Cuba Libre

[whereishome]

Alrighty, looking at some special travel for two in January, 2012 potentially.

CNS/BNE-LAX-???-HAV-???-LAX-NRT-BNE

My questions
- How do I get to Cuba? All I've found so far is flying Mexicana via Panama. Am willing to sub LAX for YVR if it's easier...
- What's the legalities and deal with Cuba anyways? I hear you have to have separate sequences because US won't allow you in if you have HAV on your itinerary.
- Can I do this on a OneWorld Pacific thingy?
- How much will I be looking at to do this in Y?


I have asked a TA to look into it, but she seemed pretty blank on anything other than standard xONE4s.

Any other ideas? We want Oz - Cuba - Japan - Oz.

Cheers

 

[UP4014]

Cuba via Canada is I think the preferred route, at least for the people I know who travel there on a semi regular basis.

 

[docjames]

Cuba via Canada is I think the preferred route, at least for the people I know who travel there on a semi regular basis.

via CUN (Cancun) or MEX (Mexico City) are the other preferred routes (Mexicana - except it's the subsiduary "Click" - think F100s or 717s The F100s have 35" pitch!! ).

We bought an open jaw BNE-LAX-JFK and SCL-AKL-BNE with a one-way on MX JFK-CUN (afte 3 days in NYC) then used miles for CUN-DFW-SCL.

I'd say the easiest would be
BNE-LAX-MEX-HAV and vv (some of the MEX-HAV have a "technical stop" in CUN where they refuel and transitting pax saty on the aircraft.) So look for a cheapie BNE-LAX and then LAX-HAV via MEX on Mexicana. You'll probably need to ticket the MEX-HAV bit seperately as US immigration doesnt like to see Cuba on the plan (but dont seem to ask about it).

Happy to proivde more info if required.

 

[ronza]

I did Cuba as a 'side trip' on a OneWorld Award RTW earlier this year; you will need it as a separate booking from your US tickets (if you even want to visit the US at all - Air Canada serve CUN and NRT but might be a pricey open jaw to get home). I did CCS-MIA-CUN-HAV in one epic day (was a bit disheartened in MIA when the gate next to me had a direct MIA-HAV flight but alas) and then CUN-JFK all on American Airlines.

The cheapest tickets are out of Cancun; Mexicana and Cubana are the same price all year round AFAIK. Very nice 717s which are deserted + QF SCs on MX though. The Cubana website is hopeless and you might run into problems on the Mexicana site if you don't have a Mexican CC. I went through an online travel agency (Jetabroad) which set me back A$380 r/t CUN-HAV-CUN. A heap of places in Cancun advertise flights to Havana so it wouldn't be hard to book something when your there for around US250 r/t but at that time of the year, mightn't risk it.

Alot of package tourists come from Canada and flights+hotel can be ridiculously cheap out of there - worth looking into if you want to chill at an all inclusive though Cuba is a much more interesting place outside of the resorts! Air Transat might do flight only packages but they are to some more out of the way airports - Cayo Coco up north, Holguin in the West, Santa Clara in the middle of Cuba and Varadero.

The Cuban 'visa' is a pretty simple piece of card which you can get at the Mexicana ticket desk before you check in. Mexican Customs search the flights back from HAV very, very thoroughly for >25 cigars so worthwhile packing it in your hand carry. Technically the cigars are illegal to bring into the US but I breezed through JFK without breaking stride at customs.

 

[harvyk]

Just out of interest, what about flying the other way and using AF going BNE \ SIN \ CDG \ HAV? If you have no real need to go to the US this is also an option...

This means there is no dealing with US CBP whom may or may not like the fact you have HAV on your itinerary.

(PS I just noticed the requirement for Japan, maybe you could do BNE \ NRT \ CDG on JL, then CDG \ HAV \ CDG on AF, then CSG \ NRT \ BNE on JL...)