Flights for this coming Chrimbo....

[Beejayjay]

Hi All,

I'm booking a trip for myself, my better half and her two boys, who will be age 12 and 10 at the time of the trip, to go over to WDW for a fortnight on the 27th or 28th of December, this coming Chrimbo. We're booking a condo or house separate so I'm looking to book flights only (car hire will be sorted thru Choiceair)

Preliminary enquiries are giving me a total cost of between £ 1650 to £ 2015 for tickets for the 4 of us. The lower quote is with BA, the higher with Virgin, who I always use and have always enjoyed travelling with. However, having reading a few recent less than complimentary posts about Virgin's service here, I am tempted to try BA to see how they compare, especially given the almost £400 pound price difference, which would cover the cost of a couple of multi-day park tickets !

Now those quotes don't sound bad to me, but I thought I'd see if anybody else is travelling or is planning to travel at the same time and what they have paid/been quoted. Is an

I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who has used both airlines in recent years as to how the two compare.

Last thing - has anyone used the flights provided by Travel City Direct ? How were they ?

Can anybody help ?

Thanks.

 

[squitty]

Hi

We flew BA and thought they were fine. We are trying Virgin this Dec to see how they compare
It all comes down to price, if it meas saving £400 then I know who I'd be booking with.

I dont know if you saw this thread about choice air Here It is looking like you will have to make other arrangements for car hire

 

[Beejayjay]

Thanks Squitty,

Yeah, we're leaning towards the BA flight largely because of the cost too - I figured out we we can grab an extra day with the flights BA have available and it's still going to be around £300 less, not to be sniffed at.

I wasnt aware that Choiceair had gone under, but it would explain why they didn't reply to my quote request email last week !

I used them for my last trip in October last year and was extremely happy - a 22 day hire with free upgrade all inclusive for under £450 !

I feel another post about good car hire options coming on !

 

[Hilary]

Personally, I prefer BA to Virgin anyway, but for £400 less, I would definitely choose BA!

 

[Beejayjay]

Well, we've booked !

We went with BA in the end, for two reasons.

For the same price I mentioned in my earlier post, we realised we can get an extra 2 DAYS on our holiday - we're flying over on Boxing day now, till the 11th January. Price for 3 adult (and one child seat - £1742. Not bad for the time of year in my opinion !

And that price is still almost £300 less than Virgin quoted us for 2 days less ! Thats 2 Orlando 5 day Flextickets paid for !

I know the extra days dont usually affect the flight price, but put the saving and the extra 2 days together, and it was an easy choice !

We're already looking forward to the trip !

All I gotta do now is get the timer working again !

 

[foxyfee]

We try and fly BA as find their service preferable to Virgin nowadays. Having blazed the way we feel Virgin staff appear to have lost the plot somewhat. But we have always managed to get cheaper BA flights.

Don't know if you ever consider stopovers, but they are considerably cheaper. Once our girls were teenagers we started doing that if we couldn't get a direct flight for under £600. As we live near Heathrow we find AA good - flight to Miami and either drive up or catch the connecting one to Orlando. Our December flights this year were £349, and last summer we paid £350 with Delta.

Have still to book our Christmas flights this year as we are waiting on A level results to know which uni our eldest is going to - holiday dates vary by 10 days would you believe!

 

[Beejayjay]

Well, as a devoted flier with Virgin ever since my first trip to Orlando 10 years ago, and who has always had top quality service with them on every subsequent journey (must be up to about 20 visits now), I would have been happy to fly with them again, but the fact is the price difference and extra 2 days made it a very easy call.

I'm glad to see people recommending BA - in the past I'd found them more expensive, so I am happy to be proved wrong for once. It'll be interesting to be able to make a comparison now.

One question to anyone who's used BA recently. I see we will be flying over on a Boeing 777-200, a plane I've never been on before. I thought I remembered seeing on another thread, either here or on the US forums, that the 777 has more legroom than a 747, which of course would be good news. Can anyone confirm this, as I cant find the thread which mentioned this anywhere ?

Thanks.

 

[Rain]

The 777 plane is my favourite!!!!!

Not as claustrophobic as 747 more leg room and appears to be a lot more airy.


Lynda

 

[Beejayjay]

Thanks Rain, that's music to a fidgety traveller's ears !