Who runs direct flights apart from virgin

[a_hobden]

As above guys, Do any other companys go direct to florida apart from Virgin? Ive used virgin everytime ive been so never looked into it but after last weeks return flight I would like to try someone else!

 

[2Tiggies]

BA do. Not sure if there is any other airline that does direct to Orlando. Unless you go with a charter airline to Sanford.

You say Florida. Do you mean Orlando/MCO specifically or are you looking at Miami as another option?

 

[a_hobden]

Sorry I ment Sanford or Orlando

 

[2Tiggies]

Thomsons fly to Sanford. As far as I know only VA and BA do direct to MCO.

 

[arielrocks]

Thomas cool, thomsons, first choice all fly direct to Sanford. Va and ba go direct to Mco. Travel city direct fly using virgins planes in case u think about booking with them.

 

[wayneg]

From Manchester you only have VA for scheduled carriers plus the charters.

London you have BA or VA plus charters.

If you are willing to goto London BA also fly direct into Tampa, great airport.

3 or 4 now fly direct from London to Miami.

VA used to do a limited Glasgow service (think its still going)

Regional UK airports are either indirect or charters.

This August will be the 1st time for 3 years we have flown direct for 2 reasons, 1 US carriers offer a better service than VA & 2 price, looking for Oct half term VA £1,472pp American Airlines £495pp.
If you are going out of season direct is still reasonable.

 

[Julia Ann]

i was looking at this too flying direct from Birmingham airport - and some airlines (i think thomson and BA) only fly from birmingham during the summer months (we like to go Oct time and nothing direct from BHam). Apologies if anybody knows that it has changed i looked a couple of years ago. So we tend to fly from manchester to get direct and Virgin (Virgin don't use birmingham airport) . Considering Bham is the second city it amazes me that the airport isn't used by virgin or other major airlines all year round. Rumour has it that Bham airport's runway is too small and is scheduled to be lengthened, hopefully we will have more flexibility then.

 

[Lisa x]

From Manchester, direct flights into MCO are with Virgin and direct flights into SFB are with Thomson or Monarch!

Like others have suggested, I think you will have more choice if you fly from a London Airport but just by looking at your location, like us (Wakefield), Manchester is probably your preferred choice! Nice and easy to get to!

 

[disneyisthebest]

Hi, as the others have said BA and VA fly directly to Orlando International. However, from Manchester which is where I fly from there is Thomas Cook, Thompson and Monarch who fly into Sanford. Sanford is a great little airport and the time to get through immigration seems so much faster than International. I've literally got off the plane and been sitting in my rental car within 45 minutes. Okay, the drive to Disney is about 45 to 50 mins but it's just one long road really so you can't really get lost. I know that flights to Florida have gone up so much over the last couple of years but bargains are still there especially if you travel at short notice. I went last June with Thomas Cook at three days notice and it cost £199.00. You can't argue with that. I've just booked for this October and that's £580.00 !!!
Well, whenever you go and wherever you fly into have a fabulous time. !!!!

 

[wayneg]

Welcome to DISboards disneyisthebest

 

[a_hobden]

Cheers guys, has anyone flown with any of the charter airlines before? monarch thomas cook etc....?? what are they like? Also what is the drive from Sanford like? ive flown there once before but was only about 14 so didnt really take much notice

 

[BethEJo]

Cheers guys, has anyone flown with any of the charter airlines before? monarch thomas cook etc....?? what are they like? Also what is the drive from Sanford like? ive flown there once before but was only about 14 so didnt really take much notice

We flew with Thomas Cook into SFB in August 2009 - only paid £330 ish each return then. The plane was lovely - felt brand new. The only "problem" I had as such was the luggage allowance - the standard allowance was only 15kg each back then

You could pay to increase it to 20kg but this had to be for all members of the party and couldnt just do it for the one person. I ended up cramming into 15kg - was doable going out (just), but was quite a bit over coming back but that was ignored (phew). Just luck I suppose.

I remember the drive to our hotel just off I Drive taking around an hr, but didn't drive it ourselves so can't help you out with that. We just booked transfers with the private taxi people that Sanford recommend on their website.

Would definitely fly charter again - Thomson are having some great prices recently!

ETA: our plane had seat back TVs but they charged for headphones. Just used my own

 

[ben1993]

i was looking at this too flying direct from Birmingham airport - and some airlines (i think thomson and BA) only fly from birmingham during the summer months (we like to go Oct time and nothing direct from BHam). Apologies if anybody knows that it has changed i looked a couple of years ago. So we tend to fly from manchester to get direct and Virgin (Virgin don't use birmingham airport) . Considering Bham is the second city it amazes me that the airport isn't used by virgin or other major airlines all year round. Rumour has it that Bham airport's runway is too small and is scheduled to be lengthened, hopefully we will have more flexibility then.

No airlines fly direct from Bham, unfortunately! Aer Lingus fly to Dublin then to MCO, it's only a short layover so thats not a bad option from BHX.

 

[starrysky]

No airlines fly direct from Bham, unfortunately! Aer Lingus fly to Dublin then to MCO, it's only a short layover so thats not a bad option from BHX.

We have the same problem from Aberdeen unless we want to go somewhere short haul.

We end up going from Edinburgh or Glasgow and even then if we don't want to pay huge ammounts to fly direct into MCO it normally means a stop over somewhere, Either that or direct ot sanford (we normally stay on site so paying for a transfer is annoying when you get the ME for free from sanford)

Aer Lingus are great and the stop over flew by last year. Its normally around 2 hours or so. great service and on time as well as a good range of entertainment. We will be using them again this year as they worked out the cheapest/ best time option for us.

 

[a_hobden]

Think I might give one of these a try next may!! just waiting for virgin prices to come out and unless there really cheep (no chance) I'll most prob give a charter into Sanford a chance. Thanks for the advise guys

 

[gismo1554]

LOL everyone's amused me as we have similar issues. Our nearest 2 airports (Cardiff and Bristol) are both international and yet we have no flights to Orlando from either. We end up slugging it up to London each time as the closest airport really (only just mind). May look at charter next year after some of the suggestions on here as usually end up on Virgin so thanks all!

 

[T16GEM]

This year was the first time in 5 years that we have flown direct, we went from MAN with VA, usually we do Contintental from BHX, connecting in Newark.

I live a two minute drive from BHX so I want to be able to use the airport as much as I can, but I am not looking forward to the impact that extending the runway is going to have on our local area, anyway I digress.

DH and I actually discussed after the direct flight that we preferred the layover in Newark as it gave us chance to get through immigration, have some dinner, and stretch our legs, yes we had a three hour layover BUT when you factor in the drive to MAN and having to stay over the night before, it's all relative.

Our friends flew with Thomas Cook into SFB and they said it was fine, they paid about £330 each, no seat back TV and had to pay for meals, I think they took a picnic!

Thomson do some dates in October from BHX, up until about the 16th I think.

I think we will be looking at CO again for next year.

Gems

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

The website for Orlando Sanford International Airport always has an updated list of carriers servicing the airport and the cities they fly from. In the case of the UK, service is offered from a number of cities but it does vary from season to season.

http://www.orlandosanfordairport.com/airlines.asp

BobK/Orlando