i am putting up this post to advise any future travelers between Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac. I believe that my comments will also serve those traveling to Little Cayman.
First off, today we had members of our group stranded on Cayman Brac on the 9 am flight 4004 for 9 hours and others on the 11:15 flight for seven hours. Cayman Airways eventually routed a 737 at 6 pm that was on Grand Cayman to Cayman Brac for all of the flights that were cancelled. Needless to say every single person on those two flights and more missed their flights and had to stay over night in Grand Cayman
While we understand that all airlines have problems occasionally, apparently this has been going on for some time now. One property owner stated that while this was bad, it was getting better. We cannot imagine how worse it could be. Another told us that it was just our turn to have problems. He told us that we should strongly consider travel insurance any time we travelled to Cayman Brac.
So what's the problem and what's the solution?
Apparently, Cayman Airways has designated a Saab airplane as one of the primary aircraft for this route. While on the island we told by some local that the plane has had a history of problems and Cayman Airways should have never acquired that plane. Apparently it was too much trouble to fly the otter back out in a timely manner. While we are happy to have arrived in Grand Cayman seven hours late, it had to have been economically ridiculous to send a 737 empty out to Cayman Brac And back with a very low load factor on the return 18 minute flight. There were only five people in the eighteen seats around us. The absurd thing about this is not only did Cayman Airways succeed is angering all of the passengers, but they also probably spent some money to do so. To their credit, they did buy us pizza after costing our group thousands of dollars in flight changes, hotel fees, and cab fare.
Unfortunately, Cayman Airways sees fit not to assume any responsibility for the mechanical problems of their plane nor their poor decisions unless you purchased your entire ticket regardless of where you originated from, from them even if they don't fly from there. Furthermore, they refused to inform us until six hours later that our flight was cancelled. Six hours after the scheduled departure time, the flight status page on their web site still said that the 11:15 am flight was on line. The manager promised but repeatedly failed to update the gate status board to reflect the cancelled flights. I myself had to announce to the other customers in the terminal that they had to return to ticketing to get a new boarding pass and change all of their luggage tags on their checked luggage. Since Cayman Airways seems to have a monopoly to Cayman Brac we feel lucky to even have left the island.
So what to do?
We would have been happy if Cayman airways paid for our change fees and hotel overnight. But obviously that did not happen. To mitigate their lack of responsibility, we suggest the following.
First off, book your tickets not through any carrier as you might not also be able to link the flight to Cayman Airways to the Brac. Instead use something like Expedia or travelocity or whatever. Second,always purchase the travel insurance. It's not a matter of if you are going to have a problem. It is when. This will cover any other flight problems that develop as a result of problems with Cayman Airways. Third make sure that the travel insurance that you buy covers not just weather or cancellations, but also problems related to delays. Fourth, naturally document and record any cancellation evens or delays. Cayman Airways refused to document their cancelled flights. I had to resort to a sympathetic gate agent holding up a hand written note that I wrote that the flight was cancelled. I hope he doesn't get into trouble for having done this as many other passengers with travel insurance asked to use our sign with the gate agent.
Lastly, I do not know the financial position of Cayman Airways, but I can say that a number of our divers will never patronize Cayman Airways again and therefore never come to Cayman Brac again. It would be a crying shame if the bad customer service of Cayman Airways adversely affected the fledgling economy of Cayman Brac.
We saw many, many properties for sale on Cayman Brac for sale. You could not drive down the road a block without seeing for sale signs. We would think twice ourselves about buying property solely on the basis of the difficulty of the transportation issue and could see how difficult it might be to get repeat rental customers down there after they have experienced travel problems.
We really enjoyed Cayman Brac, but Cayman Airways' bad customer service and lack of financial responsibility for their poor maintenance and logistics has certainly been dampener. Next time we will plan accordingly. Hopefully anyone reading this will benefit from our experience and suggestions.
First off, today we had members of our group stranded on Cayman Brac on the 9 am flight 4004 for 9 hours and others on the 11:15 flight for seven hours. Cayman Airways eventually routed a 737 at 6 pm that was on Grand Cayman to Cayman Brac for all of the flights that were cancelled. Needless to say every single person on those two flights and more missed their flights and had to stay over night in Grand Cayman
While we understand that all airlines have problems occasionally, apparently this has been going on for some time now. One property owner stated that while this was bad, it was getting better. We cannot imagine how worse it could be. Another told us that it was just our turn to have problems. He told us that we should strongly consider travel insurance any time we travelled to Cayman Brac.
So what's the problem and what's the solution?
Apparently, Cayman Airways has designated a Saab airplane as one of the primary aircraft for this route. While on the island we told by some local that the plane has had a history of problems and Cayman Airways should have never acquired that plane. Apparently it was too much trouble to fly the otter back out in a timely manner. While we are happy to have arrived in Grand Cayman seven hours late, it had to have been economically ridiculous to send a 737 empty out to Cayman Brac And back with a very low load factor on the return 18 minute flight. There were only five people in the eighteen seats around us. The absurd thing about this is not only did Cayman Airways succeed is angering all of the passengers, but they also probably spent some money to do so. To their credit, they did buy us pizza after costing our group thousands of dollars in flight changes, hotel fees, and cab fare.
Unfortunately, Cayman Airways sees fit not to assume any responsibility for the mechanical problems of their plane nor their poor decisions unless you purchased your entire ticket regardless of where you originated from, from them even if they don't fly from there. Furthermore, they refused to inform us until six hours later that our flight was cancelled. Six hours after the scheduled departure time, the flight status page on their web site still said that the 11:15 am flight was on line. The manager promised but repeatedly failed to update the gate status board to reflect the cancelled flights. I myself had to announce to the other customers in the terminal that they had to return to ticketing to get a new boarding pass and change all of their luggage tags on their checked luggage. Since Cayman Airways seems to have a monopoly to Cayman Brac we feel lucky to even have left the island.
So what to do?
We would have been happy if Cayman airways paid for our change fees and hotel overnight. But obviously that did not happen. To mitigate their lack of responsibility, we suggest the following.
First off, book your tickets not through any carrier as you might not also be able to link the flight to Cayman Airways to the Brac. Instead use something like Expedia or travelocity or whatever. Second,always purchase the travel insurance. It's not a matter of if you are going to have a problem. It is when. This will cover any other flight problems that develop as a result of problems with Cayman Airways. Third make sure that the travel insurance that you buy covers not just weather or cancellations, but also problems related to delays. Fourth, naturally document and record any cancellation evens or delays. Cayman Airways refused to document their cancelled flights. I had to resort to a sympathetic gate agent holding up a hand written note that I wrote that the flight was cancelled. I hope he doesn't get into trouble for having done this as many other passengers with travel insurance asked to use our sign with the gate agent.
Lastly, I do not know the financial position of Cayman Airways, but I can say that a number of our divers will never patronize Cayman Airways again and therefore never come to Cayman Brac again. It would be a crying shame if the bad customer service of Cayman Airways adversely affected the fledgling economy of Cayman Brac.
We saw many, many properties for sale on Cayman Brac for sale. You could not drive down the road a block without seeing for sale signs. We would think twice ourselves about buying property solely on the basis of the difficulty of the transportation issue and could see how difficult it might be to get repeat rental customers down there after they have experienced travel problems.
We really enjoyed Cayman Brac, but Cayman Airways' bad customer service and lack of financial responsibility for their poor maintenance and logistics has certainly been dampener. Next time we will plan accordingly. Hopefully anyone reading this will benefit from our experience and suggestions.
Last edited:
