Hello again, dilemma, some advice please.

[Jules224]

Hi, i haven't been on the boards for a while now, got totally depressed when we got back in february and couldn't face talking about disney cos it just makes me want to go back, we are hopefully going back in 2009 with the help of tesco vouchers.
I'll try to keep this short and sweet, my dilemma is MIL is 60 next june so MIL & FIL are off to vegas for 4 nights then flying to Orlando for a 2 week flydrive, FIL wants to pay for us to fly out the day after them and surprise her on her birthday, i have priced up for the 4 of us to go with virgin and it's £2600 for 4 nights, which i think is a lot, i can get it down if we book through expedia and have 1 stop over on the way to vegas, which doesn't worry me but a lot of people say oh no don't do that, then i thought it's a long flight to take the kids on for 4 nights, so how about if we flew to orlando for a week after vegas, can't go any longer than that because we are going to turkey for 2 weeks in october, so what would you all do, it's actually not much dearer to go florida and FIL will pay the vegas bit we'd just have to pay the extra bit for florida, so would you all do?
Only fly direct or not worried?
Go vegas for 4 nights then 7 nights florida
Or do we got to vegas for 6 or 7 nights?
Any help greatly apprecited, hope i haven't bored you all stupid and anybody who has booked something like this diy any advice would be appreciated to keep the cost down.
It's good to be back on here.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Why not look at a standard UK to orlando to UK flights covering tyhe period plus the week based in orlando, then get some cheap return Orlando-Vegas-Orlando internal flight tickets?

 

[T16GEM]

Blimey that does sound expensive for 4 nights. If it were me I think I would go to Florida after Vegas, you say that MIL and FIL will be there too so that would probably make a nice little holiday.

 

[Jules224]

We have to do vegas first then florida because MIL fly's out 8th June, her 60th is 10th june so the plan is to fly out the 9th, she doesn't know we are going so have to wait until she's left. If we went to florida first she would get suspect.
And yes that was my plan spend a few days with them in florida aswell, they would love to see kids at disney.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

We have to do vegas first then florida because MIL fly's out 8th June, her 60th is 10th june so the plan is to fly out the 9th, she doesn't know we are going so have to wait until she's left. If we went to florida first she would get suspect.
And yes that was my plan spend a few days with them in florida aswell, they would love to see kids at disney.

Just had a quick look at Orlando-Las vegas
US airways fly at 08:34, arr 10:15
Delta 19:59 arr 22:04
US Air 20:00 arr 21:41

If they are flying from Heathrow, how about flying the same day from gatwick or Manchester, resting and taking a flight to vegas from Orlando the 9th?

OR, how about fly to new york, take Virgin America (Virgins new low cost American airlines) from NY-Las vegas then fly back out of Orlando?

EDIT
Sorry forgot
How about My Travel Stanstead to Las Vegas?
MY701 Dep 11:25 arrives 15:00

American and United fly via a hub to Vegas from london

BMI fly from manchester to vegas direct

 

[kykatt2]

What about flying out to Florida AFTER they Leave ??

Depending on the costs of course.. but it could very well be a nice long Holiday doing Vegas first them Orlando.

Which Airlines have you checked ??

If it's in your area( I am not familiar with UK at all)

Globespan flyes into the "SFB" ( Sanford Airport) in Orlando. It is a smaller airport.. an a bit further away from WDW but it just might be the Ticket.
http://www.flyglobespan.com/index.asp?lan=en

There are a LOT of UK flights that come in to SFB so they might work and be cheaper.

If it was me... I'd probably take the Vegas ,Chiil out a few days.. then fly on down to Florida and stay a week. If possible.

Main thing is to not stress it. as my husband tells me when things are NOT going the way I planned them in WDW... "a BAD day in Disney World... beats a GOOD day at home anytime !!!!"

 

[Jules224]

Thank you Obi i will go and price those ways up and see.
I have got prices from travel city, they were the most expensive and the flights were with virgin, didn't reaslise they did that?
I have got prices from expedia which was several different airlines, bargainholidays.com, virgin, lastminute.com, but most of those were gatwick to vegas then into Orlando, not worried what london airport we leave from and we have flown into sandford before, i prefer orlando but if it meant the diffenece between going and not going i'd definately go to sandford, i'm not stressing (too much!) i'm getting quite excited because i might get to go back to Disney sooner than i thought.

 

[kykatt2]

I have found that Once I check out all the Travel sites..( Cheap tickets, Expedia.. etc) and find what they call the cheaper flight... when I go the THAT AIRLINES website... I save a few dollars more. The ONLY exceptions.. is using "Priceline" or "Hotwire" and letting them FIND the flight even though the flight times or flight plans are not what I want. But it does save me more money.

 

[Booknut]

DH and I had planned a trip to Miami, caribbean cruise and then Las Vegas for this November...but as we're expecting a special package at the end of November this trip is not to be!!!

However, what I did when I was planning and booking the trip was price out a flight with Virgin to fly into Miami and out of Las Vegas. It was only about £30 more than doing a direct return from Miami. Then I priced out the flight from Miami to Las Vegas, it was around £100 each.

It might be cheaper to do it this way, get your FIL to pay for your tickets into Las Vegas and out of Orlando and pay him the difference, it shouldn't be very much.

On another note, have you ever been to Disneyland? It's much closer than Orlando, the flight is probably only an hour, maybe you could do L.A. and Disneyland instead?! You could probably do that quite comfortably in 5-6 days.

Oh to have your wonderful trip planning problems!

 

[Jules224]

Obi where is the best place to look for standard flights to orlando and also cheap flights from orlando to vegas, i've only ever done package holidya with travel agent before?
Many thanks.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Obi where is the best place to look for standard flights to orlando and also cheap flights from orlando to vegas, i've only ever done package holidya with travel agent before?
Many thanks.

Everyone has their favourite web sites ti check and I am sure they will all chip in with their best ones

I always check the airlines own UK web sites firts as they do have good deals. Some are direct (Virgin, Continental, BA, the Charters) and some can be cheaper by going through a "hub" another airport in the USA then onto Florida. Charters normally are for fixed periods of time, 7, 14, 21 days etc and don't fly every day.

http://www.continental.com/web/en-GB/default.aspx (same flights to Orlando as Virgin (codeshare) but normally cheaper!
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/index.jsp
http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/splash.aspx
http://www.aa.com/content/uk/index.jhtml
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_gb
http://www.delta.com/home/index.jsp
http://www.eosairlines.com/flyeos/overview/home.jsf
http://www.flyglobespan.com/index.asp?lan=en
http://www.flymonarch.com/
http://www.mytravellite.com/
http://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/index_default.html
http://www.flysilverjet.com/Home.aspx
http://www.thomsonfly.com/en/index.html
http://www.travelcitydirect.com/
http://www.unitedairlines.co.uk/qenglish/index.html
http://www.usairways.com/awa/content/international/english.aspx
http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/flights/

For internal USA flights, you can book and check prices on the above US airlines UK web sites plus have a look at the two airports web sites as they have links to the airlines which fly to and from them
http://www.orlandosanfordairport.com/destinations.asp
http://www.orlandoairports.net/ops/airlines.htm
and http://www.orlandoairports.net/schedule/schedules.htm

Then there are MANY internet brokers which other will give you the best.
just a few
http://www.airline-network.co.uk/
http://www.dialaflight.com/
http://www.ebookers.com/shop/home
http://www.expedia.co.uk/default.aspx
http://www.opodo.co.uk
http://www.travelocity.co.uk/?HPTRACK=uk_hp/
http://www.swiftusaflights.co.uk/index1.php