Delta & American Open Reservations For Flights To Havana

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Over the weekend and in the early hours of this morning Delta and American Airlines added their respective USA – Havana flights to their schedules and opened up bookings to anyone who qualifies for travel to Cuba. As much as I’d like to go on another rant about the sheer stupidity of the rules governing who can and who cannot travel to Cuba from the US I’ll restrain myself and focus on the route news.

Delta Schedules Havana Flights

Delta was a big winner when it came to which airlines were awarded flights from the US to Cuba and, as such, gets to fly daily flights to the Cuban capital from Atlanta, Miami and New York JFK.

The airline has scheduled all of its daily Havana flights to commence on the same date – 1 December 2016.

Atlanta – Havana

DL639 ATL 11:45 – 13:50 HAV (Daily A319 service)
DL648 HAV 14:40 – 16:48 ATL (Daily A319 service)

Miami – Havana

DL625 MIA 11:10 – 12:25 HAV (Daily A320 service)
DL650 HAV 13:20 – 14:24 MIA (Daily A320 service)

New York (JFK) – Havana

DL651 JFK 09:10 – 12:55 HAV (Daily A319 service)
DL620 HAV 13:45 – 16:50 JFK (Daily A319 service)

Havana – image: Bryan Ledgard via Flickr

If you were hoping to catch a cheap fare to see what all the fuss is about then you’re probably going to be disappointed.

Flights out of Atlanta seem to hover around the $500 – $760 level (round-trip)

Flights out of New York are considerably better priced at between $410 and $430:

And the truly outrageous prices have been saved for the Miami – Havana route where a 476 mile roundtrip will start at around $370 and go up to over $600! And this is for Basic Economy seating!

I don’t know how Delta thinks it will get away with charging twice as much for a 476 mile flight as we’ve recently seen other airlines charge for transatlantic travel but, presumably, the airline feels that there are enough people willing to pay these prices. If these people exist I’d love to meet them…..I could make a fortune selling bridges 🙂

Havana – image: Robbie Sproule via Flickr

American Airlines Opens Bookings For Havana Flights

The US DOT only awarded American Airlines flights to Havana out of two cities (Miami and Charlotte) but the airline did get 4 daily frequencies out of Miami.

In what may be an attempt to get one over Delta (airlines can be quite childish) American has scheduled its first Havana flights for 30 November 2016 – one day before Delta commences service to the Cuban capital.

Charlotte – Havana

AA801 CLT 11:53 – 14:35 HAV (Daily A319 service)
AA802 HAV 15:35 – 18:08 CLT (Daily A319 service)

Miami – Havana

AA017 MIA 07:15 – 08:30 HAV (Daily 737 service)
AA1447 MIA 10:05 – 11:24 HAV (Daily 737 service)
AA2699 MIA 11:45 – 12:56 HAV (Daily 737 service)
AA1345 MIA 14:50 – 15:59 HAV (Daily 737 service)

AA2678 HAV 09:25 – 10:38 MIA (Daily 737 service)
AA1334 HAV 12:25 – 13:38 MIA (Daily 737 service)
AA2696 HAV 14:00 – 15:13 MIA (Daily 737 service)
AA2482 HAV 17:05 – 18:18 MIA (Daily 737 service)

Unfortunately someone appears to have forgotten to inform American’s IT department that the airline’s 737 and A319 aircraft aren’t an all-business class option so, at the time of writing, only business class prices are loaded for both of American’s Havana routes:

Also, I suspect that these fares may just be “holding fares” until the airline gets its act together as $813 seems to be the fare for whatever dates I select on the Miami route.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see if these prices stick. I picked a set of dates (on the MIA-HAV route) where Delta was charging $622 for Basic Economy seating and, sure enough, American is offering Business Class for, comparatively, not much more:

Just to be clear: I would never waste cash or miles on a Business Class seat for a flight as short as MIA-HAV. Personally I think you’d have to be nuts to do that….but each to their own.

Award Availability

With prices looking like they’re going to be sky-high on the routes to Cuba award travel is definitely going to be worth looking into.

As things stand I can’t see anything other than AAnytime availability on American Airlines  with prices ranging from 27,500 to a staggering 80,000 AAdvantage miles for a one-way ticket:

Considering the low value of Delta’s sky miles (I value them lower than AAdvantage Miles) their offering may be slightly better:

One way fares seem to be priced, pretty consistently, between 35,000 and 40,000 SkyMiles. That may sound a lot but it’s definitely an option if you’re faced with a $600+ fare.

Bottom Line

Delta’s flights appear to be ready to book right away while American appears to still be working on things at their end.

However, whether flights are actually bookable or not is secondary to the prices that the airlines (Delta) feel they can charge for comparatively short flights – perhaps someone needs to remind them that they’re flying to Cuba and not a dangerous war zone.

Hopefully, after things settle down and travel to/from Cuba isn’t quite so “new”, fares will start to come down and we’ll see the airlines be a bit more generous with the awards they release. Until then, however, it looks like it’s a case of pay up or stay at home.

[HT: RoutesOnline]

Featured image: Bryan Ledgard via Flickr