who would you fly with???

[fiona]

W fly BA as first choice but would certainly fly one of the american airlines for that sort of saving!

Unless you have young children which make a stopover a pain, I would do it. American Airlanes are very good and have loads of leg room.

[MrEktion]

Is it true that the cheapest fares sell out first, or is that just a myth?

Nadim,

I think it is generally the case with scheduled flights unless you are travelling during a very quiet period. Although I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't get cheap scheduled flights for November nearer the time but probably not with Virgin.

However, if you are willing to take the risk you could wait for a while and keep an eye on the charter flight prices as they do tend to price flights on a demand basis and will discount heavily if a flight is not full and the departure date is approaching.

You can find charters in October for November departure around the £99 - £149 region. This is a game of chicken between you and the charter airline and depends a lot on how flexible your departure dates are and how many seats you want. If you need 2-4 it can be worth the risk of waiting but definately not a good idea if 10 of you need flights together.

Benefits of charter are it will be definately be direct and should be cheaper, downside less legroom(unless you fly European/TCD which is the same as Virgin and BA Economy) and you will fly to Sanford which is 30 minutes further away from the villa area.

We travel from Manchester and the Virgin prices here are extortion compared to the ones from Gatwick so I definately favour the US carriers either US Air via Philly or AA via Chicago not so keen on Delta.

Mr Ektion

[NadimAshiq]

Thanks for all the tips so far

I agree that BA is probably a good flight, but have generally excluded BA on a cost basis, and also because I live in Leeds and prefer to fly out of Manchester than Heathrow/Gatwick
I will however look at the Tampa option

The US Airways flight I had seen had two options, the first was to make two changes for a quicker flight or just make one change but then we had a big delay between connecting flights
I must say that i am a bit concerned about missing connecting flights, has anyone ever experienced this??

Cowboy what is wrong with changing flights at Philadelphia? have you experienced big problems?

Anyway thanks for all the tips so far, i will do a bit more digging around and let you all know what i find out

[kay9jess]

dear nadim have you tried british midland,we tried all the carriers for oct this year and bm was the cheapest,the flight is via washington.i agree virgin is superb, but from manchester covering the school holidays they are expensive.bm offer the same leg room and they have a superb reputation for there qaulity of service

[kay9jess]

nadim just checked www,ebookers.co.uk they give bm at £260 plus airport tax for mid nov this year,from m/c via washinton to tampa check it out..

[tinkerbell]

Hi! I have flown Virgin for eight trips to Florida now, and until my last 2 flights I was always singing their praises. However, I have just returned from a xmas trip with them, and again, the outward flight was atrocious. The plane was absolutely filthy, and the staff were totally offhand throughout the flight.

The benefit of flying with an american carrier is that you tend to get a larger seat pitch which can make all the difference to some fliers. I think ou get 34" instead of 32" but don't quote me!

With regards to the connecting flights, I have to say that I had the flukiest connection in LAX (Los Angeles) 18 months ago when I flew from Australia to Florida and back! I arrived from New Zealand (yes, this ws the longest flight ever! I flew from Melbourne via Auckland via LAX to Orlando!!) with only 40 minutes to get from one side of LAX to the other, as well as getting through immigration, customs and all the OTT security!! I don't know if anyone has ever been to LAX, but if you havn't, it's the largest airport in the world, so it's a good 30 minute walk at the best of times! Anyway, I was beginning to panic as I stood in line for immigration, so I grabbed a security guard (not literally of course! I value my freedom!), explained my predicament, and he kindly ushered me to the front of the line where I had to keep my head down as I could feel the laser beams from the angry people bearing into me! I rushed through immigration and made the long dash to baggage reclaim. My bags were of course last off, and by this time the line for customs and security checks were rediculously long! Again, I tried the fluttering eyelashes approach with security, but no such luck this time! I had to wait in line, and I must have been walking miles in my little patch as I was so anxious, I was pacing in circles around my luggage!

I made it through without being searched thank goodness, and once all the cafuffle was over, I literally ran to the gate where I was the last passenger on board! They actually closed the door before I reached my seat, and they ahd apparently been calling me for ages! Oops! Aussie travel agents, it's all their fault!

Generally speaking (after that long story!), british agents will allow transfer times long enough for you not to panic!

Don't worry about booking far in advance, the flights we just had this xmas, we booked 18 months ahead!

[Nostromo]

We use Virgin whenever possible, certainly for Orlando. They are good, efficient and courteous, which is what most of us after. The food on board is nothing special, but that is a small price to pay for an otherwise excellent package. Virgin are especially good with the kids, and if you are going as a large family group, I thoroughly recommend them.

We have had a lot of problems with BA both at Heathrow & Gatwick, particularly the latter for the American trips. The staff are often indifferent and have a 'don't care' air about them. The BA check-ins at Gatwick seem to be the worst. My wife's diabetic cousin, who travels very extensively between US and UK, has sworn never to fly BA again after a particularly humiliating experience which, for the sake of her privacy, I cannot discuss here in detail.

I have not used US Airways, but I have heard that they're good.

[PeteF]

We flew with US Airways to Tampa (via Philadelphia) in November. Flight was fine, plenty of legroom and very good entertainment system. However, Philly Airport was a nightmare for getting through immigration etc. All the flights from Europe arrive at the same time and hence very long lines. Although we made the connecting flight with about 20 minutes to spare we had dropped the luggage back off on a mountain of suitcases and in the vain hope we might see it again at Tampa. The lost luggage staff at Tampa admitted that the airline had made the conscious decision to hold back the bags from all European connecting flights into Tampa so they could deal with the backlog. It might have been nice if they'd announced that on the flight as everyone wasted time watching an ever emptying carousel. So no luggage until the next morning, not so much of a problem but we could have done without the phone call from the driver at 3am to ask for directions to the villa!!

[wilfy]

We've been using Delta for about 3 years now, via Atlanta + Cincinatti, mainly on price and we always fly from Gatwick (free parking ). We had a one off with BA last year, thanx to business airmiles, and we will stick with US carriers thanx as the BA staff were so miserable.

[jeffc]

hi flew with BM from manchester you have to change but if you time it right you only have 2 hours to kill both ways.. so the times are not to bad..

best flight for me is direct so that only leaves virgin from manchester unless you go charter...

had nice times with AA from london lots of leg room etc..

best of luck getting bargains...