Travel To USA

[shaunsmith]

Last May, we booked family of 4 for Orlando Universal Cabana Bay Hotel for this February for a 2 week theme park holiday.
Paid £400 deposit balance £4400 to pay end of October. We are reluctant to go with all that’s going on....
Is worth just forfeiting the deposit as and re booking the following year?

[HotJambalaya]

bad company said:

Thanks, we wondered just that. As I said I’ve fancied going for a while but thought 3-4 days would be enough. Trouble is the Caribbean islands aren’t of much interest to us either. We need somewhere with direct flights to & from the UK and Florida.

Fly to Cancun, BA just resumed direct flights there again, decent weather, currently pretty cheap, and a very short flight to florida.

With regards to the insurance when you're making the selection make sure you choose worldwide including USA and you should be fine. Its what I'm doing, though I'll ping them a quick email first to confirm it covers me in mexico.

[juice]

bad company said:

Thanks, we wondered just that. As I said I’ve fancied going for a while but thought 3-4 days would be enough. Trouble is the Caribbean islands aren’t of much interest to us either. We need somewhere with direct flights to & from the UK and Florida.

I (Think) you could transit through Toronto ?

A stopover in Canada for a transit to another country is currently still possible, provided the destination country permits the trip. For this, an eTA Canada is also required. During a stopover, the traveller must remain in the terminal for international flights at the airport, which cannot be left in between.

[David Beer]

bad company said:

Thanks, we wondered just that. As I said I’ve fancied going for a while but thought 3-4 days would be enough. Trouble is the Caribbean islands aren’t of much interest to us either. We need somewhere with direct flights to & from the UK and Florida.

Am I missing something, ESTA is closed? I gave up my summer trip to the west coast and according to Amex the chance of esta opening for the flights this Xmas are pretty slim. Thankfully all the flights are with points and will not loose them, just move them .
Thankfully had this Xmas hols and did Miami mid February, so don’t feel too cheated !
I will watch your progress with great interest.

[HotJambalaya]

David Beer said:

Am I missing something, ESTA is closed? I gave up my summer trip to the west coast and according to Amex the chance of esta opening for the flights this Xmas are pretty slim. Thankfully all the flights are with points and will not loose them, just move them .
Thankfully had this Xmas hols and did Miami mid February, so don’t feel too cheated !
I will watch your progress with great interest.

An esta is a travel authorisation so it cant be 'closed'. I think what is happening is that when you attempt to check in for a flight from the uk is that your esta is automatically cancelled. If you have proof of needing to travel (a National Interest Exemption form) some nice chaps from USA border control shop up at check in, look over your documents, type in an authorisation code and your ESTA is re-instated. I believe this will happen from any country where the presidential proclamation is in effect. If you're flying from a country where there is no such restriction your ESTA will still be valid. As far as I know they're still processing the applications as usual albeit with a couple of days delay now.

[fourstardan]

bad company said:

We’re retired, no job to lose.

If you hadn’t seen your granddaughters for a year you might understand.

Seems a bit selfish, imagine if you caught COVID on this magical rule bending journey before OR they gave it to you when you got there and ended up in a US hospital for weeks costing you the best part of your pension to fund it?

I just think the fact this post has gone into 2 pages of possible options around what are regulations is an indication of what you probably should be doing.....Staying at home.

[HotJambalaya]

fourstardan said:

Seems a bit selfish, imagine if you caught COVID on this magical rule bending journey before OR they gave it to you when you got there and ended up in a US hospital for weeks costing you the best part of your pension to fund it?

I just think the fact this post has gone into 2 pages of possible options around what are regulations is an indication of what you probably should be doing.....Staying at home.

why would it cost them their pension fund when they're getting insurance?

[bad company]

HotJambalaya said:

fourstardan said:

Seems a bit selfish, imagine if you caught COVID on this magical rule bending journey before OR they gave it to you when you got there and ended up in a US hospital for weeks costing you the best part of your pension to fund it?

I just think the fact this post has gone into 2 pages of possible options around what are regulations is an indication of what you probably should be doing.....Staying at home.

why would it cost them their pension fund when they're getting insurance?

Exactly and if we go we won’t be breaking any rules. We’re looking for the best way of doing what we want within the rules.

You stay at home if you want to. We’re going to carry on living accepting some probably very minimal risk.

[satans worm]

matt21 said:

satans worm said:

I did exactly this last month, works no problem, no questions asked, happy to be back in New York

The city is good right now, midtown maybe not, tottaly dead, but below 20th and upper east and west sides are buzzing with locals going out eating drinking etc, a nice atmosphere, not quite what the news reports!

Good to hear. What route did you take? Any hints on what to do and where to stay in Turkey?! I’ll probably just work from a hotel

I just stayed in Istanbul itself, kept travel to a minimum as last thing I wanted to do is catch it and not be able to get into/ cause complications for getting into the US.

I worked for a week from a hotel, and took a week off for the rest of the wait.
Food was good, lots of bbq lamb, not a bad place to plonk yourself down for a wait

[satans worm]

bad company said:

satans worm said:

The city is good right now, midtown maybe not, tottaly dead, but below 20th and upper east and west sides are buzzing with locals going out eating drinking etc, a nice atmosphere, not quite what the news reports!

Good to hear. Do you have to wear muzzles/masks in the street or just inside?

Sensible people wear masks outside, I’d say 90 pct, people in New York don’t see it as a big deal to be honest, unlike the hysteria on the thread on here.

[Chucklehead]

I don't think it's fair to call it hysteria. People are going on holiday and coming back in an urn. You might think it won't happen to you, but you don't know it til it does, and when it does it can all happen very very quickly. I'm currently trying to bring home my father-in-law who was fit as a fiddle, with no underlying health conditions, and with not too many years on the OP.

[Sheepshanks]

shaunsmith said:

Last May, we booked family of 4 for Orlando Universal Cabana Bay Hotel for this February for a 2 week theme park holiday.
Paid £400 deposit balance £4400 to pay end of October. We are reluctant to go with all that’s going on....
Is worth just forfeiting the deposit as and re booking the following year?

I think some companies are allowing the final payment date to be pushed back, so might be worth exploring that.

[bad company]

satans worm said:

Sensible people wear masks outside, I’d say 90 pct, people in New York don’t see it as a big deal to be honest, unlike the hysteria on the thread on here.

I disagree about masks particularly outside but please let’s not have another mask debate here. There’s plenty of mask threads/debate elsewhere on PH.

[shaunsmith]

Sheepshanks said:

shaunsmith said:

Last May, we booked family of 4 for Orlando Universal Cabana Bay Hotel for this February for a 2 week theme park holiday.
Paid £400 deposit balance £4400 to pay end of October. We are reluctant to go with all that’s going on....
Is it worth just forfeiting the deposit as and re booking the following year?

I think some companies are allowing the final payment date to be pushed back, so might be worth exploring that.

Our company won’t, ideally the flight would be cancelled near to the time but would need to pay the full balance soon, if not cancelled lose the lot as my family are very reluctant to go, I’m the same tbh.
Not worth paying the balance to hope it’s cancelled to get the deposit back.
I’ve asked them if the holiday can be moved to the following year 2022 inc the deposit they can but require an extra £2k in case the same holiday goes up so they are covered.....

[David Beer]

HotJambalaya said:

An esta is a travel authorisation so it cant be 'closed'. I think what is happening is that when you attempt to check in for a flight from the uk is that your esta is automatically cancelled. If you have proof of needing to travel (a National Interest Exemption form) some nice chaps from USA border control shop up at check in, look over your documents, type in an authorisation code and your ESTA is re-instated. I believe this will happen from any country where the presidential proclamation is in effect. If you're flying from a country where there is no such restriction your ESTA will still be valid. As far as I know they're still processing the applications as usual albeit with a couple of days delay now.

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/

My point being you can not travel to the USA from the uk

Edited by David Beer on Saturday 3rd October 16:46

[bad company]

David Beer said:

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/

My point being you can not travel to the USA from the uk

Edited by David Beer on Saturday 3rd October 16:46

I did my ESTA online yesterday. Approved in 2 hours, no problem.

[David Beer]

bad company said:

I did my ESTA online yesterday. Approved in 2 hours, no problem.

Ok great, i will try. Any tips ? Mine is purely for holiday, no family to visit.
Bit worried about travel insurance though as Amex will not cover me, I pay an awful lot of money to them annually to include what is normally excellent, bit reluctant to pay someone else. In fact I have just paid the annual fee !
Good on you, when do you travel?

Ok, just spoke to Amex, sure you may get an esta, but there are no flights. Please tell us how you are doing it !

Edited by David Beer on Saturday 3rd October 18:22

[bad company]

David Beer said:

bad company said:

I did my ESTA online yesterday. Approved in 2 hours, no problem.

Ok great, i will try. Any tips ? Mine is purely for holiday, no family to visit.
Bit worried about travel insurance though as Amex will not cover me, I pay an awful lot of money to them annually to include what is normally excellent, bit reluctant to pay someone else. In fact I have just paid the annual fee !
Good on you, when do you travel?

Ok, just spoke to Amex, sure you may get an esta, but there are no flights. Please tell us how you are doing it !

Edited by David Beer on Saturday 3rd October 18:22

The ESTA application had changed in that they now want your social media page Id for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and whatever else.

We’re still looking at the best routings, read the start of the thread.

[GT03ROB]

bad company said:

The ESTA application had changed in that they now want your social media page Id for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and whatever else

Think that’s optional.

[surveyor]

shaunsmith said:

Sheepshanks said:

shaunsmith said:

Last May, we booked family of 4 for Orlando Universal Cabana Bay Hotel for this February for a 2 week theme park holiday.
Paid £400 deposit balance £4400 to pay end of October. We are reluctant to go with all that’s going on....
Is it worth just forfeiting the deposit as and re booking the following year?

I think some companies are allowing the final payment date to be pushed back, so might be worth exploring that.

Our company won’t, ideally the flight would be cancelled near to the time but would need to pay the full balance soon, if not cancelled lose the lot as my family are very reluctant to go, I’m the same tbh.
Not worth paying the balance to hope it’s cancelled to get the deposit back.
I’ve asked them if the holiday can be moved to the following year 2022 inc the deposit they can but require an extra £2k in case the same holiday goes up so they are covered.....

Ask for a credit note? At least they know you will come back to them. While not as good as cash, if you were thinking of abandoning the deposit it is a step up from that.