Cayman Airport

We're planning a trip to Grand Cayman next month and dreading the airport experience. We've been to the island several times, and each time we've found ourselves caught in horrendous lines waiting to check-in for the return flight to the States. Any hints (other than arriving 5 hours early for a flight) you can give us to make this experience less torturous? Really appreciate your help.

I fly out of GCM at least 20 times a year and don't understand what you mean ? The longest I have ever waited to check in has been about an hour, and that was a few weeks ago when Cayman Airways had just changed their reservations system and it took them ages to check people in.

Best advice for a short check in though is to have elite status on American, then check in takes a matter of a few minutes....and even better is people flying to the UK on BA, who allow you to check in online, so you just have to drop your bags.

TomCayman said:

I fly out of GCM at least 20 times a year and don't understand what you mean ? The longest I have ever waited to check in has been about an hour, and that was a few weeks ago when Cayman Airways had just changed their reservations system and it took them ages to check people in.

Best advice for a short check in though is to have elite status on American, then check in takes a matter of a few minutes....and even better is people flying to the UK on BA, who allow you to check in online, so you just have to drop your bags.

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Tom, although I've never encountered the situation described by the original poster (because we always fly Cayman Air), I have seen it. When checking in for our return flight back to the USA, we've walked right past those long lines. If my memory serves me correctly, the lines were usually at U.S. Air or American.

11185004 said:

We're planning a trip to Grand Cayman next month and dreading the airport experience. We've been to the island several times, and each time we've found ourselves caught in horrendous lines waiting to check-in for the return flight to the States. Any hints (other than arriving 5 hours early for a flight) you can give us to make this experience less torturous? Really appreciate your help.

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We were on Delta on our return back home and arrived two hours before departure and were fourth in line, however no one frm Delta showed up for 1/2 and by then the lines were very long. We were talking to the couple in front of us and their son and daughter in law were also staying on Grand Cayman but at a different resort and they got there about an hour before scheduled take off and were at the back of the line for the same flight that their parents and we were on. When we got inside this couple was very nervous but their son and daughter in law made it through security about 5 minutes before boarding.

We were on the first morning flight out on Delta from GCM to JFK and are expected to be there 2 hours early but Delta check in staff doesn't show up till 1 1/2 before take off??????

We have always flown Delta to GCM and have always found long lines for departure. I think next trip, we will go 3-4 hours early and attempt to check in and then leave the airport for lunch. Of course, as Larry said, if there are no Delta agents there, that won't work either !

One of the most unusual situations was arriving about 2.5 hours early, checking in and going to the bar. One person in our group happened to hear an announcement saying " final boarding call" for our flight. We jumped up and ran. The Delta flight literally took off 25 minutes AHEAD of the scheduled departure time ! When we questioned Delta Cayman staff, they indicated that if "most all passengers have checked in, we leave" ! SCARY STUFF ! haha

11185004 said:

We're planning a trip to Grand Cayman next month and dreading the airport experience. We've been to the island several times, and each time we've found ourselves caught in horrendous lines waiting to check-in for the return flight to the States. Any hints (other than arriving 5 hours early for a flight) you can give us to make this experience less torturous? Really appreciate your help.

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We were in the check-in line at Cayman Air well over an hour last November. It was the worst airline check-in line that I have been in except during a airport weather problem.
Switching back to Delta this year.

Has anyone had any experience with Spirit? I will be flying in with them in June and would love to hear of any good or bad happenings.

stevedmatt said:

Has anyone had any experience with Spirit? I will be flying in with them in June and would love to hear of any good or bad happenings.

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No experience, but was told by the people we rent our car from on the island that if you fly Spirit, make sure you get to the airport on time. They will lock down the plane prior to departure time and refuse to allow boarding.

stevedmatt said:

Has anyone had any experience with Spirit? I will be flying in with them in June and would love to hear of any good or bad happenings.

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Here's my bad experience. We flew out of Fort Lauderdale the Saturday before Christmas. Arrived at the check in terminal two hours before the flight. The check in line ran outside the terminal almost to the next terminal. The line moved very slowly. Spirit didn't have anyone directing things. I don't know if people were cutting in line or what.

Arrived at the check in counter at the time our flight was supposed to leave. No urgency by counter personnel to process customers, but the person was friendly. Received boarding passes and then dropped luggage off at the scanner. There was a giant pile of luggage. No urgency by the person manning the scanner to get luggage scanned.

Flight left from a terminal that was next door. Ran over. At least that led us to the head of the line for TSA screening. We got on the flight. It left about 1.5 hours late. Luggage didn't make it. Spirit doesn't have an interline agreement with other airlines, so we had to wait until the flight arrivied the next day.

Plane was new and cabin crew friendly. Flight back was less stressful. Maybe it was the time of year or airport or day of week

FWIW I find the lines always look bad but it's mostly because the terminal building is so small there's no room to move. As we mostly fly Air Canada which uses Cayman Air staff to process people it's usually all right but they have issues when something "non-standard" occurs. We've never missed a flight though and I must admit it wouldn't make me shed a tear to stay another day.

Was there last friday (March 23, 2007).
Took us only 20 minutes to check-in for our AA flight.

Probably the fastest check-in ever for me, then Miami check-in...an horror story
Would choose Grand Cayman over Miami anytime...

Ditto....we were just there last week. Left on 3/24/07 via American and had a 5 minute wait to check in. Delta and US Air both had lines weaving all through the terminal. Unfortunately, we flew through Miami on our way back to Indianapolis, what a nightmare Miami was. Give me little ol' Cayman Airport anytime too.

We are leaving on a Sunday this April on Delta from GMC. We leave at 12:40. Should we be at the airport befor 10 am ? Thanks

Just came back from GCM 2 weeks ago, and 2 hours ahead was almost cutting it short. 10:00 for a 12:40 flight should be fine.

Thanks for your responses. Dawns on me that our experience might have been influenced by our choice of carriers. We fly with Continental out of Newark, NJ. Maybe the monstrous lines were for Continental since other travellers didn't seem to experience the congestion woes we've endured.

We've found that when we leave GC on a Saturday, the lines are much shorter than on Sunday. Most people like to stay that extra day. It has helped that they don't make you open all the luggage before checking in. I think they x-ray it now. We prefer to fly Continental to Houston. The departure time gives us almost a day over the early Cayman Air departure time.

I flew with Spirit in January and there were NO problems. Check in was quick. No line at all (about 1 hour in advance). Note however that we were flying back in the middle of the week.

stevedmatt said:

Has anyone had any experience with Spirit? I will be flying in with them in June and would love to hear of any good or bad happenings.

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We flew out on a Sunday after a holiday week, and there were very l-o-n-g lines for a couple of airlines. We had a rental car and dropped off family members on an earlier flight, and saw that the American Airlines counter was open with no line. We checked in right then, and went into George Town for a leisurely lunch and some last minute window shopping. When we came back for our flight, the American waiting line was snaked all around the check-in area. We've decided to check-in early from now on, and go back into town to enjoy our last hours on the island.

It has been a few years since we were in Cayman, and we had no problems with lines at the airport. However, the line at Budget Rental Cars moved slower than molasses! The line wasn't that long, but excruciatingly s-l-o-w! It took over 2 hours to get our car!?! Then when we got to the front of the line, they didn't even have a car for us, they had to give us a ride to our hotel and we got our car the next day. We did get a nice new car, but the experience was not pleasant.

Airport Lines

One aspect that can have great influence is if several carriers have flights that depart around the same time. Two hours is plenty of time to check in for your flight as long as there are not two or three or four other carriers that have flight departures around the same time. You make it through your carrier's line, even if it's long, in a reasonable time, then have to wait to go through security because everybody else is there at the same time. It might be good to check orbitz or expedia to get an idea of other carriers leaving at the same time and base your decision on that. Although I'm not necessarily recommending it, sometimes getting there later is better as everyone else has already gone through and the late arrivers can breeze through the line. Again, a lot depends on the schedules of the other carriers.

Sorry I was not supposed to let the cat out of the bag just yet.