Kayak.com now displaying Cuba flight, hotel information

Cuba flight and hotel information will begin appearing today on popular travel search site Kayak.com. The site will become one of the first big booking engines to begin showing information for Cuba.

Kayak says it's doing so because of customer requests and because users are increasingly looking for the information.

"There's been a lot of press coverage about this and people are interested in traveling to Cuba," Robert Birge, Kayak's chief marketing officer, tells Today in the Sky. "There's been an increased demand from people for this information. Now that the demand is there, we've decided it's time to make that information available on our site."

The move, of course, comes after the Obama administration announced it would take steps to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba.

While rules on travel to Cuba are being relaxed, there are still restrictions. The policy change means the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control no longer requires special licenses to visit Cuba. Travelers will only have to certify they are visiting in one of 12 categories — educational, religious and humanitarian projects, among others — while tourism remains prohibited.

Still, regularly scheduled airline flights are expected to eventually begin after the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security update their regulations to allow it. Currently, only charter flights that require a special license from the government operate between the USA and Cuba.

As for Kayak's move, the search engine says it will begin displaying hotel and flight options to U.S. customers.

However, Kayak users will not be able to click through directly to booking links. The options will be provided only as information, says Birge.

"As a travel search engine, we're an information provider," says Birge. "Because of that, our goal is to provide comprehensive travel information whether you're a licensed traveler who wants to go to Cuba or whether you want to travel anywhere in the world."

The specially sanctioned charter flights currently operate by some U.S. carriers will not show up in a general flight search.

"If you're flying from a U.S. destination, there are only connecting flights through non-U.S. airlines," Birge says about what a Cuba flight search on Kayak will show. "That's publicly available information already, but those search results will be there along with the prices."

Birge advised any passengers interested in Cuba travel to check out the Treasury Department's website to confirm their eligibility and to make sure they're up to date on what is and is not permitted.

For those who do find travel information via Kayak, Birge adds that "our suggestion is: Go to a generally licensed travel agency and they'll probably know one of the travel agencies that are licensed" to book travel to Cuba.