Flights to MCO.

owenc

Ok, so I am planning to go with my family to Florida this summer for about 4 or 5 weeks.

We are going to leave on the 24th June. Trying to get flights, we want to spend under £2,000. Preferably about £1,800.

We can't book any flights yet because we don't have our passports yet, we sent them through check and send so they haven't arrived but I think they might arrive this week.

But anyway, we decided as a compromise that we would fly from Dublin airport because we can simply not afford and will not pay the disgusting atrocious pathetic prices that they seem to think that people will pay flying from Belfast. :mad:
£3,000? I don't think so!

I want to fly on United because of their excellent connectivity and service and seatback Tv's - but that is not essential. I have been pricing flights and right now the lowest one stop price is £1,900 which is fine. But is there any way to get the price lower?

I have tried Aer Lingus but they are absolutely ridiculous and I don't know who the hell they are charging £3,500 for four people to fly to Florida. :eek: (and you can say its direct bla bla but you can fly to Atlanta for like £1,800 so that doesn't make sense).

Also would you book with sites such as Skyscanner? They have the cheapest flights but I am very vary about that and I would love to be able to select my seats to sit beside my family.

RonnieRocket

Don't be weary of booking flights with Skyscanner. It's just a search engine and when you click on a flight, it will bring you to the airline's own website to complete the booking or else a travel agent's website. You will also have the opportunity to choose your seats.

I'll give the cost per person here so you can multiply that by 4. The prices will also be in euro so you can do your own sterling conversion. Note that you are booking in the peak season so prices will of course be at their most expensive unfortunately.

The cheapest I've found for leaving 24th June and returning 22 July is €468 with City Jet/Delta which are great airlines, but it involves a change of airport from LCY-LHR to make a connection which is ridiculous so let's rule that out straight away.
Next up is British airways DUB-LGW-MCO for €695, a big jump in prices.
You also have United DUB-ORD-MCO for €708, a little more.

You'll get the seat back TV screens on every airline flying trans-Atlantic except US Airways. I think personal entertainment should be provided on every single trans-Atlantic flight but you'd have people on here who would disagree with me believe it or not. Nothing worse than straining your neck to watch the old CRT monitor hanging in the aisle when you've no choice in what you watch imo. Avoid Aer Lingus. As you say, they are a shameless rip-off. I also stay-away from them for political reasons as their unions often shut down Ireland's airports when they want more money. Constant fear of strike action could disrupt your travel plans.

MadsL

RonnieRocket wrote: »

You'll get the seat back TV screens on every airline flying trans-Atlantic except US Airways.

If you book a route with US that has a A330 scheduled on it, you will get seat back entertainment.

My last trip back we had 71 passengers, yep 71. I had a nice kip on a empty quad seat row. Lie flat in economy , only the second time I have experienced this.

RonnieRocket

Yeah I've noticed very light loads on some of the red eye flights from the US to Ireland over the past few months. I've never counted the passengers but I'd guestimate that my last flight from JFK-DUB was about 55% full. Lots of people had an empty row to lie down on and get some kip. I'm not sure if this is a recent development or if it's always been like this. I don't know how the airlines are making money.

MadsL

RonnieRocket wrote: »

Yeah I've noticed very light loads on some of the red eye flights from the US to Ireland over the past few months. I've never counted the passengers but I'd guestimate that my last flight from JFK-DUB was about 55% full. Lots of people had an empty row to lie down on and get some kip. I'm not sure if this is a recent development or if it's always been like this. I don't know how the airlines are making money.

They say Jan-Feb is always this quiet. Good time to travel really.

spideog7

RonnieRocket wrote: »

You'll get the seat back TV screens on every airline flying trans-Atlantic except US Airways. I think personal entertainment should be provided on every single trans-Atlantic flight but you'd have people on here who would disagree with me believe it or not.

Yea I flew Delta religiously until I was on their Dublin to Atlanta flight with no personal TV. Last time I flew Aer Lingus/United, lesson learned I'll be back to Delta next time I need to fly home. Aer Lingus were grand but their code share system is pathetic there's basically no link between the airlines apart from the original booking, but of a shambles. I couldn't choose my seats on either website and I didn't get my United miles for the Aer Lingus segment. My United flight got cancelled (no fault of the airline, bad weather) and Aer Lingus didn't even know it, they couldn't figure out why my booking wasn't printing both tickets in Dublin, there was a few other small things too.

Wouldn't fly code share with them again, they'd probably be grand on their own though. I've flown other code shares and it has been seamless, as if it was all the same airline.

owenc

RonnieRocket wrote: »

Don't be weary of booking flights with Skyscanner. It's just a search engine and when you click on a flight, it will bring you to the airline's own website to complete the booking or else a travel agent's website. You will also have the opportunity to choose your seats.

I'll give the cost per person here so you can multiply that by 4. The prices will also be in euro so you can do your own sterling conversion. Note that you are booking in the peak season so prices will of course be at their most expensive unfortunately.

The cheapest I've found for leaving 24th June and returning 22 July is €468 with City Jet/Delta which are great airlines, but it involves a change of airport from LCY-LHR to make a connection which is ridiculous so let's rule that out straight away.
Next up is British airways DUB-LGW-MCO for €695, a big jump in prices.
You also have United DUB-ORD-MCO for €708, a little more.

You'll get the seat back TV screens on every airline flying trans-Atlantic except US Airways. I think personal entertainment should be provided on every single trans-Atlantic flight but you'd have people on here who would disagree with me believe it or not. Nothing worse than straining your neck to watch the old CRT monitor hanging in the aisle when you've no choice in what you watch imo. Avoid Aer Lingus. As you say, they are a shameless rip-off. I also stay-away from them for political reasons as their unions often shut down Ireland's airports when they want more money. Constant fear of strike action could disrupt your travel plans.

Ok. Passports haven't arrived and it will be next week so it looks like we will have to pay more.

Thanks anyway!

spideog7

owenc wrote: »

Ok. Passports haven't arrived and it will be next week so it looks like we will have to pay more.

Thanks anyway!

Do you really need your passport to book flights? Can't you enter that information later?

owenc

I'm not really sure. I tried to book it and it said passport id on the united airlines site

owenc

I tried to book it and let me.

But we didn't proceed we just tested. Not really sure about the dob because it kept giving us error messages. We are scared to book it incase we can't add our passports when they come.

But at the same time the flights are skyrocketing.

I was really surpised the seats were all booked up!

spideog7

owenc wrote: »

I tried to book it and let me.

But we didn't proceed we just tested. Not really sure about the dob because it kept giving us error messages. We are scared to book it incase we can't add our passports when they come.

But at the same time the flights are skyrocketing.

I was really surpised the seats were all booked up!

The boxes should say mm for month and dd for day but just so you know the date is the other way around in the US month/day/year

owenc

Do you think we'd be able to add in our details after we get the passport?

If anyone else has done anything similar it would be good for advice.

Thanks

spideog7

owenc wrote: »

Do you think we'd be able to add in our details after we get the passport?

If anyone else has done anything similar it would be good for advice.

Thanks

I just went on to the site there and you can book without the passport number. As long as you know the name and date of birth that matches your passport you'd be grand I'd say.

They also have some sort of fare lock where you can lock in your price for $7, that might be only in the US though.

owenc

Aye but i'm wondering can you add in the details after you get the passport? I don't want any issues.