2021-12-07
Woke up at 3:50 am today, had a nightmare. I think I'm ready to head out.
We're doing our PCR tests this afternoon. That should be our last hurdle. Of course there's still the health declaration, the on arrival tests and the tests each day for 7 days, but we are 99% there.
Back to the Beginning
It's been almost a year since my cousin got engaged and subsequently declared that she and her then fiancée will be getting married Dec. of 2021. The hope was that Covid would've subsided and countries would have already opened up. As I patiently waited for the vaccines, and was extatically happy when we qualified for it in May, things didn't open up as quickly as I had anticipated. At the time, we had 3 main vaccines: AstraZeneca, Moderna, or Pfizer-BoiNTech, but we didn't have a choice of which one we would be given. We made appointments to get the vaccine in this large convention centre, just like the ones you see on TV, and were pleasantly surprised at the smoothness of the process.
We both got our first two shots by the time Summer rolled around, but still have no idea if we were going to be able to make it to Singapore in December at all. As you'll see, this theme of having no idea whether the trip was going to work out continued all the way to the eleventh hour.
- 2021-05: First Pfizer shot
- 2021-06-: Second Pfizer shot
Alberta experienced another wave of infections in the Fall, so things closed down again. Things were looking grim. We knew we could likely go somewhere for December vacation, like Mexico, which never implemented any tourist restrictions, but decided to prioritize Singapore should things open up there. I've missed all of my female cousins wedding for one reason or another, and this was not only the last cousin, but also the closest cousin of mine. So I was going to give it my all to try and make the wedding.
The Vaccinated Travel Lane Program
- 2021-09-08: Singapore launched the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) program with Germany and Brunei and have indicated that Canada were to be among one of the second batch of countries to be included in the program.
- 2021-09-15: Alberta announced it would be bringing in a vaccine passport system to help combat the fourth wave of the pandemic. This vaccine passport will have a QR code but will only be able to be read by the Alberta vaccine passport scanner app.
Some other places we contemplated include Thailand, as we saw a few videos about the Phuket Sandbox program and that seemed viable as well. Taiwan on the other hand, was still shut off completely. Not only could non-citizens enter for leisure reasons, even citizens needed to quarantine at a quarantine hotel for 15 nights. Even if I could get the permission to work from the quarantine hotel to combat boredom, I'm still not confident I could mentally survive that kind of confinement.
We know we're lucky, the last time we went abroad was January of 2020 so it had only been a year. It would be nice if we could go somewhere again as I could feel my mind melt a little bit everyday being stuck at home, but it was absolutely acceptable to us as well if we never made it anywhere.
It was only 3 months before the wedding and the short timeline is making me quite nervous. However, there was nothing we could do be wait. Then it happened...
- 2021-10-09: Singapore announced the extension of the VTL to 8 more countries, including Canada. Travelers from these countries can enter Singapore starting October 19.
Finally, we "can" go! I looked up the requirements on https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/vtl/requirements-and-process right away and turns out, VTL travelers will need to not only meet certain criteria, but also take designated flights from designated airlines. This was crazy, I've never heard of anything like this before. They even went as far as establishing a Vancouver to Singapore direct route with Singapore Airlines just to make this work. This was exciting. I had no idea how much the flight would be or whether we would be able to get tickets, but the scale of the program and control was impressive so far.
VTL Flights
On that first day when this was announced, the Vancouver-Singapore flights weren't available through Singapore Airlines yet. How it works is this, Canadians and Americans were forced to take Singapore Airline to travel to Singapore. Among the flights that Singapore Airline offers, only specific flights were VTL flights and we're going to have to take those. Travelers are technically allowed to take any VTL flights and are able to transit in any other VTL permitted countries, so I could technically take VTL flights that went through the U.S. which I looked up and saw 2 that went through San Francisco and Los Angeles. But things were changing constantly and if travel or transit rules were to change between Canada and the U.S., it could jeopardize our ability to make it to our flight from SF or LA. They were also quite expensive, at around $2,300 round trip each.
The morning of October 10th, the Singapore Safe Travel website announced that SQ29 was the flight that would take VTL passengers from Vancouver to Singapore. I checked Singapore Airline repeatedly but the system kept crashing and we weren't able to find that specific flight on their website. In addition, whenever I searched for flight from Calgary to Singapore, it would take me from Calgary through either SF or LA, but never through Vancouver. I started contacting everyone, from Safe Travel to Singapore Airlines, telling them the issues we're encountering.
- 2021-10-13 message to my aunt in Singapore: We looked over the Canadian VTL requirements and process. So far, I'm pretty confident things will work out. There's just a few loose ends that we still need to figure out. The first thing is the proof of vaccination. On the Safe Travels Singapore page, they said they only recognize Smart Health Cards issued by the Common Trust Network. These are QR code standards. The Alberta proof of vaccination is not compliant with this standard, so I've submitted an enquiry about it. The next thing we're still looking into is travel insurance. We have medical travel insurance through our work, but I'm having trouble getting any sort of proof. We briefly looked around online too but are still shopping around. Once these are figured out, we should be able to book our flight. The VTL flight for Canadians are posted on their website. We could technically take SQ33 which goes through San Francisco, but there should be an SQ29 flight that goes through Vancouver. We'll keep monitoring the web site and will let you know where we're at as we progress.
Lo and behold, the SQ29 flight appeared on the Singapore Airline website on Oct. 14, and although we still could only order it from Vancouver to Singapore (not Calgary to Singapore), we bit the bullet and bought these tickets. At this point, we still weren't 100% sure whether we would be able to go, but we were less worried about that leg of the journey as there are usually many flight between Calgary/Vancouver. As long as we get to Vancouver on time for the flight to Singapore, we’re good. And when we return, as long as we’re back in Canada, we feel that we’re good too. We can always make our way to Calgary however we can at that point.
- 2021-10-14: Bought our plane tickets from Vancouver to Singapore via Singapore Airline (SQ29) leaving on Dec. 4.
Smart Health Card QR Code
We were also able to take a closer look at the VTL requirements and determined that we met every one of them except for the proof of vaccination. The issue was that the Singaporean government only accepts QR code proof of vaccination, but the Alberta QR code could only be read by the Alberta app. After doing some research, we learned that North American QR code follows this Smart Health Card system (Common Trust Network), and although the Alberta QR code was developed using this system, the key was never shared so it didn't allow any other jurisdictions to access our health records via universal scanners.
- 2021-10-20:
- We emailed the Singaporean government and they confirmed that they only accept the Smart Health Card / Common Trust Network format.
- We emailed the Alberta Health Department and they said they don't have any information on whether they will open it up to Common Trust Network scanners yet.
- My cousin also looked into whether going through the Family Travel Lane would be more beneficial for us, but it wasn't as both paths require proof of vaccination.
Then October 21st arrived, and the Canadian government announced a national standard for proof of vaccination. This standard uses the Smart Health Card / Common Trust Network format and is in line with what the Singaporean government requires (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/vaccines/vaccine-proof.html).
- 2021-10-23: Changed our flight from Dec. 4 to Dec. 9.
- 2021-10-31 message to my aunt in Singapore: Hello! So, it looks likely that we would be able to resolve the QR code issue by latest Nov. 30. Nothing's been announced yet but we are sensing some movement. We went ahead and moved our ticket to Dec. 9 to Jan. 8 as we need to give the Singaporean government at least 7 days to process our Vaccinated Travel Pass. It's cutting close, but we're still feeling hopeful and will keep you updated!
- 2021-11-07: The Alberta QR code became partially verified using the Smart Health Card scanner app. The information on the QR code was verified but the QR code issuer was not.
- 2021-11-12: We noticed on Safe Travel Singapore that they now except proof of vaccination from “all Canadian Provinces”. We tried to apply but couldn’t use the automated VTP portal. We were asked to email the Safe Travel Office (STO).
- 2021-11-14: We were informed we had to file an appeal today through the STO appeal's office portal and should hear back in a few days.
- 2021-11-15: We received appeal case numbers and had to go back to the VTP portal to submit our application again. This time, with the appeal numbers attached.
- We went through the steps and got our Vaccinated Travel Passes within minutes of submitting the applications.
- We also bought the on-arrival PCR tests that we will need to take at Changi Airport
Omicron Variant
- 2021-11-22: Singapore changed their in-person dining per table limit from 2 to 5 people. The Alberta QR code also became fully verified.
- 2021-11-27: Alberta officially got onboard with the Federal proof of vaccination template.
Immediately after things were seemingly settled, we started to hear a lot of news about a new Omicron variant. This worried us because rules during Covid could change at any time, and we weren't sure again, whether we would be able to make our trip.
- 2021-11-30: Singapore government now require all passengers arriving from Dec. 3 to undergo supervised Covid-19 Antigen Rapid Tests (ART) at Quick Test Centres (QTC) or Combined Test Centres (CTC) on days 3 and 7 of their arrival.
- 2021-12-03: Singapore government now require all passengers arriving from Dec. 7 to undergo self-administered Covid-19 ARTs using self-procured ART kits on days 2, 4, 5, and 6 of their arrival, in addition to the supervised ARTs on days 3, and 7.
Things were really changing each day. We monitored all the rules extra closely, anxiously hoping nothing major changes before we depart.
Woke up at 3:50 am today, had a nightmare. I think I'm ready to head out.
- 2021-12-07 Pre-departure PCT tests in Calgary
2021-12-08 Calgary to Vancouver
Finally the day came when we left for Vancouver. There was a system issue with our Calgary to Vancouver flight, but luckily we were able to get that resolved in time and made our flight in time.
We submitted out Health Declaration and got issued a bar code for entry.
Once in Vancouver, we took our hotel shuttle and stayed the night. Experiencing wearing an N95 mask for this long, we suspect our journey to Singapore the next day would be tough.
2021-12-09 Vancouver to Singapore
We took some pictures, and 2 nice Japanese ladies helped us take a picture at a photo booth, then we went through security. There weren't many people around, and we got front row seats by the windows with an electrical outlet right beside us. The process today was so much more pleasant than yesterday. There are a lot less people, no mix ups with our tickets, the document checking was fast, and atmosphere calm.
