Scouse Express

Better have a look at this, especially if you have Family or Friends, who have travelled to Cuba, recently;

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/...suZBVKVtuirkiM

Jim.

neill

But seems unenforceable, unless the question is on the ESTA itself.? The last time I went to Cuba (a long time ago) they didn't even stamp my passport.

kimilseung

I seem to remember that the USA knew more about people's travel to Cuba beyond what it says in the passport. I can't recall now what or how they got access to this information, or exactly what it was.
Past flight information from the USA, but I also seem to remember credit card transactions in Cuba, but would they have the ability to access that? were us cards useable in Cuba in the recent past? Maybe my memory is defective.

neill

They can get passenger info from any plane that overflies their territory (by law i think). So an Air Transat plane from Montreal, for example.... but I don't think a flight from the UK would overfly any part of the U.S.

RICH

I wonder why it only refers to UK people who visited Cuba, And I wonder exactly how many people that is. I guess a few hundred are affected. And the kind of folks that visit Cuba probably dont give a ss1t about visiting USA. Total non-story imo.

tht

A lot of people from the UK visit… enough to have charter and scheduled flights on wide body jets. https://www.travelfab.co.uk/flights-to-cuba/

a few 100 would be 1 plane load… 1 or 2 directs a week would be a lot of passengers. I know brits that have been and visit the US, and said it was amazing… I also know Americans that have been, I think the are organized as missions and people who go have to do religious mission: https://experiencemission.org/mission-trips/cuba

destone

The U.S. gov knows extensively about an individual’s travel history. That’s how they could enforce the European Covid-19 ban.

RICH

That is an interesting piece of bollocks!

excpomea

We were in Cuba for a few nights via a cruise some years ago.
Are they (US Gov) going to block me from returning home.
It's about time they resolved this Cuba crap, it's 90 freekin miles from our coast.

RICH

Only affects you if you are otherwise eligible for ESTA far as I can see. When you say "our coast" I assume you identify as a US person, so this does not apply to you, or me. Like I said, non issue.

Scouse Express

A flight to or from Havana, from Europe, would indeed pass through US Airspace.


Jim.

Pulaski

The great circle route (shortest route on a sphere) from the UK to Florida and the Western Caribbean involves flying over the US, all the way down the coast from New York - which is why flights to Florida and the Caribbean take "so long", when on a flat map it looks like a straight line flight from the UK to, say, Miami doesn't appear to be much further than to, say, DC.

Further compounding the problem, before anyone thinks of trying to prove that a great circle flight from the UK to the Caribbean is shortest by staying off-shore along the US east coast (it might be, I haven't checked because ...) the US has blocked almost all civilian air traffic from the airspace over US territorial waters off the east coast, and reserved the area for military use only. So even if there is a geographically shorter route to the Caribbean that doesn't over-fly the US, it is a theoretical route that isn't actually accessible to the airlines.

Pulaski

What do you suggest? Perhaps a Special Military Operation?

Of course something like that was tried in 1961, but it didn't end well!

S Folinsky

It is interesting to look up the LHR-HAV great circle route.

see this link.

A true great circle route touches the tip of Florida. That said, it strikes me as highly likely he true great circle is not followed.

christmasoompa

Just looked at the article in the first post and for some reason it says those that have visited Cuba in the last 11 years? I thought it was only applicable to those that have visited since 12th January 2021?

https://fr.usembassy.gov/visas/visa-waiver-program/