The Wearied Traveler Vs. Cheap Caribbean

There are tons of travel deals floating around the internet. But let’s be real, there are some shady deals out there you really need to steer clear from. Let me remind you how close I almost came to being sold into sex trafficking had I of followed through with the travel recommendation to a 6-day/5-night stay in Jamaica or Cancun or The Caymans -whatever your dream vacation would be – you could get there for $129 per person although you’d probably never return. So my obsession with researching ways I could travel cheaply, has led to an obsession of fact checking travel deals. I love a good deal and it’s become very hard to shop without a coupon, cashback, rebate…something. In my research I’m finding good deals surprisingly, but i’m also finding bullshit. I don’t just want to find a good travel deal. I want others to find a great deal that has good value! So that is the meaning for this new travel section to the wearied traveler. I’m already obsessed so just let me do the research for you and avoid the bullshit altogether.

The Deal

I rock with TravelZoo – I really like them. And if I had actual money to spend, I’d probably spend a great deal of it there. I don’t have any sort of affiliation with them, I just think it’s a cool site and they offer more than just vacation packages like tours, tickets to shows…the ballet. Now while I may be partial to this site, I’m not sure I can get into all the travel deals that I come across. Over the past month I’ve been working on getting my passport and earning miles for a trip. My urge to get on an airplane and go somewhere – anywhere – is so strong, I could practically feel the sand beneath my feet when I read 4-nights in the Cayman Islands for $699. Airfare included. I had spent the past few days lusting over a previously posted deal when this beamed through my email inbox. I quickly recognized this as being something way too good to be true, but since my research on a trip to Ireland had proved legit just days before, I figured this could be legit.

Flight

Reading the details didn’t lead to anything out of the ordinary. The $699 with flight included price of course is valid when flying from certain cities, standard for deals like this nowadays. In fact, this was as much as an ordinary vacation package as you might expect, just until you get to the bottom of the post and see the extra $100 resort fee that’s likely be thrown in. Okay so Cayman Island heaven for $799. I could still live with that. This extra last minute detail would prove to be the catalyst for a much larger sham! The deal is being offered through Cheapcarribean.com and and it did turn out to be cheap. $100 cheaper than advertised on TravelZoo! Definitely too good to be true! The dates offered for the package are anywhere between August 11th, through October 31st. None of the mostly available bookable dates had prices as low as 599, but I was able to select dates at the lowest listed price, $644, leaving Sunday Sept. 30th and returning Thursday Oct. 4th. Selecting the $644 flight takes you to the page where you able to choose your individual flights. Right away there is a huge difference between the $1436.20 at the right of the screen versus the $699, $799 with resort fee max I was anticipating. There’s no additional information that would elude to the & $637.20 price different other than the $1436.20 now states “hotel & flight* and the price of the flight now says per person. How much exactly is being charged for the hotel room is a mystery.

Hotel

The room is nothing particularly special, although it touts a deluxe island view. The 4-nights stay clearly states, “included in package” and can house 2 adults for the same $644 ($643.10 to be exact) flight price. Selecting the standard room offered with the package and bypassing a couple of attempts to up-sell and you get to the payment screen, all set to take your credit card information for the price of $1486.20, still a massive difference from the original advertised price! I was curious to see if I could reproduce this trip on my own for cheaper.

Self Booked

I’m a member of a few frequent flyer rewards programs so it would be relatively cheap for me to fly to the the Cayman Islands. Throughout American Airlines, I could get there for about 25,000 miles so if you’re not affiliated with a frequent flyer program, you should definitely consider it. For the purpose of this prices comparison, however, we’ll assume that I’m purchasing this trip cash. One of the things that I’ve learned about budget travel is that, if you want to fly cheap, you have to be willing to pay the cost! Flights to The Caymans from my home town of Sacramento are low as $483. The caveat to this is it’s a 2-stop, 28 hours and 35 minute flight that had to be booked a day early (Saturday, Sep. 29th) to get the same 4-nights. The flights themselves are not long. It’s the 1 hour, 47 minute and 18 hour 23 minute layovers at LAX and Atlanta Hartsfield, respectively, that causes the trips to be so long. Is a day of traveling work the money saved here? In my opinion, yes! To take advantage of a flight so low I’d find something to do in Atlanta for 18 hours. The international Delta flight leaves Sacramento around 6am, Saturday Sep 29th and arrives at GCM at 12:23pm Sunday afternoon. Subsequently, Delta brings me back home leaving Thursday, Oct. 4th at 1:45pm and landing at 10:45pm that same evening…a much shorter flight.  Now let’s find somewhere to stay.

The booking through Cheapcaribbean is for accommodations at The Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort checking in on Sunday, Sept. 30th and leaving Oct 4th. If I were actually booking this, I would go ahead and pay the $642.60 through American Airline to maximize my savings and receive 2 miles per dollar spent plus an additional 600 miles. But I did find a deluxe room at the same resort on Hotels.com (another fave) for $161 a night. $161 for 4 nights, plus taxes, and the $50 per night resort included bring the hotel booking to a total of $803.28. I’m on the frugal side, so I couldn’t see this for myself. I think I would opt for a cheaper Airbnb solution or 4-nights at a 2.678 star hotel (this man has standards). Add in the $200 resort fee and you have a total of $1003.28 for the hotel and $483 for the flight for a total of $1486.28.

So is this a deal? No, it is not! Considering the trip I planned is more expensive, it would seem that it is a good deal and something to be taken advantage of, however the cost of the package through Cheapcaribbean is from Miami to The Caymans and doesn’t include round trip flights from all U.S. cities. If I purchased the package through Cheapcaribbean and the additional airfare to get to Miami on time to catch the flight scheduled from Miami to Grand Cayman, I would have to spend an extra $264 dollars and it would require me to leave an extra day early anyway. Additionally, the cost of self booking would be significantly cheaper even if you did live in Miami as an independent flight from Miami to The Cayman Islands was priced at $259. Which would still be $224 dollars cheaper booking through Cheapcaribbean booking from the same city. So the end result is $1750.23 for a trip to The Cayman Islands booked through Cheapcaribbean compared to the same trip self-booked for $1486.28.

This deal is a bust! You’d be better off booking yourself and maximizing your value by booking cheaper hotel accommodations! Consider inviting a fellow travel titan and splitting the cost of the hotel room bring the total per person to just a little under $1000.