When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
27.07.2023 - 18:34 / smartertravel.com / Airlines
For the first time in more than 50 years, U.S. airlines have received federal approval to operate scheduled flight services to Cuba.
The six carriers given the green light by the Department of Transportation are American, Frontier, JetBlue, Silver Airways, Southwest, and Sun Country. They can begin service to nine cities in Cuba—Camaguey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara, and Santiago de Cuba, but not Havana—as early as this fall. From the U.S. side, Cuba will be served from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Philadelphia.
Related:Delta Says ‘Forget the Price, Buy the Experience.’ Should You?Yet to be decided is which U.S. carriers will be awarded rights to fly to Havana, Cuba’s capital and largest city. As a group, U.S. airlines have applied to operate around 60 daily flights to Havana, but the air-services agreement only allows for a maximum of 20 daily roundtrips.
The airlines approved for service must now request authorization from the Cuban government before beginning scheduled services. The airlines’ proposed launch dates range from late-2016 to early-2016; marketing and ticket sales should begin several months in advance.
For the time being, significant restrictions on Americans’ travel to Cuba remain in place. In particular, tourist travel to Cuba must fall under one of 12 categories recognized by the DOT’s Office of Foreign Assets Control: “family visits; official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations; journalistic activity; professional research and professional meetings; educational activities; religious activities; public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions; support for the Cuban people; humanitarian projects; activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes; exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials; and certain authorized export transactions.”
No doubt such bureaucratic hurdles will be dispensed with soon enough, possibly even before the resumption of schedule air services between the two countries.
Reader Reality Check
Do you plan to visit Cuba?
More from SmarterTravel: American Sets Start Date for Spend-Based Mile Earning Is the TSA’s PreCheck Overpriced and Overcomplicated? United Chases Big Spenders with New Business ClassAfter 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.
We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable
When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
A Portuguese airline will be soon be making its way to North America with new routes to three major cities next year.
Police bodycam footage obtained by the New York Post offers a glimpse into what happened after an American Airlines passenger — known for the viral "not real" video — was removed from the flight.
With summer vacations currently in full swing, travelers have now blurred the seasonal lines making the summer the Caribbean’s new high season. According to several reports, air travel to the Caribbean for the period from June through August 2023 (typically low season) shows almost a 50% increase in booked flights over the same months in 2019. As more tourists seek beach getaways to the Caribbean this summer, the demand has increased for beachy Caribbean villas where travelers can gather with friends and loved ones while enjoying luxury accommodations and near-perfect beach weather.
United Airlines has banned a woman from flying with the airline after she forced a flight to divert from its intended destination, the airline told Insider in a statement.
20-year-old Marley Stevens has put out a viral PSA on TikTok not to fly with Frontier Airlines after she claimed the airline wouldn't let her on her flight over the weekend — and proceeded to reschedule her for a flight leaving two days later. She told Insider she flew to her destination on a different airline, but she's still awaiting her refund for the gaffe.
Bad news for the airlines often translates as good news for travel consumers.
Beginning on June 1, Spirit will become the third airline to pull out of the Cuba market altogether, joining Frontier and Silver Airways. Two other airlines, American and JetBlue, have cut capacity on their Cuba flights, either by reducing frequency or downgrading to smaller planes.
Flying to Europe between now and July 31? Good. Flying on a first-, business-, or full coach-fare ticket? Even better. Because, bonus miles.
Alaska Airlines is justly lauded for its Mileage Plan loyalty program, which among other features boasts 17 airline partners, allowing program members to earn and redeem miles for flights throughout the world.
Until yesterday, American Airlines customers dismayed at the airline’s August 1 pivot to a spend-based mileage program had a fallback option: Earn miles for their American flights in Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan program, which still awards miles the old-fashioned way, according to the distance flown.
It would be an understatement to say that travel to Cuba hasn’t met the airlines’ expectations.