Orlando & Florida - Questions & Answers (Part 1) *CLOSED*

Bobsworlduk

jellynose wrote:

Hi

I am thinking of going to Florida last week in July the first week in August. I want fly drive flying from Belfast.

Does anyone know if I should wait until nearer the time with the chance of grabbing a last minute cheaper deal? Any advice really appreciated.

Thanks

Hi

Personally I would book ASAP unless you are willing to travel to the UK or EIRE for flights.

Normally charter flights come down in price closer to departure and scheduled flights go up.

I don't know how many charter flights leave from Belfast but I wouldn't think there would be many and therefore would probably sell out quickly.

Aer Lingus had some great charter flights from Dublin last year but unfortunately they are no longer running them.

jbmagpie

I have used "First for Florida" and they are great. You don't even have to pay a deposit months in advance. Google them for address

lynn44

https://www.firstforflorida.com looks like virgin site ??? cheapest flexi tickets I found on the web £127 5 day just hope they deliver before thursday...thanks jbmagpie

Amys

For anyone thinking of going to Disney between 13th Aug and 30th of Sept 2005, if you book the accomdaison direlty with Disney in the US ther eis a special deal at the moment.

Book a package, that means a hotel and tickets, (the tickets can be any lenght, but everyone has to have the same, and you can get one day tickets if you have tickets already), if you do that they give you the Disney Dining Plan for free, that is a credit for a table service meal, a counter service meal and a snak for every night you stay.

Bobsworlduk

Amys wrote:

For anyone thinking of going to Disney between 13th Aug and 30th of Sept 2005, if you book the accomdaison direlty with Disney in the US ther eis a special deal at the moment.

Book a package, that means a hotel and tickets, (the tickets can be any lenght, but everyone has to have the same, and you can get one day tickets if you have tickets already), if you do that they give you the Disney Dining Plan for free, that is a credit for a table service meal, a counter service meal and a snak for every night you stay.

Thats the deal we are going for.

There are a few things to be aware of though.
You can't book it on the UK site, as you say it can only be booked through Disneyworld.com or by calling Disney.

You can only book 10 day packages at the most, this means if you are going for 2 weeks you will have to book 2 packages or perhaps move up to I-drive or to the coast for the last 4 days.

You cannot use the deal with any annual pass discounts, so depending on your eating habits and party size you may be better of going for the AP deals instead.

Even if not using the dining deal but travelling between 13th Aug and 30th September it will be advisable to prebook any meals at peak times. You can do this by calling 407-WDW-DINE (939-3463) from here or in Florida.

Murphy_The_Cat

apcorbett wrote:

There's no correct answer to this one! Generally I keep looking all the time, and then make a call when I think that they are as cheap as they're going to be.

This year, for example, the desired flights (American Airlines via wherever), for October, were coming up around £420.00. Suddenly, they dropped to £333, including tax, so I pounced and bought them.

On this occasion, this seems to have been the right move, as they are now up to £380, but there is nothing stopping AA doing another flight sale later in the year, but I think that £333 is pretty much unbeatable (as it is including taxes as well!)

I prefer to use AA.com for my tranAtlantic flights every time. In my experience, they can be hundreds of £'s cheaper than BA, Virgin etc (which is to expected), but they can also be a lot cheaper than charter type operators such as FlyGlobespan, Travel City Direct ( it was over £800 cheaper than flying on a charter with First Choice on the Friday which was NBG anyway). Plus you get a real life luggage allowance, no stupid "pay extra to sit together" charges. no daft "meal charges", no "you're going on a Saturday so its an extra £25 each", no if you're paying by credit card it'll be an extra 2-3.5% (quite a wedge on a USA trip) and no "non London supplement" and you get all the benefits of travelling on a full service airline.

I have just booked Sat 4th Nov Manchester - Tampa and Sat 18th Miami to Manchester for £946.10 (£315.00 each for myself, Mrs Cat and the Tot).

American Airlines do seem to have some clearly defined peek/mid/off peek times of travelling, for example 01.11.06 becomes off peakk and their fares dropp accordingly. Also you MUST book direct on https://www.aa.com as they keep the best prices for themselves. On the ticket rules for the flight I have just booked it states in about 6 places that the ticket price is only available at https://www.aa.com and is not available via a travel agent.
Another nice thing on AA is that you can decide where you want to sit on the plane, so checkout https://www.seatguru.com and pick yourself the best seats.

It's time to go now and pick some villas. I fancy 1 week in the St Petersburg area and 1 week in the Naples area. Before I visit https://www.thedibb.co.uk, does anyone have any handy villa suggestions for me ?

MTC

p.s. as for car hire I'll just do a troll around until I can find the most amount of car for the least amount of money.

bargainaholic

Can someone please explain what's so bad about charter flights? I want to fly out for the last 2 weeks of August, because of school holidays. Me, DH & 2 x DS can fly direct to Sanford with 1st choice for under £1500, Virgin & BA are double that. Why?

Bobsworlduk

bargainaholic wrote:

Can someone please explain what's so bad about charter flights? I want to fly out for the last 2 weeks of August, because of school holidays. Me, DH & 2 x DS can fly direct to Sanford with 1st choice for under £1500, Virgin & BA are double that. Why?

Charter flights are no where near as bad as they used to be. In the past they used to cram as many seats in as possible and make you pay extra for meals etc.

Most airlines (in economy anyway) are the same now, however First Choice long haul is probably the best charter at the moment. They have a huge seat pitch and the entertainment is fantastic.

Try Direct Holidays for cheap flights with My Travel (Not quite as good as FC, but still fine)

Murphy_The_Cat

Bobsworlduk wrote:

Charter flights are no where near as bad as they used to be. In the past they used to cram as many seats in as possible and make you pay extra for meals etc.

Most airlines (in economy anyway) are the same now, however First Choice long haul is probably the best charter at the moment. They have a huge seat pitch and the entertainment is fantastic.

Try Direct Holidays for cheap flights with My Travel (Not quite as good as FC, but still fine)

Hi Bobsworld UK

on a (fairly) direct comparison First Choice were £800 DEARER than https://www.aa.com, plus the flights were a Friday when I wanted to fly on a Saturday, + £41.00 extra to "sit together", plus a much lower baggage allowance. So, in other words - I could travel to Florida on the days that I wanted, at good times on a full service airline for about HALF THE PRICE that a "supposedly" cheap charter flight could offer.

My point is that don't assume that the charter flights, bucket operators, discount houses aren't always the cheapest, in fact sometimes they can be much, much dearer. Sometimes the full service airline really can take them to the cleaners on price (as well as offering a great service).

MTC

p.s. The Virgin price was just plain stupid - do people just fall for the marketing hype without doing any research for themselves ? On a direct comparison Man - Orlando is either £750 or £400 dearer depending on flights than AA.

bargainaholic wrote:

Can someone please explain what's so bad about charter flights? I want to fly out for the last 2 weeks of August, because of school holidays. Me, DH & 2 x DS can fly direct to Sanford with 1st choice for under £1500, Virgin & BA are double that. Why?

Hi bagainaholic

there is absolutely nothing wrong with charter flights as long as you use them "with your eyes open". You yourself has given a good example of a good price for tickets at a dear time of year and as Bobsworlduk pointed out the long haul service from First Choice is of a very high standard.

What gets my goat is the imaginative list of extra's that can get added to the original "cheap fare".
A quick serach around revealed.
Weekend supplements
Not London supplement
Security supplement
Fuel surcharge
Credit card charge
Meal charge
Sitting together charge
Pre assigned seating charge
Ticket charge
Booking charge
Paltry luggage allowance

I'm sure that there are others that I've missed but you get my drift.
Whereas a full service airline tends to have flight + taxes = Total price

MTC

Poppy9

I booked Virgin via Airline-network for less than £900 for 3 of us during Feb 1/2 term. They were cheaper than the Virgin site but a short while after I booked Virgin came down to £800:mad: . I think I read somewhere on Virgins site that they will match any price for their flight offered by another company for a Virgin flight.

I found that you just had to shop around and try all companies possible.