We just planned another trip to Grand Cayman with United miles!

I recently wrote about getting Svetlana a flight on United p.s. Premium Service Business Class so she can visit me in New York. The planes are actually being revamped to two-cabin flights so she may get to fly in BusinessFirst! But she needed a ticket back to LA (I’d love her to stay in NY, but she needs to go back… sadly). This resulted in a whole new trip plan to Grand Cayman with United miles! 

Planning Svetlana’s trip

The way it all began: United had a very convenient flight back from New York to LA on Sunday, June 16, but we don’t like to use 12,500 United miles for simple domestic one way trips. We can get the domestic segments for free by adding them to an international trip! You see, United award redemptions allow a stopover and two open jaws on itineraries between different regions and, if you use these wisely, you can tack on free one-way trips all over the place. 

Seats for next year’s President’s Day weekend just got released. Since my move to New York from LA at the end of 2010, Svetlana and I have an almost annual tradition of going to the Caribbean that weekend (Puerto Rico in 2011 and Mexico in 2013). 

For an extra 22,500 United miles and $92 in taxes, I was able to find super convenient flights (as convenient as you can get flying from LAX to the Caribbean beaches!) to Grand Cayman for Svetlana. We just went to Grand Cayman last year with Natalya in November and really loved it. We could easily go again and again and again… I also checked Aruba, St. Martin, St. Thomas and other islands and nothing was available with miles there. It seems Grand Cayman is just calling us back! 

The schedule: 

1. Samba for Miles is leaving on Friday, Feb 14, connecting in DC (under 2 hours this time – it was 3.5 hours in Charlotte last time!) and arriving in Grand Cayman at 11:44 am.

2. Going back 2.5 days later, her flight is at 3:30 pm with plenty of beach time!

The cost with United miles

So let’s go over the routing rules once again so the cost makes sense. Awards with United Mileage Plus allows a stopover and two open jaws on a round trip itinerary between regions. As long as you can break up your trip into an inbound and outbound leg following these rules, both legs will get priced individually into a single round trip. You can find the cost of these roundtrips on the United airlines interactive award chart.

1. Outbound leg: New York to Los Angeles in June, stopover in Los Angeles until February 2014, fly to Grand Cayman
2. Return leg: Return from Grand Cayman to LA

This is an open jaw since Samba for Miles is starting in New York and returning to LA. There is also a stopover in New York. Each leg costs 17,500 miles so together the trip is 35,000 miles. Plus, of course, the taxes, which are $89.75.

I used this exact trick when I planned Natalya’s flights to Grand Cayman and Cancun adding on a free one-way from Grand Cayman onto a round trip to Cancun and for Samba for Miles’ southern adventures in Grand Cayman, Rio de Janeiro and Cancun. (That second one to four cities is a bit complex so proceed with caution!) 

So how much do tickets cost to Grand Cayman for that weekend? This is what we are saving by spending the additional 22,500 miles. According to Kayak.com, the cheapest ticket is $586:

Once taxes are subtracted, that’s 22,500 miles to save $497… plus the dates are super flexible in case we decide on a different weekend. And FYI, I put the tickets on hold for 24 hours while I checked with Svetlana it was ok over text (she enthusiastically agreed and even thanked me for the “random Tuesday surprise”). The tickets were gone the next day. So not only did we get a good deal, but we got a good deal by acting quickly! 

And, of course, let’s not forget that Svetlana isn’t going alone… 

My trip to Grand Cayman with United miles

I also want to visit LA this year, but don’t know exactly when yet. With United miles, you can change dates for the same route as much as you want, as long as the new trip date is at least 21 days away.

For $75, I can even change destination if I decide not to go to LA (though, of course I will!) I just grabbed a Sunday this year for a weekend that I may visit and come back from LA. On February 15 morning, I am going to take the 6 am flight to DC, meet Svetlana at the airport and we’ll fly to Grand Cayman together. There was a direct flight from New York leaving at 9 am available too, but it gets in at 1 pm. With such a short weekend trip, an extra hour on the beach is well worth a connection!

An awesome, relaxing weekend getaway…

The great thing about Grand Cayman is that they have a tiny airport with few flights so passport control and customs takes 10 minutes. In fact, their flights are so infrequent, they turn on and off loud lively island music between flights (I found this out when waiting for Natalya last year!) The airport is also a 15-20 minute drive from Seven Mile Beach so you can be on the beach 30 minutes after your plane touches down. We’re landing at 11:44 am so we’ll be lying on the sand in our bikinis by lunchtime! Or dancing samba on the beach… I’m not joking.

We stayed at the Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach last time, but they aren’t allowing Saturday checkins. This makes sense; it’s a peak travel weekend! We will likely try the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort this time… Right now, the Marriott costs 35,000 points a night. The Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman costs 50,000 points a night, but we’re there for the beach and don’t think the Ritz is worth the 50% point premium for us. By the way, all these points rates are available in my searchable database of every Caribbean hotel with points!

Super excited to be going back to Grand Cayman!

 

Other posts and pages you may like:

Top Five Ways to Fly to the Caribbean with Miles

From Caribbean in Winter + to Europe in Summer for 20,000 American Airlines miles TOTAL

Cayman, Panama, Rio, Cancun: Svetlana’s Southern Adventures with United Miles