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Flights to Florida for £175 all-in, between 2 & 16 May. From Gatwick, Newc'le & more

Former_MSE_Natasha
Former_MSE_Natasha Posts: 672 Forumite
edited 30 April 2009 at 3:54PM in It's gone, but was it any good?
Updated 28 April 2008
What’s the deal?

Budget airline Thomson Airways currently has a range of sub-£200 return flights all-in to Florida Sanford airport (which serves Orlando). We've trawled and found limited availability, from many UK airports, at this price during the beginning of May.

When and how?

The standard price is as low as £134, yet you need to add £30 on top for return baggage and then card payment charges (£2.50 for debit cards, 2% if paying by a credit card or it's free with Visa Electron).
  • When: You must book a return journey and fly out between 2 and 16 May to get them this cheap, and trips must be either one or two weeks long. You can return later than 16 May, though it's a case of trial and error to get these flights cheaply.


  • Airports: Flights leave from Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Glasgow, London Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle.


  • Availability: Availability is extremely limited and, as the dates are so rigid, the more flexible you are the better. Yet, contray to the usual logic of booking cheap flights - where the later you fly the better the deal - with these, the earlier dates in May offer the cheapest prices of £175 all-in, even though they cover the coming bank holiday weekend.
To book, simply go to Thomson Airways directly and play around with the dates until you come up with a cheap combination. It's a method of trial and error.

Sadly, because you must book return journeys to get the deal, you can't find these flights in the FlightChecker - even though Thomson Airways is one of the budget airlines it trawls - as it's only able to produce results for outbound and inbound flights separately.

If you're looking for a hotel see the Cheap Hotels guide for how to get the best prices there too.

How does this compare to other prices?

As an example, using the top screenscrapers in the Cheap Flights guide the cheapest return flight on Sat 2 May, coming back on Sat 16 May, without stop-overs, to Orlando International (the next closest airport to Orlando Sanford as there weren't any other flights to compare to Sanford) is with British Airways for £540 return.

With Thomson it's £175 (including the £30 luggage fee). That's a saving of nearly £400 per person. Yet always do a quick search elsewhere to check what's available.

But Make sure you get an ESTA!

You now need to fill in an online request (called the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation form, or ESTA for short) to enter the States, at least three days before travelling to be on the safe side. See the USA ESTA forum note for full info on how to apply.

Thanks to lavendergirl below for the top spot. This post was inserted so we could give MoneySavers the full lowdown.

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