advice on which indirect flight to take

[ukman]

Hello my fellow OV

I have a dilemma, I've just got two seperate quotes from an agent but have issues in which to take as im getting confused. I have had much advice on here, which has been very good.

What it is i am in the process of trying to book my family out to orlando in december for xmas as dont want to be here due to last xmas here in the uk.

The agent has sent me the quote, the first one is delta via atlanta going out and on the return, delta via jfk, The second is continental via newark which from advice thought was my preferred choice, until my agent informed me, that newark is prone to heavy snow and delays like there was last year and people had 3 day delays at the airport but he then said that atlanta more or less has year round sunshine, which i find strange as the last time in atlanta there was snow, even it being many many moons ago.

But have my agent got a point being that my brother leaves in new york and they been having some terrible weather conditions.

Which flight which you guys choose and why?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[CERICROWLEY]

I have flown the newark route at christmas for the past 6 years, and have not had any problems. But I choose this route as it is the best for me. Continental fly out via Bristol which is close to me, rather than a three/four hour trip to London and have a wider choice. This year we missed the terrible snow which shut down the whole West coast by 24 hours, so we were very lucky.

Cant comment on the the Atlanta stopover. although I did do continental from Heathrow via Houston. and will never do it again. with the flight being earlier than the bristol one, and the three/four drive to london - long queue for immigration good job we had a longer connection, I ended up getting to Orlando later than if I would have landed from Bristol etc. The connections and immigration could well have been an off day and one of those things. If I had travel a day later or earlier, it could have been a breeze. however the clincher for me is a local airport to me in the UK, so continental via newark win every time.

Someone else may have totally different experiences of london to both newark and atlanta.

PS... You dont' have to do Newark via Continental you can go to Houston as well. That may be an option

[DaveL]

Your agent is right there is always a chance of a freak storm in the Northern states which will close an airport. However they expect normal snow and are ready for it so the airports stay open.

If you want to remove any risk then fly via Atlanta however personally I prefer Continental over Delta.

Dave

[mfairhurst]

Flying via Atlanta is better in winter ,Jfk can close down for a day or two at christmas or new year .
Atlanta had snow this year but it was the first time it was so bad as was all UK , USA & Europe being freak weather ,So go for Atlanta .
Leave enough time to change plane in Atlanta then you can have something to drink as there are plenty of cafes and eating places .
MAUREEN
www.onlinefloridavillas.com/villas/1683.aspx

[Katys Grandad]

Weather delays are a fact of life in North Eastern E US airports during the winter. They know how to deal with it but if you can avoid them, I'd do so.

[Sniff]

In my experience, your biggest problem is the combination of weather and time of year. Yes, the airports in the NE are used to snow, and can usually cope. But you've seen this winter how even the best-prepared can get caught out. I

If they DO have to start cancelling flights, Xmas is such a busy time that the usually-easy process of rebooking you on the next available flight becomes a real problem...the 'next available flight' could well be 2 or 3 days later. We travelled via Philly in the run up to Christmas 2008, and we missed our connection. This was due to technical problems on the first leg, nothing to do with weather. But despite that it still took us 2 days to get to Orlando, as half the USA seems to be travelling at that time and every flight (to anywhere) was full.