Cayman Airways Winter Schedule - Daily Direct RT Flights from JFK

[KathyV]

See the Cayman Air Winter Schedule at the link below. Starting December 16 they will offer daily, direct, non-stop flights from JFK to GCM.

The daily direct NS return flights from GCM to JFK go into effect on December 15, 2018.

https://www.caymanairways.com/WinterSchedule

 

[EastEndDiver]

Heads up that the 'Meet and greet" service offered is now $50. C.I. up from $30. C.I. per person.

 

[caydiver]

Hopefully the Meet and Greet will not be necessary. Been up and down several times in the last few months and the airport situation has been excellent. Out on the curb waiting to be picked up within 10 minutes of getting off the plane and that includes the times waiting for baggage. There is always going to be an issue on Saturdays and to a certain extent Sundays during high season just like US airports at Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., however they have more customs agents (there was changes made the in the Immigration service which precluded this from happening immediately), all the baggage belts are open and they are doing away with the Customs forms. Unless you have something to declare you will be walking right through. Trusted traveler programs are also in the works, but obviously these cannot be rolled out over night. Uncle Sam has some rigid requirements on that front which I understand are totally necessary to ensure everyone's safety. Even so when there are a bunch of full flights landing at the same time there is nothing that can be realistically done. The US and Canadian carriers want to be in the morning and out in the afternoon so there is only a small window. If weather patterns delay any one of those flights in route there is a domino affect. I was delighted when I got the email with the changes . . . It opens up many more possibilities as our gateway to Europe is usually JFK and it is often hard to coordinate the flights when they had the gaps for a few days. Maybe not be a major factor for visitors to Cayman but if you can fly midweek it is an added boon. The new schedule is subject to change and in place until 29 April so basically all of high season - yip yip. Just hoping for a follow up email that says they will continue past high season as it is not an easy time to get away

 

[flyboy08]

Were taking CA from JFK in January....I think it’s NS?

Yep, NS on 1/26 connecting to CB!

 

[KathyV]

Were taking CA from JFK in January....I think it’s NS?

Yep, NS on 1/26 connecting to CB!

I hope that the process for interisland travel has been improved with the new airport construction. I understand why they require new arrivals to go through immigration and customs as soon as they land on Grand Cayman, but it would be nice if your bags could be immediately rechecked and if you could easily access the departure lounge without going outside and through security.

The old process made you collect your bags after going through immigration and customs, then you had to go outside, turn and come back inside the ticket hall, recheck your bags, and then go through security just to get to the departure lounge, in order to catch your flight to Brac or Little Cayman. And of course you have to (partially) do it all over again when you fly back from the sister islands to catch your flight home.

If they haven't done anything to fix the inefficient interisland travel process, it will be very disappointing.

 

[KathyV]

Heads up that the 'Meet and greet" service offered is now $50. C.I. up from $30. C.I. per person.

I haven't been tempted to use the Meet and Greet service, but it might be helpful if you had a very tight connection from GCM to Cayman Brac or Little Cayman. Especially LCM, there are few flights to Little Cayman and only during the daylight hours, so it can be challenging to find a good connecting flight.

Meet and Greet Service – CEO’s Welcome

 

[caydiver]

This country is no different than any other country in the world. You do customs and immigration at the point of entry to the country. Domestic flights do not require Customs or Immigration. When I fly in and out of the States I often to to stay at an airport hotel overnight or wait many hours for my connection. It just what happens anywhere.

 

[KathyV]

This country is no different than any other country in the world. You do customs and immigration at the point of entry to the country. Domestic flights do not require Customs or Immigration. When I fly in and out of the States I often to to stay at an airport hotel overnight or wait many hours for my connection. It just what happens anywhere.

Naturally you have to go through immigration and customs at the first point of entry into any country, but many airports have a convenient process for travelers that are still in-transit. You go through immigration and customs, then you wheel your bags to a designated area where they are taken and routed to your next flight. Then you move into the departure area without ever having to go through security again. They could/should create a similar process at GCM.

And when you fly back to GCM from the Cayman sister islands, under the old process, you are mixed in with the new arrivals when you land and routed toward immigration and customs again - even though you haven't left the country. If several planes land around the same time it can be very difficult to fight your way out of the pack to avoid going to Immigration, just to be told that you don't need to be there. Then get your bags, exit and re-enter the airport and go through security again to get to the departure lounge to leave the county. It is not a friendly or efficient procedure in either direction.

It is true that you don't need to go through I&C for domestic flights in most places, but it doesn't always work that way in Cayman! If you are traveling from GC to LC as the final destination, after already going through I&C and Security at GCM, if your flight is scheduled to stop on CB they may make you claim your bags and go through C&I and security all over again on Brac (a shorter and easier process than GCM but still redundant) before you can take the short flight over to LC.

I realize that international flights to and from GCM have the greatest traffic by far, but if they had the chance to fix the seriously broken process for interisland travel and didn't take advantage of the opportunity, that would be very disappointing IMO.

 

[Damselfish]

if they had the chance to fix the seriously broken process for interisland travel and didn't take advantage of the opportunity, that would be very disappointing IMO.

^this^

Yes there are still airports where they don't do this sort of thing as efficiently as one would like. But there are many that do. And airport renovations everywhere seem to take this sort of thing into account anymore. "Some other airports suck so it's ok to suck" is setting the bar kind of low. It's a small airport in a small country that is far from poor. It shouldn't be that hard to do better. Maybe they have always figured the bass-ackwards way they handle (or don't handle) in-transit folks doesn't matter because there are relatively few and they'll come anyway.

When I fly in and out of the States I often to to stay at an airport hotel overnight or wait many hours for my connection. It just what happens anywhere.

Really has nothing to do with this.

 

[scubafanatic]

Before we laugh too hard at Caymans, take a look at the INSANE FIASCO of Berlin, Germany's 'new' airport....WOW !!!!!

The farcical saga of Berlin's new airport – whatever happened to German efficiency?

Opinion: Tear down Berlin's unfinished airport and start over! | DW | 01.03.2018