Prices for flights 2011...

[disney_princess_85]

For dates I am looking at in August £1,020pp for economy, they know people want to book early so charging a premium. I am hoping once the prices have settled we will get some offers but I don't mind indirect, or driving from any airport in Florida or even Atlanta, just now I can book indirect and save about £1,000(for 3 of us) over direct prices but no rush yet.

I think it's unfair to take advantage of people who want to book early. The way I see it, such people are more likely to be brand-loyal. So much for rewarding the customer!

For Sept check BA they have already released seats and some reasonable prices.

Thanks, I will do.

ETA: I just did a couple of dummy bookings on the BA site and for the end of August/early September, it's around £600 for an economy flight (Manchester-Gatwick-Orlando). We could live with that price, although we're looking to go mid-late September so it might be a bit cheaper.

 

[wayneg]

I think it's unfair to take advantage of people who want to book early. The way I see it, such people are more likely to be brand-loyal. So much for rewarding the customer!

Thanks, I will do.

ETA: I just did a couple of dummy bookings on the BA site and for the end of August/early September, it's around £600 for an economy flight (Manchester-Gatwick-Orlando). We could live with that price, although we're looking to go mid-late September so it might be a bit cheaper.

I agree they are not looking after Virgins Loyal customers, from around 2004-2008 we used them for almost every trip, since 2008 not used them once, we have 200,000 airmiles to use but they don't seem to want me to use them anymore.
On the other hand they have turned the company from making a nice profit 2008-2009 £60m to last year losing £132m, maybe that has something to do with not caring about the loyal customer

 

[disney_princess_85]

I agree they are not looking after Virgins Loyal customers, from around 2004-2008 we used them for almost every trip, since 2008 not used them once, we have 200,000 airmiles to use but they don't seem to want me to use them anymore.
On the other hand they have turned the company from making a nice profit 2008-2009 £60m to last year losing £132m, maybe that has something to do with not caring about the loyal customer

What a difference! Well, they must be doing something wrong to lose so much. It's a shame because I've heard so many times that VA used to be a very good airline.

We weren't particularly pleased with the service we received on our inbound flight a couple of weeks ago. The staff just seemed disinterested, plus the entertainment system was misbehaving. Aren't they supposed to be upgrading their planes next year? If they're going to be charging such crazy prices, we need to be seeing much more modern facilities.

 

[wen-tom]

I think it's very unfair to penalise the people that need to book early! We are DVC members and so we like to book at the 11 month window to make sure we know what dates we have and so that DH can book his time off work.

Looking at the prices I think we will be aiming towards late sep, early oct
There is just no way that we can manage £1000+ pp for august

I don't mind indirect flights as long as there isn't a huge wait between flights. The indirect flights I have looked at have been no cheaper and have had 8-9+ hour waits between flights. Is this what you would typically expect for an indirect flight? I have only flown direct before.

Wayne, where do you look for yours?

 

[disney_princess_85]

I don't mind indirect flights as long as there isn't a huge wait between flights. The indirect flights I have looked at have been no cheaper and have had 8-9+ hour waits between flights. Is this what you would typically expect for an indirect flight? I have only flown direct before.

It depends. I've only flown indirect once, from Manchester-New York via Paris. On the way there, the wait between flights was 90 minutes. On the way back, it was four hours.

 

[wayneg]

I think it's very unfair to penalise the people that need to book early! We are DVC members and so we like to book at the 11 month window to make sure we know what dates we have and so that DH can book his time off work.

Looking at the prices I think we will be aiming towards late sep, early oct
There is just no way that we can manage £1000+ pp for august

I don't mind indirect flights as long as there isn't a huge wait between flights. The indirect flights I have looked at have been no cheaper and have had 8-9+ hour waits between flights. Is this what you would typically expect for an indirect flight? I have only flown direct before.

Wayne, where do you look for yours?

I agree it doesn't seem fair but if you were the airline why would you sell flights cheaper so far away when you still have a almost a year to sell the seats?
If you can go late Sept/early Oct I can't think of any reason for you to even look at August, flights will be upto half the price, better weather, Haloween events & food & wine festival. We only go August because we have no choice, Oct is by far my fave month to go.

Never had a 9 hour wait between flights, almost always around 2 hours, just enough to go thru immigration and get to the gate for next flight.
Just now for next August Direct £1,020pp, indirect £686 (Heathrow) or £737 (Man) both good flight times. These are with Netflights or Opodo. no way is direct worth an extra £849 to me(for 3 of us from Man)

 

[wen-tom]

Thanks Wayne

I have only just started looking so I guess I have plenty of time to decide when to go.
I like Sep/Oct but the parks close too early for us. We have just returned last friday and on a lot of nights the parks were closed at 7pm. With the MK nights of Joy, one night there was no where open after 7pm apart from Downtown disney.

We find in the more peak months we have a better time as there is more open later. We find that we can make more of the time.

Obviously if you catch the F&W at epcot it would be open later but we just missed it

 

[Cochise]

We were going to start looking for indirect for Next October, but reading alot of the prices for earlier I sort of lost the will to fight and booked Virgin. Taking into account our DWP cashback, Free US/IOA tickets etc etc I think the difference would have been a max £200 less booking indirect. To me not worth it, so booked. I can relax and concentrate on saving and planning now

 

[wen-tom]

We were going to start looking for indirect for Next October, but reading alot of the prices for earlier I sort of lost the will to fight and booked Virgin. Taking into account our DWP cashback, Free US/IOA tickets etc etc I think the difference would have been a max £200 less booking indirect. To me not worth it, so booked. I can relax and concentrate on saving and planning now

I drive myself crazy looking!

what did you pay for virgin for october?

 

[gaylie]

Thankfully, we got those seats for £850pp in the end, but it makes me very scared to start looking at our May flights, because I just know the prices are going to be all over the place! :S Although, if the merger between United and Continental airlines goes ahead, that could prove interesting, as I've no idea if they will continue to codeshare flights with Virgin, or whether they will separate and provide competition for Virgin and start to drive down prices again!

Im right with you there.....
I dont fly well at all so a direct flight is more or less essential.....also flights from manchester with virgin are always so much more expensive.....I agree with Wayne will wait a while longer before attempting to book.

 

[Cochise]

I drive myself crazy looking!

what did you pay for virgin for october?

We paid £2990 for 2 Ad, 1 teenage, 1 Child in the Quality Inn Plaza for 2 weeks from 18th Ocotber. We got cashback off that so £2900. Universal tickets included for all of us. We liked the little extras that came with Virgin too like the HP entry etc. So happy to pay what I would expect to be more than booking seperate.

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

I got a quote today of £714 direct Dub to MCO. Tempted - I was thinking of indirect with Continental as this was great last year. Hmmmm

 

[dynamite100]

Thanks for the reassurance.

£2,550 for two adults and one child is crazy. Is that for economy?

I agree, it is crazy! I must want my head examining, lol!

Yeah, it's for economy. B.A. for those same dates was even more expensive! Could have saved about £100 per person going indirect, but for that kind of small saving I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

Going at this time of year will definitely be a one-off for us, now I see how crazy flight prices are in the summer. If I'd known that beforehand, I would never have booked the holiday at all, but now I've paid the deposit and made all the plans, and my fiancee has booked the time off work, I was loathe to cancel it, which is why I bit the bullet and paid these flight prices. My son is in his final year of primary school, which is why I didn't adopt our usual plan of going for the last week of the Easter holidays for a fortnight, thereby having to take him out of school for one week. However, I shall go back to that time of year from now on.

 

[wen-tom]

We have been both July & August before and have never paid these prices!

I think it's just this year, all of the prices are sky high.

 

[wayneg]

We have been both July & August before and have never paid these prices!

I think it's just this year, all of the prices are sky high.

Last year was also bad but a few offers were around, £400 into Miami was the best so its the 2nd summer with these prices, here to stay I would guess.

 

[Kath2003]

Keeping an eye out for the Easter holidays again - last year we paid £345 each return (with 1 stop). We're happy to connect but prices are coming up at £480+ so far, and that's not with nice connection times either...