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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Original poster

Can any one recommend flight companies for Florida?

46 replies

Donbean · 07/05/2006 11:06

Or do you know any thing about "dialaflight.com"?
Have you ever used this company at all?
Its just that we are booking to go next April and are completely lost with all of the companies and the HUGE differences in prices.

OP posts:

SharonW · 07/05/2006 22:06

Last time I was there a new mall had just opened at the end of International Drive, past Belz. It's called Mall at Millenia and it is absolutely fantastic. Has got everything from Bloomingdales and Macys through to Prada and Tiffany. Worth a look! :}

Original poster

Donbean · 07/05/2006 22:09

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH shopping galore, wanna go NOW wanna go NOW!!!!! Sod the price.

OP posts:

hulababy · 07/05/2006 22:14

Not doing Discovery Cove. DD isn't really old enough to appreciate it considering the cost yet. She is only 4.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 08/05/2006 06:53

Donbeam

Due to fuel surcharges and all the other taxes added on these days I would consider looking for flights now for next March (as prices for these are now on line and these will go quickly). You may find that BA will be cheaper than Virgin but do compare costs.

Its certainly not "cheap" to fly to Orlando any longer in March unless you go at the beginning of or in the middle of March. From doing my own researchest the airlines seem to have lower fares up until the beginning of the last week of March after which time the price increases dramatically.

If your accommodation is a five minute drive from the parks then its likely to be located in the Kissimmee general area (for which the nearest airport will be Orlando).

Mall at Milenia is fab - would recommend the Cheesecake factory for lunch (if you were to eat there I would suggest not eating anything at all for breakfast if you were going there for lunch as portions are huge).

triplets · 08/05/2006 14:10

Hi,
We got a good deal with Charter Travel based in Surrey. We booked our Orlando flights and car last year, June, for this Oct! We paid just over £400 each adult and £335 for the kids, that inc car. They also found good flights for my friend who is going at the end of this month. Flying with Virgin btw.

Mfer · 08/05/2006 18:54

Hi - we are flying with Virgin through tradewinds - 2 adults, 2 kids, 3 bed villa from May 24 for teo weeks £2500 - used tesco clubcard token to pay for it!!! you can part pay with tokens so worth looking at!

Original poster

Donbean · 09/05/2006 19:36

Ok, really struggling now!
Virgin are WAY too expensive and i am just overwhelmed by the other web sites.
Ive tried travel city etc as recommended but they wont let me just book a flight.
Can any one from the evening crowd help?

PS thanks for all replies so far, its really appreciated.x

OP posts:

AttilaTheMeerkat · 09/05/2006 19:45

www.ba.com will let you book a flight. Has won awards for it being user friendly!.

Mfer · 09/05/2006 20:22

have you tried any the american carriers?? sometimes a bit cheaper especially at the dollar weak at the moment?

triplets · 09/05/2006 22:12

Try Airtours, I live in Kent and didn`t realize that they fly from Manchester and Glasgow, there 2007 brochure is already out.

fluppy · 09/05/2006 22:48

We have flown there with BA twice (which was actually very cheap in comparison to other flights we found - check their website). It was excellent, which is more than we can say for Airtours. We have never flown with a package company again after that last Airtours flight to Florida...

julie4travel · 17/05/2006 10:24

Donbeam- did you get sorted in the end? We holiday in Florida a lot. If you go charter the best one we have had is Mytravel on their new plane which has the toilets downstairs. we got preboarding with under 5s which made a difference. the staff were great. If you prefer scheduled we always go with Virgin purely as yoy an do teh twghlight checkin at the airport so you check in the previous evening (saves queing the next morning) and on the return you can check your bags in at down town disney for an extr $5pp. So we check them in spend time at Downtown entertaining the kids etc then drive to airport drop off car and not long left before we fly - it makes it a lot easier with kids. pesonally i would pay more to fly with Virgin for that facility!

You need to pre book your flights asap as teh availability gets worse nearer the time and the prices increase. I booked some people in October last year for flights this easter they paid over 400 per person for an indirect flight, if they left it later it would have been a lot more expensive.

I am a travel agent so if you want a price email me on [email protected]

Original poster

Donbean · 17/05/2006 10:32

Hi, we did get sorted in the end through my dh's work. We have got good prices for flights and are just waiting for the return flight details as they are not out yet apparently. They will be out today i think.
We are busy sorting car hire and travel insurance next.
Accomodation is organised.
Trouble with Virgin is that flight prices are between £800~1000. We have got flights through Delta which are £540. Its a HUGE difference.

OP posts:

julie4travel · 17/05/2006 15:11

Donbean- at least you got the flighst done honestly it would be extremely difficult leaving it till nearer the time. the only excpetion on that is non school holidays.

get the cheapest car hire price and email it over model number etc and i can see if i can offer it cheaper. Holiday insurance - try think its www.insurengo.com. I did my parents an annual worldwide for Florida as it was not much more than the single trip. I know as an agent i am not supposed to tell people to go elsewhere yet they are so competitive i can hardly ever compete!

mckenzie · 10/06/2006 19:55

can i re-open this thread please? We have the chance of a villa in Florida from 12-19 August but flights via Virgin and BA are coming in at £700/800 for adults and £500 ish for children.

Might we get something much nearer the time does anyone know or do the Orlando flights always get fully booked early and so they dont ever need to do cheap late booking offers?

Definitely want to do direct flights and want a decent airline as travelling with 2 young children.

TIA

SecondhandRose · 10/06/2006 20:06

McKenzie weather in Florida in August is stinking hot and could be very cloudy as it will soon be hurricane season. Sorry to be grim.

BA fly direct into Tampa, it's about 90 minutes drive to Orlando. Try that. You may be able to fly into Tampa and out of Orlando or vice versa.

hulababy · 10/06/2006 23:19

We went in August 2 years ago. It was pretty hot and very humid. It tained every day, but for less than an hour and roughly at the same time each day - around 3/4pm. The rain was very welcome! TBH the weather wasn't a problem for us. A lot of the queses in the parks are air conditioned, as are all the food outlets. The water rides are good for cooling down too, and there are all these fans giving out droplets of water as well.

We did have a hurricane - the big one, Charlie. It was on our 2nd day, or our first full day there. We had to leave the park at 2pm, and spent the rest of the day/night int he villa. By the morning it was over and all the parks were open, 1 hour later than normal. However they all stayed open by at least 1 hour later in the evening.

We fly out on Tuesday Forecast for tomorrow there is 39 degrees!!! However it drops to a mere 29 by Tuesday, phew!

AttilaTheMeerkat · 11/06/2006 07:50

The Orlando flights do tend to get booked early, if you still want to go in August I would book this asap, especially if you're not flexible on dates. BTW BA can be cheaper than flying with Virgin if you were to do a cost comparison on dates. Also Virgin's overall service seems to have gone downhill these days.

The only two British carriers that fly direct into Orlando are BA and Virgin. If you were to fly into Tampa and out of Orlando you would have to fly with BA. However, flying into one airport and out of another can work out a lot more expensive.

hulababy · 11/06/2006 09:37

Virgin worked out really good value for us and not much dearer than Travel City Direct. BA was very expensive for our dates. We booked just after Christmas for June (2 days time!!!)

jenkel · 11/06/2006 10:36

We went last September and got a good deal with BA. £1400 for 2 adults and 2 children and car hire for a week. This was flying into Miami, we didnt want to stay around Orlando as the theme parks were going to be a tiny bit of the holiday, felt that with a 2 and 3 year old they wouldnt appreciate them that much, so we stayed on the East Coast, about an hours drive to Orlando, we just went to Sea World for the day. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive to where we were staying from Miami.

It was really hot in August and the roads are so boring, no wonder they all drive big cars, you just have to point the cars in a straight direction and off you go.

mckenzie · 11/06/2006 19:46

thanks for all the information guys. I hadn't really given the weather much thought so thanks especially for that info although from what you all say it shouldn't matter too much.

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