Horrible surprise at the Meade household! BE WARNED

[MajGenl.Meade]

Just thought I'd take a look at our travel flight plans - depart Jan 2 for a couple of days in the UK then on to South Africa for 6 or so weeks - and we have narrowly avoided having our entire vacation (and all the bookings and money) go down the drain

The UK government has a new thing for furriners - Electronic Travel Authorization. I don't worry (still have UK passport) but Margaretta would be denied access to the flight in Cleveland without this thing.

Donwload an App - find it doesn't work. Go online and provide photos of p.port and face. Answer questions (fortunately none on nuclear physics - close one!). Then "enter" and wait three business days for approval.

As it happens lads, the approval came in by email just three minutes after I hit "enter". But the point is, the point is, if I hadn't taken a last scan of the travel plan on-line, we would have rolled into CLE Hopkins on Friday to find my wife banned and me cursing a blue whale trying to use my PC or (shudder) phone to summon up an ETA which would allow her to board.

So be warned - travel to the UK has this new thing

[BoSoxGal]

Yikes! So glad it worked out in the comfort of your cozy home, that would have been very frustrating indeed!

Please get back to us on the status of the genocide of white South Africans once you've arrived and gotten settled in SA, won't you?

[Sue U]

In a similar vein, Spousal Unit and I were set to take a jaunt to Montreal in September. Packing the bags early on the morning of departure we check the travel documents and discover SU's passport expired the month before. After some initial swearing and recrimination, we canceled the Montreal reservations (including several dinners and a jazz club) and rebooked for Washington, DC. (We've always had a good time in Our Nation's Capital, and since we hadn't looked at what was going on anywhere else within an easy day's drive, this was a reasonable alternative choice for a getaway.) Montreal will have to wait til spring.

[Big RR]

So be warned - travel to the UK has this new thing

And the EU will have a similar thing (ETIAS) beginning in 2026. We have a trip to Spain planned in October and are watching when it will start.

[MajGenl.Meade]

And the EU will have a similar thing (ETIAS) beginning in 2026. We have a trip to Spain planned in October and are watching when it will start.

Good to know that too.

Yeah Sue - the expiring passport thing . . . both of our USAs expire in May but I see there are exciting on-line ways to do some renewals including for UK (mine expires in June).

The rule in SAfrica is that Amuricans (and others) may enter without a pre-issued visa - receiving a 90-day visa upon arrival as long as the passport is valid for 60 days after the scheduled departure date. We are well inside the window but are a little dubious. Some SA immigration officers don't understand (or pretend to not understand) the rules - and Home Affairs is not a total stranger to arbitrary changes of the regs depending on wind direction.

Travel (it appears) is going to be a bit more fraught as Trump time goes by

[ex-khobar Andy]

I travel to UK twice a year - replaced my passport a few weeks ago. All done on line, got a photo .pdf from Walgreens, very efficient. The amusing thing was that I paid USPS something like $70 for a speedy post to send my old pp to Peterborough; it took two weeks to get there; they turned it around in about two days and I got it back in my hand a week after they received it. My fee - £126 IIRC - included DHL delivery to my door.

I went on line looking for a deal on the airfare and I found that if I fly Louisville - Chicago -Naples (Italy) - London - Chicago - Louisville, the price is almost identical to a London only flight. I have wanted to see Pompeii since I first read about it when I was maybe 10 - so this itinerary gives me a free few days in Naples. But I will be a foreigner and, since the absurd Brexit, not an EU citizen, so I will have to check the Italian entry requirements.

[Big RR]

FWIW, even though it is a bit of a pain in the ass, I doubt it will be much of a process. From what i understand, ETIAS will be relatively painless; sure they bitch about tourists, but most places realize they are essential to their economy.