People think it is 72 hours from wheels up and that is not according to the CDC or the airlines. It is within three days of departure.
If you depart on Friday, no matter the hour & minute on Friday, then the test can be given on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, at any hour & minute of those days.
The local CVS stores in San Antonio will have the results in 12 to 18 hours, typically closer to 12.
We got tested once in Botswana before we left heading to South Africa. Results in 12 hours by email. We got tested again in South Africa before we left to return to the States, again, we received the results by email in 12 hours.
And CVS is free of charge, or at least we did not pay anything and I am not aware of them charging my insurance.
There are exceptions to every rule of course.
Directly from the CDC website:
"Why does the Order specify 3 days rather than 72 hours? What is considered 3 days?
The 3-day period is the 3 days before the flight’s departure. The Order uses a 3-day timeframe instead of 72 hours to provide more flexibility to the traveler. By using a 3-day window, test validity does not depend on the time of the flight or the time of day that the test was administered.
For example, if a passenger’s flight is at 1pm on a Friday, the passenger could board with a negative test that was taken any time on the prior Tuesday or after."
This is not necessarily correct. It may well be for the US (where CDC has jurisdiction) but outside the US, you need to check.
For example, the Government of Canada says you need a test no more than 72 hours prior to your departure for Canada. They never use days. They go so far as to say if you have connecting flights, the test must be no older than 72 hours prior to the last direct flight leaving for Canada - this may require testing at an intermediate point (see:
https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/t...ovid-19-testing-travellers-coming-into-canada).
To get back to the OP's original question, South Africa never mentions three days either, but they say the test must be "not more than 72 hours before the date of travel." (
https://www.gov.za/covid-19/individuals-and-households/travel-coronavirus-covid-19).
The problem is that this language isn't clear. Does "72 hours before the date of travel" means the same thing as the "time of travel"? I don't know. So what to do? Given the seeming randomness of checks, and the various interpretations which can be put on the rules,
the only safe bet is to take the most restrictive reading and comply with that.
You do not want to have to argue with someone at an airport. Even if you're right, you may miss your flight or your entire trip if they refuse to budge. I've found being right almost never matters when dealing with authorities.
There cannot be a testing facility in the world which is unaware of the 72 hour rule. Unbelievable that Walgreens would say 2-4 days. As others have said, you could count back 72 hours, and add some hours for a margin of safety - if you time it exactly right for departure and your plane is an hour late taking off, you could have a problem at the airport, although some countries specify you count from the "scheduled" departure time, although this wouldn't necessarily be binding on the country you are travelling to.
When I flew to JNB in April I had the test done two days before departure and had the result in about 20 hours. So I had a day and some of grace. I arrived at JNB at around 4.30 am from Doha, and there wan't a soul there who wanted to look at a piece of paper, let alone talk to me about COVID. The sleepy woman at immigration had no interest. But I wouldn't count on that.
So I would count back 48 hours from my departure, and get a test which guarantees a 24 hour turnaround or better. That's what I did, and it gave me one less thing to worry about.
