Thomson or Virgin? Help??!!

[IanBond]

Hello All
Looking to book for this December as usual going to book with Virgin but has anyone noticed like me their prices have shot up?
So out of curiosity I called in Going Places in town spent an hour and for the same day departure got a price £410 cheaper Now the only difference is flying to Sanford and no Twilight Check in (BooHoo!!) Is it worth going with Thomson? anyone got any stories? if its positive Ill book Monday at the end of the day £410 is almost the Disney tickets
Thanks everyone and although its a little late Happy New Year.

 

[gilld]

We did fly to Orlando with Britannia the first visit in 1992 and swore we'd never do it again. I'm afraid I now always travel to Florida with Virgin or BA but have flown to the Caribbean with Britannia (Thomson) in recent years to join several P&O cruises (they charter Britannia unfortunately). Their aircraft are terribly cramped, the crew surly, entertainment poor and food really dreadful.

If you're saving is per person then it is a consideration, but if it is a total saving then I wouldn't go with them. No doubt others will think differently.

 

[signtalker]

VIRGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Flew with brittania last year, and flying with them again this year(purely coz ive got 2 trips coming up and the cost issue came up LOL)!!.And the fact my mate was abit cash strapped so had to opt for the cheaper route!!!

The service is Bad, you have to pay for all drinks and snacks, you have to pay to prebook seats, unless you have dietry requirements you have to have the meal choice, whereas on Virgin you have a choice!. You have the choice of possibly 2 films if youre lucky(or you fly PE), obviously its charter so its into sanford which is further away!!(Need I go on)!!!

With Virgin youve got twilight checkin,checkin at DTD on the way back freeing up more time, free drinks and snacks and icecream, choices of lots of movies etc etc.

Were flying with Virgin again in May, and boy do you appreciate how good they are after youve flown brittania!!!!, Id pay the extra myself!

Jules

 

[cheryl.UK]

Virgin.

£410 sounds a lot now but it won't when you're stuck in the god awful planes that Brittania use to Sanford. (to say nothing of actually being stuck in Sanford after check in. -We had a 3 hour delay. One of the worst 3 hours of my life!). Never, never again will I fly charter flights long haul. I'd rather save money by splitting the journey.

 

[daywalker]

This year we're going with Virgin again after three years of using Travel City (purely because of their sunshine first upgrade). I have to say we prefer flying into Sanford, it's much quicker to get through, we've usually been in our car on the way to Orlando within 20 minutes of landing - MCO is a nightmare to get through.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

I prefer flying with Virgin for a less stressful flight due to the back seat monitors and free drinks. They also do a quick check in online plus check out your bags at downtown disney to ease the flight home but I agree Is quicker to get through customs at Sanford.
I also wouldn't recommend buying your holiday through a travel agent either as I just came back from WDW after booking the whole lot myself and saved a fortune over the brochure price.

 

[natalielongstaff]

jetsave have a good deal on child prices ........£99 on selected dates and they use virgin flights,might be worth a look

 

[Hilary]

We have flown several times with Britannia, Virgin and BA and I would definitely choose scheduled flights over charter if the price was right and if they used the same UK airports (Sanford doesn't bother me at all).

However, with Britannia I can save about four hours of driving to Gatwick by using a more local airport here and can often (but not always) save quite a few ££s as well.

I admit I'm not the tallest of passengers, so I don't usually have the legroom problems of some people and I appreciate that this can be a deciding factor in itself. DH is 6'3" so he always books and pays for extra legroom if we have a Britannia flight, and is very cramped in Virgin economy seats! For him, the option to pay the £50(?) upfront with Britannia is well worthwhile and preferable to the gamble of hoping to get a bulkhead seat with Virgin.

This year we're flying with Britannia again, but have opted to pay an extra £160(?) each to upgrade to their premium service. This means we're not saving much financially but will still avoid the Gatwick run plus overnight accommodation and that awful drive home round the M25 when we're all shattered after the return flight.

Maybe I'll be saying "never again" when we get home from our Britannia flight in July, but past experience with them hasn't put me off enough to deter me from booking with them this trip

 

[daveyoghurt]

I'd definitely fly with Virgin, your holiday starts with your flight and Virgin really go the extra mile compared with other companies. Given the choice I'd also try to avoid Sanford if I could, Sanford usually means delays and on your flight back it doesn't really cater for passengers as MCO does.

 

[Bexx]

I've found both Britannia and Sanford okay! Depends what you want from the flight and the airport - they both offer less to keep you amused than the Vrigin/Orlando combination. But I'd take a good book and the £410 saving!!

 

[FloridaSam]

Hi

We've chosen Virgin this time for our holiday.

We first flew with them for our honeymoon 11 years ago now and they were brilliant. Excellent service, entertainment etc.

We took our children out in 2003 using BA (as it was cheaper) and although the flight and food was good, the service wasn't a patch on Virgin. Although it is only something small, they didn't have any childrens packs on the way out and on the way back they ran out before our kids! Surely they knew how many kids were going to be on board!

In comparison and by co-incidence we met one of my eldest sons best friends on landing in Florida, they had flown Virgin and the kids had had a wonderful flight.

This time though, we did play Virgin off against the other operators and managed to get their holiday reduced. We did this with our holiday to Florida in 2003 and to Universal Spain in 2004, they are usually quite desparate for a sale that they will jump through hoops to give you a good price.

Good luck

Sam xx

 

[luvtinkerbell]

we looked on the internet for virgin prices then went to thomas cook they price matched plus free insurance we are flying with virgin but booked with thomas cook were going in march so i ll let you know but we saved lots

 

[Disney owl]

Haven'tflown with either airlines but to us a flight's a flight. Save the £400 for your tickets!!! Having seat back tv is nice but you can manage without IMHO.

Posting to say we've never had any problems with Sanford and find it easy to get to & from. Car hire/ pick up is also very easy.

 

[alisonbestford]

Have flown with both Virgin and Thomson(Britannia?) and I'd say Virgin
Like you I thought it was pretty cool saving about £100 per passenger but, given that it's a long flight, you have to pay for everything onboard and travel further at the other end......I'd decided we could do without the backseat tvs, which we did, but, put it this way, we're flying with Virgin again at the end of the month ;-)
Alison

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

I've only ever flown Virgin to florida.
But my brother and his wife have just come back from Mexico with Britannia, but they said the flights was good,they prefer virgin though.

 

[heatherbelle]

I really shopped around for our latest trip, now I've got internet access. Although the flights appear to be cheaper with charter flights, they sting you with the car hire and insurance.

i actually found cheaper flights for virgin with a travel agent, then with virgin themselves, including car hire and insurance.

The agent was Mercury Travel ask for Phillippa, very helpful. They also booked our accomodation later, again they were cheaper, than booking with the hotel direct or internet prices. I did try to bet their prices, but couldn't.

 

[IanBond]

Thanks for the advice guys got a bit of thinking to do
I know too well how Good Virgin are But £400 is a good wedge of cash!!
Cheers IAN

 

[Scottish-Helen]

I also wouldn't recommend buying your holiday through a travel agent either as I just came back from WDW after booking the whole lot myself and saved a fortune over the brochure price.

Us travel agents aren't all bad. I always strive to get my customers the best deal whether that is booking a full package or putting together the components seperately. Don't forget you also get a lot more protection if things do go wrong. Eg the hurricanes last year or if an airline goes bust. I have to admit it is fun doing it all your self though!

PS I thought Britannia were ok. Sanford immigration was fab. Will still probably book with Virgin myself next time though.

 

[ejones999]

I think a lot will depend on whether you are travelling with young kids or not.
I like to save a penny or two when I can, but a 9 hour flight with the kids bored can be a nightmare! So I would vote for Virgin as they do look after the kids and the free drinks for the adults is not bad either.
Eric

 

[alisonbestford]

Yes Eric,
You got it in one LOL
Alison