Booked August flights.

[wayneg]

Decided to book our flights tonight. Maybe paid a little OTT but they are perfect timings plus we get immigration done in Dublin (I hate MCO immigration)

Aer Lingus Manchester to Orlando (Via Dublin) 1st August
Aer Lingus Boston to Manchester (Via Shannon) 25th August.

Averaged out at £620pp (less 2.5% Quidco)

Tomorrow will book internal flight from Orlando to Boston at £59pp with Jet Blue.

Total £680pp, a little more than I expected but its done now.

First time I have booked with Aer Lingus, not impressed with their site, took about 5 attempts in all, really frustrating site. Wouldn't let me prebook transatlantic seats free without paying £5pp (each way) for the Man to Ireland (and return) leg, it was pre-book all or none (unless I got it wrong).
Prebooked all legs then confirmation came thru to say some were not accepted, won't let me change online so will have to ring tomorrow.

 

[irisheyes123]

Congrats on getting your flights . I think they might be having problems with their site as I'm having problem with it today.

 

[dixonsontour]

Glad you are sorted - happy planning

 

[meggiebeth]

Congrats on getting your flights booked! It's always a relief to get them out of the way and you got a pretty good price too!!!

Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[stephensmum]

Glad you have them booked, hope you get the seats sorted. Will you all fly to Boston on 25th, then you & Karen fly home & Matt go onto uni?

 

[Portugal1000]

Thats great. I am still searching for my family, we go on 22nd July and booked our flight last October. The best I can find for them so far is £684 on United but flight doesn't get into Orlando till 11pm and the have two 6 year olds so for a decent time flight you are looking at £720, thats £300 each more than what we paid!
I really hope I can find something for them around the £600 mark but beginning to look doubtful. I just can't believe the difference in prices this year. I wonder if anyone is actually booking on Virgin at the moment. They want over £1300 for a miles and money flight in economy.

 

[zippy99]

Congrats on the booking Wayne! I know I paid s bit over the odds but if you factor in the perfect times and the car hire - the price was not too bad- plus 3% cashback was confirmed the next day!

Good luck Portugal - what are your dates/airports?

 

[Tony Toon]

Great to finally have seats booked. Will be interested to hear how the immigration at Dublin works out. We also paid more than we usually do for our flights, however like you, we weren't able to book in October when the really good prices were on offer and were happy to pay £650 each for the beginning of July when prices dropped again at Christmas for great flight times and the peace of mind of knowing we had booked. DD still looking for flights from Glasgow for she and her BF from 18th Sept - 2nd Oct. Give us a nod anyone if you spot any bargains!

Happy planning Wayne.

Mrs TT

 

[Portugal1000]

Congrats on the booking Wayne! I know I paid s bit over the odds but if you factor in the perfect times and the car hire - the price was not too bad- plus 3% cashback was confirmed the next day!

Good luck Portugal - what are your dates/airports?

We are flying from heathrow despite living 10 minutes from Gatwick but for 420 I can't grumble. My family are looking for flights on 25th July till 13th August. We are going a few days earlier on 22nd.

 

[wayneg]

Glad you have them booked, hope you get the seats sorted. Will you all fly to Boston on 25th, then you & Karen fly home & Matt go onto uni?

Flying upto Boston on the 21st, never been so want to spend a few nights there and buy stuff for Matt, might need to get him things like TV, towels, sheets etc, not trailing them all from UK.

Thats great. I am still searching for my family, we go on 22nd July and booked our flight last October. The best I can find for them so far is £684 on United but flight doesn't get into Orlando till 11pm and the have two 6 year olds so for a decent time flight you are looking at £720, thats £300 each more than what we paid!
I really hope I can find something for them around the £600 mark but beginning to look doubtful. I just can't believe the difference in prices this year. I wonder if anyone is actually booking on Virgin at the moment. They want over £1300 for a miles and money flight in economy.

Prices were high last year most of the time, I think they fluctuated a little more, this year staying constantly high, just hope they drop at some point so I can book for relatives.
Yes people do book VA at silly money, I know someone who booked a while back and paid over £1,000pp (and he sells holidays) They are quite high earners, both work full time, only 1 holiday a year so think nothing of spending a lot on it.

 

[Pootle]

Very pleased to see that you've bit the bullet . I hope you get the internal flights at the price you have seen already. Boston is a nice city to walk around, but can recommend doing one of the City tour buses to get your bearings - and take a picture of the Cheers Bar . Or did you mean that you will stay in the NH area rather than Boston? Should be an interesting trip either way.

 

[scoobydooby]

I wonder if anyone is actually booking on Virgin at the moment. They want over £1300 for a miles and money flight in economy.

I have paid £1,100 each with virgin. Partly my fault I booked late. Booking time off work involves planning around 4 other colleagues so I can't take a risk and book last minute and risk needing to change dates. It is was it is. I won't fly indirect it's far too much hassle and I will only fly from Manchester. I work full time and hard, as does my husband so it's a price I'm not happy with but one I can afford and so will pay for the convenience.

 

[catherine]

Glad that you got your flights sorted Wayne! Happy planning!

 

[married2mm]

That's great,you are now sorted for August.
Boston looks lovely,is your son studying there?


The price of August flights are way ott.
We only fly direct also,we live 10minutes from Newcastle airport but have not flown to Orlando from there for years,as it's so much more expensive.
Have gone from Glasgow,but mainly Manchester.
I would dearly love to be dropped off,and picked up again by my sweet dad,but it's simply not viable.
I think what we've paid at just under £800pp is probably our limit,and I find that to be a bargain if looking for direct flights now.

 

[wayneg]

Very pleased to see that you've bit the bullet . I hope you get the internal flights at the price you have seen already. Boston is a nice city to walk around, but can recommend doing one of the City tour buses to get your bearings - and take a picture of the Cheers Bar . Or did you mean that you will stay in the NH area rather than Boston? Should be an interesting trip either way.

Booked the flights on JetBlue.com cost £59.50pp a bargain for almost 1,200 miles. I would have liked to have driven up over a few days, seen a few sights, visited friends etc but the cost of a one way rental was crazy compared to flying.
I think we will stay in Boston at least 1 night maybe 2, don't know a great deal about it but my Brother enjoyed it. Never saw Cheers but I guess we will look it up. Then upto the Uni area.

I won't fly indirect it's far too much hassle and I will only fly from Manchester. I work full time and hard, as does my husband so it's a price I'm not happy with but one I can afford and so will pay for the convenience.

Some people won't fly indirect, we don't mind either way, getting immigration done in Dublin will certainly be better than MCO immigration, as I posted the other day MCO immigration could be nightmare if they don't sort out their budget. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-customs-orlando-airport-20130225,0,4569259.story
Going out we land at 4:50pm but without immigration we could be in hotel quicker than the direct flights. Coming home is only 8 hrs 15 mins total, quicker than a direct to London (no direct to MAN from BOS) and driving back from London to Yorkshire.

That's great,you are now sorted for August.
Boston looks lovely,is your son studying there?

He has a placement at the Univeristy of New Hampshire. Just needs to get the required grades and a trip to the US embassy in London to get a student Visa. If he doesn't get either of those my plans are a mess.

 

[Magic Megadegs]

Huge congrats on booking. It always feels more exciting when that bits done. I am not a fan of MCO immigration or the dreaded double bag drop either. We're flying into Tampa which I think is just over 30 minutes further by car to Disney but much less than a 30 minute saving in terms of immigration, lol x We ended up paying £750 each direct with BA but that includes our domestic Channel Island leg via Gatwick so we are ok with that as it works out to around £650 direct from the UK.

Like you said we could have got cheaper but when you see a price you are comfortable with you book. Sod's law says you could probably get it cheaper at some point but equally it could go a lot higher. Main thing is we're happy and we're going. Bring it on!!!

 

[wayneg]

At least you can avoid the double bag drop now though, you don't have to do it.
We have used Tampa a few times in recent years, well worth using if the price is right.

 

[Portugal1000]

I have paid £1,100 each with virgin. Partly my fault I booked late. Booking time off work involves planning around 4 other colleagues so I can't take a risk and book last minute and risk needing to change dates. It is was it is. I won't fly indirect it's far too much hassle and I will only fly from Manchester. I work full time and hard, as does my husband so it's a price I'm not happy with but one I can afford and so will pay for the convenience.

This will be our first time indirect so will discover if we will ever do it again! I too have to book around colleagues and I have been lucky in recent years but now more colleagues have children the school holiday issue may start to get in the way. I took a real chance this time when those £420 flights came up and booked without getting cover first. I guess I was thinking if the worse came to worse my husband and son could go and I could meet them there. We have over 3 weeks so wouldn't have been end of world if I couldn't go for whole time. We are lucky that only I have to get holiday as my husband is a stay at home dad.

I really hope the flight turns out not too be too much hassle. We have since upgraded so hopefully will be a little more comfortable. Not so bad going out its just the coming home I dread. Even after 3 weeks I never feel like leaving.

 

[scoobydooby]

I think I would also consider it for 3 weeks but I can't ever get more that 2 weeks leave consecutively plus perhaps the Friday before. I timed it this year so we get August BH Monday to give me a day to try to recover!!!! Let us know how you get on because if prices keep rising I may have no choice.

 

[fairytale]

Booked the flights on JetBlue.com cost £59.50pp a bargain for almost 1,200 miles. I would have liked to have driven up over a few days, seen a few sights, visited friends etc but the cost of a one way rental was crazy compared to flying.
I think we will stay in Boston at least 1 night maybe 2, don't know a great deal about it but my Brother enjoyed it. Never saw Cheers but I guess we will look it up. Then upto the Uni area. QUOTE]

We are spending 2 nights in Boston this coming August and plan to take in as much as possible, looks like a beautiful city.

A tip I received off Trip Advisor was to stay near the Prudential Centre. Its a great base for a short stay as it has a stop right outside for the Trolley Bus and the Duck Tour which I think we are going to do both of. Theres also a Cheesecake Factory there which gets reviews as good as the one at Millenia Mall. We would have liked to stay a little longer and pop across to Marthas Vineyard (love the Jaws films) but dont think we'll get there this time.

Annette