Surge in Travel Authorizations might not be going well, hoping it gets better, soon

[MattDinSC]

Negril lovers, this is my first post in a long while. I love this forum, I guess, because people who love this destination are good people.

This week is the first week that Jamaica is requiring ALL residents of the entire USA (and Mexico, Brazil and the RD) to upload negative COVID-19 RT-PCR results as part of their online travel authorization process. Can you imagine the surge in work load that is presenting to scrutinize all those varying test results? Sure, Texas, Florida and California, which required test results before, are huge States but the underlying population base in the US alone just increased by what, 5 fold or more? And Brazil and Mexico, while these may not be huge sources of travelers to Jamaica (and I have no idea) these are highly populated Countries.

Our close friends, who have traveled to Jamaica many times, often with us, have flights to MBJ from CHS via CLT in the morning (Saturday, Aug 22) so, according to the guidelines, they both got the proper Covid-19 test last Friday (7 days ago), within the 10 day window but with time to get the results in time to apply, those results were negative and they completed the Travel Authorization application on Monday, which was exactly 5 days out as required.

As of tonight, they have received no response of any kind to the application. Not a denial, not a request for more information, nothing. So, absent some surprise overnight emailed authorization, which seems unlikely now, they will call the airline and cancel their flights in the morning despite their negative test results and seemingly good health and stay home.

I suspect this in not an isolated case. This is unfortunate, especially for the people in Jamaica they were going to spend money with. I fully understand the Country's desire to protect its citizens and Jamaica has done what seems like a really good job with that. I honestly do not think the US could do better in this process and obviously has done a lot worse with virus spread control.

However, I suspect this surge in uploaded test results is going to challenge the system and there are going to be a lot of last minute cancellations, for no reason other than lack of capacity. It will be interesting to see just how many travelers from the US will get authorizations and actually be able to enter Jamaica during the next few days, weeks.

I'd love to hear from people who successfully got authorizations, for arrival after August 20, and with negative Covid test results, obviously, to see how this process went for them.

We are scheduled to come back to Negril in October. I think about it every minute of the day. Negril is the most emotionally comforting place I've ever been and we've been coming for 20 years or so. While my profile might suggest I am a newbie to this forum, I've been reading and posting for many, many years, I just lost my old login info and had to start from scratch.

I cannot wait until we return in October. Rob's post about the devalued $JAH made me feel even better about visiting now when it is needed the most but travel is the most stressful. But at this point, like everyone else, we are faced with three conflicting deadlines: Time to cancel resort without 100% penalty = >15 days before arrival; time to take Covid test with negative result = <10 days before arrival; time to apply for Travel Authorization and hope you get a response = <5 days before departure. Ug, that is quite a challenge. I think a lot of people are going to have to cancel on the 16th day before their arrival if they do not think they have a chance of clearing this hurdle, even if they do not have Covid. I am starting to think we will unless we hear this system starts to work better.

Let's hope to hear this gets better, soon.

Love Negril, cannot wait to return.

Matt D
Charleston, SC

[Bnewb]

Matt, so sorry to hear about your friends not receiving their travel approval. There's a phone number that can be called for travel authorization (hit or miss trying to get through)... but since they're travelling tomorrow morning, it seems it will be of no use.

Rob talks to a few of the Ministries regularly and hopefully will find out the issues with the travel authorization...but...you might be very well right about a surge in the workload causing problems.
I truly hope it works out for you in October.

[Captain Oil]

Till they straighten out this process we will refrain from booking travel to Jamaica. We had huge issues with refunds when travel was suspended in April. Not going to go thru that again.

[Barb111]

This has been all over the resort FB pages. People having to cancel because they are not getting authorizations. Also, they are calling the assistance hotline number with no answer. Multiple emails with no response. The authorization website crashed yesterday and was down for awhile. Some of the more frequently used US travel agents are posting to contact them if no response within 48 hours before departure. This has certainly become an issue.

[MattDinSC]

Well there is a happy ending to the story, albeit a stressful week. When our friends went to bed last night, still no response, when they woke up this morning expecting to call the airline to cancel, their Travel Authorizations had arrived overnight so they happily texted me from the airport. That is still too long of a wait and way too close for most travelers.

Now I'm just jealous that our friends will be eating a proper Jamaican breakfast in the morning and I've got canned callaloo

Fingers crossed for our trip in October, for everyone's plans, and for the travel industry and Jamaica.

[Rumlover]

So happy your friends were able to go. This will be a huge issue for all of us and many are not going to be willing to jump over all the hurdles. We have a little over 90 days until we depart and I hope the process will get a little easier. As many folks here do I need this trip!!