September flight prices

[Sam1]

Can I ask what dates these are for?
I'm son with aspergers is adamant not to fly with any other carrier for the main flight!
But flight prices are insane for our dates which is
Around the 20th September for 3wks.
I'm willing to do tye Dublin route if it saves us money, we've never done this before either lol always play it safe,
However my parents did it loads when I was younger,
As I remember the excitement of two plans .

They're for the 30th of August - 15th of September. I've just checked your dates, but it looks like they only go up until the 9th of October at the moment. I've been looking at quotes in Euros on the Irish site, but for the 20th of September - 9th of October, the last date they do, it's showing as £418 per adult for economy return. They have more options on the Irish site for some reason, so the stopover ranges from 1h 30m - 4h 30m there.

 

[tinkerpea]

T

They're for the 30th of August - 15th of September. I've just checked your dates, but it looks like they only go up until the 9th of October at the moment. I've been looking at quotes in Euros on the Irish site, but for the 20th of September - 9th of October, the last date they do, it's showing as £418 per adult for economy return. They have more options on the Irish site for some reason, so the stopover ranges from 1h 30m - 4h 30m there.

Thanks, they are great prices since Direct I can only find for over £650 right now, family of 5 that's huge savings.

 

[Woodview]

Hello Sam1,

Just a thought have you looked at Ryanair from Malta to Dublin & then Aer Lingus to Orlando .

It might need an overnight stay but worth looking into .

 

[Kath2003]

Be careful about booking on two separate tickets - if the first flight is delayed, it's not the second airline's problem. It's yours.

 

[Sam1]

Hello Sam1,

Just a thought have you looked at Ryanair from Malta to Dublin & then Aer Lingus to Orlando .

It might need an overnight stay but worth looking into .

Yes, I looked when they first came out and it didn't work out much cheaper than Virgin. At the moment to fly with them it'd cost about €1000 more than flying with Virgin through Expedia. Ryanair are expensive at the moment, it's actually cheaper to fly with Air Malta, so I'm hoping to book a budget airline closer the time if their prices come down.

Be careful about booking on two separate tickets - if the first flight is delayed, it's not the second airline's problem. It's yours.

Yeah that's what's worrying me, especially with me coming from Malta first. I can get a stopover of 4h 30m, but I would rather be in Gatwick the night before if possible. I'm probably going to hold off and see if the prices for Air Malta straight to Gatwick, then Virgin from there combined come down. That way the stopover would be overnight.

 

[Kath2003]

If I absolutely couldn't book it all on one ticket - which is by far the safest option - I would definitely book an overnight stopover and check my travel insurance to see what, if anything, I could claim in the event of the first airline failing to get me to LGW in time. A missed transatlantic flight would be very expensive.

 

[Sam1]

If I absolutely couldn't book it all on one ticket - which is by far the safest option - I would definitely book an overnight stopover and check my travel insurance to see what, if anything, I could claim in the event of the first airline failing to get me to LGW in time. A missed transatlantic flight would be very expensive.

To have it all booked on one ticket, would I have to book with the same airline? So someone like Expedia would be no good?

 

[Kath2003]

To have it all booked on one ticket, would I have to book with the same airline? So someone like Expedia would be no good?

You need to book it all on the same ticket. Airlines form partnerships and can sell seats on each other's flights to do this, called code sharing. For example, this year I booked with AA by flew part of the journey on a BA plane. You can see who an airline code shares with - for example, here for Air Malta: http://www.airmalta.com/information/about/partners-air-malta

If you book these, you can use Expedia etc. The agent will tell you: sold by XX (the airlind you're buyibg the ticket from) and operated by XX fkr each flight (the airlibe operating each segment if the flight). So you might have something like:

Ticket sold by Lufthansa
Flight Malta-Frankfurt operated by Air Malta
Flight Frankfurt-Orlando operated by Lufthansa

 

[Sam1]

Thanks for that. I've only ever flown direct, so didn't have a clue how it worked. When we lived in France we got to Gatwick two days before, so a delayed plane wouldn't have been a problem. It would've taken us about twelve hours to drive, but it was doable. Here we don't have the luxury of being able to drive off an island, so a delayed or cancelled flight would be stressful.

 

[Kath2003]

BA will sell you a flight for your dates from Malta with an overnight stopover at LGW then a direct flight to MCO all on one ticket; also an overnight stopover at LGW in reverse. It's not a cheap ticket at £814, but it is a ticket.
If you return on a day earlier, or a day later, it's £732 - the layover time is better, too.

If you'd rather, Lufthansa will sell you a ticket from Malta via Frankfurt. Overnight stopover in Frankfurt on the way out, then direct to MCO. On the return, you only have 2.5 hours wait in Frankfurt - and it's cheaper at £691, but the dates are 31/8-12/9.

Those are both bookable direct with the airline.

Some places to start looking, at least.

 

[Sam1]

Virgin flights for September have dropped in the sale that started today. M+M have an additional £80 off a return, so they're now working out at £538 for an adult in economy.

 

[Feebarn]

We looked and looked for flights for next September and booked almost exactly at the 11month stage. We were just about to go for flights with Icelandair for £460 when we noticed a flight came up with Aer Lingus. In the end we got Aer Lingus Edinburgh - Dublin - Orlando return for £440pp.

In our experience, you will find it hard to beat the deal you get booking the day the flights are released.