Who flys direct to Orlando / Sanford

[PAUL GIZZI]

Hi all

Villa booked, and now trying to find good priced flights, Virgin are £600 ( May 2013) from Manchester.

Do you think ill find better?

Can anyone recommend anyone else?

i have email the flights to florida on here and waiting for a reply

Thanks

[LFCGeorge]

I think £600 isn't too bad especially as it is Direct.

I can remember my local Airport direct flights being about £800+ (although it was in July/August) which I just wouldn't pay

[syrup]

I think £600 isn't too bad especially as it is Direct.


I agree I think that's quite reasonable. I think it it depends how late you are prepared to wait to book it.

I fly out of Gatwick so have different options like flying to Tampa with B/A. I have looked at Sanford but never found the prices much cheaper if any after paying all the extras.

I know every little bit of saving helps but I do feel saving a couple of hundred pounds on flights as a percentage of the whole holiday cost is minimal. I prefer peace of mind but that's just me.


Regards

Keith

[Lizb]

Thomson is an alternative but they do charge for your luggage, which when added to the flight price will probably be around the same price as the Virgin flights. With Virgin you do get a better luggage allowance which is included in the fare.

Thomson do have some good last minute flight prices at times.

[Katys Grandad]

When you can fly Delta from Manchester with 1 easy connection for under £400 then I'd say £600 just to fly Virgin direct is expensive.

The standard party of 4 will be around £850 better off and, in my world at least, that's a lot of money.

[syrup]

When you can fly Delta from Manchester with 1 easy connection for under £400 then I'd say £600 just to fly Virgin direct is expensive.

The standard party of 4 will be around £850 better off and, in my world at least, that's a lot of money.

That is cheap!

[Katys Grandad]

It might be deleted but look at Netflights who have MAN to MCO for £391 on several dates in May 2013. I think Paul's party is at least 6 people so the savings from Virgin take some turning down. I just booked 2 flights to Fort Myers for my son for £413 per person. I haven't seen those levels for many years.

[syrup]

I know every little bit of saving helps but I do feel saving a couple of hundred pounds on flights as a percentage of the whole holiday cost is minimal. I prefer peace of mind but that's just me.


But I'm only a party of two.

[Katys Grandad]

But I'm only a party of two.

I wasn't recommending it to everybody merely trying to help with the OP's question.

Not quite so compelling for 2 passengers of course but still worth considering for any size of party. I suppose it depends on how much each of us thinks a direct flight is worth over making a connection. YMMV.

[Mr G]

Paid £489.00 with Virgin Atklantic. Direct flights this year, Man to MCO, departed early July return early August. I recommend reegular checking as there are deals to be had.

[gail and david roberts]

We went in May this year , for 19 days
manchester to Orlando
I waited until January to book our Flights and got them for £425 each , this was using my Virgin credit card points and cash
Virgin do have a sale in January

[syrup]

Quote Originally Posted by syrup View Post
But I'm only a party of two.

I wasn't recommending it to everybody merely trying to help with the OP's question.

Not quite so compelling for 2 passengers of course but still worth considering for any size of party. I suppose it depends on how much each of us thinks a direct flight is worth over making a connection. YMMV.

I know, it was just a silly statement me saying saving a couple of hundred pounds when I'm only a party of two. It works out a lot if your a party of six or more.

[gail and david roberts]

Just seen this ad on my face book page , virgin have a sale on now until the 26th September ,
but nothing for May next years sorry
Here is the link http://virg.co/AugSale

[Dads_Taxi]

Paul,
to answer your question, Thomson and Monarch also fly direct from MAN. They don't fly every day, for instance only Monarch was available to us as we could only fly on a Saturday. That was in May of this year.

As a guide to prices for the Spring school holidays this year - Monarch were £720, Virgin £890 and all the airlines offering indirect flights were between £650 and £670. I couldn't get a price for Thomson as they didn't offer a Saturday flight.

The moral to this story is - don't go in school holidays! (like I have to)

[PAUL GIZZI]

Thanks for this Delta works out at £470 for the dates we need, do delta have seatback tv? and food / drinks included?

And 6 of us going

Cheers

[Conrad]

Cool, I was coming in here to start the exact same thread. So to summarise, the only airlines who fly direct to MCO from the UK are Virgin, Thomson and Monarch?

I have visited The States countless times and I only ever fly in-direct due to cost. I returned from Vegas Tuesday just gone and we saved £350 each on flights by changing at Philly. The only problem is when we go FL next May we will be taking our new baby and family we are going with have young kids too and refuse to change flights.

So for me, this time around, direct flights are the only option but personally I think £600 is quite expensive for a direct flight to Orlando. You'd think there would be a little more competition from other airlines, surely Orlando is one of the top destinations from the Uk and more than 3 airlines would operate direct routes there??

[Dads_Taxi]

I think it was 1994 when we went with Delta. Food and drink was plentiful and seat-back entertainment was science fiction!
I seem to recall the luggage allowance back then was 2 items of any size - if you could carry it, it was OK.

Hopefully someone will have a more recent experience to report back.

[nettyf]

We flew from Heathrow to JFK then onto Tampa at Easter with Delta and they were brilliant. It was 100% better flight than Virgin!

Food was reasonable, and the snack was a slice of pizza and a tub of ice cream.

We had touch screen TVs too with loads of films and program's to choose from.

We were allowed 1 piece of luggage and our hand luggage wasn't weighed like Virgin had done on previous trips.

If I had a Virgin direct flight ticket and delta indirect flight ticket to choose from it would be Delta everytime!!!!

[Katys Grandad]

If you go to Delta's website and find the flights you're looking at by doing a dummy reservation, you'll see symbols below each segment indicating what type of IFE is available. I doubt they will have any form of it on the domestic segment but that's only a short hop. They definitely provide free food and drink on the transatlantic flights.

It's a very popular route so, as Dave says, somebody on here will have recent experience.

[caroline]

Cool, I was coming in here to start the exact same thread. So to summarise, the only airlines who fly direct to MCO from the UK are Virgin, Thomson and Monarch?

I have visited The States countless times and I only ever fly in-direct due to cost. I returned from Vegas Tuesday just gone and we saved £350 each on flights by changing at Philly. The only problem is when we go FL next May we will be taking our new baby and family we are going with have young kids too and refuse to change flights.

So for me, this time around, direct flights are the only option but personally I think £600 is quite expensive for a direct flight to Orlando. You'd think there would be a little more competition from other airlines, surely Orlando is one of the top destinations from the Uk and more than 3 airlines would operate direct routes there??

Hi Conrad, Thomson and Monarch don't fly into MCO they fly into Sanford - Virgin and British Airways fly direct to MCO and BA also fly direct to Tampa.

[Katys Grandad]

So for me, this time around, direct flights are the only option but personally I think £600 is quite expensive for a direct flight to Orlando. You'd think there would be a little more competition from other airlines, surely Orlando is one of the top destinations from the Uk and more than 3 airlines would operate direct routes there??

I think the reason is that it isn't a route that attracts enough premium passengers who will pay high fares for First & Business Class tickets and that's where the major airlines make the real money. BA do offer Club to MCO and Tampa but not on the 747's preferred by high payers and no airline flies First Class to either destination. Virgin's Upper Class comes close but isn't a full First Class product.

There's no doubt that Virgin exploit their Manchester-MCO scheduled carrier monopoly (who can blame them?) and no other airline has ever challenged that.

[Dads_Taxi]

Hi Conrad, Thomson and Monarch don't fly into MCO they fly into Sanford - Virgin and British Airways fly direct to MCO and BA also fly direct to Tampa.

I think this thread is becoming confusing - it certainly threw me a bit.
Paul's original query was about flights from Manchester to the Orlando area.


Conrad's query only asked about flights from the UK, and Caroline's response is to Conrad's question. BA do not fly direct to Orlando or Tampa from Manchester. I was briefly confused, if not slightly hopeful, that maybe more options were open to us Mancunians!
I just thought I'd comment in case anyone else was as dozy as me.

[caroline]

LOL! I missed the 'from Manchester' - so I'm as confused as you Dave!

[PAUL GIZZI]

I would use Tampa if it was cost effective, and thanks for the advice

[PAUL GIZZI]

Also do Virgin do sales every January??