Yeah I’m in the same boat. Expected to get up and see it all over the news since its afternoon in Europe and nothing. It’s starting to appear though on CNN and AP but its the same article and same distortion (CNN says unvaccinated while AP don’t list that). I just need to figure out what Italy is doing as my trip on Sept 15 becomes non-refundable on Thursday and I don’t want to lose all the money if they up and close to all Americans

Diplomat hours?

Plus even when/if the EU comes out with their recommendation, I think it will take time for each country to update their individual policy so I imagine it will be a few days. Politicians need to argue about it and figure out how to frame it to make them look good.

Also, the news has been flooded with so many 'copies' of the original rumor story, it will be difficult to filter out an updated story about the official announcement for the time being.

Is there a website where official info is posted?
I go by the IATA site for my info since that's where the airline info is based from, but that has some delay.

This is ridiculous. I leave for Austria on Friday and have to cancel hotels soon to avoid paying for it if they ban vaccinated Americans.

if we’re really disease carrying plague rats, they need to announce a ban effective immediately

The latest round of articles is more vague.

https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle...63d6d8d4ed844c

Could come this week? It'll come the minute my flight takes off.

Some expectation setting may be appropriate here. This isn't like a Presidential Proclamation where one man can pretty much instantly make a decision. The EU is a democratic (with a small d) organisation with a number of different layers of administration (or bureaucracy if you want to take the alternative view some hold) which this would have to clear.

https://ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/the...tem-explained/

So, what's likely to happen is that this recommendation will make its way through these stages, until at some point there's agreement to put it into effect. This isn't usually, as you might imagine, a particularly speedy process - and nor do we really know from the articles thus far how far down the path it is. Now for those with imminent itineraries, this actually might be a blessing in disguise - because the chance of this clearing the regulatory hurdles and then individual countries deciding how rigorously they might enforce it depending if it ends up as law or recommendation in just a few days is, well, pretty unlikely.

Those with trips further out ought therefore to get enough notice to be able to cancel, or at least a sense of the direction of travel (sic).

At some point over the next couple of days I imagine more will become apparent.

Official EU websites have the format ec.europa.eu.

Is it safe to say that countries that really depend on tourism (like Greece. AFAIK they were open weeks before the rest of the EU) will never re-implement restrictions no matter what the EU recommends?

I'm flying to Austria on Friday and I do not want to change my flights across the pond. I got J for an absolute steal and I know I'll never be able to change the dates without paying thousands of dollars extra. If Austria bans Americans, I'll just book VIE-ATH for a few hours after my IAD-VIE flight arrives.

At this stage I wouldn't like to say, and nor would I assume a transit may or may not be possible - particularly on separate tickets, where your first airline will merely see you terminating your outbound trip at VIE, and therefore you'd have to convince them to go against what IATA may be telling them.

As the UK has now left the EU, if you are able to transit then it might be regarded as a safer bet in terms of alternative destination within the region. That's something you could consider later rather than immediately.

Separate tickets may complicate your plans. When you attempt to fly to VIE if you are not allowed in, the airline likely won't let you board in IAD even if you have a separate ongoing ticket to ATH. At least that is my understanding.

That's what I'm hoping. My October trip (moved 4 times now) is Greece/Italy/Spain. Those 3 seem to rely more on tourism and are more open than some of the others. So I'm hoping at minimum they still allow Vaccinated in. I also got crazy cheap J seats, but thankfully those are direct to ATH. Unfortunately, my direct flight from ATH to Venice got cancelled by Volotea so I had to add a stop in VIE .. which adds another country. Might have to pay more to go through Rome instead.

As much as EU people hate that the US never opened up .. what the EU is doing with this Roller Coaster of Open/Not Open/Open is 50x worse. I'd much rather have no expectation of traveling vs expecting then having to cancel (and losing money in the process).

Well, apparently you are allowed entry into Austria for transit involving a change of transportation:

https://www.austria.org/current-travel-information

Changing from plane to train or bus would obviously be a separate ticket, so I'm hoping a separate flight wouldn't be a problem if it comes to that.

Many countries seem to have more restrictive rules if you are transiting or have been in UK. I suppose if you just want to travel somewhere in Europe and don't care where, UK may be an option if the rest of Europe closes up.
I'm currently booked to spain and portugal in mid October so I'm playing the game of when to book things that are non-refundable before prices go up or they become full. European residents are still traveling. I expected COVID to get worse but closer to flu season. I guess things are ahead of schedule.

Well this is unpleasant as I have a flight to FRA on the 1st.

So it's 5:30 PM over there, no news is good news?

I'd have to believe that if they didn't want Americans in, they'd have announced something already instead of dragging their feet.

If not planning to already, I'd get a PCR test done 48-72 hours prior to departure, so you'd have the results prior to leaving. That could be a new requirement added to the mix and we're beginning to see the Antigen (quick test) lose favor. The PCR test requires a lot more planning, since it takes so long to get the results, yet it has to be done within 72 hours of departure.

So for OssianBlue, I'd be finding a place to get tested right now, within the hour, if at all possible.

From Bloomberg