This affects europeans traveling to the US: https://thepointsguy.com/news/biden-europe-travel-ban/
But the other side of this is that transatlantic travel is currently unbalanced, because there are a lot fewer Europeans heading to the US. This is causing problems for the airlines. So maybe some improvements in flight availability is in the offing.
Or not...
Maybe, maybe, this means the end to testing before returning to the US is also in sight....
I don’t think opening up to more people means that we will be giving up one testing for arriving passengers anytime soon. It would be nice if they at least removed testing for vaccinated passengers but with the amount of breakthrough cases they are seeing with the delta variant, I can’t see the testing requirement being dropped within the near future. It will probably be one of the last covid travel restrictions to be lifted.
This will go a long way towards smoothing the feathers of the French, who are understandably annoyed that Americans can visit France since early June but they can’t go to the States. I hope it happens.
The French may have addressed the problem on their own. They now say you won’t be able to go to a restaurant or anyplace without their health pass and Americans can’t get it so tourists may decide to wait on any visits for a while
I don’t understand the problem with the airlines however. If 100 Americans go to Europe today then they’re all going to come back so you have pretty much the same number of people flying each direction. It’s not unbalanced flights it’s just the fact that you only have half the population flying
no, Carol, that's not why the French are doing it - they did it to drive up their own vax rates - 2.2M vaccine appts have been made in 48 hrs.
Everyone from the French gov't has been saying that tourists, incl Americans, will still be able to show their CDC card. And we're not the only one that can't use the French pass - Canadians, Germans, etc., can't.
Part of the issue with reciprocity has been Astra Zeneca which did not apply for FDA approval for their vaccine. I think they will be or are seeking full approval (not EUA) but that will take awhile. Because AZ was heavily used in Europe that has presented an issue on reciprocity.
