HI,

Not sure which airline it is but my parents just flew to cuba last couple of weeks. They went from manchester with First Choice - maybe you could try their website to see if they do flight only?

Cubana fly there from the Uk.

Virgin Atlantic start direct flights to Havana in June from Gatwick, and i think airtours will sell flight only on some of the charters.

There are a few little 'wrinkles' as regards flying to Cuba. You will have to pay for a Tourist Card even if you are not on a package holiday, and the immigration rules are that you must have 2 nights' accommodation booked (and written proof of this on 'official' paper ... because they will check it!!) If you don't they are within their rights to allocate you 2 nights' accommodation basically anywhere at what ever price is the going rate and not necessarily in the price bracket you had envisaged!!!

I would suggest that you contact the company HAVANATOURS as they can arrange flights and the first two nights' accommodation and the Tourist Card even if you then fly back a week or more later without buying any further accommodation from them. Mind you their prices for overnight stays in the nicer hotels are incredibly reasonable ......

been looking at the thomson web page for a holiday in guardalavaca on the 21 June flying from Gatwick. Can anyone tell me which airline thomson fly with?

Thomson use their own airline, Thomsonfly which are operated by Britannia Airways. They operate Boeing 767-200ER and 767-300ER aircraft on long haul destinations. For more info, have a look at the Thomson thread.

Darren

They used First Choice in October and March when I went

I've just checked Thomsons brochure and according to that, the Gatwick-Varadero flight is serviced by Thomsonfly/Britannia, and the Gatwick-Holguin flight is serviced by First Choice on one of their Boeing 767-300ER's (as Eloise said) or Excel (Boeing 767-200ER) depending on the time of the year. I should have looked at the flight details a bit more closely!

Darren

VinsterDJ

New Member

Joined: 12 Jan 2005


PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 1:47 pm
Post subject: Going to Cuba in January

Hi

my boyfriend and I were undecided whether to go to Rio or Cuba in January. We have decided on Cuba as we feel it's easier to travel around and see more of the country - we're going to hire a car.
We don't want to stay in a big hotel as part of a package, so does anyone have advice about taking a scheduled flight?

Any advice greatfully received.

Thanks.

Cynical is my middle name
Member

Age: 35

Joined: 10 May 2004


PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:00 pm

i know only a couple of scheduled airlines fly to havana. Cubana do - they fly via Holguin if you wanted to go there and recently Virgin have added a havana route.

Airlines such as First choice will sell you a flight to Holguin but I doubt it will be cheap.

Cubana fly to both Holguin and Havana and if you've booked your transatlantic flight with them you can bundle in very reasonable internal flights too if they're booked at the same time. Cubana don't really score highly on the customer service front and the in-flight entertainment is abysmal but it will begin the process of enculturating you into the Cuban way of doing things from the moment you check-in. They invariably are delayed but once you get to cuba you'll realise that nothing ever happens on time so you might as well get used to it fromn the beginning :-)

SM

Also Air Jamaica fly to Havana. Lots of charter flights to the various Cuban airports as well, worth looking at for comparison fares

Do any of the US carriers have scheduled flights from Florida to Havanna? Just a thought...bag a cheapy across to Miami then get onward from there?

Nivsy

The USA has a draconian trade embargo in operation against Cuba. Therefore, all US based/owned airlines are forbidden by the US government to fly to Cuba and it is impossible to fly direct from anywhere on the US mainland to Cuba even with a non-US company. US citizens wanting to visit Cuba have to do so via the territory of a third party country, the most popular ones being either Canada or Mexico. It is possible but not easy or particularly cheap to fly into Cuba from some of the other Caribbean islands. This is the main reason why there are so few American tourists to be found in Cuba and why Cubans tend to assume that everybody speaking with a north american accent is going to be Canadian!

For scheduled flights from Europe the best bets are still Cubana and Virgin for direct flights from Gatwick and Air France via Paris or Iberia via Madrid which can be a good option for those starting their journey from a UK regional airport.

SM

We flew from Manchester to Havana via Paris with Air France last January. It cost us about £450 each inc taxes. We didn't have too long scheduled to wait between flights which I like as I hate waiting around at airports esp the high price for food & drinks. We did however nearly miss our connection on the way back as we were delayed in Havana for nearly 2 hours. They held the flight so we made it but our luggage didnt but they contacted Manchester airport to tell us when we landed and sent it on a later flight and couriered to us at no charge the next morning. We were already on the plane when the problem occured which was an uncomfortable wait but they did at least keep coming round with cold water for us all and before we got on we heard that the Air Jamaica flight had been completely cancelled. My boyfriend also chose AF over AJ because of AJs poor safety record, Cubana's was even worse! (He's terrified of flying & checks these things) The free wine & rum liqueur thingy def helped me to sleep through much of the flight. Only tiny niggle was the films were dubbed in spanish or french so had to read subtitles on what were actually american films.

Are all holidays to Cuba with Thomson and Airtours now using Thomas Cook flights?

Does anyone know if Thomson and My Travel now use Thomas Cook airlines to Cuba and if so, what the seating is like. Never done Long Haul before and want to go to Cuba next month.
Thanks

I know that Thomson use Thomas Cook airlines, not sure about Airtours, but they probably do. Thomas Cook use A330 and the seating configuration is 3, 3, 3 narrowing to 2,3,2 towards the back, if you specifically want a 2 I would book these direct with Thomas Cook airlines, once your booking has been confirmed.

Many thanks for the reply