JetBlue’s Cuba Flights Launch August 31, Starting at Just $99 - TIME Business

JetBlue’s Cuba Flights Launch August 31, Starting at Just $99

Posted: 29 Jul 2016 07:40 AM PDT

This week JetBlue announced that it will begin regularly scheduled commercial flights to Cuba on Wednesday, August 31, with fares starting at just $99 each way.
The total cost of a round trip could be as low as $204, with all mandatory taxes and fees included. Availability at such a cheap fare is limited, but we did a search of the route this morning and indeed were able to find a flight departing on August 31 and returning one week later for a grand total of $204. It’s “the lowest Cuba fare announced so far by a commercial airline,” the Miami Herald reported.

JetBlue’s first route to Cuba will connect Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport (about an hour north of Miami) to Santa Clara–Abel Santamaría airport (about three hours east of Havana). The airline will fly this route every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as of August 31, and will launch daily service on October 1. Two other routes are planned for launch with daily service in November, to Camagüey – Ignacio Agramonte Airport and Holguín – Frank País Airport, both from Fort Lauderdale.
When JetBlue’s service between the U.S. and Cuba commences, it will be the first time in decades that regularly scheduled commercial flights connect the two nations. In early 2015, the U.S. government announced the loosening up of travel restrictions for Americans visiting Cuba, and U.S.-based airlines rushed to apply for routes when the option became available earlier this year.
Flying to Cuba, typically accomplished via special charters, has been extraordinarily expensive—easily $400 and more typically $700, for flights that lasts as little as an hour. The advent of commercial flights to Cuba has been expected to make the cost of flying to the island nation much, much cheaper. JetBlue’s $99 one-way fares are special promotional rates, and most flights will wind up costing more. But it looks like it should be much easier for travelers to pay far less to fly to Cuba compared to the past.
By introducing Cuba flights on August 31, JetBlue will sneak in just before its rivals reach the market. Silver Airways will launch flights from Fort Lauderdale to Santa Clara starting September 1, while American Airlines kicks off service from Miami to five destinations in Cuba during the first and second weeks of September.

Has Melania Trump got an immigration problem ? - CNN

(CNN)When the New York Post published several nude photos of Melania Trump this week, it wasn't just her body that was exposed -- the shots also revealed a potential discrepancy in her immigration history. 

According to Melania Trump, the story of her American arrival is quite simple: "I came to the United States, to New York, in 1996," she told CNN's Anderson Cooper on February 29, 2016.

But Melania posed for those photos, which appeared in the French magazine Max, during a shoot in New York City in 1995 when she was 25 and known as "Melania K," according to Bojan Pozar, the author of the biography "Melania Trump: The Inside Story."

That year is possibly the key to whether or not Melania, now 46, broke immigration law by working in the US without the proper visa. 

Melania, who is from Slovenia, has said she came to the United States "the right way," on a visa.

Melania Trump on February 29, 2016 01:49

"I flew to Slovenia every few months to stamp it. And came back, I applied for green card, and after a few years for citizenship," she told Anderson Cooper. "I obeyed the law. I did it the right way. I didn't just sneak in and stay here. So I think that's what people should do."

If this is accurate, Melania's visa would have been the type that had to be updated periodically, such as a tourist visa. However, this kind of visa doesn't allow for someone to work in the United States, according to New York immigration attorney David Gottfried. 

The question is whether Melania was employed as a model before she was issued the H-1B visa, which allows people to work in the country for up to three years, with possible extensions up to six years. With this kind of visa, Melania wouldn't have had to return to Slovenia for updated stamps.

"I flew to Slovenia every few months to stamp it. And came back, I applied for green card, and after a few years for citizenship," she told Anderson Cooper. "I obeyed the law. I did it the right way. I didn't just sneak in and stay here. So I think that's what people should do."

If this is accurate, Melania's visa would have been the type that had to be updated periodically, such as a tourist visa. However, this kind of visa doesn't allow for someone to work in the United States, according to New York immigration attorney David Gottfried. 

The question is whether Melania was employed as a model before she was issued the H-1B visa, which allows people to work in the country for up to three years, with possible extensions up to six years. With this kind of visa, Melania wouldn't have had to return to Slovenia for updated stamps. 

The man who discovered Melania, Paolo Zampolli, told CNN that he sponsored her H-1B visa through his modeling agency in 1996 -- a year after that racy photo shoot. 

But it still may not have been illegal because, according to the photographer, Melania likely wasn't paid for the shoot. Photographer Jarl Ale de Basseville said he and the models did the free work to get exposure in the well-known French magazine.

"You were making this kind of magazine to have exposure, and this exposure was bringing you to the next level to have a catalogue," de Basseville told CNN. "No one was paying. No one was getting paid."

Melania isn't clearing up the timing on her arrival either. Instead, she wrote on Twitter:

"Let me set the record straight: I have at all times been in full compliance with the immigration laws of this country. Period. Any allegation to the contrary is simply untrue. In July 2006, I proudly became a US citizen. Over the past 20 years, I have been fortunate to live, work and raise a family in this great nation and I share my husband's love for our country."

Regardless, Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney who works with the Miss Universe pageant and the Trump Organization, said Melania's upstanding character enabled her to become a citizen in 2006, and any visa problems in the mid-1990s would not have prevented her from gaining citizenship.