International travel to the US

[DBML]

Trump is looking at international travel. The US is considering testing for coronavirus on the plane.
He’s acknowledged much of Florida’s business comes from international travel, particularly from South America.
Theme parks and attractions looking to open in phases, with some restrictions initially.
America are clearly keen to get their economy up and running at whatever cost.

Sorry but I'm hoping you don't get to go! I'm booked for around that time for a Roadtrip holiday. I think it would be absolute madness to travel during a pandemic and won't be the trip of a lifetime experience that it should be. I want my money back!

@crustycrab

Well that’s not very nice ☹️

Insurance won't be valid

"Mine is."

I would double and triple check that it is. As far as I know no insurance company will cover anything corona virus related.

No they really aren't. We had kids young which came with lots of sacrifices and now I feel we're on an even keel and can start reaping the rewards of our hard work I'm worried we will be priced out of travel! Hopefully that won't happen though. My fingers are firmly crossed for you that August is ok!

It depends when the policy was written, our insurance is still valid as we booked prior to the event, they have said our T&Cs apply on this holiday, but when the policy is renewed is when the T&Cs will change. I've even heard people have been able to rebook holidays and still have insurance validated because of the timing of the original booking. While everyone needs to check with their own insurer, it simply isn;t true that no insurance cover is covering covid, certainly not for people with pre booked holidays anyway.

He’s acknowledged much of Florida’s business comes from international travel, particularly from South America.

I assume you/he mean Central America and Mexico. Not South America.

Anyway, testing on planes... They give you a swab and test it in the lab they have on the plane? Nope. They would have to take it to a lab. Where are you while that is happening? Cuomo has spoken about not having enough labs to process the tests for New Yorkers, even if they ran 24/7. So how are they testing tourists?

Sounds like Trump nonsense to me.

Trump is looking at international travel. The US is considering testing for coronavirus on the plane.

You still believe stuff Trump says about testing? Oh dear.

@User202004

Thank you for that.

Are you on The Dibb ? There are some discussions about next years airline pricing at least. Majority of people who are doing test bookings are noting not too much difference in price ...and in one or two cases a lower price. Obviously the trick will be to book sooner rather than later, when you do decide to go.

At least you still have your dream holiday to look forward to! It would have been soon over.

@MrsTerryPratchett

I actually did mean from places like Brazil, so South America.
Florida relies on ‘hotel tax’ to pay for schools, roads etc. They are panicking about the loss of this income and need to begin opening.

The US is looking at opening and it’ll be down to individual states. New York will likely stay closed longer, but Florida will open sooner. Cuomo won’t have any say in what happens with Florida.

@HoldMyLobster

It makes no difference to me. If they open borders and let me fly there, I’ll go.

Sounds a good idea to test on the plane. But if one passenger tests positive the whole plane is likely to be refused entry.

I actually did mean from places like Brazil, so South America.

I wonder where those stats come from. My understanding was that the biggest numbers of non-US visitors were Canadian, and I'd imagine Central American/Mexican because of proximity. Maybe not though.

I’m with you OP! We absolutely love Florida and after years of saving and consideration we bought a place there. We finalised the sale in January and we were hoping to be there as much as possible. We were actually there when Raab announced for all U.K. citizens to return immediately. We considered sitting it out there but DH’s business couldn’t risk him being stranded.

It’s really not as bad there as the MN doom mongers think. My in-laws are there and there are sensible measures in place.

According to the graphs yesterday, I’m pretty sure the cases per million of population are lower than here.

If flights are going in the summer I will be on one!

Cuomo won’t have any say in what happens with Florida.

My point wasn't about who decides. It was about how these tests would be administered, processed and how decisions would be made. I'll bet serious money that Florida labs have no more spare capacity than NY ones.

a question - if uk government advice is not to travel to specific country will this invalidate your insurance. While missing your holiday is sad there is no way any one can tell how they would be affected by coronavirus & the premature opening of some states in the USA is not good news for the pandemic - whatever (reputable not Trump!) news there is about treatment it isn't yet proven or statistically based (its less than 4% difference - 4% is the boundary for a basis of some evidence for or against)

if uk government advice is not to travel to specific country will this invalidate your insurance.

That is my understanding. I was travelling somewhere after a bombing and still wanted to go. Insurance said I wouldn't be covered for anything. Which in America with their ridiculous healthcare costs is not something I'd consider.

My state relies heavily on tourism. The local water/funpark has just announced it is not opening at all this summer.

I'd imagine Disney will at some point - they have a much longer season. But I do wonder how they will manage to make a profit with the massively reduced numbers that social distancing requires. The obvious way would be to massively hike up admission prices.

Meanwhile, to replace their revenue, hotels are working with universities on providing rooms to university students who would otherwise be in doubles.

@MrsTerryPratchett

Yes, visitors from Brazil have soared in Florida. It’s a fair whack of their tourism. Mexico and Canada are both big visitors as well as Central American obviously. Then comes Europe, but we still form a sizeable proportion of their tourism.

The testing is by the by for me anyway. I don’t think it would be worth bothering with as people can text negative if the test is taken too early anyway.

As I said, this thread is just about having hope and staying positive, unlike the other threads where you get called deluded for even thinking it might just still happen.

Yes. I will be hoping that travel advice is changed by the end of July.

Interesting. The spending power would be interesting as well. Number of visitors is one thing but their spend per capita is another.

My parents live in a different country so I'm hopeful but realistic. I don't assume I'll see them this year. I think it's unlikely.

We have a big holiday planned for August to Florida. I'm assuming it won't happen.

If they are testing on the plane and someone gets positive test then what happens?? Do you get sent back on another plane (obv not), do you get quarantined? That in itself puts me off. Surely the testing is done at the airport not once you are on the plane???

We are supposed to be going to Disney in August, 2 weeks onsite at Disney, a week onsite at universal, am still going to plan my fast passes as if we were going. Still have a glimmer of hope. Although for us staying on site and not having a car, if the parks are not properly up and running I would hope we are not able to travel. It's a massive amount of money and we paid to get the full bubble experience. Will have to wait and see. We booked flight separate so for us the nightmare would be dealing with flights ok to go, but hotels and parks not open for international guests. In that case we would either have to loose the costs of the flights 2.5k or look for a cheap villa somewhere and see if we can get the money for the hotel and park tickets back.
It is so up in the air at the moment, and so many things have to click into place so will have to wait . We are already fully paid, luckily we are covered by insurance as bought before this pandemic was an issue and paid extra for travel disruption cover.

On a serious note though... if by some miracle it is all good and we get to fly, parks open with shows and fireworks on etc, one major downside is I was supposed to have been dedicated to lose some weight , ready to put it all back on on holiday now it looks like they may have to roll me on the plane as well as off it, as have spent the last 6 weeks on the sofa eating hobnobs

@sunshinesky1981

Your last paragraph made me laugh! I’m in the same boat. SlimmingWorld went out the window weeks ago 😂

If anyone is interested.

www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/covid19/Safe%20Smart%20Step_Templat4.29%20FINAL.pdf

The last line is encouraging... “This does not have to take months”

I think there is a chance. It’s a small one, but it’s there.

www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/15/834999076/emirates-airlines-begins-conducting-rapid-covid-19-tests-for-boarding-passengers

Emirates is testing at the airport before some flights.