Cayman Airways - MIA to Cayman Brac

[staggsSevin]

Hi Guys,

I'm working on booking our spring trip to Little Cayman. I was looking at maybe flying into Miami and then taking Cayman Airways into Cayman Brac....to dodge Grand Cayman. I'm guessing it'd probably be cheaper to go through Grand still, but I'd pay more to miss that hassle.

Has anyone else done this? Curious if anybody has had a bad experience and I should just deal with the mania in Grand or not. I know I'd have to book a flight from CB to LC (hopefully the little planes will be running by then and we won't have to ferry).

 

[tursiops]

I've used the MIA-CYB flight. Quite nice, real plane, not a puddle jumper, so you get real baggage allowance and carry-on. But if you are going on to LYB, you still get the Twin Otter and all its restrictions. The problem is getting home; one way or another from LYB you go through GCM, either by flying directly to GCM or going through CYB. There is NO direct flight from CYB to MIA.

 

[staggsSevin]

Thanks @tursiops on the return flight do you have to switch planes in GCM? Guessing your probably on a smaller plane from LYB to GCM? I was hoping to not have to step foot in GCM

Maybe the thing to do is fly into LYB via miami/cayman air then on the way out just deal with it and fly normal..... I dislike GCM on Saturdays.

 

[tursiops]

Thanks @tursiops on the return flight do you have to switch planes in GCM? Guessing your probably on a smaller plane from LYB to GCM? I was hoping to not have to step foot in GCM

Maybe the thing to do is fly into LYB via miami/cayman air then on the way out just deal with it and fly normal..... I dislike GCM on Saturdays.

The only planes in/out of LYB are the small ones.
One suggestion: make all flights on Cayman Air earlier rather than later in the day....more chance to correct delays and/or baggage issues that way.

We just came through GCM last week.
It was OK.

 

[Doctorfish]

GCM airport Saturday mid day is horrible. At least if you fly MIA to LYB, you will miss some of the chaos. On the other hand, there might be a line up getting through customs on the Brac as well. Never had the experience personally, but I imagine that 100-150 people deplaning and only 1-2 customs agents on the Brac might not be quick either.

 

[staggsSevin]

I went ahead and did the MIA to LYB via Cayman Airways, I figured it was worth missing some chaos. It matched up well with some direct flights out of here to Miami.

Thanks for the info and help!

 

[AggieDiver]

Just for future reference, LCBR will do non-saturday to saturday reservations. They don't like to do it, but they will, particularly if you tell them that the available Cayman Express flights to LC are already booked on the saturday you would be coming in. We come in from Houston on United, and the flight gets in at about 3:45pm, meaning that the 5:10pm flight to Little is the only one we can catch. That flight is also usually the first one to fill up. So if you tell them that is your preferred flight setup and that the Cayman Express flight is unavailable to pair with it, you can get them to book you Sun-Sun or Fri-Fri and then fly Cayman Airways instead and not have to go through GCM on a Saturday.

FWIW, I would go through GCM on Saturday a dozen times before I would willingly go through MIA on an international arrival. Maybe I have just had bad experiences, but I will go way out of my way to avoid flying through MIA internationally ever again.

 

[staggsSevin]

@AggieDiver - I'm no fan of MIA, but I have to deal with it quite a bit. My "other" options were still flying through Miami but to GCM.

I'm headed to MIA Friday on the way to Bonaire too.....seems like I always end up there via AA lately. Having to fly in a day early so I can catch the 10am flight. I haven't flown United in years (it just seems like it's so much higher for me when I book, and Delta's layover was 52min). It seems like every few years, it changes which airline is significantly cheaper for me when flying out of Arkansas. Since 2018 it seems like it's been American for sure as the cheapest.

 

[AggieDiver]

United really loves to gouge you on routes where they have no serious competition. I was very hopeful that SW starting to fly to the Caribbean out of Houston Hobby would put some price pressure on United's IAH-GCM fares, but SW seems to have given up on flying to GCM direct from HOU except for a few months of the year during high season. So it hasn't really made a dent in the United stranglehold on the non-stops from Houston. If you buy far enough ahead, their pricing isn't that bad, but within about a month or so of the travel date, their prices just get ridiculous.

 

[staggsSevin]

I wish we could get SW here and see if it'd help drive the prices down. Tulsa is our closest location to hit SW (2hr drive for us, not terrible).