Flights to Orlando Easter 2016

henrik1971

Hi there. Looking to book some flights from London to Orlando for the family.
I've been checking prices on Skyscanner every few days and the prices seem to fluctuate up and down quite considerably.

Two questions: Is there any particular day of the week or time of the month when the prices are likely to be at their lowest?
Also, on the question of Orlando, it looks almost as convenient and possibly a bit cheaper to fly into Tampa, rather than MCO.
Can anyone clarify this? How do the airports compare and things like convenience of collecting and dropping off rental cars, etc.

Thanks

Any advice appreciated.

getmore4less

Don't forget to check the two UK charters they do flights to florida but only come up on Skyscanner if you use the UK airport they use.

Thomson, Thomas Cook.

DO full month view in skyscanner for details of the prices over a month.

I then do all UK to get a better view of which airports might be cheap


when do you want to go?
where can you fly from?
do you mind stops?

I am seeing return for a week £210 in Jan from Birmigham
turns into £320 when checking

jackieblack

We flew BA into Tampa Christmas before last and saved about £300pp over cost of flying into MCO (but these were peak time Christmas school holiday flights)
Immigration lines not bad at all and car hire desk was quick and efficient.
Drive time to Davenport area, where alot of villas are, is only 20 mins more Than from MCO and probably similar to Sanford, but if staying in LBV, I-Drive or areas north/east of WDW would be longer.
We used our last day to visit Busch Gardens as flight home was late evening and we had to drive back to Tampa anyway.
Was a good option

Easter is the second busiest time of year to visit Orlando (after Christmas), when we've been at Easter we've always booked 16 months before (fly drive) or 11 months before (flights only) as soon as flights are released. Prices only increased after that.
As a general rule, mid-week flights tend to be a bit cheaper and, obviously, avoiding school hols, if you can, would also save you ££££

sa_v6

We did London to Orlando in February (family there). Re airports, Tampa felt rather antiquated but functional and friendly, although I wouldn't want to get stuck there.

We found the cheapest flights via http://www.compareflights.uk although from memory SkyScanner et al were pretty much the same.

Tips:

We upgraded at the airport for the return journey (much needed although we should have left the children in economy!!). :beer:

Beware the weather! We've been before during Easter and it was ridiculously hot. Also have a look at Disney's Fastpass before you go.

henrik1971

Thanks for all the feedback and tips.

We live up north and so wanted to fly from Manchester originally, but again, the equivalent flights are 150-175pp more. For four of us, thats a £650 premium, so London it is, and preferably LHR.

Still checking prices and things seeming level at the moment, but I think we'll have to take the plunge and book soon. Cheapest direct flights are about £200 more pp than flights with a change, which seems an incredible premium to me. Don't mind a change as long as the overall journey is only 2-3 hours longer, maximum. Also, we're looking at either BA or Delta flights, so reasonable quality for food/drinks/entertainment at least.

We will almost certainly fly into Tampa and then spend the last day of the trip over there before catching a 7pm flight home.
Interesting what you say about the temperatures. We were thinking of going at Whitsun, but thought Easter would be cooler..!
Hope the park queues aren't too horrendous. Only going to a few of them (Universal, Epcot, Seaworld)+ KSC as the kids are older.

PeacefulWaters

BA flights from the regions, changing at Heathrow, can sometimes (not always) come in cheaper than flying direct from Heathrow.

henrik1971

Just as a follow up to my earlier posts on here, I continued looking at prices which had been stable for quite a while, but then started to creep up, so we took the plunge earlier this week.
This may be old news to some, but just to say, using Skyscanner may be convenient, but actually booking the flights is another matter! I attempted to book several times, only to click through and find the price quoted wasn't actually available. The price offered in one case was over £700 more for the four of us, than the Skyscanner search result. Also, the cheaper options tend to be with firms I've never heard of like Fly Sharp and gotogate and when I google them on tripadvisor or trustpilot, they are massively slated, and so you have no confidence to go with them.
On like my sixth attempt to book, once I'd cleared all the unavailable fares and the fares offered by these other firms described above, the cheapest tickets were actually starting to look quite expensive! We ended up booking with Expedia who I used when I went to the States about 10 years ago. We've got LHR Delta flights out and Delta flights (operated by Virgin) on the way home for £444 pp, so i feel okay about that, but I wouldn't have been willing to pay much more. I know Easter is a busy time, and checking earlier those £444 seats are now almost £500 less than a week later, so glad I took the plunge when I did. Thanks to the earlier poster who warned that flight prices will only start to go upwards from here..!

Where's the best place to ask about park tickets? On a previous trip I used Attraction Tickets Direct, and they were fine, but this time we only want to go to a few specific parks, and its hard to work out the cheapest ticket combinations to to cover those particular ones..

jackieblack

Yes, as you've discovered, Skyscanner are ok for checking what flights operate, but then I always book direct with the airline concerned?

For SW/BG/DC park tickets I've always booked on their own website, for WDW we've only ever wanted a few days with no extras (like park hoppoing) so have always bought at the gate (in $) and it's always saved us over buying the 7/14 day 'all in' tickets available in the UK.

Stephen_P_3

I know I am a bit late posting for this but I find that dealchecker is a bit better for long haul flights as I am looking myself for Florida next year, The flights I have found up to now that are the cheapest are with Virgin atlantic and about £100 cheaper than skyscanner.

The flights do alter quite rapid and can be up and down on prices too.