Washington then Orlando flights

[Louiseanne]

We’ve booked Disney for July 22 but thinking of going to Washington for 3/4 nights first then onto Orlando. In terms of flights would you book return flights LON / MCO and then internal flights MCO / Washington or use multi flight option ? Or does it all just depend on price?

[Guest]

I would look at ba customise my trip. And price up uk- wash plus hotel and mco-uk return flight. Hotel deductions are good. Plus then get package (esp if you want car for a day or more in Orlando.

Then see how much more it is to add the internal flights on. And check out the likes of jet blue and southwestern or delta connect for washinton to Orlando flights. See which way is cheaper. We normally book internal separately if doing multi centre.

Do return flight indirect too for bigger savings. Enjoy.

[Jasonharry]

I’d look at booking the internal with south west, we flew that route very cheaply and all luggage is included

[Softy]

Definitely book an open jaw (into Washington and out of Orlando), it’ll Probably be cheaper than an Orlando return as Washington is always cheapest. Price it up with and without the internal one way flight with the “customise your booking.” Internal flights are very cheap over there.

[loldis]

As above, do a multi-city flight. Price both open jaw (inbound to Washington, return from Orlando) and also adding in the Washington to Orlando domestic leg.

You can then price the domestic leg separately to see if it's better to do that on a separate ticket but note that it's too far out to typically get the best domestic prices.

[cornishfrogboy]

As above, price up the two options. I think that in probability a Multi City booking of London- Washington and then Florida-Home as one ticket.. and then a separate booking of Washington- Orlando may well work out as best value. Simple research on Google flights is required.
I have looked at June as July is not yet fully released.

London Washington Dulles and Orlando to London comes in at around £560 with direct flights.
A further flight, R Reagan to Orlando direct is around £63 direct with Jet Blue.
If you purchased them all on one ticket, you are up to £770 and with some flights now indirect… not a great deal at all.

July is available for the longhauls on BA own site as they release at 355 days. You would appear, if flying on Wednesdays to be looking at around £50 more than the prices on Google flights for June, but of course, the other airlines (330 days) have not entered the market.
I would be patient and wait until sub 330 days from your projected return flight and then start your Google research.

It is well worth knowing that whilst Dulles Int is 30 miles outside of Washington DC, Ronald Reagan Int is just across the Potomac and behind the Lincoln Memorial, thus extremely convenient when flying on to Orlando.
There are a number of Hotels right next to Reagan in Crystal City that are arguably better value than across the river as well as only being a $7-10 taxi fare past the Arlington and Pentagon to the bottom of the Mall.

We stayed at the Doubletree by Hilton at Crystal City, well recommended as it is 11 floors high with a rotating restaurant on top that offers fantastic views, particularly at night and all the way up the Mall to the Capitol Building. Worth the booking on its own!
Location, location, location and all that.

When working out your route, are you aware of the Hazy Centre at Dulles International? It is an extension to Smithsonian Airspace on the Mall, is huge and has some brilliant exhibits, such as a Space Shuttle and ‘Enola Gay’ the Hiroshima Nuclear Bomber, a Concorde etc. Admission to this (like all other Smithsonian Museums) is free. It would really be a pity to miss it if staging through Dulles.

[Mary A]

We were due to fly this route May 20 - obviously COVID stopped that holiday!

We booked lhr- dulles and mco-man with virgin, reward seats. We then booked an internal flight with AA from Reagan to key West, cost around £150 each.

We had booked an Airbnb in Washington

[sky13]

United uses Washington-Dulles as a hub, so you may be able to get some good prices booking multi-city with United for UK-Washington then Washington-Orlando then Orlando-(transit airport)-UK or similar. I've not personally done this route but did a similar route with United (flew into San Francisco, then domestic flight SF to LAX, then flew out from LAX) and it worked out really well for us price wise and we also had luggage etc all included on the domestic flights.

Definitely do a few price comparisons, and importantly include things like luggage into the price comparison.

The usual caution of booking separate flights applies - if you have to transit somewhere and the two flights are on two separate tickets, leave as much time between the two flights as you can (preferably overnight if possible) in case of delays/etc. If your two flights are on the same ticket this is less of an issue usually. (If delays happen to first flight to make you miss your second flight the airline will sort out an alternative route to get you to destination if both flights are on the same ticket)

[snowbelle]

Everything that CFB said up thread is roughly our trips in the past, we booked Virgin into Washington and back out of MCO but booked the internal flight with Jet blue through Reagan which is a great little airport.
I have been into Dulles a few times and sometimes the traffic to downtown takes absolutely ages so would definitely look at going down to Florida via Reagan.
We love Washington there is so much to see.

[Goldia]

BA have a customise your trip option where you can have multiple flights and hotels so it's useful for a split stay. I would look at this and have a play for DC. It's a great walkable city, we went there in October 2019. Also, all the Smithsonian museums are free ETA CFB already mentioned this

In 2017 we used BA customise your trip to fly into NYC. We had 4 nights in Times Square then onto MCO and 10 nights on I Drive, returning home from MCO indirect flight via Miami. So 3 flights and 2 hotels. It was a great holiday and only cost £2800 for the 4 of us.

I agree with others that booking up DIY all the elements separately can often be the cheapest option, but sometimes you can stumble across a bargain. The trip i outlined above had been hovering around £5,500 so when I saw it so cheap I leapt at it!

Whatever you decide I hope you have a fantastic time.