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Original poster

Holiday dilema of sorts please help me choose, Virgin or First choice flights?

21 replies

linnet · 04/11/2004 23:16

You may or may not have seen my previous thread asking about hotels in Florida, I now have another question...

My cousin who is a travel agent has given us 2 quotes for a two week holiday to Florida.

One quote is for flying with Virgin from Gatwick. Since we are in Scotland we'd need to get to Gatwick and those flights put the cost up by £250.

The other quote is for First Choice flying direct from Glasgow.

Has anyone got any advice on whether or not it would be worth paying an extra £250 to fly with Virgin or should we put that extra money towards our spending money and fly First choice?

There will be me, Dh, and dd1 who will be 8 and dd2 who will be 17 months.

OP posts:
KangaMummy · 04/11/2004 23:24

i haven't flown first choice but virgin are very good for kids. nintendo games and own tv channels in seat back. good goody bag although they may have changed those.

tiredemma · 05/11/2004 08:53

obviously virgin would be the best choice as thier transatlantic flights are probably one of the best in the world, however out of all the other tour ops, first choice is one of the best charter transatlantic companies so if it was me id save the extra money and fly from glasgow.

princesspeahead · 05/11/2004 09:11

no question, fly virgin. the flight will be 100 times better, will depart and leave on time, your children will have much more entertainment en route and it will be £250 well spent. and if there is any problem with your aircraft etc virgin will get another one there in a couple of hours whereas with firstchoice you'll have a delay of at least a day. remember that in the event of any problems, virgin have to look after and worry about bolshy, vocal, 1st class passengers who have spent £5000 on their tickets and who may well be best mates with richard branson, with first choice everyone is economy on a cheap flight so they don't really care if they make you sit around for hours or days. it completely changes the amount of effort the airline puts in to solving problems.

princesspeahead · 05/11/2004 09:13

ps i have flown 1st choice - went to goa for 7 days with them. except the plane broke down on a refuelling stop in bahrain, so we spent two days there instead. took them 16 hours to admit that we weren't going anywhere, kept everyone in the airport that long (overnight) with no food or drink until they told them, so they wouldn't have to pay for 2 nights in a hotel! luckily we chatted to the pilot who in the first 10 minutes told us that we weren't moving for several days so we left and checked into a hotel immediately. couldn't believe what the airline had done to everyone else when we found out the next day. shocking.

Mosschops30 · 05/11/2004 09:15

Message withdrawn

SoupDragon · 05/11/2004 09:48

Virgin, without a doubt. Especially if you're flying to Orlando because with Virgin you can check in at DownTown Disney first thing in the morning and spend the rest of the day in the theme park before heading off to the airport. Also with the seat back TV screens, the flight is great. I've just had a 2 hour ish flight to Alicante without entertainment and it was waaaaay longer than the 8 hour flights to Florida we've had!

SoupDragon · 05/11/2004 09:50

Will you have arrived from Glasgow the night before the flight? If so, you can use Virgin's Twilight Check In facility then and there so you're all done without the queues

marialuisa · 05/11/2004 10:35

another vote for virgin...with longer flights every penny that makes it easier is well spent. by the time you go on holiday you will have forgotten about the extra cost.

we end up paying more for flights 'cos DH is such a useless traveller, DD is fine.

Original poster
linnet · 05/11/2004 11:39

So far virgin has the most votes.

The flight down to Gatwick is at 6:35am on the morning of the flight to Orlando Eeek, far too early for my liking but I would like to fly Virgin, never flown with them before and I have heard a few good things about them. I'm not sure what time the flight out to Orlando is though, will need to check that.

Trying to decide how much of a stingy Scot I am, lol

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 05/11/2004 19:05

It'll be about 10:30 I think Linnet.

oooggs · 05/11/2004 20:51

My flight with Virgin to Florida is 12.30pm (in less than 3 weeks [grin) and the one we have got before was 11.15am. Hope that helps. Virgin are great.

oooggs · 05/11/2004 20:53

ooops

sammac · 05/11/2004 21:18

We've flown from Virgin, got the plane down from Glasgow the night before and stayed in the Gatwick hotel which is part of the airport(Hilton maybe)It means you don't have a sleepless night worrying if your alarm will go off, instead can have a leisurely breakfast and relax. Last time we got upgraded to first class which was VERY nice going to Miami.
Down side is coming home- as there are less shuttles from Gatwick than Heathrow, you may have to wait for longer, so takes longer to get home- combined with jet-lag. All you want to do is get to your own bed( well I do)

blueteddy · 05/11/2004 21:27

First choice = Last choice , in our opinions!
We flew first choice in May, when travelling 2 Florida ourselves & were less than impressed 2 say the least!
We even flew premiere class with them & were the only one's with no entertainment atall 4 the whole 9 hr flight, as our TV would not work!
We found the staff less than helpfull & DH was so angry that he considered paying out a lot more money 2 insure that we did not fly back with them!
So with us it would be Virgin every time!

lou33 · 05/11/2004 21:31

I think we flew first choice in 2001. NEVER AGAIN!

MOST UNHELPFUL AND SULLEN STAFF EVER!

Frizbe · 05/11/2004 21:51

VIRGIN, you can even check in online now!! Fabby for kids, some of the newer planes even have a choice of 48 DVD's which you and they can watch and you can pause them, ff, rewind etc at your leisure!! the BEST!

Frizbe · 05/11/2004 21:54

alos, nearly forgot, customer service excellent, as nearly all airlines over book their flights, if your late to check in they may ask you if you'd take their later flight, if you do this with virgin, they put you up in a 5 Star hotel, fly you back on the next available flight (upgraded!) and this is the best bit, give you and yours a return ticket anywhere in the world that they fly to! (I know because it happened to me on way back from San Fran!!) fabby and I didn't mind the delay one bit!

Original poster
linnet · 05/11/2004 22:53

ooh, Thank you all looks like it might be Virgin then. Especially since a few of you have mentioned how good they are if the flight is delayed etc. Nothing worse than delayed flights when travelling with kids, I've been on a few of those and they were just internal Glasgow-London ones!

OP posts:
Original poster
linnet · 08/11/2004 21:52

Booked our holiday tonight and we're going with Virgin. and when I booked it the price had dropped by £20 I took that as a sign that I was doing the right thing

Thank you all for your input.

OP posts:
SueW · 08/11/2004 23:54

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

Original poster
linnet · 09/11/2004 00:40

Hmm interesting SueW. To be honest although I've been quoted the £250 for the flights down to Gatwick that was just with one airline. I don't need to worry about booking them just yet so will look into that more in the new year. I suppose it would all depend on how much it costs to get from Luton to Gatwick airport, might work out to be the same price more or less if we just fly direct. Don't have to worry too much about that just now but thanks for the idea I will keep it in mind.

OP posts:
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