Flying to Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman is accessible through a variety of carriers and departure cities
One of the first steps in planning any trip to Grand Cayman is figuring out how you’re going to get there. Assuming you’re not arriving by boat or private jet, commercial air travel is the way most of us will fly to Owen Roberts International Airport (GCM). Fortunately, there are a number of carriers and departure cities that serve the island which should allow you to design the itinerary that best matches your travel requirements.
The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism provides a wonderful resource for travel planning, visitcaymanislands.com. This site provides up to date information on carrier schedules and departing cities here, so I won’t spend time on these. I think we all have our favorite carriers or flying preferences that inform which flights we consider. Instead, I’ll offer up a few suggestions and insights which will hopefully make your eventual arrival into GCM a bit easier.
Leave early, arrive early
Aside from the obvious benefit of getting to feel that warm sun sooner, there are some advantages to getting an early start on your travel to GCM. This mainly applies to Saturday/Sunday arrivals but, in general, most of the international flights (i.e. those originating from the US, Canda, etc.) arrive into GCM after 1pm, with a concentration in the 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. segment. With an influx of arrivals, this can create long lines and wait times to clear immigration. Per the Cayman Islands Airport Authority (CIAA) website “during our peak periods and/or high season these lines on a Saturday and Sunday between the hours of 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. can have a processing time of up to two (2) hours. We haven’t experienced wait times this long, but we try to reduce the likelihood of getting stuck in them by arriving early. There are a few carriers, such as Jetblue (via JFK) and American (via CLT, PHL, and MIA) which offer flights arriving shortly before or after 12pm local time. One of these earlier arrivals can make transitioning through the airport a more pleasant experience, especially if you are traveling with younger children.
One other benefit of leaving early, specifically for those connecting through an airport where the carrier has multiple daily flights into GCM. If something goes wrong with your initial flight, there is a decent likelihood that you’ll be able to catch the later flight. As an example, we often fly from Boston on American Airlines during the winter and can choose to connect through PHL, CLT, and MIA. There is one flight from PHL into GCM, but two from both CLT and MIA (typically 9:30am and 12pm). Unless there is just a huge price difference to go from PHL, we’ll typically book the earliest flight from Boston to connect through either CLT or MIA on the first flight into GCM. If we get delayed, for whatever reason, there is a decent chance we will get rebooked on the second flight.
A couple of other notes worth mentioning here:
the airport (GCM) offers a meet and greet service for arrivals and departures. We haven’t used this, but I could see it being valuable for a large group
based on our experience we’ve always found the airport staff to be very aware and attentive to families traveling with babies and young children. If you get stuck in a long line with young kids, airport staff may help expedite the process.
Look at one-way routes
Over the past few years we’ve included looking at one-way options into and out of GCM as part of our search process for flights. In addition to our local airport (BTV), we are in proximity to a few major airports (BOS, YUL, JFK) and other mid-size airports (ALB, MHT, PVD). I travel frequently for business, so we often have points that we try use put to use. We have found that it’s often cheaper to do two one-way itineraries than it is do a round trip.
For instance, in the past we’ve flown out of BOS or JFK on Jetblue, then back into BTV on American. Or, we’ve used points on American to fly out of BOS, then back into BTV using cash. We often fly during school breaks, so getting creative with our flight itineraries has helped keep the total trip cost down.
Seat selection
Most of the carriers we’ve flown into GCM deplane from both the front and the back of the plane using mobile ramp stands. One tip if you don’t have status or preferred seat selection and are picking seats farther back in economy is just to go as far back as possible (ok, maybe not next to the lav!). Assuming they deplane from the rear, you’ll be one of the first off the plane. Most of the time, the seats in the middle of the plane are the last to get off.
Fill out your form (correctly!)
You’ll be given two forms to fill out on the plane prior to arrival - a disembarkation form (one per passenger) and a customs declaration form (one per family). These are fairly standard forms, yet I seem to always see a couple of passengers that forgot to fill out certain sections or add signatures. See images and notes below. Of course, if you miss them, the immigration agent will have you sign them in line. But, it’s always nice to have things buttoned up so you can breeze through.
Everything below the “signature” line needs to be filled out by an arriving passenger, including the part below “Please Print Clearly”. The bottom part detaches and you present this back when you depart the island.
There is a signature line on the back of the customs form on the bottom. It’s easy to miss.
Have you planned flights and flown into GCM? What other recommendations would you share to help make the process for a new visitor as seamless as possible?