Having been well and truly flamed by two or three people on the board about my opinion of waht Travel City Direct have to offer I thought it best to do a little price research on Travel City Direct and compare their prices to offerings of other carriers. I have not gone deeply into this pricing as I imagine that the majority of purchasers of holidays to Orlando do not have days of research behind them before booking. I decided that the best and fairest comparison would be to use the first day of the summer school holidays of state schools in the majority of counties in England and is the time that a large number of people want to travel, I am traveling on this day myself. I have used 14 days as the duration of the holiday as TCD are not as flexible as many of the flag carrying airlines (disadvantage no1) (my own trip this year is 20 days and could have been any number I wanted) The only flight offers on TCDs website must include a car or the purchase of the room from them this is a minimum extra of £318 for the smallest car available and with the lowest form of insurance they are offering for the 14 day period. I have not added this extra cost to the TDC prices I found. Please correct me if I am wrong and it is possible to purchase the flight without being forced to hire the car at this price but it certainly doesnt seem to be the case on their website unless purchasing accommodation through them also. I have only used the two search engines for flights from other companies (expedia and ebookers). This cheapest scheduled airline comparison only gives a small window of one travel day an alternative flag carrying choice but also aims to offer an insight into what else is potentially available and possible within a similar budget of what would be spent traveling with TCD in both economy and sunshine First. None of the examples I have used to compare to TCD require a car to be hired they are all flight only.
There are advantages and disadvantages of all of the options I have found, the main one being that some of the flights I have listed require a change of plane but may give some an insight into the common misconception that traveling on scheduled airlines is always going to be a more expensive holiday and with a Florida holiday it may only boil down as to whether you intend to hire a car for your duration of stay or not.
Please check yourselves as it is not guaranteed these figures are accurate or available at any other time than when i looked.
TDC Manchester to Sanford International Economy £643
American Airlines Manchester to Orlando International £646.20(with one stop)
(AA seat pitch is very large for economy at a claimed 34" i.e the same as what TCD claim for their sunshine upper deck which is a min of £129 extra according to their website)
Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy Manchester to Orlando International £1299.70
TCD Sunshine First Manchester to Sanford International £1152
TDC Gatwick to Sanford International Economy £573
Continental Gatwick to Orlando International £673.40 (with one stop)
TCD Gatwick to Sanford International Sunshine First £1082
British Airways Premium Economy Gatwick to Orlando International £1139(direct)
North West Airlines Buisness Class Gatwick to Orlando International £1459(with one stop)
From this short list it is possible for anyone regardless of budget to have choice, yes they are disadvantages with some due to the extra stop which may put some off using some of these services yet there is also the advantage that these fares may be similar for a different number of days rather than having to be stuck with 14 , magical express is available as all these alternatives fly directly to Orlando International.
Remember that TCD may have some excellent deals at different dates though so may some of the others, all these comparisons are to show that low cost airlines are not always the cheapest though direct for economy they often are but with a lesser degree of flexibility that for some people may incur other less obvious costs that they did not need to spend such as car hire depending on how they intend to spend their holiday. Some people may love TCD I am quite sure that they will have many loyal customers and for many but not all a car may be critical to what they intend to do with their holiday.
There are advantages and disadvantages of all of the options I have found, the main one being that some of the flights I have listed require a change of plane but may give some an insight into the common misconception that traveling on scheduled airlines is always going to be a more expensive holiday and with a Florida holiday it may only boil down as to whether you intend to hire a car for your duration of stay or not.
Please check yourselves as it is not guaranteed these figures are accurate or available at any other time than when i looked.
TDC Manchester to Sanford International Economy £643
American Airlines Manchester to Orlando International £646.20(with one stop)
(AA seat pitch is very large for economy at a claimed 34" i.e the same as what TCD claim for their sunshine upper deck which is a min of £129 extra according to their website)
Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy Manchester to Orlando International £1299.70
TCD Sunshine First Manchester to Sanford International £1152
TDC Gatwick to Sanford International Economy £573
Continental Gatwick to Orlando International £673.40 (with one stop)
TCD Gatwick to Sanford International Sunshine First £1082
British Airways Premium Economy Gatwick to Orlando International £1139(direct)
North West Airlines Buisness Class Gatwick to Orlando International £1459(with one stop)
From this short list it is possible for anyone regardless of budget to have choice, yes they are disadvantages with some due to the extra stop which may put some off using some of these services yet there is also the advantage that these fares may be similar for a different number of days rather than having to be stuck with 14 , magical express is available as all these alternatives fly directly to Orlando International.
Remember that TCD may have some excellent deals at different dates though so may some of the others, all these comparisons are to show that low cost airlines are not always the cheapest though direct for economy they often are but with a lesser degree of flexibility that for some people may incur other less obvious costs that they did not need to spend such as car hire depending on how they intend to spend their holiday. Some people may love TCD I am quite sure that they will have many loyal customers and for many but not all a car may be critical to what they intend to do with their holiday.
