Tempted by TA quote, any thoughts please?

[**Clare**]

Hi

I had asked a travel agent to give me a quote, just out of interest. I am pretty sure I will do a DIY but wanted to check their prices. However, I am now very tempted by it, although nervous with booking with a TA because of problems I've read about with MDE.

The TA price is £5,634 for 2 adults, 2 kids, POR, ex GLA 4/10/15 for 2 weeks.

WDTC is £3118, with cashback £3,024. So, the question is, am I likely to get flights, from Scotland, even indirect, for less than around £650pp. Anyone have a crystal ball?! I have been thinking they'd likely be £700, any cheaper and I'd be delighted.

I'm still not absolutely sure that I've decided on POR, that's this weekends job!

Any thoughts on this price please? Thanks in advance.

 

[pickers1982]

Thinking of going around this time(6th) but want to avoid school hols. Is this time school hols?

 

[**Clare**]

Hi, our schools here come off on 9th for 2 weeks.

 

[Princess Leia]

Hi

I had asked a travel agent to give me a quote, just out of interest. I am pretty sure I will do a DIY but wanted to check their prices. However, I am now very tempted by it, although nervous with booking with a TA because of problems I've read about with MDE.

The TA price is £5,634 for 2 adults, 2 kids, POR, ex GLA 4/10/15 for 2 weeks.

WDTC is £3118, with cashback £3,024. So, the question is, am I likely to get flights, from Scotland, even indirect, for less than around £650pp. Anyone have a crystal ball?! I have been thinking they'd likely be £700, any cheaper and I'd be delighted.

I'm still not absolutely sure that I've decided on POR, that's this weekends job!

Any thoughts on this price please? Thanks in advance.

Personally I think that sounds like a good deal with the Travel Agent. I take it that includes Disney tickets and free Disney Dining? Who are they using for flights? If booking flights separately you may get a good price going out but the return is likely to be a lot more expensive as more areas will be off the second week. With a tight window of time to go in options become more limited. I am trying to work out the same for summer next year. I am going demented!

I am jealous of you being able to go in October - we only get one week. I keep saying I would trade the 3 days in May and the September weekend to get 2 weeks in October. You spend more time planning the holiday than going on it.

 

[2Tiggies]

So, the question is, am I likely to get flights, from Scotland, even indirect, for less than around £650pp. Anyone have a crystal ball?! I have been thinking they'd likely be £700, any cheaper and I'd be delighted.

I'm still not absolutely sure that I've decided on POR, that's this weekends job!

Any thoughts on this price please? Thanks in advance.

I paid £560 give or take, per person from Glasgow via Gatwick. I booked a codeshare on the American Airlines site about 10 months out. That is late June returning in July. Prices from Edinburgh were slightly less but for practical reasons, I had to depart from Glasgow this year.

 

[pickers1982]

Hi, our schools here come off on 9th for 2 weeks.

Thanks!

 

[scottish mum]

We are going on 9th Oct this year, we booked our flights last July with Thomas Cook, the Glasgow flights were £675 whereas the Manchester flights were £491. We never looked at indirect prices, but when Virgin released there is November I checked and they were around the £700 mark and quickly rose

 

[mackay_j]

Hi

I had asked a travel agent to give me a quote, just out of interest. I am pretty sure I will do a DIY but wanted to check their prices. However, I am now very tempted by it, although nervous with booking with a TA because of problems I've read about with MDE.

The TA price is £5,634 for 2 adults, 2 kids, POR, ex GLA 4/10/15 for 2 weeks.

WDTC is £3118, with cashback £3,024. So, the question is, am I likely to get flights, from Scotland, even indirect, for less than around £650pp. Anyone have a crystal ball?! I have been thinking they'd likely be £700, any cheaper and I'd be delighted.

I'm still not absolutely sure that I've decided on POR, that's this weekends job!

Any thoughts on this price please? Thanks in advance.

fly drive price for saturday 3rd 2015 from glasgow for 14nights is £3170 with travel city (virgin discount shop )
hope that helps you

 

[**Clare**]

Thanks everyone for your posts, the information is really useful. I think I'm going to try and convince DH to go DIY, he is swaying towards using the travel agent for the "security" of having a local rep if something goes wrong, this being our first time with the kids. I'm not so pessimistic!

I've, (I mean we've!), definitely decided on POR, not upgrading to DDP so other than the travel agent side of it, the only other thing to decide is whether to take the kids out of school early or not. Its £300 difference to go 6 school days before they come off on holiday. I think if we book our own flights we could maybe leave on the Tuesday or Wednesday so they don't miss as much. But then whats an extra day or two. I'm going to try and talk to a teacher friend at my children's school tomorrow and see what she thinks.

Thanks again for all your help

 

[scoobydooby]

For what it's worth, if you have any problems to sort out on a Disney holiday you're better going DIY then you can deal with Disney directly and someone here will know the answer to anything you ask I'm sure. TAs here know almost nothing of detailed value about WDW holidays. I have used them when we first went but soon realised they are an irritant of a middle man. Just MHO.

 

[**Clare**]

For what it's worth, if you have any problems to sort out on a Disney holiday you're better going DIY then you can deal with Disney directly and someone here will know the answer to anything you ask I'm sure. TAs here know almost nothing of detailed value about WDW holidays. I have used them when we first went but soon realised they are an irritant of a middle man. Just MHO.

That's what is putting me off, I wouldn't have thought in a million years i'd be considering booking with a TA. I was up late on Wed night/Thurs morning waiting for the offers being loaded and thought I would just send the TA a message on Facebook (its a friends relative). I didn't think for a minute the price would be in the same ball park as what I imagined for a DIY.

I would hope that problems linking magic bands would be smoothed out long before next Oct! Are there other problems that people have encountered with TA/linking reservations (before magic bands) and the like?

Thanks.

 

[2Tiggies]

For what it's worth, if you have any problems to sort out on a Disney holiday you're better going DIY then you can deal with Disney directly and someone here will know the answer to anything you ask I'm sure. TAs here know almost nothing of detailed value about WDW holidays. I have used them when we first went but soon realised they are an irritant of a middle man. Just MHO.

This.

The reality is that many of the problems you encounter are prior to the trip, not during and are often directly because non Disney TA's are misinformed or uninformed.

If you book DIY and you have an issue with the flights, you contact the airline directly. If you have a problem with the Disney portion of your holiday, you are right there and you speak to Disney directly. If there are bigger issues, like delays, cancellation or anything along those lines, you contact your travel insurance provider.

I was given so much incorrect information when I booked our first trip as a package through a TA it was a joke. Had I not put in 11 months of research and found the DIS and other good sources of accurate information, that trip would have been very different to the one we were able to enjoy so much.

 

[**Clare**]

This.

The reality is that many of the problems you encounter are prior to the trip, not during and are often directly because non Disney TA's are misinformed or uninformed.

If you book DIY and you have an issue with the flights, you contact the airline directly. If you have a problem with the Disney portion of your holiday, you are right there and you speak to Disney directly. If there are bigger issues, like delays, cancellation or anything along those lines, you contact your travel insurance provider.

I was given so much incorrect information when I booked our first trip as a package through a TA it was a joke. Had I not put in 11 months of research and found the DIS and other good sources of accurate information, that trip would have been very different to the one we were able to enjoy so much.

Thanks very much for that. These are exactly my thoughts too. I think DH is a bit (ott) worried since its our first long haul trip with the kids.

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate it. Its especially helpful to have an idea of what people have paid in the past.

 

[2Tiggies]

Just wanted to add, I'm not sure where about in Scotland you are located, but I have noticed over the last 3 years or so that flights from Edinburgh have been cheaper than those from Glasgow. There are exceptions, but if you are able to be flexible, it does help. You just have to keep an eye on the trend nearer the time when your dates come available. We are lucky in that we are an equal distance between the two airports, but I prefer Edinburgh. As per my previous post, we are only flying out of Glasgow this year because I had to work around other plans.

Also, don't be afraid of indirect flights with young children. Unless you fly on the limited dates offered by VA direct from Glasgow, you are going to have to connect somewhere, whether it's Gatwick, Heathrow or a US airport. Personally, I prefer changing in the USA as it means when you get to Orlando you don't have immigration to deal with and you can collect your bags and be on your way. As long as your connection times work for you, it can actually be the lesser of two evils

 

[**Clare**]

Just wanted to add, I'm not sure where about in Scotland you are located, but I have noticed over the last 3 years or so that flights from Edinburgh have been cheaper than those from Glasgow. There are exceptions, but if you are able to be flexible, it does help. You just have to keep an eye on the trend nearer the time when your dates come available. We are lucky in that we are an equal distance between the two airports, but I prefer Edinburgh. As per my previous post, we are only flying out of Glasgow this year because I had to work around other plans.

Also, don't be afraid of indirect flights with young children. Unless you fly on the limited dates offered by VA direct from Glasgow, you are going to have to connect somewhere, whether it's Gatwick, Heathrow or a US airport. Personally, I prefer changing in the USA as it means when you get to Orlando you don't have immigration to deal with and you can collect your bags and be on your way. As long as your connection times work for you, it can actually be the lesser of two evils

We are closer to Edinburgh and would prefer to fly from there so that's great news, hope that trend continues!

I am not ruling out indirect, I like the idea of clearing immigration elsewhere in USA.

I think I'm going to go with booking direct with WDTC using your previous suggestion of booking a day less than needed and then, if need by for flights, add the other day on once flights are released.

Thanks so much for your input, I really appreciate it