In another move towards less
regulation and the opening of relations between our two countries, the United
States Treasury has just recently relaxed some regulations regarding the use of
the U.S. Dollar within Cuba.
Big news regarding transportation
between the U.S. and Cuba; the United States Transportation Department approved
6 U.S. based airlines to fly regularly scheduled routes directly in and out of
Cuba from the United States late last month.
~ AS EARLY AS THIS FALL, MORE THAN 600 FLIGHTS
EACH MONTH ARE SLATED TO START UP WITHIN THE U.S. WITH REGULARLY SCHEDULED
FLIGHTS ON AT LEAST 6 AIRLINES OUT OF 5 U.S. CITIES, TO START… ~
When decisions were made and
announced at the end of June, the approved carriers are American Airlines,
Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines and Sun
Country Airlines. The U.S. Cities with
approved routes thus far are Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Minneapolis and
Philadelphia.
The nine destinations serviced in
Cuba are Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Manzanillo,
Santa Clara, Santiago de Cuba and Varadero.
As I know this is going to change
rapidly, I waited a bit and sure enough, looking at the American Airline
website they are showing flights to Cuba from Boston and New York as well.
Here is a link to the American
Airlines info on their flights to Cuba, which start up in early September
2016! https://www.aa.com/i18n/plan-travel/destinations/cuba.jsp
Also as expected, just within the
last few days more airlines have been approved to operate regularly scheduled
flights between our two countries, United and Alaskan Airlines. Here below are links to the Cuban flights from
both of these airlines.
~ YOU STILL NEED TO GET A VISA WHICH IS NORMAL
FOR MANY COUNTRIES, YET YOU STILL NEED TO ENROLL AND CERTIFY THAT YOU ARE
TRAVELING FOR ONE OF THE 12 APPROVED REASONS.
THIS NEED IS BECOMING LESS AND LESS IMPORTANT AS THE LINE BETWEEN
STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED TRAVEL BY AMERICANS INTO CUBA BECOMES A THING OF
THE PAST, BUT WE ARE NOT QUITE THERE… ~
The steps needed to enroll and
certify that you are not simply traveling for tourism purposes changes daily,
and is not consistent from one vendor to the next. This is simply a matter of logistics for
these large travel providers handling thousands of people. There are quite a few organizations that are
sanctioned by the U.S. to provide documentation and proof of registration of
Americans traveling to Cuba for an approved reason. The various vendors bringing Americans into
Cuba have set up agreements with one of these organizations and have set up a
streamlined system to assist the traveler with purchasing the trip, and then
following up with these various legalities still involved.
How this works… You buy your tour / cruise / airline ticket,
after agreeing that you will complete all the steps needed to ensure you can
travel legally (registration and proof of insurance). The vendor provides you with info /
hyperlinks on who to contact to do so.
After you complete these steps and of course pay the fee, the vendor is
either notified by those companies directly, or they have instructed you where
to send your info to as proof (or to just print with and carry into Cuba to be
viewed if needed).
Here is the latest, we are
getting closer and closer to full unrestricted travel into Cuba! The airlines were advertising fares in the
few hundred dollar range. I searched
through airline reservation systems, and never found anything near that price,
so supply and demand has raised the pricing considerably. In spite of this there is a faction in Congress that is questioning how rapidly this is moving forward, and expressing concerns for safety & security, with passnger screening being a concern. The airlines have advised Congress that they have operated charter flights in and out of Cuba from the U.S., for decades with no security or safety issues ever. Hopefully politics will remain in the background and these flights will operate as currently scheduled, with of course appropriate security measures in place.
Watch for those airfare
deals! If flights remain high, you may
be better off taking a cruise around Cuba, and simply flying into Miami or
Jamaica where some cruise ships operate from.
Happy Travels….