Who to fly with for 2020... we both hate flying

[Softy]

Wait until virgin release their flights (11 months from the return) and then keep an eye on the prices. You should aim for around £2k each return in upper. Book the universal hotel separately. A lot of sites will just be releasing your dates now so don’t worry if you don’t see availability. I’ve booked hard rock for the end of August with travel republic, only paid a small deposit.

[JediMuM]

I know where you are coming from Hun ... my mum and dad are coming with us next year and she is terrified of flying .. it's taken 16 years to get her to agree to go on the plane, her stipulation is though that we fly Virgin as all she has to go on is what I've told her and we always fly Virgin ... I don't mind 5hough I'm just so chuffed she is coming 😉

[lov2dibb]

Originally Posted by porridge

Why are you only looking at tui or Thomas cook? Why not Ba, American, united, Swiss, Air France, delta, Klm, Icelandair etc etc. As long as the plane is safe and reliable, then consider everything. My personal favourites are American and Delta.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but of those airlines only BA fly direct from the UK to Orlando.

Why would you recommend indirect flights for someone who hates flying? I would have thought they'd want to do as little flying as possible.

I've never tried TUI as I don't want to go to Sanford, or TC as I've heard of too many equipment changes and downgrades so can't help there but
I happily fly BA most of the time.
If you don't want them I'd stick with Virgin and try hold out for a better price.

[Jillzo]

I wouldn't fly TC economy but their PE is fab! We are flying with them this year as we got an amazing deal on PE! I always have a wee worry though incase they change planes at the last minute and there's no PE! I think there was quite a few reports of that happening last year, with changes of fleet etc!

[duchy]

Originally Posted by JediMuM

I know where you are coming from Hun ... my mum and dad are coming with us next year and she is terrified of flying .. it's taken 16 years to get her to agree to go on the plane, her stipulation is though that we fly Virgin as all she has to go on is what I've told her and we always fly Virgin ... I don't mind 5hough I'm just so chuffed she is coming 😉

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Which is fine until she meets someone like me who rates Virgin as some of the poorest inflight service around (I've had two absolutely diabolical flights with them and several other very average) Don't let her read any review sites or talk to anyone from now til the holiday
Seriously , they are all much of a muchness so severely restricting yourself by carrier when price is a real issue (and peak dates too) is going to be costly.
With those dates I'd be looking at Norwegian premium , good prices and brand new planes The Dreamliner is wonderful especially compared with Virgin's nearly twenty year old planes which are tired by comparison.

[Clairelly]

I’m an anxious flyer. We flew TC PE last year after years of avoiding flying because of my fears (we stuck to cruising out of Southampton).

I found TC absolutely fine. I can only compare them to TUI PE, which we prefer only because we prefer to land at Sanford.

I would ditto booking a fear of flying course. I believe EasyJet do a really good one.

[Rac20]

Originally Posted by Jillzo

I wouldn't fly TC economy but their PE is fab! We are flying with them this year as we got an amazing deal on PE! I always have a wee worry though incase they change planes at the last minute and there's no PE! I think there was quite a few reports of that happening last year, with changes of fleet etc!

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Why wouldn’t you fly TC economy? Is it that you won’t fly economy with any airline or is it specific to TC? Just curious. ☺️

[Jillzo]

Originally Posted by Rac20

Why wouldn’t you fly TC economy? Is it that you won’t fly economy with any airline or is it specific to TC? Just curious. ☺️

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Just TC had 2 really bad economy experiences with them, just my personal preference though! However the travel agent in our local TC persuaded us to try TC PE instead, and they gave us a fab deal!
Flew Virgin economy and found it to be great, in fact flying Virgin economy next year!

[Trusty ian]

If only we could afford p.e or u.c! Only time managed to fly p.e was due to a holiday booking error on virgins holidays part. Hadn't booked our flights or charged us for flights . so all that was left was p.e. nice esp as they were completely free.

[amy56]

I am a nervous flyer and for years I would only ever fly virgin or BA - looking back now I actually don’t even remember why, other than I think I ‘trusted’ their brands.

However, we then flew to Barcelona with easyJet (we were able to fly locally, which for us in Devon was a first, and I thought I’d ‘risk’ it for a short flight!) - well it was the smoothest flight I’d ever been on and I would even go so far to say I actually almost enjoyed it! So it opened my eyes to try other airlines to America.

I can now say that Norwegian is by far the best transatlantic flight we’ve had & we also enjoyed our Delta flights. TBH both were far superior to any virgin flight we’ve taken in the last 5/6 years and I’d actually choose the likes of Norwegian over them any day of the week now.

I think Virgin have got lazy and are relying on their brand name. Yes, at the beginning they were great, but now their cabins look tired, and often there is something wrong with their entertainment systems - whereas other airlines have stepped up their game, VA have let things slide imho.