Flight from Scotland, help please?

[**Clare**]

Hi

I have started lurking on this board a few weeks ago as I am trying to see if we could afford to go to the World in October.

I've found a good price for accommodation (OKW) but my problem is flights. We are pretty much restricted to flying out on 8 Oct for 2 weeks and would prefer leaving from Edinburgh but Glasgow is fine.

The quotes I have found (for 2 adults and 2 pre-schoolers) are:

US Airways GLA via Philly 2,269.99
Aer Lingus EDI via Dublin 2,487.50 or GLA 2,438.02
Continental EDI via New York 2,593.20 or GLA 2,681.60

BA are over £3,300 and Virgin seems to only have Premium seats left.

I quite like the idea of going through immigration outside of Orlando but I would only do one flight change. I wouldn't go "backwards" first either i.e via Paris/Amsterdam.

Does anyone have any comments about these prices/experiences of these airlines that can help me decide please?

Thanks in advance.

 

[2Tiggies]

Hi Clare

We booked continental from Edinburgh for September / October this year. Like you, I prefer Edinburgh to Glasgow airport and the times were better coming back too.

\I paid less than you are being quoted, BUT that is because the September departures are cheaper than October and I also booked straight away.

Like you I wanted the transatlantic flight broken. We have done EDI - MAN - MCO a few times and also GLA to MCO. The direct flight was the worst of the lot and I will never do it again. I travel alone with a child and the prospect of a 7 hour flight vs 9 hours and clearing customs before MCO appeals to me.

You should check up on the US Airways one though - the savings are quite significant and worth checking. At the end of the day, with the connections it won't make more than a few hours difference. I know it counts with little ones, especially if they are not used to flying longhaul, but it's a fair chunk of money.

AER Lingus has had it's praises sung by posters on here too.

Feel free to ask if you want any more info. SOmeone will have it for you.

 

[wayneg]

Hi Clare
Best is Via Paris which you say you don't want to do.
£ 2,295.60 EDI~MCO Delta ticketed but flying KLM on Opodo.co.uk

You seem to have found best of whats about just now unless being more flexible of dates, doing 2 stops, flying into obscure airports with Fort Lauderdale or Jacksonville etc.
It is possible someone will have a sale but always a risk they will go higher.
Good luck with your search.

 

[starrysky]

Hi

We did the GLA-DUB-MCO with aerlingus this past October and they were great plus complimentary soft drinks and food.

Have flown GLA to Sanford before with globespan (I know they no longer exist) but if you want a direct flight there are some operators who do this route.With no changes it might be easier with small children to not have to change planes ( I have no kids so can't really advise there) only thing is you have to make your own way to accom as there is no ME from Sanford. Not sure of prices though but try through Netflights etc.

 

[wayneg]

Hi

We did the GLA-DUB-MCO with aerlingus this past October and they were great plus complimentary soft drinks and food.

Have flown GLA to Sanford before with globespan (I know they no longer exist) but if you want a direct flight there are some operators who do this route.With no changes it might be easier with small children to not have to change planes ( I have no kids so can't really advise there) only thing is you have to make your own way to accom as there is no ME from Sanford. Not sure of prices though but try through Netflights etc.

I checked Charters into Sanford earlier. A good price from Gatwick on the 6th but from Glasgow on the 8th cheapest is £1040pp

http://www.charterflights.co.uk/sab...tOrder=&orderBy=&logNewSearch=true&bookable=n

 

[Bonnie151]

We flew the US Airways Philly route in August, but to Tampa not Orlando. The route itself was fine. The immigration guy in Philly was fantastic. I'm dual US/UK as are DS(8) & DD(5), but DH is just a UK citizen, and from the point of my announcing that I had an ALIEN in my party, he joked around with us and was the nicest immigration official I've ever come across.

The planes themselves were "OK". It was very difficult to book seats together online (and by together, I mean even just in sets of 2 & 2 or 3 & 1!). I've mostly flown KLM and Air France over the past few years and it was a bit of a shock to not have screens on the backs of the seats and on demand movies. I thought it was the norm these days, but possibly not.

Having said that, we'd definitely fly that route again if it were the cheapest by a couple of hundred pounds or so.

 

[2Tiggies]

Hi

With no changes it might be easier with small children to not have to change planes ( I have no kids so can't really advise there)

I think most people find this to be true. Depends on you and your children though. I find if the change shortens the longhaul flight, it can be a lot easier. However I only have one child and she has done countless longhaul flights, some over 12 hours, since she was a couple of months old so you need to judge this based on what you think would suit you.

 

[starrysky]

I checked Charters into Sanford earlier. A good price from Gatwick on the 6th but from Glasgow on the 8th cheapest is £1040pp

http://www.charterflights.co.uk/sab...tOrder=&orderBy=&logNewSearch=true&bookable=n

eek that is high. Never used to be like that from when i started going as an adult the cheap option was to fly into sanford but i guess those days are long gone.

2tiggies thanks for that only experience i have of traveling with kids was my 2 year old niece but she was with her parents too.

 

[**Clare**]

Thanks very much everyone for taking the time to reply. Your past experiences of the different airlines are particularly useful. For some unknown reason I seem to favour Aer Lingus but I have no grounds for this!

Thanks very much too to Wayne for taking the time to check prices.

I note the point about the US Airways seats being quite difficult to book, and this leads me to another question, although it is perhaps more suited to a new thread...what have people travelling with young kids found the best seat arrangements to be, I think 2x2 seats might be better but I'd appreciate hearing other peoples experiences.

Thanks in advance.

 

[2Tiggies]

It depends on the seat configuration of the plane you are one. With two parents/adults and 2 young children my first choice, if your aircraft has this, would be four seats in the centre aisle. Some of the airlines you are looking at don't have this seat arrangement, in which case I would go for 2x2 one behind the other and if those are rows of 3 seats, would pick the outer seats so you aren't constantly climbing over someone when you get up (countless times )

 

[Bonnie151]

When we flew the US Airways Philly route we tried to get 2 & 2 (one row immediately in front of the other) for the Glasgow-Philly/Philly-Glasgow legs and then 3 & 1 (same row just separated by the aisle) or 2 & 2 for the Philly-Tampa/Tampa-Philly legs.

For the Glasgow-Philly route we got 2 then 1 in the row immediately behind and then 1 MILES away. The 1 in the row behind the 2 together was a middle seat and I'd been assigned a window seat miles about 10 rows away. I couldn't change it to anything else via online booking and the agent over the phone couldn't find us any better combinations either! Fortunately the window seat next to DS was occupied by a solo traveller and he didn't mind swapping seats with me (in fact he was probably greatly relieved to not be stuck next to a young child!).

We were able to pay for 2 & 2 in adjacent rows on the way back and for the Philly-Tampa legs, we were able to get 3 & 1 seating through their phone bookings.

I like 2 & 2 seating best as DH & I can swap children during the flight.

 

[**Clare**]

HI again, thanks 2Tiggies and Bonnie151 for your replies re seating.

Well I have done my daily flight checks and Aer Lingus is back down to £2,281 from Edi, it was this last week!

So the question now becomes Aer Lingus v US Airways! I am thinking Aer Lingus but again would welcome your thoughts.

Thanks again

 

[lin85prest]

I think you would clear US immigration in Dublin which will probably be quicker than in the US

 

[Bonnie151]

I'd go Aer Lingus partly because I've never flown them before and would like to try them and partly because the US Airways planes were OK but definitely older/more worn out than other airlines I've flown over the past few years.

 

[starrysky]

As a recent convert I would say Aer lingus see my previous post. We have flown with various other airlines and I have to say they were we of the best ones.

Be warned though we thought we would get to go through immigration in dublin but for some reason we didn't and the staff did not know why either. Still small price to pay for good flights and at decent price.