Who is going to the USA, who has changed their travel and what will you do differently?

[Aggi]

I just did my ESTA application today and it was quite stressful to be honest.

Some of the questions are rather strange, I had to enter a current or prior employer which was a compulsory question and no option to answer that you are retired.

Going on an Alaskan cruise in July which was booked a while ago otherwise don’t think I would be booking any trips to the US.

 

[justinbrett]

The plane was basically completely empty so it wasn’t that they were offloaded for prioritising freight. Seems to me the options are the bags were forgotten by the airline, or they were held for search

I don’t even recall my bag being inspected between SPN-GUM (I was HLO). Very relaxed.

Comes out as 14ish CNMI and 12ish Guam
I was slightly worried I would be bored but actually it’s been a good pace and heaps to do

I was a bit sad visiting Guam as I had spent a month there 10 years earlier, and it really has been run into the ground. The main hotels like Hilton and Westin are literally falling apart. The whole island was hit pretty hard by Covid.

Saipan and Tinian were really interesting. Great for WWII history buffs.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I just did my ESTA application today and it was quite stressful to be honest.

Some of the questions are rather strange, I had to enter a current or prior employer which was a compulsory question and no option to answer that you are retired.

Going on an Alaskan cruise in July which was booked a while ago otherwise don’t think I would be booking any trips to the US.

The ESTA application hasn’t changed.
Has been the same questions for years.

 

[burmans]

The problem is that in penalising the ~26% that voted for This, and the ~49% who didn't bother voting so they're as culpable as that ~26% ... you're also punishing the ~25% that explicitly voted against This. A bloke I know moderately-well (from another forum) & his husband run a small business in some town that has a lot of input from tourism, he's being punched by the new fascist regime from one side plus his business suffering from the other side, despite both of them most definitely voting against This.

I don't think I'd go right now unless I had to for work, definitely not on a holiday. The chance of Bad Stuff happening might still not be high, but it's still higher than it was 3 months ago, and while the rest of the world exists I'll avoid the US for now.
But ... it still makes me wonder if the right people are being punished by a tourism avoidance?
Maybe I need to be selecting my tourism-services providers using the opposite of the criteria the US government is using to punish them, and get 'em to show me proof of DEI hiring practices?

All very well but given voting is secret how do you know the right people to choose. It’s not always obvious, I know the red hat MAGAs are but it’s well documented that many Trump voters are in the closet, as it were.

Meanwhile, I see BA have acknowledged they are seeing a serious slump and have a massive sale to hopefully attract those still on the fence.

 

[burmans]

It's like gun violence, been to the USA on over 70 trips, never seen a gun or heard a gun shot. Protesters are more like a rent a crowd coordinated by social media.

What, are you seriously suggesting America doesn’t have a gun violence problem because you personally haven’t seen it. As a prominent poster here would say, look at the data.

 

[Himeno]

EU officials have reportedly been directed to use burner phones when traveling to the US

 

[DC3]

What, are you seriously suggesting America doesn’t have a gun violence problem because you personally haven’t seen it.

I didn’t read that interpretation into the post. Perhaps it could have been expressed in a different way, but I don’t believe that it was about denying gun violence, just having never witnessed it.

 

[burmans]

I didn’t read that interpretation into the post.

The implication was that the protests weren’t real. So why mention gun violence unless to imply similar?

 

[DC3]

The implication was that the protests weren’t real. So why mention gun violence unless to imply similar?

I’m only posting my understanding of that post.

 

[RSD]

As opposed to going to a country like China who has an actual dictator that wasn’t duly elected. You’ve probably got more to worry about going through HKG immigration than LAX.

I've never once been asked a question by immigration in HKG (and I'm there again right now). Going into the U.S. however I have had the Spanish inquisition in the room with no windows on three occasions, and at the very least get several questions from the CBP guy at the booth each time.

 

[RSD]

It's like gun violence, been to the USA on over 70 trips, never seen a gun or heard a gun shot. Protesters are more like a rent a crowd coordinated by social media.

You must live a sheltered life. I've been to the U.S. somewhere around 9 or 10 times, have heard gunshots on three occasions and did first aid on a gunshot victim on one of those occasions.

 

[Justinf]

Like most on here, I have travelled to the US many times and loved it.
I have no itching desire to go back any time soon other than to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
I’ve seen the Red Sox at Fenway back in 2004 but would love to do it again.
I’d love to see the Seahawks play in Seattle.
But other than that, I’m fine with choosing other destinations, such as Svalbard for the polar night next january.

 

[Duffa]

You must live a sheltered life. I've been to the U.S. somewhere around 9 or 10 times, have heard gunshots on three occasions and did first aid on a gunshot victim on one of those occasions.

No wonder you get the third degree at the airport. Look where you hang around when you are there!

 

[DC3]

… I've been to the U.S. somewhere around 9 or 10 times, have heard gunshots on three occasions and did first aid on a gunshot victim on one of those occasions.

Ambulance chaser?

 

[straitman]

As opposed to going to a country like China who has an actual dictator that wasn’t duly elected. You’ve probably got more to worry about going through HKG immigration than LAX.

There’s a lot of trash talking of the US here but despite what people believe it’s still a democracy with a functioning legal system. As opposed to other countries where you might just “disappear”.

There are plenty of other ways the current administration is shooting themselves in the foot


I asked this before, but are there any examples of individuals being detained for weeks by immigration over minor visa issues in Hong Kong?

From my experience Hong Kong on its worst day is better than most entries to the USA.

 

[DC3]

I just did my ESTA application today and it was quite stressful to be honest.

My recent ESTA application didn’t seem that different to those in the past. A couple of minor changes, but nothing that I would call stressful.

Has your ESTA approval come through overnight?

 

[Human]

From my experience Hong Kong on its worst day is better than most entries to the USA.

Having said that, I've met many, many people with a deep, deep hatred of the USA and everything it stands for. I don't think I've met anyone with a deep, deep hatred of Hong Kong and everything it stands for. So in one sense one can understand the twitchiness...

 

[Forg]

You must live a sheltered life. I've been to the U.S. somewhere around 9 or 10 times, have heard gunshots on three occasions and did first aid on a gunshot victim on one of those occasions.

You can just have random stuff happen and I guess the more guns there are (2 for each human) the more chance of random Gun Stuff ... Dad's uncle never had problems prior, had been to various places in the US at least a dozen times. Early 80's he was in the LAX car-park picking up his rental, guy walks up to him & gestures oddly & says something in a deep accent that needed a bit of time to process so Dad's uncle said something like "Sorry I didn't understand could you say that again please" and there was a pop noise & the bloke casually walked off without any further explanation. Apparently it took a few seconds (shock) for Dad’s uncle to twig to the fact he’d been shot, he never heard any more about it from the police.

 

[wandering_fred]

RE: Entry issues are immigration
USA: If you were born in the Americas, outside of the USA, and have tattoos (MS-13 etc markers) a lot of people are "twitchy" and a LOT of questions are to be expected (even with a long term visa)
Even with a USA passport, there can be a lot of questions.
HKG: If you have a Chinese surname and are not registered for computer entry, expect questions.

And perhaps hassles if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time
Wait, that also applies world wide....

And yes there are a lot of (mostly urban) locations in the USA I would not visit.
And living "in country" in Australia, the USA national parks hold little interest.
OK, maybe I should be able to say I stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon (I have not)
But it is smaller than the Barranca de Cobre (I did in Mexico 1973)
But that is now serious wandering
Fred

 

[DC3]

​

And yes there are a lot of (mostly urban) locations in the USA I would not visit.
And living "in country" in Australia, the USA national parks hold little interest.

Yes, we all have our different reasons for visiting certain locations and not visiting others.

Some of the negativity, upthread (not you ) is probably a reflection of experiences, or maybe just perceptions.