My 10 Months Journey to Get my Parents back to Beijing (疫情期间如何回国？)

If you are here just for the information on how to find flight tickets and how to get a double negative COVID test, please skip the long story and go straight to the "Tips to Find Tickets" and "The Double Negative COVID TEST Requirement" sessions.

Today marks my parents’ first day back in Beijing, free to go outside and go back to work, 10 months after their original return flight in February.

11 Months Ago……

A sunny late January afternoon, I was waiting at SFO international airport arrival, staring at the gate’s monitor screen searching for my parents. They came to visit us in the U.S. for the Chinese New Year. Do you still remember that time when we can still gather and party and eat buffet for the Lunar New Year? It feels like a lifetime ago.

While waiting, a couple news anchors approached me with cameras and asked me if I was picking up someone on the Wuhan flight. The anchor lady told me the government discovered a new highly contagious disease in Wuhan, and she wanted to know what the governments were doing and what the passengers had to go through for that flight. I, of course, had no clue, just thought it was another case of American media overacting to negative Chinese news. Surprisingly my parents didn’t know anything at that point either.

Two or three days after my parents’ arrival, the news blew up in China. Everyone was panicking. Two weeks later all flights between China and the U.S. were cancelled. That’s when things starting to get real globally.

The Never-Ending Search for the Flight Tickets……

Growing up I went through pandemic lockdown twice, once for the Bird Flu and the other for SARS. So in March I confidently told my family and friends that the lockdown would only last for two months, then things would go back to normal. I was so na?ve.

After knowing my parents’ original Feb flight was cancelled, I quickly booked another United flight online for my parents in April, and booked a place through AirBnB for them to stay for the next two months. I wondered how lucky I was to book a last minute flight for about $600, not bad at all! Spoiler alert: those tickets were not real and never existed. In late March, I got an email from United informing me the flights were cancelled.

The real lockdown finally started. All businesses were closed, the schools went online only, everyone started working from home, and toilet paper, hand sanitizer, eggs and flour were flying off the shelf.

To add to the drama, my dad’s prescription drugs he brought from China were running out. I did some research and asked a few of my doctor friends (shout out to Eugene Hsu), and figured out I needed to establish a primary care physician for my dad in the U.S. Without a U.S. health insurance, I had limited options. Luckily our local urgent care just added PCP service, and we were able to quickly set up a video call to get the prescription medication. THOSE DRUGS WERE CRAZY EXPENSIVE without insurance. They ran $200+ a month plus another $200+ on traveler’s insurance which was only good for emergency cases.

(Pro tip: A few months into it, a kind nurse told me I could get GoodRX coupons on all the drugs. Those coupons were no joke! I saved about 75% on the drug costs ever since.)

Since the Apr flights were cancelled, I then searched for other flights. All immediate flights were $2,000+ dollars (even though I later found out those weren’t real flights after all). I was “able to book” another flight around $700 for the end of July, and booked another few months of AirBnB for my parents. We were mentally exhausted at that point, but thought at least the end was near.

By mid-July, I got another email from the airline, informing us our flight got rescheduled to Aug 3, only to be canceled a week later.

I called up my friends to rant, and finally learnt that there was such as a policy called “The Five Ones” (五个一政策) – for Chinese airlines, only 1 flight is allowed per country per week, and only 1 flight from one international airline is allowed per week. So at that point, there were only 3 direct flights between US and China per week, all cities included! All other flights you find online were “fake” empty tickets, where airlines sell them to get some free cash and hoped some of those flights would become allowed when the time comes. The reality is they never became real. There were also flights stopping in a 3rd countries and territories such as Japan, Hong Kong and Canada. However most of them were not viable because those countries and territories require Visa for Chinese citizens and no one was giving out Visa during the pandemic. Furthermore, the timing restriction is nearly impossible to meet for the COVID testing (more details to follow).

I didn’t immediately purchase new tickets because they were impossible to find and the very limited ones were $5,000+ per ticket for economy a few months out. So we decided to wait.

By Aug, renting AirBnB month-to-month was becoming too expensive and the situation wasn’t getting any better, so we decided to pull the trigger to buy 2 tickets in mid-Nov for about $3,000 each. THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS for a one-way economy ticket!

Tips to Find Tickets:

1.      https://piao.tips/zh/ has the information on available flights for major countries, and keeps it updated. The site was immensely helpful for me to get the information I needed.

2.      I highly recommend booking direct flights. Transit flight through a 3rd country is a lot likely to fail. I have read horror stories where people got stuck in a 3rd country or even deported to a 4th country.

3.      Once you know which flights are allowed, check both Google Flights and the airlines’ direct websites. The tickets I bought were actually not showing on the airline site. I found them on Google and booked them through Priceline.

4.      Once you find a direct flight with tickets between US and China, book that flight first. Then you figure out a way to get to the departure city and from the arrival city to wherever you need to go in China. Those domestic flights are typically easier and cheaper. Any linked tickets you find online are pretty much all “fake” tickets.

The Double Negative COVID TEST Requirement:

The government had to throw another curve ball. About 20 days before the departure date, there was an update on the negative COVID test regulation. In order to board the flight, all passengers need to have both negative COVID PCR test result and negative anti-body test result within 48 hours of the departure time. Additionally, after the passengers receive the test results, they need to submit them to an embassy WeChat portal to apply for a Health Status Code to show they are safe to board the plane, which takes up to 24 hours.

My parents flight was on Sunday around 10pm, so they needed to get double negative COVID test results between Friday 10pm and Saturday 10pm and exchange for the Health Status Code. It was mission IMPOSSIBLE! I searched high and low, couldn’t find any legit organization guarantee both COVID PCR and anti-body test results within 24 hours and available on Saturday morning.

Eventually through word of mouth, we found a Chinese lady who works at a legit lab, running this service on the side providing as fast as 4-hour test results. (If you need such service you can email her at [email protected].) Since she is just running this on the side, I had to Zelle her over $1,000 to her private bank account. It definitely did not feel right, but I really couldn’t find another solution. Luckily it worked out in the end.

The Flights:

The Friday before the flight, I flew my parents to LAX, stayed at an airport hotel, which was shockingly empty. The next morning, we went to the testing lab at 9am and got my parents tested. The lady and her colleagues were exceptionally nice and professional. And we indeed received the test results within 4 hours. By later Saturday evening, my parents successfully receive the Health Status Code from the Chinese embassy portal as well. We finally got all of our ducks in a row!

Saturday evening, we went to the LAX airport 3 hours ahead of the departure time. The check-in line was already hundreds of feet long. There were around 200 or so passengers waiting already, some with hazmat suits and face shields and everyone at least was wearing a face mask. The scene was straight out of a movie.

There were 2 steps at check-in. The first step was to check temperature and show the Health Status Code; then passengers were directed to go to another line to check in the flight and drop luggage. After check in, my parents needed to scan another WeChat QR code to apply for an immigration clearance. The whole check-in process took a little over an hour.

Eventually my parents went through all the hoops and finally boarded the plane. It was a fully packed plane with hundreds of passengers. They only left a few last rows empty as the quarantine area, in case someone gets sick. There wasn’t much services on the plane, but providing limited cold food and snacks. Everyone was fully covered and very cautious during the flight.

The Quarantine:

15 hours later, my parents finally landed back in China again. After the immigration process, everyone got another COVID test. According to my mom, that was the most uncomfortable COVID test out of all four they did. Then people got separated into multiple groups and took a 50min-ish bus to different hotels to quarantine for 14 days.

At the hotel, they were not allowed to step out of the room. Warm food was delivered to them three times a day, dropped outside of the hotel room. And they would open the door and get the food. Peoople needed to pay for the hotel and the food out of pocket, but the food was decent. They had 4 small dishes with rice and soup for lunch and dinner. Dishes included things like shrimp and ribs. However, ordering hot food from outside was not permitted. The hotel room was about a standard 3 to 4-star hotel in the US. Nothing amazing, but it was fairly comfortable. My dad has a mild case of high blood pressure. The nurse came to check on him daily and took his blood pressure. They were kind and professional.

Two days into quarantine, my dad got a call from an unknown number, asking if they wore mask on the bus. He confirmed it but felt odd. Later on they found out a 70-year old man, who sat across the aisle from my parents on the bus and chatted with them the entire way, was tested positive for COVID. Thanks for the N-95 and the face shields, my parents managed to stay in the clear.

Another 11 days later, everyone got a 3rd COVID test, and they were allowed to leave after the 14-day quarantine.

My parents then flew back to Beijing the same day, and went under a stay-at-home self-quarantine for another 7 days. At the end of the 7-day home quarantine, they got a 4th COVID test, and finally are allowed to step outside of the house again!

I hope my story can help some people figure out a way to get back home, as I heard there are still close to a million Chinese citizens not able to return home due to the global pandemic. Let me know if there is anything I can potentially help. I might not know the answer, but will surely try to direct you to the right resources. 

My parents are finally safely home. 2020 has been such a crazy year. Things can only go better from here.