We have always flown with Virgin or BA but are considering First Choice for our next trip as they fly from a local airport..................how does their version of premium economy compare to Virgin? What is the food/entertainment like?
We have also never flown into Stanford.......how long will it take us to drive to WDW from there? Is it quicker to get through customs and get the car than at the International Airport!!?
Debxsxx
We flew First Choice from Manchester to Sanford last year, in Star Class Premier.
The seats were very comfortable, good legroom, and the on-demand seat-back entertainment system was the best I've experienced, Virgin included. Food was okay, but took forever to be served - there are far too many people in the cabin for them to serve each course separately.
First Choice don't allow you to choose your seat when you book, so you don't know what you're getting until you check in - and it doesn't make any difference how early you check in because the allocation is all done beforehand. Star Class Premier supposedly includes sitting together. Flying out we were together, in one of the sets of 2 seats. Flying home we were one behind the other, in middle aisle seats. When we pointed out that we'd paid to sit together, we were told that one behind the other counts!
Although we thought the Star Class Premier was a good product, we wouldn't fly with them again. Mostly because it really is a 'holiday' flight, with mainly families, and we found it incredibly noisy even in the separate cabin. Not being able to choose your seat is a big problem for us too - we're used to picking our seat when we book online. And there is also the concern of it being a charter flight, so if there's a problem then there's no chance of being moved to another flight or another airline as with a scheduled flight.
The drive from Sanford to WDW takes about an hour, depending on traffic. It's a good airport to fly into because there are fewer people arriving to go through Customs and collect cars. But it's not so good to fly out of because there's a severe lack of facilities in the terminal considering you need to be there at least 3 hours before your flight, especially when compared to Orlando International.
I did write a trip report about the First Choice flight on another discussion board. If you'd like to read it, it's on holiday truths dot co dot uk - Flight Only/Airline and Airports - First Choice Q&As, p17.
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We loved our experience with First Choice in Star Class Premiere the service was a vast improvement over previous ones (admittedly economy seats) with My Travel. The seats are much bigger lots more leg room, better value for money than Virgin
Never been delayed more than 10 mins with First Choice going and they were bang on time on the return flights :cloudnine:
