flights for march 2013

[ellis9905]

were planning on a family trip in march 2014, have been looking at flights over the last few weeks- there coming up around £500 per person,

now were pretty flexible with dates- happy to take kids out of school, dont mind what day we fly and as my inlaws own a villa out there we can pretty much pick our own dates. were also happy to fly indirect and would also fly into sanford if it made it cheaper. willing to fly from any london airport or manchester if it made a cheaper flight!

to be honest i had expected the flights to be cheaper ( but maybe im out of touch and unreasonable!)

so im hoping maybe some of you that look at/book flights more frequently could tell me if there a good buy? or should i hold of hopng for better deals or sales to come online??

the pennies count unfortunatly so i really need to book wisely and my head is starting to spin

so any suggestions/opinions or ideas of where to find cheap flights then please share.

 

[Elise79]

I think £500 is about as low as the fares go these days. There are sometimes deals/glitches to get them on indirect for around £430 but they take some patience and searching.

There was some really cheap charter flights in May for about £300 per person however they were only a couple of weeks in advance.

Unfortunately with rising fuel prices and taxes the days of really cheap flights has gone. The taxes and surcharges on a VA flight from LGW to MCO are £331 alone now.

 

[Laurafoster]

We looked at March flights recently and the best direct price we found was a Miles&Money fare with Virgin for £482 (mid week flights).

I think nowadays £500 is a good enough price for direct. I'm planning on going in May and am budgeting around £600pp.

 

[Button]

I looked at flights earlier and found Delta (Virgin) flight for £438 going 12/3 returning 28/3

 

[lolainkent]

We bought plane tickets for next Feb last week with Virgin, costing just under £2300 for 2 adults, 2 kids and an infant. I thought that was a good deal! Granted, it's right at half-term so a bit inflated.

Here's something to consider: will saving money on the flights by flying out of an airport further from home than another and with layovers actually save you money? We found flights on the same day as the one we booked with BA for £200 cheaper, but it was out of LHR and had a stop at JFK. We live closer to Gatwick, so we'll save on petrol (and I'm fairly certain parking is cheaper at Gatwick). If you have a layover, will you spend money on meals, magazines, etc? We always do so we knew that spending the extra £200 was worth it for the direct flight out of the closer airport.

If you're already planning to rent a car, maybe look at flying in to Miami and Tampa...but then you're also still looking at more petrol.