Arriving safe and sound is always important when traveling. And when you've spent several hours on the airplane you endlessly long for a comfortable seat. Waiting for hours at immigration or for your luggage is then the last thing you feel like doing. Fortunately, there are VIP services that save you time and allow you to relax. Today we will review with you the two main airports and their services, and tell you whether they are worth it or not.
Let your dreams take a flight!
Before Boarding in Santo Domingo
Each airport has its own service. For Santiago, Puerto Plata, Samaná and Santo Domingo, you can go book with "Before Boarding," where a VIP lounge and/or Airport Premium experience awaits you.
These lounges are available to you at both departure and arrival. You will be welcomed by a host who will afterwards accompany you with your luggage (your host will pick it up or drop it off for you), and help you with immigration. All this while you and your family relax in the lounge. Both you and your family have the opportunity to enjoy drinks in the bar: where most soft drinks and beers are available. There are also spirits, a selection of wines and delicious snacks.
Depending on the airport you choose, you will pay a fee between 35$ and 175$. The service we personally always book is the Premium Lounge service upon arrival in Santo Domingo, with a cost of 110$ per person. Here someone waits for you upon disembarking from the airplane, the person escorts you to a private car that takes you immediately to the lounge, where you are personally escorted by immigration. While you enjoy a snack and a drink afterwards, they pick up your luggage for you. There's no line waiting for you at customs, neither do you have to wait on your luggage. It will all be taken care of so you can start relaxing immediately!
VIP Service at Punta Cana Airport
Also in Punta Cana International Airport, you have a VIP Service. Only it's not called Before Boarding, it's just called "Vip Service," which is pretty convenient and easy to remember.
Not much different from the Dominican Republic's other international airports, Punta Cana airport also offers a lounge and service on arrival and departure. Although their lounges are much more luxurious. For example, not only do you find a private rooftop with a view over the parked planes, you also have a pool you can bathe in while waiting for your flight. Wonderful when it is thus delayed!
With the arrival service here you are also picked up at the airplane itself, which really does have more advantages in Punta Cana than in Santo Domingo. You have to get off at the tarmac itself every time, and waiting in the hot afternoon sun for a bus is really not that nice after a long flight. So with this service you can board directly your own private transport where you will be escorted to migration. There you don't wait in line like the others, but get priority. Once you arrive at the lounge you can relax, have a bellyful in the pool, while they make sure your luggage is brought to you safely.
Since Punta Cana airport is quite small, we ourselves have never booked nor experienced the service (perhaps this will change soon). But the price for this service is 100$ excl. tax per person. If you bring a pet there is an additional 35$, and from 3 persons or more, you pay 85$ per person.
Departure service called "VIP Departure Service," "Plus Departure Service" and "Comfort Departure Service" are between 50$ and 200$. You can check all prices here.
Is it worth to book it?
From our own experience, we say a resounding yes, especially in Santo Domingo, where we book this service every time we land. Of course, it's always a risk and you don't know in advance how many flights are going to land and how many people are queuing at customs or immigration. And we understand that paying 110$ per person is quite a budget. But either way, it's great to be able to just relax after a long flight, without worrying about your luggage or passport checks. You can sit down, have a refreshing drink and just rest and wait. Even your family members can come and sit with you and you can start chatting and enjoying: and there is no price. And the private drive makes the difference for us. Because (mostly) all people are always pushing or running when leaving the plane, and it's a stress you just don't want to experience.
We look forward to soon discovering the VIP Service of Punta Cana International Airport as well, so that we can give you an opinion on it as well. So be sure to keep an eye on the website!
Booking VIP services is easily done online for all International Airports in the Dominican Republic. You choose your airport (note: for Punta Cana this is a separate website), enter the number of people, choose the service, provide your arrival/departure date and afterwards you can checkout. And that's it! They make sure afterwards that someone is waiting for you. All you have to do is relax.
Have you already booked this service? We would love to hear about your experience in the comments.
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