why are direct flights so expensive now? at least £500.

[julieannbabe]

just for a direct flight over to orlando from Gatwick is just over £500 with virgin - it would be £377 but now for added security taxes and fuel - around £130 it bumps it up to £509.

and this is for november - so called off peak season.

will these prices go down nearer the time - or will it stay this price?

(i could go indirect for £362 - but i really don't want to do that)

xjx

 

[martina857]

I don't think they will come down, I have been watching the flights for June and they did not move at all !! In fact they went up. It is so difficult now to get cheaper flights I am going in June and got a reasonable charter flight through my agent but even that was more than I have ever paid before.

We are looking at November as well and right now I could go indirect for £310 but I don't want to go indirect this time as my neice is coming with us with a 1 yr old baby.

I am going to wait.

M

 

[patdavies]

With a scheduled airline, it is normal for flight prices to increase as the flight date approaches.

This is because:
1) You move past the latest dates for 42 and 28 day Apex tickets
2) The lower fares tickets sell out. Airline revenue management control how many of each fare class ticket will be available for a flight.

 

[castanea1985]

The prices increase to about £800 + in July / August!! Thats the only time we can go! Even charter flights are touching that price!!
Try Airline network - you sometimes get some reasonable deals on there!

 

[Spook]

I would have been very happy to pay £509 for a Virgin flight but being restricted to the school summer holidays ... well you know the rest

Jan

 

[jdybnsn]

If its any consolation even the TCD prices are well up on last years' - must be an industry wide thing..........

 

[Laurafoster]

We were lucky, we managed to book when Virgin Had one of their sales - flying out on November 30th, my flights withthe tax and charges came to £299 return!

They do tend to have a sale every now and then, so keep an eye out!

 

[Strommie]

We managed to get flights with Virgin direct from Manchester travelling in December for £330 incl all taxes a couple of months ago. The bargains are there but unfortunately not all the time

 

[julieannbabe]

We were lucky, we managed to book when Virgin Had one of their sales - flying out on November 30th, my flights withthe tax and charges came to £299 return!

They do tend to have a sale every now and then, so keep an eye out!

kool - any idea how often virgin have these sales?

did you go to virgin atlantic.com?

 

[Universal_Studios]

If you dont mind not flying with Virgin then check out teletext (Channel 3) key in 222 and you will get all the cheap Florida Deals. Ring around if you are booking car hire with your flight as some companies are cheap on the flights but make it up on the car hire and rip you off that way, so be careful and ring around to compare deals. If you are quoted a deal ask for a 'reference number' and they will usually hold it for a day or so while you shop around. Some charter flight companies offer excellent upgrades for as little as 99 quid or the top upgrade is 199 quid and you can get a 50" seat pitch and lots of other extras.

Good luck.

 

[SimonV]

But how can they be so expensive? The media keep telling us Florida travel is down 20% from the UK. So there must be plenty of cheap flights....

Sorry, Julieann, I couldn't resist it. It is a very frivolous remark taken out of context, but I think it is indicative that the market for Florida is very strong this year, plus everyone has had to kick in extra fuel surcharges because aviation fuel is almost 50% higher than it was 2 years ago. You might look at a few of the so-called cheaper alternatives, perhaps Flyglobespan from Glasgow or flywho (if they ever get started) from Birmingham. Some of the indirect flights can be worthwhile, too; Northwest fly direct from Gatwick to Detroit, which can be under 8 hours some times, and Detroit is an easy airport to negotiate. From there, you have the choice of Northwest, Spirit or Airtran to Orlando (direct), which is a 2-hour flight.

The simple message is, these days, the earlier you can book the better the price you are likely to get.

 

[Laurafoster]

kool - any idea how often virgin have these sales?

did you go to virgin atlantic.com?

Yes i did get them off Virginatlantic.com - when i booked it, it was a "late night shopping" kinda thing on a thursday, i remember seeing them quite often when i was booking mine but not sure if this was a seasonal thing or not!

 

[steve_rob]

Go to Expedia and try their "Flight + Hotel" option.

I put in for a seven night holiday with them to Orlando (just randomly picked a cheap hotel on I-Drive) and chose the Virgin flights, and it came out to £865.40 - that's the total for two people, not each by the way.

Picked the same dates with Flight Only, and they priced the Virgin flight at £984.40 for two people!

Can't explain it, but if it works out cheaper, then it's got to be worth a try!

EDIT: Just noticed this - if you weren't interested in booking a hotel at the same time, then by adding a hire car (Alamo, fully insured) to the flight only option above, it ALSO brought the price down; this time to £837.99!

 

[jacko1970]

there are flights from cardiff for £166 inclusive for 1st june for 14 nights flight only from thomsonfly £148 per person from airtours without meal

 

[Hilary]

there are flights from cardiff for £166 inclusive for 1st june for 14 nights flight only email me for details

Anyone can access these flights from the Thompson website and these are just the latest in a string of last minute deals at great prices. Wish I could take advantage of them!

 

[terrynewpack]

Quite right. There are currently loads of direct charter flights for less than £200 each inclusive of everything. This is mainly due to the impending World Cup which has totally messed up the travel industry once again.

Tourism is not strong to Florida currently and the latest official stats out a couple of days ago shows a slight decrease this year to date. The prices shown currently to my mind proves that it is usually better to leave it until late if you can and if you have the bottle


Terry

 

[Merylj]

We booked indirect flights to MCO last Nov for about £700 for the two of us.
By around Sept. Virgin prices had fallen to a similar level.
The problem is I like to get things planned and I can`t start planning until I get the flights booked!
For our trip at the end of Aug. we are travelling with TCD our flights with car and all insurances is £740. We`ll give it a try

 

[JohnnySharp2]

If you are booking for the summer holidays and choose to fly with a certain Airline then you cannot leave it late, you need to get booked early.
The prices may be steep but the flights often full.

 

[SimonV]

Here's the full story from Friday's Orlando Business Journal, just to avoid any more misinformation being spread here. The first three months of 2006 show a 0.1million 'fall' in tourist numbers from 2006 to 2005, but, as everyone knows, Easter was in April this year rather than March last year. That means the comparison year-on-year is slightly false, as last year's figures include the whole of Spring Break and the big Easter period, while this year's don't include the main Easter Period. The biggest drop in this period was shown by Floridians taking a break in their own state. Overseas visitation remains at the same levels as last year. In fact, Orlando Sanford Airport continues to grow its overseas business, and the figures there continue to rise. The Travel Industry Association of America is also reporting tourism figures as 'mainly flat' for 2006, which means no significant increase, but certainly no drop. So let's not have any more 'UK visitation to Florida is dropping' shock, horror stories, because they are simply a load of ill-informed codswallop.

Orlando Business Journal - May 26, 2006, by Bob Mervine, Staff Writer

Tourists continue to flock to Florida, but preliminary figures for the first three months of 2006 show a slight decrease when compared with the previous year, unlike increases noted each year since 2001.

The report, released Friday by Visit Florida, the state's public-private tourism entity, shows an estimated 23.2 million people came to the Sunshine State in the January-through-March period of this year, compared with 23.3 million last year.

A spokeswoman for the agency says the 100,000-person drop is statistically equivalent, because of methodology used to compile figures that are not yet final.

The numbers match unofficial, anecdotal information from tourism industry sources in Central Florida. The only significant reports of business improvement for the period came from Walt Disney World, which was previewing a major new attraction during that time.

While resort tax collections have been comparable or slightly better than last year, higher room rates -- resulting in higher tax amounts -- are the reason for the higher numbers and not more visitors.

While Canadian visitation increased 2 percent, the report says, the number of Florida residents taking a pleasure trip was down 4.7 percent.

Of Floridians who did vacation, those staying in-state decreased by 3.4 percent, representing a decrease of an estimated 368,000 in-state-person trips.

Out-of-state drive vacationers increased by .04 percent, and there was a slight decline in those traveling to Florida by air, 54.9 percent compared to 55.2 percent last year.

Research for the report, says Visit Florida, was collected at the state's 14 airports. Non-airline data comes from reports by TNS TravelsAmerica and D.K. Shifflet and Associates.

The state says final estimates will be released when completed data is received for all estimates in the report.

 

[Hilary]

Here's the full story from Friday's Orlando Business Journal, just to avoid any more misinformation being spread here. ... So let's not have any more 'UK visitation to Florida is dropping' shock, horror stories, because they are simply a load of ill-informed codswallop.

The 'misinformation' is from press and media reports in the UK. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting your tone, Simon, but it sounds to me as though you're blaming DIS posters for spreading these 'rumours'.