When do you think the border will reopen?

[bcwife76]

Air Canada is currently operating daily flights out of Vancouver to both San Francisco and Los Angeles. We also have daily flights to Seattle and Dallas but those are on American carriers.

 

[Chip_Dale]

Don't know what we are doing Flying out of Buffalo beginning September if borders are open. Presently FL has 14 day quarantine for flights out of NY. Might change flight out of Detroit or cancel

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

Hi, dual citizen here. Let's remember what "the border is closed" actually means: No tourism, no travel allowed that a border guard deems to be for fun or "non-essential." But there are plenty of other reasons to cross, hence the Air Canada flights. Also, AC will fly you somewhere, but they don't get to decide whether or not you're allowed into the country to which they take you, U.S. or anywhere else. Not their problem.
Citizens are free to repatriate, so U.S. citizens living in Canada can still drive across the border, and if they're also Canadian citizens, like me, they can drive back across after providing a plan for how they will self-isolate for 14 days.

I wish I could remember where I read it, but someone wrote a piece (for CBC maybe?) about his theory that the border will open in the next six weeks due to a combination of political and economic pressures. Doug Ford has already said that he feels people who own cottages and "pay the majority of property taxes" for certain towns can't be denied access. How long before that logic extends to people from other provinces? Other countries? How many businesses will beg for tourists to be allowed for their vital summer season? If CERB isn't extended, how many people will be desperate for those seasonal jobs?
Who knows if he is right, but discussing the issue in purely public-health perspectives is probably not looking at the bigger picture.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Hi, dual citizen here. Let's remember what "the border is closed" actually means: No tourism, no travel allowed that a border guard deems to be for fun or "non-essential." But there are plenty of other reasons to cross, hence the Air Canada flights. Also, AC will fly you somewhere, but they don't get to decide whether or not you're allowed into the country to which they take you, U.S. or anywhere else. Not their problem.
Citizens are free to repatriate, so U.S. citizens living in Canada can still drive across the border, and if they're also Canadian citizens, like me, they can drive back across after providing a plan for how they will self-isolate for 14 days.

I wish I could remember where I read it, but someone wrote a piece (for CBC maybe?) about his theory that the border will open in the next six weeks due to a combination of political and economic pressures. Doug Ford has already said that he feels people who own cottages and "pay the majority of property taxes" for certain towns can't be denied access. How long before that logic extends to people from other provinces? Other countries? How many businesses will beg for tourists to be allowed for their vital summer season? If CERB isn't extended, how many people will be desperate for those seasonal jobs?
Who knows if he is right, but discussing the issue in purely public-health perspectives is probably not looking at the bigger picture.

These are good points. I don’t personally think Trudeau will keep the borders closed beyond the current extension due to political pressure from the US. But with the riots, who knows? Trump may be distracted.

The one quirk of flying out of Pearson (and other airports with pre-clearance) is that if you manage to get through to your plane, you should be okay to enter the US since you don’t go through customs again.

 

[bcwife76]

The PM is busy trying to figure out how to reunite families despite the border being closed, so I have to wonder why would he be taking the time to figure all that out if he intends on opening the border again in three weeks?

 

[wdwmom3]

The PM is busy trying to figure out how to reunite families despite the border being closed, so I have to wonder why would he be taking the time to figure all that out if he intends on opening the border again in three weeks?

I agree with this. I think they may allow things like that with mandatory quarantines. But I don’t think anyone is in a rush to let tourists from the US in. No way border will be open to tourists this summer without a 14 day quarantine,

 

[Donald - my hero]

The first flight on Air Canada from Halifax is June 21. Look at those crappy flight times!

View attachment 498087

I actually had a good chuckle over this! For just shy of $1,000 you can spend 44 HOURS getting to Orlando, seriously?!?! Who would actually pick that ?

 

[SirDuff]

Hi, dual citizen here. Let's remember what "the border is closed" actually means: No tourism, no travel allowed that a border guard deems to be for fun or "non-essential." But there are plenty of other reasons to cross, hence the Air Canada flights. Also, AC will fly you somewhere, but they don't get to decide whether or not you're allowed into the country to which they take you, U.S. or anywhere else. Not their problem.
Citizens are free to repatriate, so U.S. citizens living in Canada can still drive across the border, and if they're also Canadian citizens, like me, they can drive back across after providing a plan for how they will self-isolate for 14 days.

I wish I could remember where I read it, but someone wrote a piece (for CBC maybe?) about his theory that the border will open in the next six weeks due to a combination of political and economic pressures. Doug Ford has already said that he feels people who own cottages and "pay the majority of property taxes" for certain towns can't be denied access. How long before that logic extends to people from other provinces? Other countries? How many businesses will beg for tourists to be allowed for their vital summer season? If CERB isn't extended, how many people will be desperate for those seasonal jobs?
Who knows if he is right, but discussing the issue in purely public-health perspectives is probably not looking at the bigger picture.

Actually, it is their problem. Not their decision, but their problem. If they fly you somewhere and you are not allowed in (in normal times, meaning that you don't have the right passport/visa/documents), they have to fly you back home (and pay a fine). That's why they check your documentation at check-in/at the gate and post requirements on the website (e.g. Air Canada always has the note about needing an eTA (at least if you're booking your flight from Europe)). I've not read anywhere that this has been waived for people who are not let in due to Covid-19 rules.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I actually had a good chuckle over this! For just shy of $1,000 you can spend 44 HOURS getting to Orlando, seriously?!?! Who would actually pick that ?

I wonder if that time in the air counts towards your quarantine time?

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I wonder if that time in the air counts towards your quarantine time?

Coming home you'd only have 12 days left! LOL

 

[Iralyn]

Exclusive: Canada, U. S. set to extend border closure to end-July - sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...der-closure-to-end-july-sources-idUSKBN23G301

 

[bcwife76]

Not surprised. When they made the announcement yesterday about letting in immediate family I figured this meant the border would be closed still for travel for at least another month. My trip to the Yukon is looking better and better! lol

 

[Dawg74]

Well, I hope things get better soon, we want to travel south.

 

[Aug2020distrip]

Once that is official we will be cancelling. At least cancelling our condo, since it’s 100% refundable if we cancel by mid July.
If by some miracle things get better and border opens up in August, we can just book a different condo last minute. But it’s not looking very likely.

I wonder how long the 14 day quarantine will last. It’s just very stressful trying to plan another Trip instead without knowing. Maybe will try for March, but then we need to deal with spring break and Easter crowds.

 

[FinnFogg]

Sigh - That doesn’t bode well for our Aug 29-Sept 7 trip to WDW. My hopes were slim before this, but I think this seals the deal. Even if they don’t extend past the end of July, I can’t imagine that they will open without quarantine restrictions (at least to start). Now I think I need to decide what to do about our DVC points. They expire end of Sept, so not sure whether to cancel reservations and deposit the points in RCI, or try to rent the existing reservations to those south of the boarder who can actually use them!

 

[CJK]

The quarantine back into Canada is what makes me think it's time to cancel our September trip. I still have hope that the border will open by then, but I've lost hope about the forced 14 day quarantine. We have to cancel by the end of June in order to get refunded, so I guess we've got a couple weeks to make the final decision.

 

[Aug2020distrip]

Looks like a lot of us are in the same boat

 

[Frozen2014]

+ 1
We were thinking maybe we can make our cruise or WDW after all for end of Aug...but this pretty much loses hope. If we can't get there, then it ain't happening (or as others say, if 14 day quarantine is required upon return, even if opens Aug)

 

[Aug2020distrip]

Why did I pick a user name based on the date I was going? That wasn’t very smart in retrospect lol

 

[Dawg74]

Why did I pick a user name based on the date I was going? That wasn’t very smart in retrospect lol

None of us could have predicted this, it’s crazy how much the world is disrupted and specifically for us travellers our travel world. If you don’t get August I hope you can plan a make up trip even better!!