Noticed our flight

[Ali and boyz]

starts off at Manchester before picking us up at Glasgow then on to Sanford. If you were flying from Manchester would that not make it an awful long journey for you and........... would that put you off booking. Looks like it would be about 10 1/2 hrs travelling on the plane.

 

[Amyrlin]

Thats a long flight is it a TCD flight? They do that sometimes.

 

[Ali and boyz]

No MT. Seems longs especially if you never got off!

 

[Miffy2003]

I guess it depends on your situation. We are a good 3 1/2 hours drive to Gatwick here and to be honest if I could fly from my (very) local airport then yes I would be prepared to spend longer on the plane to shorten the journey to and from the airport

I suppose if I lived in Manchester and could only get that flight it could be better than having to drive several hours to a different airport for a shorter flight.

I would not choose the flight if I had a choice of that or a shorter one from the same airport on the same day though (unless it saved me a significant amount of money).

 

[brer rabbit 28]

there's no way i would do this flight from manchester!!! I hate the taking off and landing so having to do both twice in 1 journey would finish me off i think-especially when there are so many direct flights from manchester,i guess i am very lucky to live so close to a large airport .I always feel for people returning from Florida and then having to catch another flight or drive for a few hours.

 

[Amyrlin]

MT seeem to be following the pattern of TCD, but I suppose it depends if the cosatis worth the extra time on the plane, also is it doing the same thing on the way back?

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

We did a similar flight the first time we flew to Florida, when we were young and naieve, it was a flight that started in Glasgow, then arrived at Birmingham before flying to Orlando.
us poor sods at Birmingham had very little choice of seats as the "best" were taken in Glasgow and we ended up in what was the smoking section of the plane, not nice. Every second some bozo would light up around us, a smoky fuggy smell for eight hours.Added to that the "cattle in a pen" seat pitch, we have NEVER flown charter again.

 

[Ali and boyz]

We did a similar flight the first time we flew to Florida, when we were young and naieve, it was a flight that started in Glasgow, then arrived at Birmingham before flying to Orlando.
us poor sods at Birmingham had very little choice of seats as the "best" were taken in Glasgow and we ended up in what was the smoking section of the plane, not nice. Every second some bozo would light up around us, a smoky fuggy smell for eight hours.Added to that the "cattle in a pen" seat pitch, we have NEVER flown charter again.

thats what worried me a bit to be honest that all the seats would be allocated in Manchester. Unfortunately we didn't know that the flight was starting in manchester when we booked. The only plus side (I am hoping) is that we have paid for premair class so hopefully they will sit us together as our DS can't sit on his own. Trying not to panic.

 

[Miffy2003]

Ali - with the sitaution with your son I just can't imagine they would not sit you together. If you are not allocated seats together I would explain the situation to a member of staff and I am sure they will sort it out for you, asking other passengers to move if needs be. Please don't worry!

 

[squitty]

We've been on MT (airtours then) flights when they've started from Manchester upto Newcastle. The first time this happend it was really strange. When checking at NCL we were always seated together.
They will stop at Glasgow first on the way back and then carry on down to Manchester.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

thats what worried me a bit to be honest that all the seats would be allocated in Manchester. Unfortunately we didn't know that the flight was starting in manchester when we booked. The only plus side (I am hoping) is that we have paid for premair class so hopefully they will sit us together as our DS can't sit on his own. Trying not to panic.

I wouldn't worry too much if you are in Premier class.

 

[LeCras]

We live in the Channel Islands, so we always have an extra hop to "the mainland" regardless. Doesn't really bother us, in fact when we went to Toronto a few months ago we had to fly Channel Islands to Gatwick followed by Gatwick to Dublin to Toronto. We spent about an hour and a half on the ground in Dublin, just made ourselves confortable and read a book.

Charlotte

 

[TraceyL]

We flew from Gatwick via Birmingham one year - took 11 1/2 hours and was horrendous ! Can't remember what airline it was - Air Leisure or Air 2000 I think

 

[Soprano]

I feel for you. My first trip back in '97 was with Airtours, who after a 4 hour delay, told us we were going (from Gatwick) to Glasgow as soon as we arrived onboard. This added 2.5 hours to the overall flight. Nightmare. Then my headset didn't work on the plane. No entertainment fro me

We didn't get into the hotel until 11pm US time instead of 4pm US time. I was a total wreck when we arrived. Teh TV in the hotel room didn't work either! Non driving back then and stuck in Kissimmee. Fine if you have a car... We moved hotel after one week to I drive, which was great.

Have flown Virgin, problem-free ever since!

 

[Ali and boyz]

don't know why virgin can't fly out of Glasgow at least even 1 day a week.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

don't know why virgin can't fly out of Glasgow at least even 1 day a week.

It wioll be down to a variety of reasons including costs. You cannot just start a service, you have to put into position ground services, luggage handlers, check in desk and staff, catering, fuel bowsers, local flight crews etc, etc, even if you use an external company, they would either charge a huge cost as they would have to employ staff for more than just the day of the arrival.departure, you have to be able to position aircraft, if you take an aircraft from the Manchester/gatwick stable, you would have to have a replacement aircraft, plus once a week would probably be totally uneconomical compared to the services and set up at Man & LGW.
You have to negotiate slots in UK airspace and at Orlando airport, or take from already profitable slots at Man or LGW. Where is the incentive for Virgin? Why has no other airline done a regular weekly flight? If the demand was there then there would be a few airlines wanting to run that route.
With the flights you already have, it must cover demand. If flights are being run from another airport into Glasgow, its because there is not enough demand for a single service unfortunatly

 

[Ali and boyz]

It wioll be down to a variety of reasons including costs. You cannot just start a service, you have to put into position ground services, luggage handlers, check in desk and staff, catering, fuel bowsers, local flight crews etc, etc, even if you use an external company, they would either charge a huge cost as they would have to employ staff for more than just the day of the arrival.departure, you have to be able to position aircraft, if you take an aircraft from the Manchester/gatwick stable, you would have to have a replacement aircraft, plus once a week would probably be totally uneconomical compared to the services and set up at Man & LGW.
You have to negotiate slots in UK airspace and at Orlando airport, or take from already profitable slots at Man or LGW. Where is the incentive for Virgin? Why has no other airline done a regular weekly flight? If the demand was there then there would be a few airlines wanting to run that route.
With the flights you already have, it must cover demand. If flights are being run from another airport into Glasgow, its because there is not enough demand for a single service unfortunatly

I know but it would be nice and nice to get a choice between a charter and schedule without having to connect which unfortunatey we are unable to do because of our son.

I would gladly pay that bit extra to fly with virgin or BA direct but for now I just book and worry until we board the plane that all our special needs are going to be read and we will be ok

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

What we do need in this country is a joined up transport system, which there would be no problem getting to major hubs by trains that were fast and on time and comfortable, feeder airlines that you could check your luggage through all the way to your final destination, but I think that will never happen in my lifetime.

I see that BA are, on their European flights, going to have outside LGW & LHR a single class flight system, as only people within the M25 corridor are prepared to pay for Club Europe seats so they reckon.
Talk about a two class society!

 

[Scottish-Helen]

its because there is not enough demand for a single service unfortunatly

The thing is that there is loads of demand in Scotland for Florida. I worked in Thomas Cooks up there for 9 years and we did more bookings to Orlando than anywhere else. Globespan are flying daily next summer and they wouldn't be doing that if there was no demand.

 

[terrynewpack]

Straight after 9/11 several of the charters consolidated their bookings and did this roundabout route to Sanford and back. Fortunately we always managed to do the direct flights but quite a number stopped off elsewhere in the UK.

Terry