Why must this trip be so complicated?

Nilsifjel

Earning My Ears

Joined

Jul 13, 2015

• Sep 26, 2015

• #1

I apologise in advance for this. It's a bit of a moan really.

The original plan when booking the hotel for my August 2016 trip was adding the flights separately. I would be flying from the UK and the other half would be flying from Canada and meeting me there. However, now the idea is for us both to be in the UK in August, so flying together. Great? No...there's a slight hitch.

There's no guarantee she'll be in the UK for certain.

I was hoping to be booking flights as soon as possible after they're released, wanting to get either something out of Newcastle (indirect) or biting the bullet of driving to Gatwick for a Westjet flight (or whatever other reasonable options presented themselves). We wont know until April (mostly out of our control) if she'll be in the UK so I have a few options, none of which are ideal.

1) Book my own flight and book a separate one from Canada to MCO and tell her she'll just have to delay coming back to the UK.

2) Book flights for both of us and hope she will be here. (not that I can afford to do that immediately anyway due to my MA tuition fees).

3) Hold off on booking any flights until April and being certain, but risking astronomical prices.

Any thoughts?

 

iona

DIS Veteran

Joined

Apr 24, 2011

• Sep 26, 2015

• #2

The final option would be to book yours now but hold off on booking hers. Alternatively you *might* be lucky enough to hit a sale around next Easter time but that might require you to be able to change your dates by a day or two to match up with availability.

I hope you manage to get something sorted!

 

BadPinkTink

Republic of Ireland is not part of UK

Joined

Mar 13, 2015

• Sep 26, 2015

• #3

Nilsifjel said:

3) Hold off on booking any flights until April and being certain, but risking astronomical prices.

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Pretend that you have booked the flights now and instead of paying off your credit card bit by bit over the next few months, put that money aside. Then by the time you book in April, you will have money put aside for the flights and you wont have to pay out such a huge amount

 

Karin1984

DIS Veteran

Joined

Feb 5, 2012

• Sep 26, 2015

• #4

4. Book your own flight now and let your other half book whenever she knows where she will be. If/when the fare go up, you will only have higher fare for 1 ticket.

Unless she can get a ticket you can cancel for a low fee or free of charge, then I would probably go for option 1.

When you are not in the same city, it is a pain to organize. With my last trip, my friend flew from Luxembourg, I flew from Amsterdam. Original plan was to both go via Frankfurt with Lufthansa. Only we waited too long, my ticket fare stayed the same, but hers went up. So in the end, she flew Luxembourg-London-Miami-Orlando. 2 transfers and a late arrival, but for a really cheap fare ;-)

I would advise Skyscanner to look for tickets.

 

Nilsifjel

Earning My Ears

Joined

Jul 13, 2015

• Sep 26, 2015

• #5

iona said:

The final option would be to book yours now but hold off on booking hers. Alternatively you *might* be lucky enough to hit a sale around next Easter time but that might require you to be able to change your dates by a day or two to match up with availability.

I hope you manage to get something sorted!

Click to expand...

The date are definately not able to change due to brother's wedding immediately before the trip and having enough time after to prep for the new school year (teacher problems!)

BadPinkTink said:

Pretend that you have booked the flights now and instead of paying off your credit card bit by bit over the next few months, put that money aside. Then by the time you book in April, you will have money put aside for the flights and you wont have to pay out such a huge amount

Click to expand...

This is an idea I like.

Karin1984 said:

4. Book your own flight now and let your other half book whenever she knows where she will be. If/when the fare go up, you will only have higher fare for 1 ticket.

Click to expand...

This is something I did consider. My concern was that it would be difficult if we weren't be able to get a second ticket for the same flight later on if she was going to be flying from the UK.

Thank you for your responses all. It's been some helpful food for thought!

 

Nilsifjel

Earning My Ears

Joined

Jul 13, 2015

• Sep 26, 2015

• #6

Virgin is quoting £975pp for our dates. West jet is quoting flights for our first week at £560pp (real return date not available yet). If this is Westjet's price this time next week I'm booking it for me! Hah.

 

finchy3

Mouseketeer

Joined

Jan 30, 2014

• Sep 27, 2015

• #7

We have just booked with West Jet to go to Los Angeles via Calgary, £545 is a great price for August

 

Nilsifjel

Earning My Ears

Joined

Jul 13, 2015

• Sep 27, 2015

• #8

finchy3 said:

We have just booked with West Jet to go to Los Angeles via Calgary, £545 is a great price for August

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Amazing price! They're starting to fly Vancouver to LGW so for the pair of us getting back and forth is going to be much cheaper.

 

Nilsifjel

Earning My Ears

Joined

Jul 13, 2015

• Oct 1, 2015

• #9

I have my flight booked! Newcastle to Orlando via Amsterdam and Atlanta. A familiar route for me!

 

S

stephensmum

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 10, 2007

• Oct 2, 2015

• #10

Nilsifjel said:

I have my flight booked! Newcastle to Orlando via Amsterdam and Atlanta. A familiar route for me!

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Great news, who dud you book with? Often thought about that route

 

Nilsifjel

Earning My Ears

Joined

Jul 13, 2015

• Oct 5, 2015

• #11

stephensmum said:

Great news, who dud you book with? Often thought about that route

Click to expand...

I booked through STA because I was able to bag a student discount. I'd forgotten about them, but checking it out saved me over £130 on the KLM price. Sky Scanner wasn't giving me the connections I wanted. (45 minutes between Orlando and Atlanta in the summer storm season is too risky!)