#846050 by katie666
17 May 2013, 10:56
My husband & I are considering booking BA business class from Newcastle to Orlando in September. We've never flown with BA before; always VS, but I need an honest opinion of business class from you guys and I've always had good advice on this forum in the past. The UK internal flights are BA from Newcastle to Heathrow so that we don't then have to cross over to Gatwick. The transatlantic flights (both Clubworld)are from Heathrow to JFK outbound - BA0117 and Miami to Heathrow inbound BA0206. The US internal flights are BA4676 JFK to MCO and BA5166 MCO to Miami - both business.
Total fare would be £3299 at the moment.
The equivalent with VS would be £3510 though that would be from Manchester rather than Newcastle.
Has anyone experience of these flights or of Clubworld in general. Thank You for any help.

Katie
#846052 by clarkeysntfc
17 May 2013, 11:07
If it's a direct flight from Manchester - Orlando then I'd gladly pay £100 each more the convenience of not having to change planes twice.

Miami airport is also renowned as being one of the worst in the US for immigration delays.
#846053 by Nikolic
17 May 2013, 11:11
How long is that journey with BA taking? 2 connections with the associated transfer time in between sounds like a lot of hassle compared to the, I presume, direct flights with Virgin.

Also the internal US flights will be on American Airlines.
#846055 by flabound
17 May 2013, 11:21
the inbound with immigration is via JFK, so rule out the MIA bit....................still a real hop skip and a jump.

I do the Florida_UK trip 3-4 times a year and often do it via New york.....its a apin but not major.
just a thought for a real experience...can you fly New-LCY then to JFK , even better fun ?
#846056 by David
17 May 2013, 11:30
After 40 odd direct flights to MCO, we did LHR-MIA-MCO in July last year, followed by LGW-MCO in Feb and now LGW-MCO-EWR-LHR in 10 days time.

The July flight was a pain in that you are wary of MIA and connection times and necessitated an overnight stop in MIA just to "make sure"

The next flight will be interesting as that also includes LHR-EDI but "shouldn't" be too much of a pain.

The biggest issue, apart from the connections is losing a day at the beginning of your hols and a day at the end.

You take the late departure back home from MCO as a given and fully enjoy the last day, but when you realise you have to be at the airport at 10am in the morning to catch a connection before your transatlantic flight home, its only then when you discover you missed out on the last day ;)

Thats when the joys of direct flights become apparent ;)

David
#846057 by gumshoe
17 May 2013, 12:24
As for the merits of BA CW vs VS UC there's a fairly recent thread on here debating that very issue.

Everyone has their favourites but I'd say the general consensus is they balance each other out in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

Sadly if you flew from MAN you'd miss out on VS's biggest strength, its Clubhouses, but both business class products are pretty good.

As others have said though, for the sake of a couple of hundred quid I'd go for a direct flight every time. 2 connecting flights will be a pain, particularly in the US where you have to pick up your bags, clear customs then re-check them - possibly after a schlep to a different terminal.

Incidentally - are those prices per person or for the two of you? I'm assuming for both, but if not check again as both BA and VS have business class sales on at the moment.
Last edited by gumshoe on 17 May 2013, 12:37, edited 1 time in total.
#846060 by starquake
17 May 2013, 12:32
The downtown disney Checkin is one of the best VS perks in my opinion at least. Checkin, then park or waterpark. Leave mid afternoon - through security onto flight, no hassle.

Its basically basically an extra day of holiday. As mentioned above the extra day before and after this costs in holiday time would easily be worth the extra to me. (and its also "free" if flying UC).
#846061 by Hamster
17 May 2013, 12:36
gumshoe wrote:As others have said though, for the sake of a couple of hundred quid I'd go for a direct flight every time. 2 connecting flights will be a pain, particularly in the US where you have to pick up your bags, clear customs then re-check them - possibly after a schlep to a different terminal.


On the baggage part, I did this in Janurary, connected from a BA flight to an AA flight. At JFK

Was surprisingly easy, the baggage hall is directly behind immigration, in the same room as such, then you go through customs with your form, after customs turn left, there is a desk to re-check bags (they had already been checked all the way through).
We had our bags again for all of about 2 minutes, if that.

We were then free to head to T8 (the terminal AA use) without our luggage and head straight to security as BA had printed our boarding passes, even though it was a separate ticket.
Last edited by Hamster on 17 May 2013, 18:01, edited 1 time in total.
#846067 by Concorde RIP
17 May 2013, 13:36
Regardless of airline - I would personally find the most convenient way of getting direct flights.

In your situation, ignoring prefered airline etc, I'd jump at the direct from MAN route and take the 10% extra cost for the sake of getting 1.5 days extra in resort.

Unless you enjoy the whole ambience of airports, in all their various incarnations, the thought of one or two connections is quite a big deal for me - so I'm just suggesting you weigh up the pros and cons.
#846069 by Fuzzy14
17 May 2013, 13:45
Just to throw something else into the mix... I haven't done this myself but I'm seeing a lot of positives about flying into Tampa (from Gatwick), shorter queues and if your staying in the Davenport side of Orlando is only a 1 hour drive.

You can fly Newcastle to Gatwick on FlyBe, you'd need to check but I think BA do a through ticket with FlyBe.
#846098 by katie666
17 May 2013, 16:22
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.
I get the point about indirect flights and will look again at flying direct, though it will mean either a trek from Heathrow to Gatwick or use Flybe from Newcastle to Gatwick which has a restricted luggage allowance as well as a cost of £300+ each way for baggage as that leg of the journey is domestic class.
If we flew BA Newcastle to Heathrow, I do not know how difficult it would be to get from there to Gatwick although I did see a cab firm advertising it for £60. I presume that there would be no baggage to pay for then as BA say our allowance is 3x23Kg bags - I take it that is for both flights.
We will be there for about 30 days so the loss of one day isn't quite so important as if we were there for 2 weeks.
We tend not to use DTD check-in these days & just relax by the pool in the villa before checking in at the airport.
I'll have a look into flying into Tampa & picking up a car there, though I think I'm persuaded to use direct flights now - with BA or VS - depending on where I can get the best deal. It's the drive back up north that we don't look forward to which is why we looked at BA - that is as well as the business sale.

Katie
#846104 by katie666
17 May 2013, 17:59
I just rang BA & I was told that we'd get the full BA baggage allowance on Flybe - 3 bags at 32Kg if we so desired. I hadn't realised that. It's a no-brainer now. We'll go direct. I just hope that I was given correct information from the really lovely lady I spoke to at BA.

Katie
#846155 by katie666
18 May 2013, 12:55
I'm still looking into all the in's & out's of using BA. I realise I may be asking a question to which there is no answer but, if Flybe pull out of Gatwick before our flight in September, will BA arrange an alternative flight from Newcastle? Their own BA flights from Newcastle go into Heathrow so we'd be back to transferring across from Heathrow to Gatwick.

Katie
Virgin Atlantic

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