How do I best search for the best value UC fares MAN - MCO?

This is a bit of an aside question. I am so interested in finding cheaper UC/CW flights easier from the north, particularly as VS MAN is mostly without UC now, and very expensive.

Reading the above, I thought I would try on Opodo, LBA to MIA or MCO and one of the options(among all the via AMS ones) was Flybe from LBA to LGW and BA CW from LGW to MIA. It was just over £1600 which is amazing at the moment. We have always gone from MAN. If booked through from LBA, is the larger bag allowance accepted on Flybe? I thought I had read ages ago that it isn't now, but can't remember.

Why would your bags carry on to AMS?
It is two separate flights - as long as the tags say LGW, and you can easily check that at check-in, then that's most likely where they end up. No different from any other flight. They will be the same as the vast majority of luggage on that flight - just MCO-LGW.

You still have your own labels with personal address - same as on any other flight - so if they go astray they can be forwarded. But it's a single sector flight so much less likely to go astray than on any normal multi-sector trip.

Some people actually request bags off at LHR and then recheck them just to make sure they don't lose them.

This is a bit of an aside question. I am so interested in finding cheaper UC/CW flights easier from the north, particularly as VS MAN is mostly without UC now, and very expensive.

Reading the above, I thought I would try on Opodo, LBA to MIA or MCO and one of the options(among all the via AMS ones) was Flybe from LBA to LGW and BA CW from LGW to MIA. It was just over £1600 which is amazing at the moment. We have always gone from MAN. If booked through from LBA, is the larger bag allowance accepted on Flybe? I thought I had read ages ago that it isn't now, but can't remember.

Oh that is interesting... y) Can I ask roughly when you were looking to get those prices, they were quite a few flights that took you to LGW and you needed to get across to LHR...
Maybe there is an incentive for querky Yorkshire folk as well as our exotic european neighbours )

NH

Well it was Opodo, but as it was just a dummy look I didn't check about transferring to LHR, but yes that could be what it was. However, I was also tinkering with destinations, so it could have been LGW to MCO. It didn't come up at first as I must have put Amsterdam somewhere in the process and all the first ones were via Amsterdam, though not with BA or VS as mentioned earlier.

This is not a solution for everyone though I can see that it is appealling to some and I may investigate in more depth for my own future trips.

The OP is taking her 'aged mum' so the extra hassell of the addtional flight(s) plus hotels etc etc may not actually be practical no matter what the saving is in £££

You're right tontybear, my mum is getting on for 80 and although she still loves Splash Mountain and parasailing on Bay Lake, she would have no chance of changing airports in London in the middle of such a long journey. And I wouldn't be able to manage the cases.

I had never heard of this before but the prices do check out - it is vastly cheaper to start in AMS via LHR and then LGW.

But I have to say that it seems a very unfair system that VS or BA will sell the same flight to someone coming from AMS for lots less and would effectively have an old lady fly to a different country then cross London to get back on the same plane they want to charge a lot more for!!!! ! ! !

It's outrageous really. I might be missing something but why are they penalising their own country's residents?

[honey lamb]

It's outrageous really. I might be missing something but why are they penalising their own country's residents?

Business, dear, business. And profit!

The reason for these low prices from Europe are to entice our European cousins to use BA and VS rather than carriers like KLM, Lufthansa and Air France

It's outrageous really. I might be missing something but why are they penalising their own country's residents?

Business, dear, business. And profit!

The reason for these low prices from Europe are to entice our European cousins to use BA and VS rather than carriers like KLM, Lufthansa and Air France

I kind of understand that honey lamb but if they can make good profit selling at these prices to our continental cousins, and are choosing to do so, they should be able to sell the seat to me at the same price. I don't understand why they prefer their money over mine. Loyalty clearly doesn't work both ways.... B)

I suppose supply and demand comes into it; or, in other words, if they can charge us dumb Brits a grand more than our cannier European cousins and still fill a plane, more fool us. I don't suppose APD helps either but, as I say, more fool us...

You do not have to cross London on the AMS-MCO flight.
There are flights AMS-LGW LGW-MCO.
Similarly for the return MCO-LGW LGW-MAN.

The cross London only comes about if you fly from regional airports with BA where they do not fly into LGW.

Thanks Bill! I didn't see any like that but I have just checked Opodo and they are coming up as you say.
LGW-LGW would make a big difference to my situation in particular.
Thanks everyone for your help! I'll let you know what/if we get booked.