Question From Non-UK Resident.....Re:Cheap Fares from UK ?

[wee-haggis]

Just curious if the UK residents have any other options other than (what seems to me) to be quite expensive fares to Orlando ?
(ie:cheap fares to other US cities with bargain connecting flights like SWA to Orlando .........or EasyJet and Ryanair connections to European cities with better rates to Orlando ?....or are they just as bad .

 

[JohnnySharp2]

There are probably people in a better position to answer, however, for us travelling with a child, the most important thing is a direct flight to MCO from a local airport.

Hence Virgin from Manchester, win's for us.

I do agree about the pricing though, our August fly-drive price is crazy - but we cannot go at any other time of the year.

 

[disneyholic family]

Martinair from Amsterdam to Orlando is relatively inexpensive...
people fly to Amsterdam from other cities in Europe as it works out cheaper...
we did it once (flying via amsterdam, going with Martinair), but like Johnny, convenience wins over cost for us as well....

 

[terrynewpack]

Its generally cheaper to fly from the UK to the US than it is to go from the US to the UK.
We have had flights at fares that are unbelievable to Americans. Many return flights over the years at less than $300 each. Beat that.


Terry

 

[paulh]

if you can fly to a hub airport and risk booking your own flight onto orlando you might get it cheaper, when you book as one any conections are alowed for,so if any delay down to airline.Cheapest we have had was a return flight direct was £99.00 ($160.00 at that time) hard to find them nowdays
Paulh

 

[tartangirl]

I may be wrong but I sense you're from north of the border

Globespan has started a budget flight to Orlando so it will be interesting to see how that goes - here's hoping it's a great success.

Our options to other US cities from Scotland are pretty much restricted to Newark from Edinburgh/Glasgow with Continental. Unfortunately I dont think I've ever seen a reasonable price with Continental.

Being restricted to Scottish school holidays we find that flights out of Scotland during the holidays are always expensive. For almost all holidays we head south. To Florida we've flown out of Manchester to get the direct flights with Virgin the last few years and before that we've flown charter out of Newcastle. I've never checked out other US cities from Manchester as we'd rather have a direct flight.

For the summer holidays, if you go as soon as the schools break up (ie in June) the flights aren't too bad from English airports as it's a few weeks before the English schools break up. Once you add on the cost of a connecting flight (even one with a budget airline) you will be paying more than a direct flight from England.

We've stopped going in Easter because the flight prices are silly. We also looked to go over Christmas and again the prices were silly - I'm hoping a successful Globespan might change things and bring in more reasonably priced competitors.

 

[terrynewpack]

I may be wrong but I sense you're from north of the border

You probably are wrong because the location is given as '1300 miles from WDW' and Scotland is a bit further than that.

Although of course might still be 'from'.


Terry

 

[wee-haggis]

I may be wrong but I sense you're from north of the border

How did you guess
(originally Glasgow but now Toronto).
I suppose we are a bit more fortunate in that we have the option of driving to Buffalo,NY (just over the border) and be able to book the must less expensive inter-US city flights. I have booked with Southwest Airlines for our kids upcoming Spring Break holiday in March.If you are lucky enough you can snag one of their "Ding" fares. If you are not familiar with the DING,its a software you install on your computer and every day a little bell rings on your computer when a Ding fare comes out. From time to time I've seen Dings to MCO from BUF for $49 each way + tax which is about $105 in total for the 2-1/2 hr flight. Occasionaly we get get good fares out of Toronto but the taxes,fees and landing fees are getting kind of steep.
Lets hope Globespan can come through with some good deals for you (what happened to the guy from Aberdeen who was supposed to start up his own no frills flights from Scotland to Orlando?).
Good luck.

 

[loadsapixiedust]

Hopefully Globespan will shake things up a bit, but most of their fares for peak times are not really any cheaper than charters. Remember the fare they quote is one way without tax at £99 and no frills is just that, no meals or refreshments, no IFE.
We have usually found the best fares are to be had by booking early with charters, we also prefer to pay a bit more and fly direct from a local airport. Travelling South to fly Virgin would cost our family a few hundred pounds extra and an overnight stop, so not an option.
The guy you refer to above is Jim Whitelaw, the comany was Your Florida Air, it never got off the ground rotfl: sorry, bad joke, but I couldn't help myself) and the plug was pulled before the first flight was scheduled to take off.