Tempted to book for this August!

[logic500]

Originally Posted by disneymike

It's the primary barrier to entry if you are covered by the proclamation.

As I said, I'm sure the hundreds of thousands of UK residents not covered by it for various reasons would disagree. If the US went green now, they could go visit their families today without worrying about the quarantine on return that they may not be able to do because of work/family etc. Just because it makes no difference to you doesn't mean that's the case for everyone.

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The vast majority of UK citizens who want to go as tourists are bound by the ban.

US citizens or those naturalised legally are a whole different matter.

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by disneymike

For what it's worth, I don't think it will be a case of one country making a first move and the other following, (i.e. will we 'green' them first or will they remove the proclamation first). They will want to hail this as a binational joint accomplishment, so I'd almost put money on the fact we will green them on the exact same day the proclamation is removed, by prior agreement, which they will joint announce at much fanfare about how great we both are at vaccinations.

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Agreed - based on the outputs of the G7 meeting, I'd say this is almost certainly the way things will happen.

I've just lost my 25th July flight to Orlando, but I do feel hopeful about August and I am scoping out a few options.

The fly in the ointment is sodding Delta, both in terms of the rise in the UK but also the big surge going on in many areas of the US right now - some low-vaccination states such as Missouri - are now looking at Delta becoming dominant. I just don't know how that will be viewed on either side of the Atlantic.

[disneymike]

Originally Posted by logic500

The vast majority of UK citizens who want to go as tourists are bound by the ban.

US citizens or those naturalised legally are a whole different matter.

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I agree, which is exactly my point. People keep saying that the UK's traffic light designation for the US is an irrelevance until the ban is lifted. For literally hundreds of thousands of families across the country that's simply not the case, and it's keeping them apart needlessly given the current data.

If you want to say that it's an irrelevance for UK citizen tourists, then yeah, agreed.

The distinction is vitally important for everyone in this position.

[logic500]

Originally Posted by disneymike

I agree, which is exactly my point. People keep saying that the UK's traffic light designation for the US is an irrelevance until the ban is lifted. For literally hundreds of thousands of families across the country that's simply not the case, and it's keeping them apart needlessly given the current data.

If you want to say that it's an irrelevance for UK citizen tourists, then yeah, agreed.

The distinction is vitally important for everyone in this position.

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But this is a post started by a potential tourist to the US 🙂

All of the threads I have an interest in are all tourists.

Those who have green cards, citizens by birth or by means of other naturalisation programs are not on these forums... they can visit here, do their quarantine, and then are free to return to the US after their hol or business.

Which is great for them... but the travel ban is stopping UK tourists entering full stop.

These are forums for us based in the UK trying to have our holidays across the pond.

[sparkles18]

Originally Posted by 7SeasSailor

We may well be on the same Gatwick flight that day and I wish that I had your level of optimism. My countdown is different because it is timed from the hour that I leave home on Monday to overnight at Gatwick.

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We are booked on the Tampa flight from Gatwick. Really hope we can go but if not we have a back up holiday booked for Christmas. Will be upset if we can't go on that holiday!

[disneymike]

Originally Posted by logic500

Those who have green cards, citizens by birth or by means of other naturalisation programs are not on these forums... they can visit here, do their quarantine, and then are free to return to the US after their hol or business.

These are forums for us based in the UK trying to have our holidays across the pond.

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Again, no argument at all this is true for the majority. You will note that in my original post I recognised the proclamation is the primary blocker for the vast amount of people, both generally and who will be reading/posting on this UK based tourism forum.

However...all I'm pointing out to people who keep saying this over and over again is that these constant posts on lots of threads to say 'the traffic light status of the US is an irrelevance' read as bit...callous to a non-insignificant amount of people, for whom it's all they have been waiting on.

Try to imagine you had a close US citizen/resident relative (therefore you would be exempt from PP10143) who you hadn't seen in 2 years, and the only thing stopping you from going to see them was the fact that the US is amber and you cannot get the time off work to quarantine when you arrive home. You wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it as irrelevant, given countries with higher incidences of COVID-19 are now going to be going on the green list. It's a total slap in the face from the UK government, and highly relevant to someone in these shoes.

I KNOW you're personally talking from a UK citizen going on holiday perspective, and I'm honestly not intending to have a go here, but just think of how that sounds to other observers not in your situation. I sometime feel even the government decision-makers have tunnel-vision on this.

Also, the piece of your reply I've quoted above is bizarre. Very 'it's a local forum for local people', and it betrays a provincial outlook that sits in tandem with the 'if it's irrelevant to me it's irrelevant to everyone' mindset. There are indeed several UK residents with US citizenship, US residents, or people who have close family in the US who are members on this forum, and would be outside the scope of the proclamation. I've seen their posts. You don't have to certify that you're a British national only with only British national/resident family to join the dibb!

Anyway, this was really just meant to be an aside because I was bored of reading that same smug line on every thread anyone starts, so I'll stop talking about it now

To steer back towards the point, if people can get good, moveable deals for August I'd personally go for it, I'm still optimistic as well that the binational announcement I'm predicting will come during July, especially if our stubborn cases start to drop a bit...

[SamH88]

Originally Posted by disneymike

Again, no argument at all this is true for the majority. You will note that in my original post I recognised the proclamation is the primary blocker for the vast amount of people, both generally and who will be reading/posting on this UK based tourism forum.

However...all I'm pointing out to people who keep saying this over and over again is that these constant posts on lots of threads to say 'the traffic light status of the US is an irrelevance' read as bit...callous to a non-insignificant amount of people, for whom it's all they have been waiting on.

Try to imagine you had a close US citizen/resident relative (therefore exempt from PP10143) who you hadn't seen in 2 years, and the only thing stopping you from going to see them was the fact that the US is amber and you cannot get the time off work to quarantine when you arrive home. You wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it as irrelevant, given countries with higher incidences of COVID-19 are now going to be going on the green list. It's a total slap in the face from the UK government, and highly relevant.

I KNOW you're personally talking from a UK citizen going on holiday perspective, and I'm honestly not intending to have a go here, but just think of how that sounds to other observers not in your situation. It sometimes feels like it's all forgotten with this attitude of 'oh it's fine our rights are taken away and restricted with an amber tag because our rights are also taken away and restricted by this other thing right now, so it doesn't matter anyway' .

Also, there are indeed several people with US citizenship, who are US residents, or who have family in the US who are members on this forum, I've seen their posts.

Anyway, this was really just meant to be an aside because I was bored of reading that same smug line on every thread anyone starts, so I'll stop talking about it now

To steer back towards the point, if people can get good, moveable deals for August I'd personally go for it, I'm still optimistic as well that the binational announcement I'm predicting will come during July, especially if our stubborn cases start to drop a bit...

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What a completely unnecessary rant.

This forum is about holidays so I'm sure any US citizens on here would know that if someone says the traffic light status is irrelevant they are specifically talking about the fact that unless the US lifts the travel ban it doesn't matter what the UK do you won't be able to go on your Florida holiday. They clearly aren't talking about it being irrelevant to people who can't go back to see their families.

[disneymike]

Well clearly trying to steer things back on point went well.

I'm not going to get into this further, I've said my piece and my opinion remains that the constant repeating, always by the same few people, on multiple threads that something that matters deeply to hundreds of thousands of people living in the UK is 'an irrelevance' because it won't make a difference to your holiday plans is at best, not a very 'empathetic' take, although I've conceded several times that if they intend this to be read just in the context of UK national only tourists then I agree with them it makes no current practical difference.

If you believe that context is implied by the nature of the forum we're on then fair enough, but the way it's often presented does not read that way to me and it comes off unnecessarily selfishly. You only have to have a quick look on twitter to see the number of mothers/fathers/siblings etc. who were hanging real hopes on a green update yesterday.

Obviously some people feel differently, and that's fine, I'm sure I'll continue to see it posted, we're allowed to agree to disagree. This has been blown out of proportion and I don't believe for a second anyone's saying this out of malice, I just wanted to point out how it can sound to some others in different circumstances.

Again to try to give the OP their thread back , do people think the prices will shoot up suddenly if the US went green (and the proclamation dropped) in July? I'm in 2 minds because I'm not sure how much general hesitancy there still will be around. We're obviously all raring to go but are we generally in the minority?

[Ooberjay]

Originally Posted by Bozza

Agreed - based on the outputs of the G7 meeting, I'd say this is almost certainly the way things will happen.

I've just lost my 25th July flight to Orlando, but I do feel hopeful about August and I am scoping out a few options.

The fly in the ointment is sodding Delta, both in terms of the rise in the UK but also the big surge going on in many areas of the US right now - some low-vaccination states such as Missouri - are now looking at Delta becoming dominant. I just don't know how that will be viewed on either side of the Atlantic.

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It shouldn't be a problem in theory, double vaccinated are unlikely to contract and spread the virus .

[mason1]

Originally Posted by sparkles18

We are booked on the Tampa flight from Gatwick. Really hope we can go but if not we have a back up holiday booked for Christmas. Will be upset if we can't go on that holiday!

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We’re booked on this flight as well - was a back up in case 1 August was cancelled (which it has been now), so keeping everything crossed.