Flying to the USA

[Brad]

Taking my daughter there this summer. Direct return flights are a shade over ?2k. Eeek! Anyone had any experience taking a non-direct flight?

[fuse]

I can't say I'd recommend it - in my experience, a lot of planes used on domestic US flights are pretty small and grotty, and as with any kind of transport, the more changes you introduce you get exponentially bigger risks of delays, missed connections and so on. I know you can save some money, but I would sooner not test my patience to such an extreme length.

[Soundwave]

WTF!!!

Where in gods name are you going??

Have you looked at Virgin Direct on their Website & planned dates around their cheapest flight?

I did this when I took the missus to Vegas & we saved hundreds because we were flexible with when we were going.

Neil

[Brad]

Orlando. Virgin Direct? What's that then? Virgin Atlantic are more expensive than BA at the moment. Remember I have to go in school holidays.

[buster_broon]

I agree with Adrian, if you are stick within the confines of school holidays best to go direct, see if you can get e vouchers or discount codes anywhere

You don't want to be messing around with connecting flights if you can help it especially dragging children to meet the hate that's closing

Recently flew direct to New York from Glasgow and it was so easy but the only airport option I had was Newark but that wasn't so bad

Is there any other airports close by which are cheaper and get a transfer company to take you to your hotel

[Brad]

Thanks for the advice chaps, keep it coming. We are also visiting New Orleans so I wonder if flying there and driving to orlando and back would be cheaper than doing it the way i was originally going to? Few options to try out. is there a way to do what Neil was suggesting i.e. put in the whole six weeks as an option and see what the best prices are for that whole period?

[Soundwave]

Brad,

Head here...

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en.html

Whack in any 2 weeks you need for the holiday & see what the flights come back with price wise, then just fiddle around with it & book the hotel separately or go in to the Travel agents with the dates & flight prices to hand & work it out from there.

I used exactly the same formula but went via Expedia.

Neil

[Brad]

Nope. Cannot get direct flights return to Orlando, tampa bay or new orleans in the school hols for less than 2.1k. Where's Freddy Laker when you need him (may have made that gag before, rings a bell).

[Soundwave]

Nope. Cannot get direct flights return to Orlando, tampa bay or new orleans in the school hols for less than 2.1k. Where's Freddy Laker when you need him (may have made that gag before, rings a bell).

Jesus!

Right that's me done then Chloe will be going when she's 4
No way I'm paying those prices when she starts school & has to go in the holidays with a bajillion other kids fighting for the rides.

October will do me...Halloween will be awesome
Time to start saving.

[Brad]

Also once they reach 12 they're an adult apparently. I guess Mia can pay for her own ticket then.

Oh, October covering halloween is even more expensive at ?2800 for the two of us mate. You can't avoid it. Flights are simply expensive these days!

[fuse]

I am never having children.

[buster_broon]

I put 5k away from my armed forces gratuity to pay for a dream holiday for the children when they are older and was looking at 7 and 8

Might do it when they are 3 and 4

[EvilBoris]

Summer holiday bastards.

We booked flights return to LAX for ?400 in October, the impression I got when researching was that Virgin and BA were all set up to be parts of packages, perhaps with Florida you need to look at that rather than booking it all separately.

[Colin]

I agree with Boris there. When I booked my holiday to Chicago for this June, if I had bought the flights and hotel separately it was ?500 more than booking as a package. Try Expedia, they have a sale on US packages right now. My cousin is a travel agent and I get the family discount and stuff from her, but due to their sale she couldn't beat Expedias prices, ?300 over was the closest she got.

[ETC]

Have a look on skyscanner. Breaks are not too bad as long as you allow 5 hours between airports although my last airport changeover was 55 mins that was not fun

it is only one 1hr 40 flight if you fly to Atlanta and transfer there are a hell of a lot of flights to Atlanta so you may get a better deal if you can put up with one stopover