How serious is the US government about their Cuba travel ban?
Serious enough that they recently fined Travelocity.com $182,750 for booking 1,500 trips to the forbidden isle between January 1998 and April 2004.
A spokesperson for the site claimed that the bookings were the result of a technical failure (i.e. a failsafe that was supposed to prevent anyone with an American IP address from booking a trip to Cuba). I’m not sure I entirely believe this excuse.
Nonetheless, it’s pretty cool that 1,500 Americans were able to take advantage of this loophole. Unfortunately, now that records of these trips have probably been subpoenaed by the US Government, I’m sure these under-the-radar travelers can now expect a nasty letter from the Treasury Department.
And you thought you got away with it!