Best prices for flights

[matty624]

Well, DW has finally decided that we can go next July/August. Having watched Flyglobspan prices for end of July/August go from £1303 (2 adults and 2 children) up to around £2400, I'm now at a loss at what to do.
We have in the past travelled with Virgin, Travelcity, Delta, Gloespan, BA etc. but I just cant seem to find any reasonable prices for next summer. I know a lot of airlines haven't released flights yet, but has anyone any ideas on who to go with. Budget is a major consideration (as it is for everyone!), but I'd like to book sooner rather than later, so we can choose the pick of the crop in villas. We'd want flydrive really, as we love having a big choice of villas, and usually book direct with owners.
Any ideas?
TIA.
Matty

 

[rpbert1]

I will be booking my hotel for next year 8th July, when reservations come out this month.
As for flights , i have flew with Virgin , but with no offers on cheap flights from Belfast to Gatwick, have decided to fly from Dublin. Will watch all sites Travelsupermarket-Expedia -Opodo-Ebookers-Travelocity-Airline Network-as well as Airline websites till i get a price i am happy with.
before our flights this year ,i saw flights on one of these for £200 cheaper each than i paid , and it was with Virgin ,flights where from Dublin to Gatwick.
The cheapest i saw was £369 return Dublin to Orlando via London return, for July this year.I am not in a rush to book the flights , will just keep searching till i get prices i am with.
£1303 would have been agreat price for 4 of you if you had booked it.

 

[BRobson]

We are in exactly the same boat Matty. The prices are scary. We really need to go with BA as we have some vouchers but they only take the edge of things. We normally book at Christmas but I am scared the prices will go even higher

 

[matty624]

£1303 would have been agreat price for 4 of you if you had booked it.

I know
I blame my better half, because at that point, she wasn't keen on going! I should have just booked it there and then, it was for 4 weeks duration too!
Ah well.
Thanks anyway.
Matty

 

[matty624]

Thanks Jackie.
We often book around Feb-April, and have always found something we were happy with, around the £2000 mark (remember, it's for August, no damned choice, as we're teachers!). It comes to something though when you have to fly from Glasgow (we're near Manchester), pay for an over night, and still have to pay in the region of £2400! I'm just hoping when more flights are released by other companies, we'll find something.
What are these vouchers Jackie? We probably have enough airmiles to go about 10th of the way there, one of us!!!!
Matt

 

[BRobson]

What are these vouchers Jackie? We probably have enough airmiles to go about 10th of the way there, one of us!!!!
Matt

We went to Disneyland Paris with BA last month and they lost all our bags We managed to get them back on day 6 of 7!!! They were very generous with our compensation - DH writes a mean e mail It is not enough to cover 2 adults and 2 kids in the summer holidays though.

 

[Greenday]

If you are prepared to fly via Dublin, you will probably get a good deal if you book enough in advance.

Aer Lingus start flying directly to MCO in October, they have released their online deals until March 08 but their internal schedule (from what I remember) is now working up until June 08. To get the deals in June before they are released online I'm reliably informed all you have to do is ring their booking line rather than wait for them to go up on the internet.

DirectHolidays.ie, who are a subsidiary of MyTravel also fly from Dublin to Sanford, they are already taking bookings on flights for next year. Oh and American Holidays - www.americanholidays.ie will also have direct flights to Sanford.

It's worth bearing in mind that as the STG is so strong against the EURO you should make a further saving. FWIW, I priced flights for June next year recently and they were very reasonable.

HTH

 

[matty624]

If you are prepared to fly via Dublin, you will probably get a good deal if you book enough in advance.

Aer Lingus start flying directly to MCO in October, they have released their online deals until March 08 but their internal schedule (from what I remember) is now working up until June 08. To get the deals in June before they are released online I'm reliably informed all you have to do is ring their booking line rather than wait for them to go up on the internet.

DirectHolidays.ie, who are a subsidiary of MyTravel also fly from Dublin to Sanford, they are already taking bookings on flights for next year. Oh and American Holidays - www.americanholidays.ie will also have direct flights to Sanford.

It's worth bearing in mind that as the STG is so strong against the EURO you should make a further saving. FWIW, I priced flights for June next year recently and they were very reasonable.

HTH

Thanks for that. I'll have a look at those links later.
As for June, I'm sure prices aren't bad, in fact, any time, even just a few days out of the kids holidays (either side) the prices are much much less. Thats the price we teachers pay for the jobs we have. 0 flexibility!!!!!
If I could fly a week earlier next summer, the £2400 price would drop by more than £1000!!!!
Ah well...
Matty

 

[Greenday]

You & me both - I'm waiting to see what the prices are when the day limit is up for July/August. School holidays are very costly if you're stuck to only using them for trips abroad.

August flights should be released for booking at the beginning of October I think for Aer Lingus. Direct Holidays are already taking deposits, I'm assuming because they use a charter airline. I understand it's Monarch they use btw, if it's any help to you. American Holidays use this provider also I think.

The largest holiday operator in Ireland - budgettravel.ie do packages to Orlando but not flights on their own from what I can remember....

 

[ScottishDisMam]

Since you've said your teachers, what is your honest opinion of taking the kids out of school for a week?, and to push you on that further, What would be your opinion on taking them out the 1st week back in January?

Lisa

 

[rpbert1]

The only thing about Direct holidays and American holidays , is they only do 2 week holidays , you can call to see about a 3 week holiday but the price jumps dramatically also their luggage allowance at 20 kgs would not be anywhere near enough ,for us anyway.

 

[matty624]

Since you've said your teachers, what is your honest opinion of taking the kids out of school for a week?, and to push you on that further, What would be your opinion on taking them out the 1st week back in January?

Lisa

Well, without wanting to ignite a very hot potato...
If it were me, and my child was well above average (which I'm happy to say they are, e.g. dd has a reading age of <13.6 and she's 8, higher than mine!) I'd definitely consider taking them out of school for a week, either side of a normal school holiday. Any holiday, especially Christmas. The week before Xmas, there's not much real work done anyway! That said, remember they will/may miss things like the school play, discos/parties etc. You just have to weigh the pros and cons. The week after Xmas is a pretty normal week, but again, if they are well above average, it wont do them much harm. Please dont ask the teacher for the work they will miss, it's just not possible to bundle up a weeks work in a neat little package, just to make the parent feel less guilty
The unfortunate reality is however, 9 times out of 10, the kids who are absent from school (for holidays) in my classes (I've been teaching 15 years and am a deputy head now) are the lower ability children. These are kids who can ill afford a day off, never mind the 2 weeks slap bang in the middle of term they take off every year, without fail. I know schools can say no, but rarely do Primary schools stop parents doing this, just as long as it's under the 10 school days in an academic year. Again, the reality is, if a school does say no to a parent, all that happens is that it is classed as unauthorised, and the LEA could fine the parents, which they hardly ever do! In fact, I'll go as far as to say, I've never known them to do this, to any parent in the schools I've worked in, in 15 years! But I'm sure it happens, as it usually makes the papers!
So, IMHO, go ahead, if it's the right thing for your kids
Matt

 

[matty624]

The only thing about Direct holidays and American holidays , is they only do 2 week holidays , you can call to see about a 3 week holiday but the price jumps dramatically also their luggage allowance at 20 kgs would not be anywhere near enough ,for us anyway.

That was the good thing about Globespan, you can pay for additional luggage for any leg of your trip. We paid for 50 extra kgs last year, for the return trip. Way too much it turned out, but we had it available if we had needed it. Didn't cost that much either, just as long as you buy it in advance.
Matt

 

[Greenday]

I'm actually not a teacher, BUT I am confined to only taking holidays during the school holidays..... The nature of the business I work in is very seasonal, traditionally August is the quietest month so hence we can only take our holidays around then also. It is school related you see!

We have slightly different regulations over here which mean that if your child is absent for more than 20 days of school then the Educational Welfare Officer gets involved - and that includes sick days. That's a factor for parents when you consider taking a 2 week or 3 week holiday - because if it's a 3 week, then it's 15 days before you even allow for a tummy bug etc.

 

[ScottishDisMam]

Thank you for that Matt. My children are luckily all doing very well at school, and my son just got back 2 credit passes for standard grades he was fasttracked to sit this year (He is just newly 15.)
I could be wrong, but I do think that travelling to America, and going to places like Epcot are very educational for them anyway, and will give them the confidence to get out in the big world when they're older.

Lisa

 

[matty624]

I'm actually not a teacher, BUT I am confined to only taking holidays during the school holidays..... The nature of the business I work in is very seasonal, traditionally August is the quietest month so hence we can only take our holidays around then also. It is school related you see!

We have slightly different regulations over here which mean that if your child is absent for more than 20 days of school then the Educational Welfare Officer gets involved - and that includes sick days. That's a factor for parents when you consider taking a 2 week or 3 week holiday - because if it's a 3 week, then it's 15 days before you even allow for a tummy bug etc.

Yep, same here actually, we send the EWO out to families when a child has been off a lot. What I said still stands though, extremely rare (in the UK, in my experience anyway) for parents to be taken to task for non attendance of school.

Totally agree with you Lisa, travelling, especially to see the Mouse etc, is very educational. But when you have kids like I have in my class next year, who are 11 (Y6), but have a reading age of 6, and I know they will be heading off to Spain during the course of the year, it's very disturbing. Some parents just dont see the value of education as we do. Like I said, if your kids are bright, dont hesitate. Just as long as your LEA are reasonable about it Oh, I think things are a little trickier generally when you're talking about secondary level aged children, some high schools take a very strong stance. So it's definitely worth checking it out before booking.
Matt

 

[matty624]

Oh, and could I just add, as you can see from my tag line, I've actually taken children 3 times to DLP, so I definitely think it's educational!!!!
As do our governors. Our parents fight for the places, but that may be something to do with the amazingly cheap prices we manage to secure. e.g. this Dec, £170/child for a 6 day (3 nights on property) trip, including a trip up the Eiffiel tower and a boat ride, 2 days in the parks, breakfasts and all insurance/travel/passports etc.
If only I could find as good a deal for my own flippin family!!!!
Matt

 

[laalaa]

I was in same predicament regarding flights for my upcoming trip.

Id been pricing my trip for about a week. In that time the price rose from £740 for three adults (Amazing price!) to £1300. Coupld with some dodgy reports id heard about globespan i looked elsewhere. Im now going with AerLingus, glasgow-dublin-orlando. Altogether came in at £1100 for all the flights, plus they use MCO to i can use disney magical express instead of hiring a town car at £100.

Regarding the taking children out of school, id been worrying about this. I am taking my 16yr old brother on our trip to. The 1st week of december. Will need to ask permission from the school when he goes back next week.

Do you think it will help if we make him get all the work he will be missing before he goes and complete it and hand it in before he goes? Hes a bright boy, whos in the top end of his classes, he rarely misses school.

 

[matty624]

Regarding the taking children out of school, id been worrying about this. I am taking my 16yr old brother on our trip to. The 1st week of december. Will need to ask permission from the school when he goes back next week.

Do you think it will help if we make him get all the work he will be missing before he goes and complete it and hand it in before he goes? Hes a bright boy, whos in the top end of his classes, he rarely misses school.

To be honest, it's quite hard at times to give children work to do anyway from the classroom which covers exactly what we're doing in class. Much of the work, certainly at primary level, is group work, work led by the teacher, short activities which address very specific learning objectives. It's very different to when we were at school (I'm 36), where we worked through books and it wouldn't often have mattered whether the the teacher was there or not!
You can always ask though!
Sounds like an interesting idea about your flights, I'll have a look at that. Thanks.
Matt