Flight advice needed

[ozbrooke]

Hello! I have just started to plan a trip to USA to visit WDW for Dec/Jan. I have a question about flights - I'm planning on flying into New Orleans, driving to Orlando and then flying out of there. We're leaving from Brisbane and I was wondering if I'd be best to book the BNE-LAX flight and the internal flights separately or book all together. Also, are the flights likely to be as cheap as they're going to get or are there likely to be deals in the coming months?

Thank you!

 

[dabecs]

I am a big believer in booking all flights one the one ticket. This is a quick rundown of what happened on our last trip...

We were flying out of Orlando to LA late afternoon to catch a 10pm LA - MEL flight. Our flight from Orlando was delayed due to mechanical issues so we missed our flight to Melbourne and had to stay in LA overnight and then fly home with a different carrier the next day (our carrier's flight was full). Because our flight MCO-LAX-MEL was all on the one ticket then the airline had to pay our accomodation in LA, gave us food vouchers, found us a flight on Air NZ the following day and paid for it (we even got upgraded to premium economy from NZ to Aus because they were the only available seats). If it had have been seperate tickets we would have arrived in LA at midnight with no idea of what to do next...

ps - United handled the whole thing so badly we won't fly with them again but that's another story for another time

Flight prices are a gamble I amno good at so I can't advise you there other to say if it's a price you are comfortable with then book and don't look anymore!

Good luck with your trip

 

[zanzibar138]

We try to book on one ticket too, for the above reasons. Plus, your luggage allowances carry over to your domestic flights. On most airlines you have to pay extra for checked luggage.

If you're not going to put it on one ticket, I would allow at least 5 hours between flights, preferably a night.

 

[Meemoo]

I agree, 1 ticket - keep your baggage allowance, the domestic allowances are not much.

 

[ozbrooke]

That makes sense. thanks for your replies! The prices seem high, I think I'm going to keep an eye out for deals for a little while before I commit to anything.

 

[superrach]

Since you'll have a car, I would suggest checking Tampa, FL Airport as well. I've flown in and out of there before as the flights are sometimes cheaper than Orlando depending on where you're flying to/from. Just over an hour drive from WDW.

 

[Kristin5]

We just booked our flights today and our TA recommended booking it all together. It works out cheaper and baggage is included for every sector.

I was also told to book for Dec/Jan (this applies if your dates are during high season - ie. Mid-late Dec through to early-mid Jan) as soon as fares are released as they are unlikely to have good sales for the Christmas/NY period. That said, United released some lower prices today, but you are possibly looking at Qantas? When I checked Qantas a couple of days ago, they also had some reasonable fares (they were actually cheaper than United!).

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I am in the minority on here. I often book legs separate to get the best prices...depends on what is going at the time but I have often nabbed cheap flights to LAX or San Fran then got cheap domestic flights across to the east coast or wherever better than what I have been able to get as one ticket deal - that being said I plan on getting to the departure city for our main international flight home in plenty of time (like the day before or in the vicinity like Las Vegas for LAX to allow for hiccups) and we always break our long flight over on the west coast overnight before heading out as that suits our tiredness best, so again normally no issues if delayed with catching the domestic flights. Different strokes for different folks!

 

[Princess Jes]

Also, I'm not sure that I'm allowed to mention it, but there's a website that can show the cheapest option, which sometimes actually goes to a destination you're not going to, but has a stopover in your destination. so basically, you may want to go to MCO from LAX, but it may be cheaper to get a flight to NYC if the stopover is in MCO and just not fly on the last leg.
Inbox me if you want the website.