The Offer
- You can now book flights to Cuba with Southwest, flights start at $59
The Fine Print
- Cuba has very specific travel requirements. Review them now.
- Book by November 20, 2016 for travel November 13, 2016 through April 24, 2017
- International travel is valid daily. Service to Varadero begins November 13. Service to Havana begins December 12
- Displayed prices include all U.S. and international government taxes and fees. If traveling to Cuba fares include Cuban Government mandatory health insurance
- If traveling to Cuba, every passenger must certify that they are eligible to travel to Cuba under one of 12 general license categories, a specific license or are a Cuban National.
Our Verdict
Competition for flights to Cuba is going to be intense, flights from $59 is extremely cheap already. It’ll be interesting to see how other tourist infrastructure copes (or doesn’t cope) with the influx of tourists. Hotel chains are scrambling to grab a footing as well, but hotels are in desperate need of improvements. Make sure you actually qualify to fly to Cuba before booking tickets.
Great deal, especially for those of us using the SPG/Marriott transfer to get the CP using Marriott’s flights and hotels package. Even better news for everyone, that starting Monday, you’ll be able to bring back up to 100 cigars and one bottle of rum from Cuba as well, a significant raise from the prior limit of $100 in goods.
I had a trip booked there last week on AA, but Hurricane Matthew ruined that. I was going to use my points to hold a flight at these prices until I get my CP in 01/2017, but the departure and arrival times after February depart insanely early or arrive the following day for nearly every flight to and from my airport. I’ll hold off until they figure out their game plan with Cuba a little better.
Whoever books I recommend checking to see if SW a) includes the cost of trip health insurance in the ticket price, which is required for Americans to have before going there, and b) makes sure they get a visa well beforehand, unless they offer it in FLL or TPA – the same way AA offers visas in their MIA terminal.
Booked my trip from FLL-HAV yesterday. Unbelievably cheap.
as long as uncle sam is dictating what you have to do to get in and what you can and cant do over there forget it. home of the free (except travel to cuba)
very cheap indeed, esp. if this includes all taxes. (How are the fares on the return?) I tried following the swa links, to plug in various dates from fll to hav — and kept getting error messages?
Hoping they get this fixed, cleared up asap. About the fees, the scandalously high fund-raising fees tacked onto travel to and from other Caribbean destinations (esp. Jamaica) has gotten out of hand, pushing $100 each way in some cases. (Guessing its worst in British Common-“wealth” destinations….) Maybe Cuba can shame some competition into such outrageous fees.
Hear you though on the cautions about Cuba…. yet will be exploring the options.
my mistake re. Hav flights — they don’t begin until Dec. 12th. Return flights pricing at just $91. (e.g., which includes $41.46 in taxes to get back to the US …. )
So does personal blogging count as journalistic activities?