Hoping for Hawaii: will our November trip go ahead?
Q We have a trip booked from London to Hawaii via Seattle in late November, returning via San Francisco. I know you have written plenty about problems for people wanting to go to the US, and I note that Tui has cancelled all its Florida holidays until December. Do you think our trip will go ahead?
Name supplied
A “The potential for undetected transmission of the virus by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland threatens the security of our transportation system and infrastructure and the national security” – that is the view of Donald Trump, in the presidential proclamation he issued on 14 March 2020.
The coronavirus prohibition on British visitors, as well as other Europeans, has remained in place for more than four months. There are very few exemptions – such as “any alien whose entry would be in the national interest”, which turned out to include the Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage. Assuming you have no friends
in high places in the White House, you will have to wait and see if the ban on British and EU visitors is relaxed.
It is clearly preposterous to say that travellers from, say, Greece (where the coronavirus crisis has been very well handled) threaten US national security. But without wishing to stray too deeply into American politics it looks to me that your trip, and the entire near future of transatlantic tourism, takes second place to President Trump’s concerns about re-election and policies that will play well with his support base.
If the proclamation is still in place by the time of the US presidential election on 3 November, it may be annulled shortly thereafter, in time for your trip. Should that happen, there are a few other hurdles before you can celebrate: Hawaii, as an island state, currently requires “proof of a pre-travel test” or mandatory 14day quarantine. And it is possible that a two-week quarantine will still be required for travellers from the US when you return to the UK. All you and millions more can do is hope.
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