July 2018 flights for family of 5 @ £1,800 - but is it worth it when you add it all up...

[duchy]

I wouldn't worry about what others think. Everyone is different . For some anything other than direct is unthinkable and they'd rather not go at all than deal with a longer journey. Others view the savings as worth the extra time.
There are other options , like starting your ticket in Dublin and adding a cheap flight the night before witha hotel . This also works with starting at Stockholm and Gothenburg (although hotels there are dearer) . You can regard that stop as a nusience oras a part of the holiday adding a day visiting another destination.
It's well documented that there are people who deliberately choose to avoid flying direct to Orlando as the UK carriers offer a lesser standard of service compared to their other routes that are more business traveller and less family holidaymaker .

You've had lots of pros and cons but ultimately if that flying direct will impact on what you can afford to spend on the holiday itself in terms of accomadation or activities then a longer journey may impact less than (say) smaller or less well located accomadation or fewer park days.

There is no "right" answer, just what is right for you and your family.

[Guest]

These flights look a really good price to me
Saves having to get to Manchester and the nasty M62
You may get a better price around Boxing Day
We have frequently paid around £1000 each in August
But we are doing LBD -MIA At Easter this year can't wait to fly from a local airport!
Let us know what you decide?

[macadoo]

I would do it, the worst that's going to happen is you never want to do 3 flights again. If it gets me to the holiday I want at a price i can afford then I'd do it.

We could save up for direct flights or perfect time one stop indirect flights but then we wouldn't have gone back as often as we have.

The flights are a tiny part of the holiday. We had a long winded 3 train journey home this year after 1 flight, it was a tiring travel day but it didn't ruin our holiday and the flights were cheap so who cares.

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by popdriver

You know that's a fab shout to say to the kids choose either Disney or universal

I looked at Cape Coral the villas look nice and it seems to have a central hub of restaurants

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Cape coral is fine (I stayed in a lovely canal side villa there), but Naples/ Bonita area better. Cape Coral has no natural beach, instead an inlet with a man made beach on it. Not as many restaurants either.
Look at Lely resort in Naples. Get a villa with Players Club access. That's my advice, from someone who has stayed all over SW Florida maybe 25+ times.

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by JDD

These flights look a really good price to me
Saves having to get to Manchester and the nasty M62
You may get a better price around Boxing Day
We have frequently paid around £1000 each in August
But we are doing LBD -MIA At Easter this year can't wait to fly from a local airport!
Let us know what you decide?

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Don't get too excited Leeds Bradford is a crappy airport. Rip off parking to pull up outside, poor selection of shops and restaurants, difficult to get to in busy periods. Having said that I've flown from there maybe 6 times this year. Best one was when getting off a Dublin flight, everyone was ushered into a room, then the doors closed. No one came to let us out for 20 mins.
Last year was on one back from Southampton, winds were so bad (little plane) it aborted it's landing as it was coming down. The plane was bouncing around like it was on elastic, never experienced anything like it.
Another bad thing about it, highest in UK so gets hammered by bad weather in winter.
I hope I don't regret my flight out to Tenerife in Feb, but was a victim of the Monarch collapse (2 flights, Portugal in June also) so booked Ryanair replacements sharpish when it went under.

[Kat11]

Leeds Bradford is my airport of choice when traveling around Europe. I would pick it over many others, I find the parking reasonable at usually £30-35 per week. Agree the shopping isn't ideal but I don't go to an airport to shop. Each to their own.

Kat

[skelfbsfb]

I managed to get July flights from Glas -mco flying with BA and AA for£450pp with 1 stop over.

Don't think I would do 3 stop over again as it was exhauting when we did it a few years ago but if the price is right then go for it.

[BrightlyBob]

With young kids I’d be loathe to fly indirect. With teenagers a connection isn’t so bad. As a couple I’m happy to connect several times if it’s cheap and the long leg is PE or Biz...

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by sotagals

I don't have a problem with 3 leg return flights but I don't like the look of the timings on this one.

One hour 20 is ok in theory but if you have any delay you will be in trouble. If the inbound fight to LHR is on AA you will need to transfer from T3 to T5 which involves a shuttle bus and this can easily take up to 3 hours. It took us almost that just to transfer within T5.

See whether there are any other options with better timings.

My kids know that they only get one set of tickets per visit. Last time we only did Universal and next year we will do Disney.

We are flying into Miami but having a week at the seaside on the Gulf coast before driving up to Orlando. A nice villa with a pool or a condo on the beach is great for relaxing and getting over the jet lag.

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I landed at T3 in October and was through security in T5 within 40 mins of getting off the plane..


On the outbound journey.. the flight from Glasgow was late getting to Heathrow T3.. but everyone on the connecting flight to Charlotte was rushed to the front of the bus queue so we got to T5 quickly...

Can't imagine why it would ever take 3 hrs to get between the terminals.

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by popdriver

For all those who say they don't like the flights, this is reality...

Indirect for my family is man-Orlando £1,800 (not great flights)
Direct man - Orlando is £5,051
London - Orlando direct is £4,207
London - Miami direct £3,446

So the way I see it, outbound the flight is fine as I still have to get to London from Leeds - long drive

Inbound, just on extra stop and fly back into Manchester and face a short drive home

Is three flights on the way home really that bad?

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Well I didn't do 3 flights to save £1500 but i did this..

Drove 6 hrs to Glasgow stopped the night there and then . flew Glasgow-london-Charlotte .. and the reverse on the way home and then we drove the 6 hrs back to Lincolnshire so total travelling time was about 20 hrs from getting on the plane to walking in my door.


Was it nuts? Yes probably but it saved me £1500...
At the end of the day it was supposed to be a cheap trip to see friends and sort some stuff for our son so we did what we did.


Would I do it again... Yes if it means next summer we get to save a similar amount of money.