All Travel from Europe banned for 30 days (UK is exempt)

Doesn't mean you cannot go but you cannot come home. For all practical purpose it is a total to and from ban. Are planes flying one way, only to come back empty? That is not going to work. I do hope that all of the consequences have been considered. This will not settle the stock market.

Air Canada?

Americans will be allowed to come home. They will just have to prove they are not sick by going through extra screenings.

And the United Kingdom is exempt.

It probably means all flights between the U.S. and the U.K. will be packed. I wouldn't be surprised to see extra flights put on because people will be routing via the U.K.

After the speech, stock market futures dropped 750 points.

Frank, yes they suspended all flights from Europe. People need to have a plan for their return back to the states else they’ll be stranded in Europe. Sounds like fun but with the pandemic EU countries are all stepping up their own closures and restrictions. Nothing will be certain for tourists. Being quarantined or hunkering down in a foreign country regardless of how much we love them, makes no sense for someone to travel there now knowing this.
I also think it’s a matter of when EU countries ban travel to the U.S.

I don’t see where Americans will be allowed to return home if they leave the U.S. after the 30 day ban.

It does not include flight to Europe. But good luck finding any. .

Trump said in his speech, I watched it, that Americans would be able to come home after extra screenins and proving they are healthy.

Remember, the United Kingdom is exempt.

I would suspect there will be limited flights from Europe to the United States, particularly for returning Americans and perhaps other officials and their families.

Worst case get to the UK and fly back.

UK is a big loophole. That needs to be plugged in the near future or why even bother. I have a sister in London, elderly with COPD. I told her to stay put with relatives.

CNN just announced it has received a clarification from the Dept. of Homeland Security [< corrected]. I wasn't taping it, so this is from memory and is probably not 100% correct:

• Legal residents of the United States [< corrected] can come back from Europe after screening.
• Ditto immediate families [< corrected] of American citizens with ??? something I missed ???.
• Puzzlingly, there was a reference to Schengen--and they read out a list of all the member countries, which appears to leave a loophole for countries not part of the Schengen Zone. So it seems one could visit Croatia/Montenegro/Bulgaria/Romania/Bosnia-Hercegovina and fly home from the UK.
  

With luck the details will be available by tomorrow.

Above information has been corrected based on CNN information.

Edited to add: I neglected to mention that Ireland isn't part of the Schengen Zone, either.

Fly through London......that's the obvious loophole in the announcement today. If you can't fly directly home from Antwerp or Lisbon, go to London and spend a day or two there first.

Honestly, do you think there will be planes going to Europe if there are no airplanes coming into the U.S.? To operate an airline, planes come in, and planes go out--both ways.
I can kiss our trip next Saturday to Berlin goodbye. Oh, well. That's how things go. We can certainly accept it since we're of the target age to have problems.

It will be interesting to see the details of how this is to be implemented.

Maybe Trump owed Boris a favor and is routing everyone through the UK so the UK can collect the insanely high airport fees?

I believe planes bringing pre-screened American may be allowed because there will be Europeans in the U.S. who will want to go home.

The big consideration is that Americans wanting to come home will have to go through special screenings to be allowed on the plane and then not put in quarantine when they get back. What they are we don't know.

We are to fly out on BA in less than 24 hrs to UK, then EasyJet to Germany back to UK from Ljubljana. Past cancellation timeframes for hotels...we are out a significant sum. Do you think there will be any concessions?

My knee jerk response is that this has not been well thought out as is typical of very quick decisions. The airlines cannot afford to fly empty planes to pickup a few tourists here and there even if it is several hundred. A record sell off tomorrow would not surprise me. The virus is well established in the US and fail to see how banning European travel adds to the solution. Banning China travel was appropriate when it was in one spot. Now it doesn't make much difference.

"The airlines cannot afford to fly empty planes to pickup a few tourists here and there even if it is several hundred."

The airlines have been flying empty planes back and forth to Europe, see ghost flights.

Airlines are running empty "ghost" flights during the coronavirus outbreak because of European rules forcing operators to run their allocated flights or risk losing their slots.

This doesn’t clarify much, but here is the official DHS statement:

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/03/11/homeland-security-acting-secretary-chad-f-wolf-s-statement-presidential-proclamation

We are to fly out on BA in less than 24 hrs to UK, then EasyJet to Germany back to UK from Ljubljana. Past cancellation timeframes for hotels...we are out a significant sum. Do you think there will be any concessions?

Ricki....it has been posted many times but the UK is exempt. Flights to and from the UK will be permitted so you are fine.

And the ban doesn't take place until 11:59 PM Friday.

The airlines cannot afford to fly empty planes

Passenger planes also transport lots of cargo, which makes a lot of money for the airlines.

Please keep politics out of this thread.

"This DOES NOT apply to legal permanent residents, (generally) immediate family members of U.S. citizens, and other individuals who are identified in the proclamation. "

Trump didn't make this clear.

The last sentance from the DHS statement that Laura posted
"In the next 48 hours, in the interest of public health, I intend to issue a supplemental Notice of Arrivals Restriction requiring U.S. passengers that have been in the Schengen Area to travel through select airports where the U.S. Government has implemented enhanced screening procedures.”
Sounds like you may only be able to return through some airports.

According to CNN, there has been a presidential tweet that basically walks back the entire business about cutting off trade from Europe aside from unspecified exceptions--which never made sense to me, anyway. What harm would there be in receiving shipments of goods?

From CNN
"But immediately afterward, his administration made clear it was not as drastic as the President stated: The ban would apply only to foreign nationals and not to American citizens who had been screened before entering the country, mimicking restrictions he applied to China last month."

Good lord, is anything that comes out of that man's mouth accurate? I'm going to bed. It will all change by tomorrow

The ban is on most foreign nationals who were in a Schengen country within 14 days of their arrival in the U.S. American citizens, their families, and legal permanent residents would be allowed to return after screening.

Here is the actual proclamation:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspension-entry-immigrants-nonimmigrants-certain-additional-persons-pose-risk-transmitting-2019-novel-coronavirus/

By the way, if you haven't heard......Italy today ordered the shutting of all restaurants, bars and stores until March 25. The only places that may open are supermarkets and pharmacies.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-11/conte-says-italy-will-remain-open-only-for-essential-services

I do hope that all of the consequences have been considered.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

And — well said, Ufkak (K)!

Love it Kim. Made me laugh.
I don’t get the unilateral ban. We can go there but they can’t come here? What about a ban on South Korea, Australia, UK, etc.

Diane, you do not see the whole picture. We can go there. We cannot come back. My April 14th tour BOE is sill "filling fast".

“ This” Diane sees the whole picture! My neighbor goes to Brussels and can return if healthy, but the citizens from Brussels can’t come here.
Flights out of Europe will be difficult to find.
Too many Diane’s.

I am an American citizen but reside permanently in Germany. Looks like I am banned from visiting too. So much for my vacation next week.

Only select airports will be open, those that can do testing. We don't know which ones those are yet.
Everyone is scrambling to get refunds and I am too.
This is devastating for all kinds of businesses, cruises, airlines, tours, hotels and there will be a load of bankruptcies all around the world, by the time this is over.

Laughed at the "please no politics" comment. It is ALL about politics, otherwise, why would the UK be exempt or all the countries not in the Schengen zone? Russia???

Jo There is no ban on any US citizen entering the country, as far as I can tell from the proclamation or the news reports. The restriction is that you must go through a screening process presumably before boarding the plane.

Jo, you are not banned. All you need is a U.S. passport and pass the screening.

Ah, but which airports will be doing the screening?

It doesn't matter now. Am pretty sure my flight will be cancelled.

They haven't announced which airports will be used nor what the screening will entail.

Well we arrived in Amsterdam yesterday, then leaving for an 8 day tour of Jordan on Sat (post ban), and returning on a nonstop flight from Amman to JFK on 3/22. We wouldn’t be banned from returning since our flight is originating from Amman. We’ll just have to go thru enhanced screening at JFK.

Our concern is whether Royal Jordanian or AA (since I booked thru the AA website and RJ is a codeshare) will cancel our flight home. In that case, we’ll see about returning thru the U.K. or a non-Schengen country.

As are all the head in the sand, ostentatious, virtue-signalling, tone-deaf posts about traveling under such conditions. Meanwhile some of our European forum members (Lechera) literally plead with people to listen. But I guess not.

Thanks, Ufkak.
I have been for a week also in the Japan 2011 earthquake and I try to make parallels between these two crises. What I see, these crises follow patterns and US are now following Italian patterns with a 2-3 weeks delay. Don't you believe we had politicians also that said in an earlier phase, to shut up the borders as foreigners bring the infection? The very centre of the infection turned out to be their constituencies. Here in Italy we are doing political jokes just by collecting political videos and editing them in a timeframe; and it is the timeframe that makes politicians look like the idiots they are.

Now is your turn to keep the head in the sand, but it won't last. A feature of this virus thing is that makes political tricks obsolete in a very short time. What Trump said was not very clear to begin with and it does not look clever also. But it makes little difference. In a few days it will be evident to everybody and his dog.

We are to fly out on BA in less than 24 hrs to UK, then EasyJet to
Germany back to UK from Ljubljana.

Please stay at home. Or at least stay in the UK. I don't know what you are planning between Germany and Slovenia but you will probably not enjoy the trip.

So, if my flight to and from Budapest is through Toronto, I am okay?

I expect that the reason that the ban doesn't include the UK is that the virus has spread far more in countries like Italy and France.

It is time to put aside the partisan political remarks.

So, if my flight to and from Budapest is through Toronto, I am okay?

If you are a US citizen or permanent resident, you can return from anywhere (even the Schengen travel countries). You may need to reroute your final arrival flight to arrive at an airport that has enhanced screening (but I don't know if they've announced those airports yet).

Please keep politics out of this thread.

It is hard to keep politics out of the thread because as more information and clarifications comes to light, it is more obvious that this decision is political.

Note that Europeans are banned from coming into the US, but Americans who have been in the same countries will be allowed to return. Americans are just as likely to be carriers as Europeans. There is some talk that extra screening will be required for returning Americans. That begs the question why not just do extra screening of anyone coming from Europe.

Confusion and incorrect information has consequences. There was a poster who is supposed to leave for a European trip this Saturday. He was looking to cancel because of fears about being able to get back to the US. It would be a shame to cancel, because it looks like he will be able to return. Our grandson is in France and was supposed to return within 30 days of now. His mother is panicked because of the misinformation shared last night.

It is certainly not more and more obvious that this decision is political. That is people wanting to spew their politics because they hate this ban. I hate it too but I keep my politics to myself.

For Americans flying home from the listed European countries with a 30 day ban, while exempt from the ban, as of now, they will be asked to self isolate themselves for 14 days.

I should have been specific about my comment ‘no politics ‘. It was the reference of the Trump -Boris
Assumptions hints posted by some folks regarding UK.

Extra screening for returning Americans that is not practical for everyone who would like to fly to the U.S.

How can it not be political here if politicians are making the decisions? And if you thought the non political address from the not political President was confusing, you’re not confused. Not political Vice President Pence said, “I don’t think there was any confusion.” See?

I expect that the reason that the ban doesn't include the UK is that the virus has spread far more in countries like Italy and France.

geovagriffth (sp), The Proclamation explains it. The Schengen Area has no interior border controls making individual country restrictions useless. I suspect if the possibility had existed it would have been just Italy and maybe France.

Backing up Diane a bit here, I did remove a few posts that were purely political in nature. We have always been accepting of mentioning politics if the advice given relates directly to travel. The nature of our President weighing in on travel makes the majority of the political references here acceptable as we all try and grapple with how this affects travel. Please, everyone, do what you can to keep general political commentary or conjecture off the boards as it risks the removal of discussions like this one that are genuinely needed by many to assist with travel decisions. Thanks, all. And look for a significant update to our Coronavirus FAQ for Tour Members (linked from the homepage) very soon, hopefully this afternoon.

For those suggesting that people traveling to the UK will be fine because the restrictions do not include the UK, please be very careful about your advice and assumptions. The UK may very will have its own outbreak as it progresses through the rest of Europe. Under those circumstances, it is not unreasonable to assume that travel from the UK will also be restricted at some point.

Also, Americans returning to the US from Europe are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. That type of advice might very well become mandatory if conditions get worse. But even if it remains advice only, it impacts people's decision making about whether to make travel plans or cancel travel plans.

My daughter's boss said she will have to self-quarantine for 14 days after returning from Portugal, and she's very pleased at the prospect of two additional weeks of leave. Yes, she will have to "work" from home, but nothing like being at work.