News and notes from around the interweb:
- New York Times on hotels not living up to their cleanliness promises
- United Airlines is now willing to sell economy plus seats to basic economy passengers at check-in.
- April rental car center fire at Fort Myers airport ruled accidental but convenient, did $100 million damage. (HT: Jonathan W.)
- How Covid-19 broke the airline pricing model.
- An American may be fined $569,000 for violating Canada’s Covid restrictions remember, it’s just the U.S.-Canada land border that is closed (to some). You can still fly and quarantine.
The last bullet point is wrong. Most Americans can’t fly and quarantine to Canada since non-essential travel is banned. That includes Americans who own cottages and other tourists. Canadians can fly to the US and quarantine upon return to Canada, but most Americans can’t go to Canada.
@Jason
Wrong
Americans can fly
Nobody checks why you fly
They do check on the quarantine though
@Gary and @Doug
– Per the Canada.ca website Americans cannot travel/fly to Canada unless
A) you’re a Canadian citizen or immediate family member of a Canadian citizen + stay in Canada forat least 15 days
B) You’re a foreign national meeting two requirements 1) traveling for ESSENTIAL travel that DOES NOT “ allow people to travel to Canada for optional or discretionary reasons, such as for tourism, recreation or entertainment.” 2) traveling from the US or exempt from travel restrictions
Am I missing or misunderstanding something here? Not trying to be rude or anything, but I’d love to travel to Canada to get away from the US for a while and obviously my reason for traveling would be considered “non-essential” therefore not sure why it’s been stated that I can fly to Canada and quarantine. I don’t mind quarantining for 14+ days in Canada if I could, but my understanding from the official Canada.ca website as a US Citizen flying to Canada for a non-essential reason is that I would not be allowed entry. Is there something I don’t know or misunderstanding because if so I’d love to know and think this should be clarified and not lead readers think they can fly to Canada if they quarantine.
Thanks
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/coronavirus-covid19/travel-restrictions-exemptions.html
@Chris,
It may be similar to how the land border with Mexico is currently closed to essential travel only. Lol. Mexico will let you drive right in, no questions asked. Crossing back over to the US and it still takes hours waiting in line with all the other super essential, totally necessary vehicles. (Source: crossed back and forth last week in Arizona during a single day)
@Kyle
Thanks for your response. Yes, I’m aware of land crossings to Mexico I actually live on the border and you’re correct-you can cross to Mexico no questions asked and same to cross back to the US (I would assume it’s the same if you flew to Mexico and back to the US – apparently a lot of Americans are traveling to Mexico since it’s one of the few countries Americans can travel easily to).
However, that being said you cannot compare the Canadian border and Mexican border with the US as they are not the same even pre-COVID. After COVID Canada is enforcing entry because their government is taking CV seriously unlike the Mexican government unfortunately. Americans and most other citizens can travel to Mexico via flight regardless of whether travel is essential or non-essential unlike Canada.
I’m just trying to understand if an American citizen can actually fly to Canada and quarantine and still be allowed entry. By Doug’s comment it sounds anecdotal “nobody checks why you fly” – according to who or what? It’s quite possible that an American could fly and if lucky you may get a Canadian Customs officer who may not ask your reason for traveling and whether it’s “essential” or “non-essential” and you luck out and are allowed in. That said that would be very risky because you’d be violating Canadian law especially given the article Gary posted about the American being fined for violating COVID restrictions and I’d be extremely cautious about flying to Canada and lying to a Customs Officer to gain entry. That’s me though…
My point is that no US citizen should just assume to plan and travel to countries where the country’s government website states whether you’re allowed entry depending on your reasons for traveling (this is fluid and is changes daily/weekly/monthly per country). Ie. You can travel to the UK or Turkey as an American, but you have to self-quarantine for 14 days. However most countries in the EU will NOT allow entry to Americans even if you were to quarantine and they are enlarging this very strictly.
The last thing anything wants is to spend the time and money to book a flight, hotel, trip and “wing it” just to be told you’re not allowed entry. The law on entry to Canada seems pretty clear to me per their website and @Jason is correct. So I’m just asking if @Gary and @Doug know something else I (and @Jason) don’t know if I wanted to fly to Canada and even self-quarantine if my travel is “non-essential.” My understanding is no American can do that unless it’s “essential travel” so I’m just asking for clarification because this can be misleading and risky to Americans who would like to travel to Canada as “non-essential” travel.