The U.S. has blocked 83 Cuban hotels with ties to the Cuban government. It includes most if not all of the large international hotel chains. This should kill off a lot of the remaining Cuba traffic.

For example,
Iberostar Laguna Azul (Gaviota)

Iberostar Playa Alameda (Gaviota)

Meliá Marina Varadero (Gaviota)

Meliá Peninsula Varadero (Gaviota)

Memories Varadero (Gaviota)

Paradisus Princesa del Mar (Gaviota)

Paradisus Varadero (Gaviota)

https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/cuba ... 275331.htm

It was interesting while it lasted.....

loisencroach wrote:

It was interesting while it lasted.....

You might get that back when the Trump gets toppled. In the meantime, the rest of us can enjoy our Cuban holidays.

JannEejit wrote:

loisencroach wrote:

It was interesting while it lasted.....

You might get that back when the Trump gets toppled. In the meantime, the rest of us can enjoy our Cuban holidays.

Didn't sound like we were missing much...
The embarrassing lack of demand would tend to agree

I always stay at Casa Particulars anyway,

jnev3289 wrote:

JannEejit wrote:

loisencroach wrote:

It was interesting while it lasted.....

You might get that back when the Trump gets toppled. In the meantime, the rest of us can enjoy our Cuban holidays.

Didn't sound like we were missing much...
The embarrassing lack of demand would tend to agree

There was plenty of demand last month when I was there. Americans everywhere in Havana. Thought I was in downtown Tampa. You must have been there on a slow day?

Good news for Cubans

Everyone was jumping the gun on this Cuba thing anyway .... with the change in our country's administration, this was all bound to be reversed. The last thing trump or republicans want is improvement in relations between US and Cuba ... simply because it was something Obama started. Everyone should have seen this chill in the air coming.

TVNWZ wrote:

jnev3289 wrote:

JannEejit wrote:

You might get that back when the Trump gets toppled. In the meantime, the rest of us can enjoy our Cuban holidays.

Didn't sound like we were missing much...
The embarrassing lack of demand would tend to agree

There was plenty of demand last month when I was there. Americans everywhere in Havana. Thought I was in downtown Tampa. You must have been there on a slow day?

http://pointmetotheplane.boardingarea.c ... ht-demand/

While far from scientific, reports like these seemed to be bountiful

Yes, service to other cities was always problematic. I was speaking of Havana My flights TPAHAV have always been full on WN. And overrun with Americans.

This list is but a small fraction of all hotels. It's clear that what this list is aiming at is the hotels owned and/or managed by Gaviota and other entities controlled by the Cuban Armed Forces.

TVNWZ wrote:

I always stay at Casa Particulars anyway,

I prefer Casa de Norovirus

kjeld0d wrote:

TVNWZ wrote:

I always stay at Casa Particulars anyway,

I prefer Casa de Norovirus

Yeeahh. I skipped that one.

kjeld0d wrote:

TVNWZ wrote:

I always stay at Casa Particulars anyway,

I prefer Casa de Norovirus

Casa de Hearingloss over by the U.S. embassy has good views, but it's hard to sleep with all the silent noise.

jnev3289 wrote:

TVNWZ wrote:

jnev3289 wrote:

Didn't sound like we were missing much...
The embarrassing lack of demand would tend to agree

There was plenty of demand last month when I was there. Americans everywhere in Havana. Thought I was in downtown Tampa. You must have been there on a slow day?

http://pointmetotheplane.boardingarea.c ... ht-demand/

While far from scientific, reports like these seemed to be bountiful

It was laughable the excess amount of capacity that US airlines were jumping on when Cuba opened up. Close to 60 years of no relations between the US and Cuba don't go away overnight. You can't expect the flights to go out full when you've had 4+ generations of Americans that up until that point had never set foot on the island. Americans have had 60 years to find a new Caribbean playground to play in and they have Mexico, the Bahamas, D.R. and Jamaica. While flights from Canada, LGW and the rest of Europe to Cuba may be doing fine (they didn't have a half century break in relations) it was wrong to assume the same level of traffic would be seen from the US right off the bat.

TerminalD wrote:

The U.S. has blocked 83 Cuban hotels with ties to the Cuban government. It includes most if not all of the large international hotel chains. This should kill off a lot of the remaining Cuba traffic.
https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/cuba ... 275331.htm

How can they enforce this? Will Trump send son Eric to Cuba to knock on hotel room doors and see if any Americans are staying there?

Too bad Cuba doesn't have China's population otherwise the doors would be wide open. Too much money to ignore.

jordanh wrote:

TerminalD wrote:

The U.S. has blocked 83 Cuban hotels with ties to the Cuban government. It includes most if not all of the large international hotel chains. This should kill off a lot of the remaining Cuba traffic.
https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/cuba ... 275331.htm

How can they enforce this? Will Trump send son Eric to Cuba to knock on hotel room doors and see if any Americans are staying there?

Fox News will be there to stir up the hysteria.

But seriously, I'd also wonder how enforcement would really work. Seems like the Cubans would turn the other way to receive tourism revenue.

I expect the cruise business to be withdrawn at some point as well. The cruises are popular as its easy for US citizens to purchase a "cultural event" to legalize their travel as many still don't understand you can't just book a flight and fly off to Cuba just because you have a passport. The cruises are very expensive compared to other Caribbean cruise itineraries but Cuba is a popular "been there" spot US citizens want to see and experience.
One client who spent a lot of $$ for a 5 night cruise stated it was "overrated" so just "send me back to Key West or Grand Cayman."

PI4EVER wrote:

many still don't understand you can't just book a flight and fly off to Cuba just because you have a passport. "

Well. You can precisely do that. Passport and visa. The Visa bought just before getting on plane. Simple.

LOL, best of luck trying to enforce this mess. Been there in 2012, one of best trips I’ve ever had.

While this thread is inherently political, try to keep the discussion as politics-free as possible. Political discussion is more than welcome in the Non Aviation Forum, but please try to avoid those kinds of statements here.

✈️ atcsundevil

atcsundevil wrote:

While this thread is inherently political, try to keep the discussion as politics-free as possible. Political discussion is more than welcome in the Non Aviation Forum, but please try to avoid those kinds of statements here.

✈️ atcsundevil

Thank you!

m0ssy wrote:

jordanh wrote:

TerminalD wrote:

The U.S. has blocked 83 Cuban hotels with ties to the Cuban government. It includes most if not all of the large international hotel chains. This should kill off a lot of the remaining Cuba traffic.
https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/cuba ... 275331.htm

How can they enforce this? Will Trump send son Eric to Cuba to knock on hotel room doors and see if any Americans are staying there?

Fox News will be there to stir up the hysteria.

But seriously, I'd also wonder how enforcement would really work. Seems like the Cubans would turn the other way to receive tourism revenue.

Maybe they would block it if they tried to book them using a US credit card? I understand nothing is perfect and people could get around it by just using cash (preferred method there anyway) but that's really the only way I could imagine the US government has at their disposal to block them. Similar to how the US tried to inhibit US travel to Cuba before by not allow airline bookings on US websites using US credit cards. Flying via Mexico or Canada and paying cash was the easy way around that.

fraspotter wrote:

m0ssy wrote:

jordanh wrote:

How can they enforce this? Will Trump send son Eric to Cuba to knock on hotel room doors and see if any Americans are staying there?

Fox News will be there to stir up the hysteria.
But seriously, I'd also wonder how enforcement would really work. Seems like the Cubans would turn the other way to receive tourism revenue.

Maybe they would block it if they tried to book them using a US credit card? I understand nothing is perfect and people could get around it by just using cash (preferred method there anyway) but that's really the only way I could imagine the US government has at their disposal to block them. Similar to how the US tried to inhibit US travel to Cuba before by not allow airline bookings on US websites using US credit cards. Flying via Mexico or Canada and paying cash was the easy way around that.

Can Americans (airline employees) purchase ZED fares to Cuba? I know we can; I would think, as long as it is a foreign airline they are flying, they could, too.

TVNWZ wrote:

PI4EVER wrote:

many still don't understand you can't just book a flight and fly off to Cuba just because you have a passport. "

Well. You can precisely do that. Passport and visa. The Visa bought just before getting on plane. Simple.

Go to AA.com and type in the Search box "Travel to Cuba." It clearly states Cuba is "not open for tourist travel" and there are only TWELVE reasons or options
for US citizens to travel there. It includes instructions on having a valid passport, the visa, health insurance applicable to Cuba, and CASH as credit cards generally not accepted as they cannot be processed through to a US bank. USD is converted to a special form of Cuban Peso that is different for Cuban residents.
Passengers traveling on cruises must have the passport, buy the Visa for $75, purchase a cruise line shore excursion that will apply to the "cultural exchange" travel authority like attending a cooking class, dance lessons or touring historic sights.. USD currency is converted on the pier in Havana before you're permitted to leave the secure dock area.
You can't just walk off the ship in Havana, and explore the city or island on your own. Tourism is not "open" for US citizens so it makes it a bit more complicated and expensive to meet the travel restrictions.
I wanted to clarify that you can't simply decide to fly to Havana for the weekend and it be as simple as doing so to Bermuda or Aruba.
There are special check-in kiosks at MIA and CLT all Cuban bound passengers must pass through to insure they meet these requirements for travel before a boarding pass is issued.
The airlines had huge demand for the charter services that operated to Cuba for Cuban nationals visiting family still living there, or relief or aid workers, but the relaxing of the travel embargo and the added new scheduled airline services didn't change the rules of how everyday US citizen's can travel there. There may be wide interpretation of the "cultural exchange" programs that mean a cooking class or a taxi tour to historic sights, but those programs are required and not an option for the US citizen to pick and choose once they're on the island.
Its more than "Sir, why are you going to Cuba?"
"Oh, to drink rum, smoke cigars and dance with beautiful Cuban ladies."

I don't need to do that. I go there. Do you?

I'll not beat this dead horse too much longer, but yes, I've been there twice. Once by air and once by cruise.
Effective November 8th the US government will not longer permit any "self guided people-to-people" travel to Cuba.
Airline and cruise line travel requirements to Cuba have been updated.
Just be diligent and verify with a travel agency, airline or cruise line reservations department for new updated travel criteria.
So going on to my original post I feel additional restrictions will simply make travel to Cuba for US citizens more difficult as time goes on.

PI4EVER wrote:

So going on to my original post I feel additional restrictions will simply make travel to Cuba for US citizens more difficult as time goes on.

Which is really too bad because there are a lot of cool birds down there American birders / bird photographers would like to be able to see...including the Bee Hummingbird, the world's smallest bird and endemic to Cuba.

Bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae)

The bee hummingbird, zunzuncito or Helena hummingbird is a species of hummingbird which is the world's smallest bird. The bee hummingbird is the smallest living bird. Females weigh 2.6 g and are 6.1 cm long, and are slightly larger than males, with an average weight of 1.95 g and length of 5.5 cm. As its name suggests, it is scarcely larger than a bee. Like all hummingbirds, it is a swift, strong flier.

Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license


Moe