# Booking Airfare From the West Coast



## quiltergal (Apr 25, 2006)

I decided to start the search for airfare from San Francisco to Grand Cayman today.  We have an exchange Sunday to Sunday at Morritts.  So far if I search for a fare departing SFO on 1/28 I don't get to GCM until the next day.  It would appear that nothing flys out of SFO on Sunday mornings.  (Maybe that's why the Sunday to Sunday week was in the exchange pool in the first place.  )  If I search for a fare departing SFO on Sat. 1/27 then I arrive in GCM the afternoon of 1/27.  Double    So I'm left either losing a whole day of my vacation or having to find an extra night somewhere.  I even considered spending the night in Miami or DFW.  But if I do a multi city flight search with a one night layover it's about $100/person more.  :annoyed:   Maybe the best thing to do is email Morritts and see what the cost of an extra night would be.  Sorry for the rant, but I feel a little better now.  I'm open to suggestions.


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## LisaH (Apr 25, 2006)

What kind of airfares are you getting? I am curious because I am thinking about getting an exchange at Morritts next year as well.


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## quiltergal (Apr 25, 2006)

The best fare I found was through AA directly 1/27 to 2/4 $561 RT PP.  The way airfares have been the last 6 months I'm afraid to wait as long as I did to book a flight to Kona.  I ended up paying $830 pp but that included a car for a week.


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## debraxh (Apr 25, 2006)

Did you call AA and ask why?  Perhaps the complete schedule is not available yet for 2007.  There is currently a Sun SFO-MIA flight that departs at 7am.

How about an alternative airport departure i.e. OAK or SJC?


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## Dave M (Apr 25, 2006)

The key is that the MIA-GCM flight, departing MIA at 5:05 p.m., doesn't operate on the 28th, which is a Sunday. That's consistent with the current schedule, under which that flight operates only on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

One solution for getting there on the 28th is to connect to the daily flight from MIA to GCM, which leaves MIA at 12:04 pm. That requires taking the redeye from SFO to MIA on the evening of the 27th.

Or do your search with a start time of about 1:00 p.m. on the 27th - but *not* as a multi-city search. That will give you an automatic overnight layover in either DFW or MIA at no extra charge on the 27th, connecting to that 12:04 p.m. flight from MIA to GCM on the 28th. If you can't get it to work on AA.com, try it on Orbitz or one of the other search engines. (I used Orbitz.)


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## suzanne (Apr 25, 2006)

Our friends book their flites from Portland, OR to FLL or MIA depending on prices for flites and then book their flites from Miami to the Islands. They can get cheaper flights by booking the trip this way as they are not stuck with only one airline out of Portland. They leave a day early stay with us and then stay over a day with us before flying back. That way they are not too tired when they get to the final destination either direction and if there is a flite delay they have that extra day to deal with it. There is a airport hotel at Miami, you might want to consider checking the prices for the trip this way and see if its cheaper for you.

Suzanne


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## DavidnRobin (Apr 26, 2006)

Try the site - sidestep.com - excellent search engine with lots of flexibility.  I found a flight that saved me about 10 hours for only $100 more (well worth $10/hr if you calculate the cost of vacation overall)

also - save time/money using overnight flights and Ambien if you are not taking kids with you - all you need is at least a 5 hour flight.


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## MarkO7111 (Apr 26, 2006)

When I fly from San Diego to Grand Cayman I always use FF miles on Continental. With there FF miles you can have a 24 hour layover. So I fly to Houston and get a room on priceline for about $35 and fly out to Grand Cayman on the first flight in the morning. If you don't have the miles it might be worth buying them and doing this.


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## camachinist (Apr 26, 2006)

```
1 Connection
  	AA 	480 	0 	SFO
01/28/07 07:00AM 	MIA
01/28/07 03:12PM 	757 	B 	F7 A0 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 W0 V0 Q0 G0 S0 N0 O0 	
KX 	107 	0 	MIA
01/28/07 08:05PM 	GCM
01/28/07 09:25PM 	737 		J8 D8 Y9 W9 H9 K9 L9 M9 Q9 T9 V9 X9 G9
```


```
Fare Details
 
Departing Airport 	SFO
Arriving Airport 	GCM
Departure Date 	01/28/07
 
Note:
The fares listed do not include airport and/or security fees.
 
Fare Basis 	Airline 	Booking Class 	Trip Type 	Fare 	Effective Date 	Expiration Date 	 
111 Fares Returned
VFLCRB 	AA 	V 	Round-Trip 	561.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
VLX7CRB 	CO 	V 	Round-Trip 	655.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
QLX7CBN 	NW 	Q 	Round-Trip 	655.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
HHX7NR 	US 	H 	Round-Trip 	763.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
QHX7CRB 	DL 	Q 	Round-Trip 	763.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
HHX7CRB 	UA 	H 	Round-Trip 	763.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
MHX7NR 	AA 	M 	Round-Trip 	763.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
LHX7JNR 	KX 	L 	Round-Trip 	763.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
BLW7CRB 	CO 	B 	Round-Trip 	765.00 (USD) 			View Rules    View Routing
```

Just wanted to demonstrate that your desired routing/times are possible. 

KX is Cayman Airways.


```
Seat Check Completed
The seat check information is displayed below. If your seats are available click the airline "book" button at the bottom. If the seats are not available a search around the selected days is attempted to let you know which days are availble for the fares.
Departing "SFO -> GCM" for class of service "V"
Jan 27 2007
Available 	
Connecting Flights	1	via Miami
Multiple Stop Flights	4	
Jan 28 2007
No Flights 	
Jan 29 2007
Available 	
Connecting Flights	2	via Miami
Multiple Stop Flights	12	
Returning "GCM -> SFO" for class of service "V"
Feb 04 2007
Available 	
Connecting Flights	2	via Miami
Multiple Stop Flights	12	
Fare Rules
AA
Depart: Sun 28 Jan
Return: Sun 04 Feb
Total (excluding intl taxes): $561 roundtrip
Out Base 	$256, half roundtrip
In Base 	$256, half roundtrip
Taxes 	$50
Out Created 	04/12/2006
Out Class 	VFLCRB
In Created 	04/12/2006
In Class 	VFLCRB
```

It appears no seats are available in the V bucket SFO-MIA for Sunday currently, but that might change, if you want the 561.00+ price. IIRC, the fare rules allow for OAK/SJC co-terminals for pricing. 

Here's an option similar to what Dave was talking about :


```
1 Connection
  	AA 	1608 	0 	SFO
01/27/07 11:56PM 	ORD
01/28/07 05:59AM 	S80 		F7 A7 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 W7 V7 G7 S7 N7 Q7 O7 	
KX 	505 	0 	ORD
01/28/07 07:45AM 	GCM
01/28/07 12:25PM 	737 		J8 D8 Y9 W9 H9 K9 L9 M9 Q9 T9 V9 X5 G5
```

It appears the V bucket is currently available for this routing/time.

I think a travel agent might be helpful with options, considering the specificity of your request. Good luck!

Pat


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## quiltergal (Apr 26, 2006)

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions.  I did a bit more searching last night.  Dave you suggestion for searching for a 1PM departure from SFO on 1/27 worked great schedule wise.......however the fare was $1,000 pp! 

The 7am flight out of SFO also worked but it was at least 20 hours travel time!  There was a really long layover in ATL but not long enough to spend the night.

I'll keep looking.  I may end up using a travel agent as this appears to be getting complicated.


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## Dave M (Apr 26, 2006)

quiltergal said:
			
		

> Dave you suggestion for searching for a 1PM departure from SFO on 1/27 worked great schedule wise.......however the fare was $1,000 pp!


I just tried it again and got the same $561 fare (plus taxes and fees) as you got yesterday for other itineraries. Again, I used Orbitz, requesting a maximum of one stop in each direction.

1/27 SFO-MIA 1:00pm-9:13pm
1/28 MIA-GCM 12:04pm-1:30pm

2/4 GCM-MIA 2:50pm-4:18pm 
2/4 MIA-SFE 6:00pm-9:15pm


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## quiltergal (Apr 26, 2006)

Orbitz was down last night.  I think I used Expedia and got that $1,000 fare.  I can see it now though.


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## quiltergal (Apr 27, 2006)

Hey Robin, I meant to thank you for the link to Sidestep.  That's a super website!  Certainly takes less time to find what you're looking for there!  Thanks also to camachinist.  I have no clue what V bucket means, but seeing the routing options was very helpful.  Thanks to everyone else who offered suggestions also. 

We have decided to either take the 1PM flight and spend the night in Miami, or take the early flight and try and get and extra night in GCM.  

Thanks again everyone.  TUG is the best!


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## BILL_B (Apr 27, 2006)

Suzanne,

What is the name of the airport hotel? We are doing an overniter at Miami next Jan on our way to Tobago.

Thanks,

Bill


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## quiltergal (Apr 27, 2006)

Bill it's Miami International Airport Hotel.  I saw it last night on Travelocity.


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## camachinist (Apr 27, 2006)

> I have no clue what V bucket means, but seeing the routing options was very helpful.



It's a pricing level and booking class. In the example I proferred, there needed to be availability in that bucket to get the 561+ price. Of course, there are always more expensive seats available 

Pat


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## jtridle (Apr 27, 2006)

*Morritt's extra night*



			
				quiltergal said:
			
		

> We have decided to either take the 1PM flight and spend the night in Miami, or take the early flight and try and get and extra night in GCM.



You can find the cost of an extra night at Morritt's on their website:  www.morritts.com.  Look on the left hand side of that site.  There is a list and I can't recall for sure what it says but I think it will be obvious which one to click on.  It gives pool and ocean rates.  If you are an owner at Morritt's, you can get a 20% discount.  I would vote for staying the extra night in paradise - Grand Cayman.  IMHO.


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