BA announce additional flights to Orlando

[Macka]

I honestly don't get what's so special about BA but they certainly have their loyal customers. I can't see why anybody outside the SE of England would go through the hassle of getting to and from Gatwick to fly with them when they have alternative services from local airports connecting within the US.

We always fly BA if we can, we've flown with quite a few of the others (Delta, AA, Continental etc) and I can honestly say BA are best for a number of reasons. We also collect Avios points which gives a nice bonus every few years. The only down side is the southern location.

[steph_goodrum]

I'm not sure about a 'lot' or 'several a day'. There is a daily service with an extra flight on 3 days of the week (which bizarrely only returns to Manchester on 2 days of the week according to this link). I also think the main point is Virgin could do with some decent competition on the Manchester route to perhaps make their fares a bit more palatable.

I haven't looked since I booked our flights a few weeks ago John but there were 2 direct flights from London to MCO and 2/3 which went via Manchester (they also had some going LGW to Manchester which were operated by Aer Lingus and then Transatlantic with Virgin) I thought it strange they were showing 4/5 flight from London. I guess it is one way of consolodating passengers/flights but if I were going indirect I'd rather connect in Dublin or over the pond so immigration was already cleared when landing in mco

[Katys Grandad]

We always fly BA if we can, we've flown with quite a few of the others (Delta, AA, Continental etc) and I can honestly say BA are best for a number of reasons. We also collect Avios points which gives a nice bonus every few years. The only down side is the southern location.

I agree that there's nothing actually wrong with BA and we will all have our preferences but I just feel that the almost total focus on London airports is a big disincentive for those of us based away from SE England and their product isn't any different that it makes connecting through London every time worthwhile. I do use them though (I'm actually a Gold Card holder) mainly because they fly to places others don't but I think their Avios scheme is dreadful if you want to redeem for allegedly "free" flights. Paying around £365 in charges for each Economy award to the US doesn't feel anything like free to me!

[Lyn]

I agree that there's nothing actually wrong with BA and we will all have our preferences but I just feel that the almost total focus on London airports is a big disincentive for those of us based away from SE England and their product isn't any different that it makes connecting through London every time worthwhile. I do use them though (I'm actually a Gold Card holder) mainly because they fly to places others don't but I think their Avios scheme is dreadful if you want to redeem for allegedly "free" flights. Paying around £365 in charges for each Economy award to the US doesn't feel anything like free to me!

I couldn't agree more we fly out on Monday and our 2 free flights cost us £658.22. It was better when we collected Airmiles although you probably needed more miles you could pay for the whole flight including taxes with them.

[Katys Grandad]

I couldn't agree more we fly out on Monday and our 2 free flights cost us £658.22. It was better when we collected Airmiles although you probably needed more miles you could pay for the whole flight including taxes with them.

Annoying isn't it Lyn? I take it that your trip starts at Gatwick because if you added a connecting flight from a UK regional airport the charges would actually be £733 and if the only regional flight available went into Heathrow you would have to add to the cost of getting to and from the 2 airports in both directions. That's my point about Avios and BA in general.

Hope you have a good flight on Monday.

[Macka]

Annoying isn't it Lyn? I take it that your trip starts at Gatwick because if you added a connecting flight from a UK regional airport the charges would actually be £733 and if the only regional flight available went into Heathrow you would have to add to the cost of getting to and from the 2 airports in both directions. That's my point about Avios and BA in general.

Hope you have a good flight on Monday.

Yep, Avios is pretty pointless when it comes to free flights, no question about that. Rather than try for a free flight, it's much better value to use points to upgrade, were going club this time for the cost of WTP plus 50,000 Avios points, so you can do that every third flight.

[Katys Grandad]

Yep, Avios is pretty pointless when it comes to free flights, no question about that. Rather than try for a free flight, it's much better value to use points to upgrade, were going club this time for the cost of WTP plus 50,000 Avios points, so you can do that every third flight.

Completely agree. Upgrading from WTP to Club is possibly the best value you can get from Avios (along with the Reward Flight Savers on short haul routes where the regional connecting flight is genuinely free). I'd advise against using Avios to upgrade from Economy to WTP because only the higher fares are upgradeable and they're often the same/more than the WTP fare.

Off topic a little here but it's not that widely known that you can use Avios on AA domestic routes within the US and they're pretty decent value. If anybody has a few in their account that they can't use for a longer flight, it's worth having a look.

[Macka]

Good info, Thanks. I was thinking about doing a 2 day trip from Tampa to DC this time around, I'll take a look at that.

[Katys Grandad]

Good info, Thanks. I was thinking about doing a 2 day trip from Tampa to DC this time around, I'll take a look at that.

Try to get direct flights if they exist. Making a connection costs a lot more Avios and, to be honest, aren't good value.

[Macka]

Hmmm, might struggle there, can't see direct flights, most go via Miami. maybe... early days though, thanks.