TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Intercaribbean airways experience?

We're taking intercaribbean in July and I was wondering if anyone has any recent experience. Mainly wondering about luggage options. We've always travelled with Cape Air in the past and never had an issue bringing quite a bit sometimes. My main concern is their carry on policy of 10lbs. I've always brought my laptop/camera bag which is about 24lbs. I've reached out to their customer service but also wanted to see what experience anyone here has had. Are there options to accomodate this? Are they that strict on the 10lbs?

Thanks!

10 Lbs is for taking it into the passenger cabin. They don’t really check. It’s basically your personal item. Your regular carryon will be taken and stored forward on the aircraft at boarding. Intercarribean has been consistently running about a 15% cancelation rate.

Keep in mind, the storage in the cabin is very limited on these aircraft. Most backpacks don't even fit. My laptop bag is only about 7 inches deep and it barely fits. They will take anything with a suspect size at the door of the plane, everything valuable will be removed, and you'll get the empty bag back when you land.

So you are saying they will take the bag, leaving you with anything valuable to just hold? So I should be able to take it, just removing my laptop and camera out as we board, keeping that with me?

Thanks. Any idea how Cape Air has been running? There are 5 of us so for a little more $$ we could get their travelpass. We've take a ton of luggage with them previously, never had an issue. I'd like to take my dive bag, but don't want to check it.

We are taking Intercaribbean at the end of April. We normally take Cape Air or Silver bc InterC has somewhat of a history of cancelling flights. But, this time Cape and Silver were sold out. I've been tracking IC flights for the last month or so. Yesterday there were no cancellations (SJU to EIS). I would say on average they tend to cancel one out of three flights a day. I don't know for sure, but I think they cancel flights if they don't have enough passengers.

We've never had any issues with luggage on Cape or Silver, but I have heard of others who have. Jason is correct about the carry on bags. They typically will put these in the luggage compartments along with the checked.

My sister and nephew just flew IC, against my better judgement, from Antigua..on from London. The flight was an hour and half late arriving at EIS but their return left 10 mins early! They had no complaints about IC and had one big heavy suitcase between them.

I doubt they are canceling for a lack of passengers. Everything is full and they have performance targets they must meet or they pay penalties or outright lose their code share partners. They simply don’t have enough pilots. If you have a pulse and a license they are hiring! It’s so bad they have hired a Haitian consultant hoping to dig up a few that don’t have pulses!

Cape Air has been canceling a flight about every 3 days but they have more flights a day and I suspect would quickly accommodate you on another flight.

Thanks for all the great input. We've always used Cape Air in the past but the cost this time would be about $2100 for the 3 of us. $1100 over IC. Never had an issue with Cape Air and I've brought my same 24lb laptop bag, 2 large suitcases between my wife and I and even 2 dive gear bags as well. One time I even brought my drone which has its own case. I'd love to bring my drone this trip too, just not sure we'll be able to manage, although it may actually meet the size and weight requirements so we'll see. I'm going to see if I can pair down for this trip, maybe I'll bring an older Microsoft surface. I need to bring something though since if we were to test positive for our return and had to stay I'll need to get some work done.

One the plus side at least we are on the first flight of the day so worst case if something goes wrong maybe we'll have more options.

No. It was a bad joke trying to imply that anything of value would be stolen at SJU. This used to be an issue back in the American Eagle days but seems to be under control now.

ah.. got it. lol Thanks.

I think I'm just going to shift what I have and bring a bag that should fit.

I thought the comment was hilarious!!

It’s not totally under control but not as bad as American Eagle where anything of value would be gone. How they searched the bags between you handing it over and the bag going in the front pit and right back at you on landing eluded me. I did like the news special years ago that showed rampers getting off the bus at SJU in the morning empty handed. Boarding the bus in the afternoon they all had trash bags in their hands!
Here is a quote from Flyer talk:
Similar circumstances here. I have no doubt that my personal items were stolen by personnel under AA's control (AA or outsourced AA employees). An unsympathetic AA Supervisor in SJU dismissed my claim as simply "the cost of doing business in San Juan."

Had all my CD's stolen at SJU in the old American Eagle days..

One time, when unpacking my bag, I found ripped up holiday cards in my luggage that were not mine. Looked like someone had opened about 5 different cards and the remnants were shoved in my bag.

And I completely missed it lol