It was two o'clock in the morning on Thursday in Portugal when Donald Trump announced the suspension of travel from Europe for 30 days. Woken up to follow the presidential address, the New York Frenchman Andy Rodrigues, visiting the European country to see his grandmother, immediately set out to find a new return flight before Friday, the day of the entry into force of restrictions.
Holder of an E-2 entrepreneur visa, Andy Rodrigues is not one of the exemptions specified in the Presidential Proclamation published Wednesday, March 11. Only US citizens, green card holders and their family members are. “I looked on the website of TAP, the Portuguese airline, to find Lisbon-New York. But the payment did not go through due to bugs. I tried ten times!, exclaims this entrepreneur, co-founder of crêperies By Suzette. Each time I started again, the price increased. It went from 310 dollars to 3,500 dollars !”So he had to make up his mind: he will have to stay in France for thirty days.
On a business trip to France, Laura Casagrande was woken up at five in the morning by the repeated calls from her husband who stayed in New York. He wanted to urge him to take a return flight without delay. Employed at wine importer T Edward Wines, she was due to return on Saturday, the day after the entry into force of "travel ban“. Holder of a green card, she is not concerned by the measure. But she was ignoring this information when she started looking desperately for solutions early Thursday morning. “I went on Kayak, Air Canada … I called my brother who lives in Montreal so I could possibly take a car to go to the US afterwards. I thought of everything. I tried to buy tickets but the payment did not pass ”.
Faced with prohibitive prices – “$ 3,800 on Air France!"-, she was ready to give up when her boss announced that he had a plane ticket for her. She will take off on Friday to find her husband and daughter. Experience, however, leaves it with a bitter taste. “Cancellation insurance does not work. They don't answer the phone or never call again. And when they do, they say that you have to fill out a file that will be taken care of within fifteen dayss ”.
Marie-Laure Terzias, who was on her way to Miami to celebrate a friend's birthday, received “36,000 messages”Asking if she would be able to travel. “It was awful. I spent the whole morning phoning the consulate, the Embassy … I had Air France after thirty minutes. I had no information. Everything was confused ”. His scheduled flight Thursday was not canceled, but Air France and Miami Airport advised him not to take it. “Knowing Trump, this measure does not surprise me too much", She added, regarding the ban on Schengen countries.
“In the end, the idea of making this decision to prevent the spread of the virus as much as possible is not a big surprise, it is even rather coherent when we think of Italy or other more affected countries“, Abounds Coralie Giroud, a Frenchwoman from Brussels who wanted to come and enjoy New York for twelve days in March. His outward flight, scheduled for Thursday, was maintained but not his return. She prefers to see the glass half full. “It's not canceled, just postponedé ”, she says.
Andy Rodrigues also wants to make good luck against bad luck. He will certainly have to postpone the opening of the sandwich shop he wanted to launch in New York, but he tells himself that this situation allows him to take "compulsory holidays ”.
