Flights to Florida

[MiniCooperLover]

We are thinking about Easter next year for Orlando as a friend has a house they rent out over there. Thomas Cook flights are just over £3k for 2 adults and one child. Has anyone done flights with them? Other suggestions of airlines for London -Orlando? Cheers

Virgin and BA both fly to Orlando from London Gatwick

We got a good price booking Aer Lingus flights through BA. By routing LHR-Dublin-MCO we pre-cleared US immigration in Dublin, which was a bonus.

£3k sounds like a lot for 2 adults and 1 child. Try skyscanner or netflights, about 10 to 11 months before you want to fly. If you are prepared to fly indirect you can save hundreds if not thousands of pounds. I've booked flights to Miami for next Christmas on netflights for 2K for 5 of us (3 adults, 2 children), changing in Chicago on the way out, direct on the way home. With Virgin it would have been £3.9K. That's almost 2 grand saved.

Budgie

I've been to Chicago O'Hare airport; it is massive and with multiple terminals. Chicago at that time of year is cold so can also be subject to flight delays as well due to weather conditions.

The flight I was from the UK on saw people miss their ongoing connections partly because of the time taken to get the plane itself to the gate (it did not arrive on time which did not help either).

Ensure at the very least you know which terminal you will arrive into and which one you will take the next flight from. Hopefully it will be the same one. You need around 3 hours ideally there between
your initial flight landing and the next; any less and you will be unlikely to catch the next flight. That clock will start ticking on you as soon as your initial flight touches down.

Thanks Attila, we've got 2hrs 50 between flights, so hopefully will be ok. I did check that there were further flights that evening, as well as the next day, in case of any problems! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!

We flew london to orlando via New York and return via Chicago on mix of American Airlines and United. Agree with pp re chicago transfer, it's very big with rush hour style crowds around the internal flight terminals. We missed connecting flight back to UK due to delay leaving Orlando were stuck overnight, initially with no provision by airline. We booked into onsite Hilton at own expense (despite airline telling us there were no rooms and reccommending we travel out 45 mins to a motel the other side of the city) and eventually claimed cost back from United. Our luggage didn't join us till a couple of days later though despite repeated reassurances from staff in Chicago that luggage would be transferred to our new flight.

One key thing to note is that flights into/out of Orlando are often delayed due to weather even in high summer.

We definitely want to go back to Florida but would only go direct and with a British carrier. Apart from the connection problems, both American Airlines and United offered a paltry inflight experience with limited functioning entertainment and tired interior of planes. Virgin Atlantic or BA are far superior ime.

Very interesting. Takes notes!!

Look at Kayak for flights too
Where are you flying from? Going through Dublin has saved us a fortune

We have started to consider Florida for next year and I had a brief look around for flights yesterday. They were coming out at nearly 5k for 4 of us. Then I looked on Thomson and they were £550 pp direct. Thought that was really good. But it wasn't to the main airport in Orlando, it was Sanford I think it was called, about 45 mins to an hour from Disney land.

Try Norwegian air.
We got flights for about £450 return in August.

Fly to Orlando international rather than Sanford. Airlines such as virgin, BA, delta, aa are better than Thomas cook charter flights. Rarely delayed.

Norweigian Air is who we are going for. Their prices are so much cheaper than everyone else. The dates we want still haven't been released yet but for the month before we want, it's coming out at £1510 for 4 of us, Lowfare+. That's to Orlando International and direct. If they are around that price for a month later I'll be happy. Not sure if they will be though as we'll be going into the Easter holidays so guessing the price will be more?

Unfortunately the Norwegian flights are likely to be quite a lot more over Easter. When we priced up a flight for 5 of us at Christmas to Miami, it was £2000 more to fly during the Christmas holidays than it was earlier in December. It was more expensive than BA or Virgin over the holiday period. You might get lucky if you book as soon as they release the flights.

Hmm, that's not good. I am looking at going a couple of days before the start of the easter holidays and coming back when they are finished as we want 3 weeks so know we need days around the holidays. I'm also checking all the time for the dates so will be booking as soon as they are available. Will still have a check around for other prices when they are released, just in case.

We flew in to Sanford last year for a Disney hotel and was very happy with it. Very quiet and easy to navigate. No delays. Will fly with Thomson again next year no doubt. You do need to hire a car though, which we were doing anyway. If not, then Orlando International is definitely better for you.

Go on Skycanner and search over "whole month". You might be better waiting til slightly closer to the date, search say 11/10 months in advance. I do this and mostly the price with 1 stop is about £400 per person return.

I am looking at going a couple of days before the start of the easter holidays and coming back when they are finished as we want 3 weeks so know we need days around the holidays

That may help a bit, if you're not travelling on the peak weekends. We wanted to travel on the Saturday before Christmas, it was very expensive, but three days earlier was much cheaper (we couldn't do it though, as my DS will have his mocks then). Hopefully your dates won't have too bad a price hike.

I'd second looking for the cheapest dates on Skyscanner, and being a bit flexible with dates if you can be.

We can be flexible with dates given DCs will need to miss some school either side so that's one good thing. Doesn't really matter what days they will miss. The week before Easter this year, they hardly did any work and watched film after film all week so it's not like they will miss a lot of work.

Consider flying to Fort Lauderdale. 4 X flights in the school hols £1850. Bargain.

F

We are flying to Orlando in August but changing in Montreal. 2 weeks for 5 of us including villa is 3.2k.

If you can bear doing that it's worth looking at.