where r best flight prices ???

[marbles]

Hi,

Our next trip to Orlando will be our 1st DIY holiday. Although we are not going until Sept 05 I cant help but worry about flight prices. I have been looking at prices for the same two weeks this year and we are being quoted between £380 and £600 from Manchester to Orlando Sanford.
If anyone knows of where to find the best prices for flights from Manchester to Orlando for 4 adults and 3 kids (I have been told I may be better booking 2 adults + 2 kids & 2 adults + 1 kid as two seperate bookings ......)

Any help would much appreciated ............

JP

[royksuk]

I started out planning to do my Christmas '04 trip as a DIY last January. When looking at flights I found the airlines don't release tickets until 11 months before you fly and they can then go quite quickly. There are lots of sites which give you quotes (try starting with kelkoo or google) but in the end I spoke to an agent called Karen (www.instant-travelshop.co.uk). She advised going for a Virgin fly drive deal (don't need to include accomodation in this). I looked further but in the end went for that as the whole deal wasn't much more than the cheapest I could get flights and included car hire, insurance etc. I also ended up getting a villa through her (but not Virgin). I still booked attraction tickets elsewhere (ATD are good but Uncharted Florida also worth a look) and have booked a hotel on the coast direct (was able to pay in dollars so benefited from the recent exchage rates).
Good luck and happy planning

[Florida Villa Specialist]

Hi,

Here are a couple of our suppliers who we use frequently for oursleves and for guests, they are very good, especially with Virgin flights, in fact some of the Charter flights have been more expensive as they mostly dont offer a child discount.

Jennie: Charter Travel: 01635 861918
Kim: Premier Travel: 01634352143
Richard: Personal Travel: 01253590606
Please tell them Joanne Cook told you about them as they offer discounts for our guests!

As for the villas, whilst many major tour operators / travel agents offer villas in Orlando, what they often fail to tell you is that on the whole the villas are 'allocated on arrival' yes you may have a 'community' quoted but not a specific villa - which are provided to tour operators by the LARGE management companys - who have been known to scout other villa providers as they have often been left short of villas - ie too many people - not enough villas, I could tell you of one company which had many guests queuing at their offices as on arrival they had no villa for them. Now this company did eventually go bust, but guess what - set up two weeks later doing the same thing!

Now you may think what has this to do with me - well, its just a word of warning and whilst on the whole lots of people book villas via travel agents/tour operators and dont have a problem, there are some that do.


I firmly believe that by staying in a villa in Florida you will never want to stay in a hotel again as they offer so much. I guess I am biased and yes I am an agent for a selection of villa owners, however our guests get to choose the exact villa they wish to stay in - book it and that is the villa they stay in for their requested dates. You get to deal with the villa owners themselves with full addressess / driving directions is given before travel so you know exactly where you are going. I myself am a villa owner which is where my experience has come from, along with expanding to help raise the awareness of owner bookings and cut out many of the crooks - which is why so many villa owners have asked me to help them achieve their own bookings.

Villas are the best :D :D

Good luck in your flight search

[Unregistered]

flight prices - i have been to florida twice with travel city direct and found them to be very competitive on price either for flights only or a package holiday. www.travelcitydirect.co.uk

[Florida Villa Specialist]

Just to update this thread, whilst touring the web for prices on flights, I came across some great offers - whilst these arnt our normal flight providers we booked anyway as they were just too good to miss:-

www.ebookers.com
Manchester - Orlando flying with Continental Airlines via NY
£172 + Tax
28 Oct - 14 nights

:D :D

[SLordUK]

I have searched and searched on the net many times for direct flights from Manchester to Sanford Orlando, and the best deals by far are by MyTravel (an Airtours brand). I paid £300 each for travel in Sept and recently saw some deals for £360 each inc hotel in Orlando!

Go to: http://www.mytravel.com

Regards, Steve.

[Unregistered]

Travelcitydirect are by far the cheapest. They were recommended by bbc's 'holiday on a shoestring' as one the cheapest florida operators around.

[Unregistered]

Hi
I am currently looking for flights to Orlando from manchester and the best deal that i have been quoted for august next year (peak) is from Travel City nobody else can beat their offers so give them a go.

[Hampton_Lakes]

Like Joanne i use mainly Kim @ Premier Travel www.premiertravelservices.co.uk and they offer a great service and i really helpful with it, they are a consolodated which means they can get cheap scheduled flights.

I am travelling Sept this year and have found the flight prices very expensive for the time of year.

I helped a guest book flights for 3rd July 05 for 3 weeks from Glasgow to Orlando for £592 per adult and £375 per child and a 7 seater mini van £200 per week.

There are many specials around with the likes of Virgin, US Air from Manchester.

The only problem with TCD is the extras Booking fee, CC Charge and also car insurance is so expensive.

Do your Orlando holiday DIY you will save mega amounts of money than booking it as a package deal, because these tour operators that say FREE Car Hire it aint because when they add on the car insurance its is around £25 per day basic and you can hire a car for that which includes insurance.

Totally agree with Joanne cut out the crooks and middle man and book direct with the owner of the villa and you will save money, and also know what property you are getting and where it is rather than getting to find out at the airport.

[florida fan]

also make sure you pre-book your theme park tickets since they are a major part of the holiday and you can save money by buying before you go.

try www.attractionticketsdirect.com

[Condoman]

I have searched and searched on the net many times for direct flights from Manchester to Sanford Orlando, and the best deals by far are by MyTravel (an Airtours brand). I paid £300 each for travel in Sept and recently saw some deals for £360 each inc hotel in Orlando!

Regards, Steve.

I recently arranged a fly drive for 1 of my guests from Manchester departing 9th Sept for 14 nights £315 each with airtours via a travel agent friend who gives me a little extra dicount! :) :) :)

[Unregistered]

I am going to Orlando at the end of November to include the first 14 days of December and I have booked the family tickts through Icelandair. I am flying from Glasgow but maybe they fly from Manchester. Our flights were £270 per person. The good hing is that Icelandair take you to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland for a swim during your lay over and bring you back in time for your connection.

[Unregistered]

We have been visiting Orlando every year since 1992 and have never paid over £300 for a flight, booked to go a week on Sat (28th August '04) and we paid £260 return from Glasgow, last year we went twice for under £200 (£179 for the first week in July and £189 for 2 weeks in October). with Airtours, been with Travel City but have found over the last couple of years they are ripping you off with car insurance, we only ever take CDW , but they are now insisting on a big deposit if you only want CDW with them, they want you to take LSI as well.
Have used Broadway Travel a couple of times and they have some good deals, if you are prepared to hunt around the internet and teletext you will get a good deal.

[Hampton_Lakes]

I personally pref Scheduled air better service rather than Charter and i have had to many bed experiences with Charter flights.

I would recommend Kim @ Premier Travel she is great and offers an excellent service www.premiertravelservices.co.uk or tel: 01634-352143

Tell her i referred you to her Wesley Kinsella

Regards

Wez

[royksuk]

I noticed the comments below about booking via agents and booking direct and note them, I have booked via a travel agent in the UK so hope I won't fall foul of overbooking! On the other side of this however I initially booked via a work colleague with an agent in Florida called holidayhousemanagement.com (they also use other web sites). It took several weeks just to get an invoice from them by which time I found it was going to cost £300 more than I had been quoted! When I decided to cancel I was then told my £150 deposit would not be returned, fortunately the one I have now booked was at about the original price so I did not lose out too much. Just beware though, you are as likely to be ripped off booking direct as through an agent and at least you have some comeback through the English courts, ABTA etc if you book in the UK!

[unregistered]

Hi,
We are going to Orlando in March for 3 weeks and we have booked everything via the internet, we purchased our flights from cheapestflights.co.uk and they seemed to be the best at the time, try and book at the earliest (appros 11 months in advance).
Hope this helps
Lisa

[Florida Villa Specialist]

the internet is always a great place to scan for flights, I would always recommend trying the internet, we got flights for last October via ebookers.co.uk indirect Manchester to Orlando £172 + tax great deal although the same flight two weeks later went right up again to £350 + tax so sometimes its a matter of watching the sites to see if they do actually drop.

[Unregistered]

Just booked mine would only consider virgin and BEST price was with Charter Travel