Your best indirect flight tips, please!

[Shani]

We've always previously flown direct (with either Virgin or Thomas Cook) but as we're covering October half term next year, I need to keep the prices to a minimum and looking at sub £500 per person (5 of us) so unless a miracle happens, it's got to be indirect.

I've been tracking prices for this October, so know a little about the airlines and routes etc but the sheer amount of choice is mind boggling.

We have to depart from Manchester, and end up in Orlando international for the MDE.

I'd ideally prefer to land at MCO before 8pm, but I know the cheaper flights are those that land 11pm or so. I'd like to avoid those, as arriving at our hotel in the early hours of the morning isn't a nice prospect!

Anyone offer any pearls of wisdom?

I know my 11 month window isn't open yet, but I'll get kayak and skyscanner alerts set up as soon as I can. Any other websites I should be checking regularly?

Any help appreciated, I really don't want to screw this up!

[tspill]

To reduce risk of a missed connection - we aim for 4 hours. Missing a connection can pe a real pain and ruin your holiday.

[RM2016]

I think the best routes are uk to an east coast USA airport before heading down to Orlando. Not only do you clear immigration which saves the long wait in Orlando but if you are delayed coming from the UK there is plenty other flights to get you down to Orlando if your connection is missed.

[mrs_dlw]

We used Omega flight store and got 4 indirect flight from Heathrow, via Frankfurt to MCO. Landed at around 5.30 pm with Lufthansa. Flights cost £1600 for 4 of us (2 ad / 2 ch) - we flew out on Tuesday just gone...! Connection time was 1.5 hrs which was making me panic, especially as our flight from Heathrow was delayed by 30 mins, but it could not have been easier and we had plenty of time to spare.

[sammykitten]

Originally Posted by tspill

To reduce risk of a missed connection - we aim for 4 hours. Missing a connection can pe a real pain and ruin your holiday.

See more...

this would be my top tip for an indirect flight too.

[TinkerBabe]

A good place to connect is Atlanta because they have such frequent flights to Orlando. We flew with Virgin to Tampa with a connection at Atlanta, and it went seamlessly with a 90 min layover. I had been stressing that this wouldn't be enough time, but was reassured that Virgin/Delta depart hourly from Atlanta so I figured if we missed the connection, we had a reasonable chance of getting on a subsequent flight without too much delay. Flying to Tampa was great as our August flights were approx £600 each, considerably less than direct to MCO. Even though you have a slightly longer drive to Orlando (think it was about an hour or just over) this is easily gained back by the fact that Tampa is a smaller airport, much quicker through immigration and for collecting the car.

[loopyloo33]

Dont discount flying via Dublin if the price is right as you can clear immigration and customs there and land as a domestic passenger in MCO.

If you are hiring a car and prepared to do a bit of driving landing into another Florida airport can lead to significant savings i.e. Tampa, Daytona Beach or even Miami

[Shani]

Thank you all, really appreciate you taking the time to reply!

So, the main points so far would seem to be:

* 4 hour connection time ideally
* East coast airport
* Atlanta is the main Delta hub so a good connection airport (what other main hubs are there? Philly for BA?)
* Dublin as a first stop and doing immigration there (** I'll expand on that in a mo!)

We need to fly into MCO as we won't be hiring a car. Using mostly Disney transportation and the odd Uber - hubby really doesn't want to drive and there's no way I'm driving on the wrong side of the road! lol


Re: Dublin - we could literally walk from our house to the ferry port over to Dublin in about 2 minutes, so I guess we could consider flying from Dublin - if that works out any cheaper? We'd be getting an overnight hotel in Manchester anyway, so the ferry over to Dublin or getting to Manchester airport is much of a muchness (other than of course, possible storms and ferries being cancelled at the end of October! )

Lots to think about!

[MinniMouse]

We've done indirect a few times and my top tips are:

USA connection because... You clear immigration at your first airport meaning, when you get off the plane in Orlando you skip immigration and head for your cases and the biggest draw for me would the return flights. You have a short flight 1st, ie MCO to Newark or wherever then the long over night flight to the UK airport closest to your home. If you do it the other way ie Glasgow to London then onto MCO the stop in London on the way back is a killer (sleep/jet lag wise)

[DisneyWannabe]

My advise would be don't worry too much, but have a plan just in case. We connected in Philly this year with a 2hr layover, it was a very tight connection but we made it, had we been able to use the kiosks (had dd friends who had never visited with us) I think it would have been much faster.

My advise wouldn't be so much a connection time, but ensuring that there are more flights leaving after the one you are booked on as the airline has to get you to your final destination as long as you are on a through ticket.