Help: Booking for Aug 2008

[dtm316]

Hi all,

I've been a lurker in the forums for a good few months now posting on the odd threads where I felt I may have been of some use, however now it's me that needs the help.

I've been to Orlando 5 times now over the last 9 years but I always go off peak (once in March, once in June and 3 times in September), however next year is different as I'm taking the plunge and getting married over there . The wedding is booked for the 21st August at Cypress Grove Park with a reception in Celebration golf club but we still need to book the remainder of the holiday and the August booking is throwing me for a loop. We were holding out until next week to really hammer out the price for the flights as it'll be 11 months to the date for the return journey (we are ideally looking to travel on 16/08/08 - 06/09/08) but after reading a few posts today about the availability for flights on the 16th running low I've hit the big red panic button .

What do you guys suggest is the best practice for sorting the flights out (how long to wait/ideal prices etc). To confuse matters 6 people will travelling for 2 weeks and 4 of us will be there for 3 weeks so there's currently the debate between scheduled and chartered. We live up in Newcastle but Manchester is the preferred airport as some family will be travelling from Bristol so it's a nice halfway point, but if needs must we might have to be more flexible!

Any input would be greatly appreciated

 

[UKDEB]

First of all, very many congratulations on your forthcoming wedding. I'd love to tell you there's a simple answer to this, but August is an expensive time to fly, as we found out this year. We weren't able to book as early as we'd have liked and by the time we could, the prices were higher than we wanted to pay. We searched every other day for months until biting the bullet. Even then, we had to fly into Miami rather than Orlando to get a price we were comfortable with.

You might get a cheap price if you're willing to wait right until the last minute, but that's not really an option when you're planning for the most important day of your lives. I don't think you need to worry about not being able to get a flight. I'm not sure what you're referring to when you talk about flight availability, but bear in mind that Virgin Holidays, for example, has a limited allocation of seats on any given Virgin Atlantic flight and whilst that allocation might be sold out, anyone booking a flight only ticket (as opposed to a package) can't book any sooner than you can, so the flight itself can't possibly be full. My advice is to research the prices at the 11 month window (of your return flight) and then get your entire party booked. Once it's done, don't torture yourselves by checking prices, just relax in the knowledge that it's one part of the planning done and dusted.

 

[wayneg]

Hi,
I saw the thread about the 16th. Dont worry, thats for Virgin holidays Like Debbie said. There is always flights available. You might have to be flexible, go indirect or from London if you want to lower the price but if you want Manchester direct you will get it so far in advance, it just might be at a premium.
Do you have any Virgin flying miles? If you do they might not release discounted tickets for months yet, for this August I cound not book until Xmas day.
Too early to start worrying yet.

 

[angel659]

Congratulations on your wedding. How lovely.

Deb and Wayne have given you some good advice. I might just add if you are looking for cheaper flights my friends who I went on holiday with to Florida flew with United with a stop over at Chicago to cut costs. Would this be an option if it were cheaper?

Have a look at these sites

www.travelsupermarket.com
www.expedia.co.uk
www.airlinenetwork.co.uk
www.opodo.co.uk

There are usually some competitive prices on these sites.

Good luck and congratulations again.

 

[deejay-55]

Book now - avoid the worry of none available later. August is busy, there are not many deals.

 

[wayneg]

Book now - avoid the worry of none available later. August is busy, there are not many deals.

You are right, there usually are not many deals but there is always availability. There is absolutely no reason to panic and book 1st price now, We go to Florida 3 or 4 times a year all in school hols, peak dates. Never been a seat shortage yet.
I have even booked day before flying, OK I had to drive to Gatwick as Manchester was full but still got there.

 

[Trespassers William]

I'm looking to go between 15th and 18th August and have been watching flight prices quite closely. Virgin Atlantic are day by day releasing flights and are up to returns on 27th August today. They give a price matrix and you will see that the price drops significantly from 18th August so it might be worth considering if some or all of you can go then rather 16th August as it could save you £150-£200 per person.

Also, when the September flights are released those of you looking to go for 2weeks might find better prices going for 13 or 15 nights rather than exactly 2 weeks.

 

[Summer-Caitlin]

Congratulations on your upcoming Wedding!!!

I recently got married at WDW (Aug 20th) and we left the UK on August 16th. OUr flights with MyTravel came in at around £470.00 per person return. We stayed for 3 weeks though, so returned in September.
I booked our flights, as a package in September 2006, almost as soon as I booked the wedding date, I didn't want to have to worry about looking for flights so close to the date. You have enough to worry about planning the wedding.
My advice have a look around for the best deal at the moment, then book it, that's what I did and don't regret it.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

I'll try not to confuse the situation.
On Virgin flights, seat booking availability runs from 0 (no seats) to 7 (More than 7 seats available) Continental use "9" as max
Then each cabin also has different class of tickets from the most expensive (i.e. in Economy "y") to the cheapest ticket ( "V")
The Virgin VS75 is also a code share with Singapore Airlines ( Flt No. SQ2575) and Continental (CO 8233) and they have a certain amount of seats allocated to each airline
Economy class codes are: B L M N O Q R T V X Y
PE class codes are: H K S U W
Upper Class codes are: C D G J Z

On the VS 75 for the 16th august the seat availability is as follows:
Continental:-
CO 8233; J4 D4 Z4 R9 Y9 H9 K9 M9 N9 B9 V9 U9 Q0 I0 S0 W0 T0 X0
so cheapest Economy ticket available is V or B

Singapore:-
SQ 2575; C4 J4 D4 Y4 B4 M0 W0 E0 N0 Q0 V0
So, only four seats left in a high fare economy (but they dont have many anyway)

Virgin atlantic:
VS 75; J7 D7 Z7 W7 S7 K7 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X0 N0
So there are still plenty good economy fares available (M is discounted economy & miles plus money fare)

VS73; J7 D7 Z7 W7 S7 K7 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X0 N0
Again, plenty of good priced seats still available.

Other options from Manchester include on scheduled airlines:
BA 2903 MAN-LGW, then BA 2037 LGW-MCO
EI (Air Lingus) 203 MAN-DUB, then Ei 121 Dub-MCO
CO (Continental) 21 MAN-EWR (Newark New jersey) then CO37 EWR-MCO

I hope that helps and is not too confusing!!

 

[dtm316]

Thanks for the advise everyone.

As it stands we are willing to Fly from Glasgow/Manchester/Newcastle but if needs must we will venture into London, we don't have any airmiles either

I suppose it's just a case of plowing through really, we've seen some from glasgow for £571 so that might be the option, the broker we spoke to can get the flight for £750 from Manchester and that might just be a little too high for some of our party

 

[wayneg]

Thanks for the advise everyone.

As it stands we are willing to Fly from Glasgow/Manchester/Newcastle but if needs must we will venture into London, we don't have any airmiles either

I suppose it's just a case of plowing through really, we've seen some from glasgow for £571 so that might be the option, the broker we spoke to can get the flight for £750 from Manchester and that might just be a little too high for some of our party

I would not pay £750 at this stage, that is max price for this route in August.
I just had a look on Virgins site, obviously your dates are not there yet but just had a look at some going 18th-26th Aug(as far as they go yet) they are £573.
Another week or so and you can start looking at your dates.

 

[dtm316]

thanks for the info wayneg, it's actually good to hear as the price scared the living daylights out of me

Just out of curiosity, saying as though the family are having a bit of a debate about this, what do you recommend to be a reasonable price for standard economy tickets around that time of year (16th-30th Aug and 16th Aug - 6th Sept). From the get go we were hoping to spend no more than £600 but the prices seem to be a lot higher at the moment, will these be coming down in the near future?