Direct flight to orlando or in-direct?

[Francine]

Hiya,
any advice please... we are going to Florida from london next August. Going direct with BA is £2500ish, but going indirect via Atlanta or New York is nearly £1000 cheaper; my kids will be 13 and 10 and don't like flying! Is it so horrible changing planes, or is it worth paying the extra for the direct route? thanks so much.
PS. any tips or reasonable car hire whilst in Florida, cheers xxx
PS sorry if you already seen this message x

Who are you flying with? We are going to Florida (Sanford airport) on 11 August next year with 6 adults and one child (DD will be 2 so pays for a seat). We have flights with Travel City Direct (have a website) and it comes to just over £3500 - so about £500 per person. We have also paid an extra £20 per person to prebook our seats so we can all be together,This is a direct flight, flying at 9:30am on the way there, and 16:20 on the way back.

We also have car hire with the same firm (Travel City Direct). We have 2 intermediate 4 seat cars with all the relevant insurances for 2 drivers. That comes to £856 in total.

When we were looking we did find that BA and Vrgin were much dearer than other companies. Depends whether you feel it is worth paying the extra for these big fliers or not.

As regular flyers to Florida, we have been most routes, including these two. I didn't find changing planes too bad, just adds time to your journey, and stress if you're cutting it neat with time.
On the way back tho', I just want to get home, and the added hanging about time is frustrating. But as CnR says, it is more expensive.
In saying that, we're flying KLM to Miami, and changing at Amsterdam. We have to change somewhere and so Glasgow- Amsterdam-Miami. Once you're on the long flight it's okay. My kids will be 10 and 2 then.
My preferred airline is Virgin, mostly because we got upgrades to first class last time!! Thanks Richard

Francine, I flew to LA with my 7yo this year and had no choice but to change in NY. It wasn't too bad at all, with just a two hour layover. By the time we'd got off the plane, been to the loo, looked in shops and had a drink, it was time to go again! I actually appreciated the chance to stretch my legs and have a walk. HTH.

Francine, we went to Florida in March & Virgin was actually cheaper (for a direct flight) than Airtours. It may be worth you checking the prices for all the different travel companies.

Changing planes is OK, except that for people who don't like flying (as I don't) you get double the worst bits- 2 lots of take-offs & landings each way. We went to Las Vegas before direct flights & had to change at Dallas. The plane got stuck in a holding pattern over Dallas for 2 hours (ghastly) so that by the time we landed they practically threw our luggage at us, bundled us onto a cart & across the airport. The connecting flight (a commuter one) had had to wait for us, which was really embarrassing. We had to walk through the plane with all these businessmen glaring at us, to find one had moved into our seats & spread out his laptop & papers!!! Not an experience I'd wish to repeat.

I would look for someone other than BA - tend to be very expensive - American Airlines - travelled a lot with them from LA to London and within the US - they are brilliant... perhaps worth a try - lots of leg room too. If the kids don't like flying- worth going straight through if you have the choise rather than adding time to your journey - especially on the way back as sammac said.

If you or your husband work for someone like the NHS - they do discounted car hire for members... perhaps through a union or organisation like that.

Use the web and try sites like travelocity and expedia and like that.....

Hi,
thanks to all of you for great advice,
Francine x

Quick plug for virgin, last time I flew with them, I was coming back from Florida on my own with 3 small children and a mountain of luggage. Some kind check in assistant spotted us in the huge check in queue, whipped us out of queue, checked in through upper class. saved us about an hour of fractious children and I didnt even ask for any help-was very impressed.