect Tuesday.

https://www.khon2.com/coronavirus/watch-live-state-to-open-pre-travel-testing-program-to-canada/

On the Trip Advisor forums they also reported that United Airlines is now confirming you have the negative test before giving you a boarding pass. Good move on their part if it continues!

 

[reluctantredhead]

I used the Vault at-home test that you do via Zoom (an approved test for HI). They include an overnight shipping label and I had my results in LESS than 24 hours from the time I dropped it off at the UPS store. $150 is the only downside.

We are considering the Vault option too, as we live in a rural area and don't have access to most of the trusted partners.

May I ask, were you flying on Hawaiian Airlines? We won't be (Delta instead), and I am wondering if the turnaround time will be this quick if we're not flying Hawaiian.

TIA!

 

[hilarys]

We are considering the Vault option too, as we live in a rural area and don't have access to most of the trusted partners.

May I ask, were you flying on Hawaiian Airlines? We won't be (Delta instead), and I am wondering if the turnaround time will be this quick if we're not flying Hawaiian.

TIA!

You can see my posting on the other thread for the revised rules. My daughter and I used Vault. Tested Wed am, tests delivered to vault at 10am on Thursday we both received confirmation emails that tests were received. My daughter's results posted at 7am california time on Friday. My results have still not shown up - we did not get on our flight this morning. We both marked our return packages as STAT Hawaii, and both were ordered through the partnership with Hawaiian airlines. I have been trying for 24 hours to reach Vault to get status updates (calls, voicemails, emails, web inquiries) - no response or pick up from a human.

My take away is that you need to do multiple tests to have a better shot at results and preferably one that is a rapid result (at the airport pre flight is even better).

My husband and son tested with vault yesterday for a Monday morning flight - too early to see how it goes with their tests but it will be interesting to see. I think they are overwhelmed and I am wondering if mine got lost or contaminated in lab?

Good luck - feeling very sad right now. Our friends who have been our COVID bubble for the past 8 months are already there (Maui).

 

[Paul Stupin]

You can see my posting on the other thread for the revised rules. My daughter and I used Vault. Tested Wed am, tests delivered to vault at 10am on Thursday we both received confirmation emails that tests were received. My daughter's results posted at 7am california time on Friday. My results have still not shown up - we did not get on our flight this morning. We both marked our return packages as STAT Hawaii, and both were ordered through the partnership with Hawaiian airlines. I have been trying for 24 hours to reach Vault to get status updates (calls, voicemails, emails, web inquiries) - no response or pick up from a human.

My take away is that you need to do multiple tests to have a better shot at results and preferably one that is a rapid result (at the airport pre flight is even better).

My husband and son tested with vault yesterday for a Monday morning flight - too early to see how it goes with their tests but it will be interesting to see. I think they are overwhelmed and I am wondering if mine got lost or contaminated in lab?

Good luck - feeling very sad right now. Our friends who have been our COVID bubble for the past 8 months are already there (Maui).

So sorry this happened! Hopefully you’ll be in Hawaii soon!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

You can see my posting on the other thread for the revised rules. My daughter and I used Vault. Tested Wed am, tests delivered to vault at 10am on Thursday we both received confirmation emails that tests were received. My daughter's results posted at 7am california time on Friday. My results have still not shown up - we did not get on our flight this morning. We both marked our return packages as STAT Hawaii, and both were ordered through the partnership with Hawaiian airlines. I have been trying for 24 hours to reach Vault to get status updates (calls, voicemails, emails, web inquiries) - no response or pick up from a human.

My take away is that you need to do multiple tests to have a better shot at results and preferably one that is a rapid result (at the airport pre flight is even better).

My husband and son tested with vault yesterday for a Monday morning flight - too early to see how it goes with their tests but it will be interesting to see. I think they are overwhelmed and I am wondering if mine got lost or contaminated in lab?

Good luck - feeling very sad right now. Our friends who have been our COVID bubble for the past 8 months are already there (Maui).

So sorry to hear about this. We just took our tests this morning at the Oakland Airport CityHealth site for a Monday flight. It was not a great experience. I was watching the guy doing the swabs carefully--because I'm paranoid--and he didn't change his gloves after doing the people in front of us. I said something, and he changed them. There was a ziplock baggie with a loose piece of paper with our name handwritten on it, and an unmarked vial. The woman who did mine struggled to get the swab in the vial and close the bag. I could easily see bags opening up and things getting mixed up. It was very unorganized. I'd done a test earlier in the pandemic after traveling. It was also a drive through, but a completely different experience. Very well organized and very well run. This morning we had to go to three different people to do different things, and I wouldn't be surprised if our samples that we paid $120 to have expedited (by midnight tonight) end up in a different pile. I'm really worried and hope it all turns out well, but this process has been a stress. Cross your fingers for us.

 

[DRussell83]

So sorry to hear about this. We just took our tests this morning at the Oakland Airport CityHealth site for a Monday flight. It was not a great experience. I was watching the guy doing the swabs carefully--because I'm paranoid--and he didn't change his gloves after doing the people in front of us. I said something, and he changed them. There was a ziplock baggie with a loose piece of paper with our name handwritten on it, and an unmarked vial. The woman who did mine struggled to get the swab in the vial and close the bag. I could easily see bags opening up and things getting mixed up. It was very unorganized. I'd done a test earlier in the pandemic after traveling. It was also a drive through, but a completely different experience. Very well organized and very well run. This morning we had to go to three different people to do different things, and I wouldn't be surprised if our samples that we paid $120 to have expedited (by midnight tonight) end up in a different pile. I'm really worried and hope it all turns out well, but this process has been a stress. Cross your fingers for us.

We took our vault tests this morning - waited an hour - both supervisors were pleasant - rushed them over to ups and now we hold our breath - from there we went to urgent care - they accepted my insurance but not my husbands - I ended up taking the test - it was like the second day of this for them - I heard things like “how do we order a test for Hawaii?” So not really getting my hopes up for that one - we were unable to find one for my husband and we would have had to shell out 300 for his test - also tried cvs (we were willing to pay under 150) but nothing - headed home with massive headaches for both and thinking it shouldn’t have to be this hard. Keeping my fingers crossed for all!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We took our vault tests this morning - waited an hour - both supervisors were pleasant - rushed them over to ups and now we hold our breath - from there we went to urgent care - they accepted my insurance but not my husbands - I ended up taking the test - it was like the second day of this for them - I heard things like “how do we order a test for Hawaii?” So not really getting my hopes up for that one - we were unable to find one for my husband and we would have had to shell out 300 for his test - also tried cvs (we were willing to pay under 150) but nothing - headed home with massive headaches for both and thinking it shouldn’t have to be this hard. Keeping my fingers crossed for all!

I completely agree--it really shouldn't be this hard. I will cross my fingers for you guys as well

 

[hilarys]

So sorry to hear about this. We just took our tests this morning at the Oakland Airport CityHealth site for a Monday flight. It was not a great experience. I was watching the guy doing the swabs carefully--because I'm paranoid--and he didn't change his gloves after doing the people in front of us. I said something, and he changed them. There was a ziplock baggie with a loose piece of paper with our name handwritten on it, and an unmarked vial. The woman who did mine struggled to get the swab in the vial and close the bag. I could easily see bags opening up and things getting mixed up. It was very unorganized. I'd done a test earlier in the pandemic after traveling. It was also a drive through, but a completely different experience. Very well organized and very well run. This morning we had to go to three different people to do different things, and I wouldn't be surprised if our samples that we paid $120 to have expedited (by midnight tonight) end up in a different pile. I'm really worried and hope it all turns out well, but this process has been a stress. Cross your fingers for us.

I have my fingers crossed for you. Oh well. In retrospect I wonder if we should have had a taxi take us over and see if we could have told a sob story and gotten tested on the spot at the Oakland Airport site and paid the rush fee - then we could have flown tomorrow or Monday (prices are actually really cheap right now for Sunday and Monday). Our friends and my husband/son both used the Worksite Labs drive through testing in SF and had very good experiences. DH tested at 10:30 yesterday morning and received his clear results this evening without the rush fee. I really wish I had done a second form of testing.

I will have my fingers crossed for you.

 

[hilarys]

We took our vault tests this morning - waited an hour - both supervisors were pleasant - rushed them over to ups and now we hold our breath - from there we went to urgent care - they accepted my insurance but not my husbands - I ended up taking the test - it was like the second day of this for them - I heard things like “how do we order a test for Hawaii?” So not really getting my hopes up for that one - we were unable to find one for my husband and we would have had to shell out 300 for his test - also tried cvs (we were willing to pay under 150) but nothing - headed home with massive headaches for both and thinking it shouldn’t have to be this hard. Keeping my fingers crossed for all!

Hope it all goes well for you guys. Track your vault shipment via UPS - we could see that it arrived at the lab via the UPS tracker way before (like 8 hours) before we received the vault email that they had the kits.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I have my fingers crossed for you. Oh well. In retrospect I wonder if we should have had a taxi take us over and see if we could have told a sob story and gotten tested on the spot at the Oakland Airport site and paid the rush fee - then we could have flown tomorrow or Monday (prices are actually really cheap right now for Sunday and Monday). Our friends and my husband/son both used the Worksite Labs drive through testing in SF and had very good experiences. DH tested at 10:30 yesterday morning and received his clear results this evening without the rush fee. I really wish I had done a second form of testing.

I will have my fingers crossed for you.

Thanks so much! It helped We received our results right about the time you wrote this post, LOL. All of us are negative, thank goodness. Now to upload our results, fill out the health questionnaires after 9:30 am, and then get there safely. I'm a little worried about some of the OGG reports I've read with long lines, but I'll try to put my patience hat on, LOL. We had a backup plan of driving out tomorrow to SFO and trying to get last minute "I'm flying today" tests. I almost made backup appointments last week, but I was feeling guilty about taking up testing slots for travel. Given how stressful this whole thing is though, I should have done it. I hope that cheap flights Monday and Tuesday equate to low volume flights. I've flown internationally three times during the pandemic, but in business/first with almost empty flights. I'm not looking forward to crowded planes, but I know I need to get over it.

 

[Almondmilktea]

Thanks so much! It helped We received our results right about the time you wrote this post, LOL. All of us are negative, thank goodness. Now to upload our results, fill out the health questionnaires after 9:30 am, and then get there safely. I'm a little worried about some of the OGG reports I've read with long lines, but I'll try to put my patience hat on, LOL. We had a backup plan of driving out tomorrow to SFO and trying to get last minute "I'm flying today" tests. I almost made backup appointments last week, but I was feeling guilty about taking up testing slots for travel. Given how stressful this whole thing is though, I should have done it. I hope that cheap flights Monday and Tuesday equate to low volume flights. I've flown internationally three times during the pandemic, but in business/first with almost empty flights. I'm not looking forward to crowded planes, but I know I need to get over it.

So less than 12 hours for results? That’s great! Mine was around 14 hours. I went to the same booth and they told me the tests taken there are sent to a lab in Hayward multiple times a day. The lab runs them in batches of 90, so samples may wait until enough comes in to be grouped together.

Happy for you being all good to go!

 

[hilarys]

My vault tests came in at 3am California time on Sunday morning The end result is that they were 16 hours past Hawaii's 72 hour window and into another date on the calendar. The results came to me 68 hours after the test was delivered to Vault's lab vs the 24 hours promised in the partnership with Hawaiian airlines. Everyone else in my family received their results within the 24 hour window so obviously mine was an outside case but for us that doesn't really matter as the trip is now not possible to take due to the stale results. Even though everyone else in my family did fine with vault, the fact that mine somehow went sideways and there was no communication or return of 30 hours worth of attempt to contact them via phone, email, website, facebook etc is not acceptable.

I would not recommend them unless you also use another test as a back up so you have two shots to get results.

 

[DRussell83]

Quick update - I took a test through an urgent care that was partnered with west pac - got my results at exactly 24 hours - my husband is now rushing down there to get a test and we will pay out of pocket - we are now at 46 hours give or take - I know it might seem a little extreme and I probably would have been against it but the ups site has one of the vault tests marked as delayed and we went into panic mode - we have no idea who’s test it is and it could very well be a system glitch.....I think with the Sunday we are feeling uneasy so that’s why we are doing all this.

 

[DRussell83]

My vault tests came in at 3am California time on Sunday morning The end result is that they were 16 hours past Hawaii's 72 hour window and into another date on the calendar. The results came to me 68 hours after the test was delivered to Vault's lab vs the 24 hours promised in the partnership with Hawaiian airlines. Everyone else in my family received their results within the 24 hour window so obviously mine was an outside case but for us that doesn't really matter as the trip is now not possible to take due to the stale results. Even though everyone else in my family did fine with vault, the fact that mine somehow went sideways and there was no communication or return of 30 hours worth of attempt to contact them via phone, email, website, facebook etc is not acceptable.

I would not recommend them unless you also use another test as a back up so you have two shots to get results.

I’m so so sorry your story definitely is one that resonated with us in trying everything to get another test. I’m just shocked and again so sorry. I work in compliance so to see this whole outside of the guarantee 24 hour window keep coming up AND no customer service and vault and Hawaiian airlines not acknowledging or addressing it is so disheartening. You guys are backlogged ok fine you need to say something so then people can plan alternative methods.

 

[hilarys]

Quick update - I took a test through an urgent care that was partnered with west pac - got my results at exactly 24 hours - my husband is now rushing down there to get a test and we will pay out of pocket - we are now at 46 hours give or take - I know it might seem a little extreme and I probably would have been against it but the ups site has one of the vault tests marked as delayed and we went into panic mode - we have no idea who’s test it is and it could very well be a system glitch.....I think with the Sunday we are feeling uneasy so that’s why we are doing all this.

You can probably guess that I think you made the right call given my vault challenges when I did not have any UPS issues. Good luck with getting them all back.

 

[DRussell83]

So less than 12 hours for results? That’s great! Mine was around 14 hours. I went to the same booth and they told me the tests taken there are sent to a lab in Hayward multiple times a day. The lab runs them in batches of 90, so samples may wait until enough comes in to be grouped together.

Happy for you being all good to go!

Are you having a nice time? I need to hear yes so I know all this hassle and stress and my 48 hour headache is going to be worth it!

 

[Almondmilktea]

Are you having a nice time? I need to hear yes so I know all this hassle and stress and my 48 hour headache is going to be worth it!

Back home as of Friday, but the stay at Aulani was incredible and well worth the jumping through the multitude of hoops to get there. The lack of crowds in general around the resort was super. Hope it all works out for your husband!

 

[neurosx1983]

My vault tests came in at 3am California time on Sunday morning The end result is that they were 16 hours past Hawaii's 72 hour window and into another date on the calendar. The results came to me 68 hours after the test was delivered to Vault's lab vs the 24 hours promised in the partnership with Hawaiian airlines. Everyone else in my family received their results within the 24 hour window so obviously mine was an outside case but for us that doesn't really matter as the trip is now not possible to take due to the stale results. Even though everyone else in my family did fine with vault, the fact that mine somehow went sideways and there was no communication or return of 30 hours worth of attempt to contact them via phone, email, website, facebook etc is not acceptable.

I would not recommend them unless you also use another test as a back up so you have two shots to get results.

Wow that it's awful....I'm so sorry for all of the hassle you guys had to go through. Hopefully the resorts gave you a refund at least?

As much as we are so excited to go to HI next month I'm almost wondering if going to FL and dealing with the "voluntary quarantine" upon return back to NJ might be more appealing..

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

So less than 12 hours for results? That’s great! Mine was around 14 hours. I went to the same booth and they told me the tests taken there are sent to a lab in Hayward multiple times a day. The lab runs them in batches of 90, so samples may wait until enough comes in to be grouped together.

Happy for you being all good to go!

Yes, a little less than 12 hours. I was so relieved, especially given how unorganized I felt as if it was.

This entire process has been extremely frustrating and anxiety provoking. There have been a couple times that I've been moments from calling the trip. I've had to walk my 77 year old mother through this, and it's been horrible. I don't know how they expect people who aren't savvy with computers, etc. to do all this. From stupid things like filling out all the Hawaii forms on the website (laptop) and then having to switch to a iphone/ipad to sign the health form, to trying to teach her to download and save the PDFs on her computer so she could then upload them on the website. I snapped at her more than a few times, and I feel badly, but it was ridiculous.

We uploaded our PDFs to the Hawaii website and they all say "verification in process" so extra frustration. CityHealth provides two PDFs so I upload both for each of us, but the same thing happened. I went on the Hawaii FAQ and one of the PDFs I uploaded looks just like the one they have for CityHealth as an example so I have no idea what is going on. I give up. We have printed copies of everything, and we will just have to deal at the airport if it doesn't switch by time we land.